Hikers trek to N.H. barn for crafted boots
INTERVALE, N.H. - If you've earned a nickname on the trail like Tennessee, Junior, or Little Ben, then you've probably already worn Limmer boots. At least that's what a trio of lean and tan twentysomethings from the Appalachian Mountain Club tell me. They're part of a crew who give each other Mohawks and carve hiking trails out of the New Hampshire wilderness every summer.
Like many outdoorsmen who pass through Intervale, the friends don't often miss a chance to make the pilgrimage to Peter Limmer and Sons, which has made custom hiking boots in the same rambling 19th-century barn since 1951. The boys stopped by to pick up a pair of boots that Junior recently had resoled and, of course, to talk shop with Peter Limmer, 52, grandson of the family patriarch and company namesake who started making shoes in 1919.
Bearded and bespectacled, Limmer looks the part of an old world craftsman. He explains that his custom boots are fitted to within two millimeters of a customer's original measurements and that each is fashioned from a single piece of leather, a classic boot making technique that's gone the way of cheap gas.
This kind of attention to detail is what has helped the company earn the fierce loyalty of its customers. In the shop, they tell stories about a schoolteacher who flew 60 hours round-trip from Tasmania, Australia, last year solely for a custom fitting.
Tennessee, who's already purchased five pairs, is only too happy to wax poetic about the boot's design elements. The seams are placed on the inside of the foot, he tells me, instead of at the back, so the boots better conform to one's heel and provide a smoother ride.
And their durability is nearly the stuff of legend. Limmer says it's not uncommon for them to recondition boots that are 30 years old.
The barn, which had a previous life as a dance hall in the 1930s and '40s, is part workshop, part museum. The quaint fitting area holds generations of memories. Old-fashioned wooden shoe forms stand rack upon rack and a 1902 Singer sewing machine that should have been retired during the Coolidge administration still hums with activity.
On one wall is prominently hung Herr Peter Limmer's certificate from the German shoemaking guild circa 1921, along with the first US patent, in 1939, for a ski boot. That grew out of a relationship Limmer had with Harvard Outing Club members, who, according to Limmer's grandson, frequented the boot maker when it was located in Jamaica Plain. Herr Limmer moved the shop to New Hampshire in 1951 after his sons returned from a skiing trip with tales of how the Granite State had reminded them of their father's native Bavaria.
Customer photos complete the decor. These yellowing images of smiling hikers are tacked to walls and wooden beams in just about any spot available. They capture ascents of Everest, the Matterhorn, and Presidential Range peaks. "Our customers are the best part of the business," says Limmer. "Here they are on the biggest hikes of their lives and they stop to take a photo of our boots. I know I don't stop to take photos of my tires."
A minimum 18-month wait for custom boots led Peter Limmer and Sons to create a line of stock hiking boots in 1974. They can be purchased mail order or through Limmer's Intervale shop. They're made to their exact specifications by the German manufacturer Meindl on a handshake agreement; the grandfathers of each family went to shoemaking school together in Bavaria.
But the ready availability of stock boots doesn't dissuade some hikers from seeking a famous custom fit. A person once offered $5,000 to go to the head of the line. Of course, Limmer rejected it outright. "It's not what we're all about," he says.
Matthew Bellico can be reached at matthew.bellico@gmail.com. 