The Story of San Antonio Shoemakers

The story of the San Antonio Shoemakers™(SAS) family begins with its founders, Terry Armstrong and Lew Hayden. The two first met in Pittsfield, Maine, but their passion for making quality footwear led them to San Antonio, Texas. After working for a local shoe company, Terry and Lew struck out on their own.

Terry and Lew had a vision of how genuine leather shoes should be made. With determination, and the support of their families, the two pooled their resources to start their first factory at 101 New Laredo Hwy in a corner of an unused aircraft hangar on the South Side of San Antonio. In 1976, San Antonio Shoemakers was born.

Today, we continue to handcraft our shoes from only the softest, highest quality leather. Just one pair of shoes may go through up to 100 different steps. There are 14 primary operations that take place in our factories like leather selection, die-making, cutting, lasting and more. Within those operations, approximately 80 different skilled pairs of hands are carefully constructing and inspecting each shoe to make sure the SAS shoes you choose are the best made pair of footwear in your closet.

At SAS, our priorities have always been the comfort and quality of our shoes. As our company has grown over the years, so have the tastes of our customers. When we decided to create our first pump, we found a small multi-generational family-owned company with a heritage and love of crafting fine leather shoes similar to SAS. Working hand in hand, we believe we developed a unique approach that embraces the best of Italian design and SAS comfort. Within our line of dress shoes, any particular style or color may be manufactured in the U.S., or Italy, or both locations.