The Story Of Redback Boots

Like many new Australians, the Cloros brothers lived off their wits and their craft. They salvaged cast-off leather from barbershop razor straps and fashioned it into shoes and boots, selling their handmade pairs at the Surry Hills markets in inner Sydney. Through the hardship of the Great Depression, demand for durable footwear only intensified. Their elastic-sided work boot, the style that would later become known around the world as the Chelsea, quickly became a staple – worn by thousands of workers on projects as iconic as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Like many new Australians, the Cloros brothers lived off their wits and their craft. They salvaged cast-off leather from barbershop razor straps and fashioned it into shoes and boots, selling their handmade pairs at the Surry Hills markets in inner Sydney. Through the hardship of the Great Depression, demand for durable footwear only intensified. Their elastic-sided work boot, the style that would later become known around the world as the Chelsea, quickly became a staple – worn by thousands of workers on projects as iconic as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

By 1930 the brothers had opened the Victor Boot Company on Commonwealth Street, supplying boots for the workers who were building modern Australia.

As wartime pressures reshaped Sydney, local makers became essential. The Cloros brothers cemented their place among the city’s most trusted bootmakers, creating hard-wearing boots for workers who carried the country through the war years.

As prosperity returned, Bill Cloros handed the business to his sons. Bootmaking remained the family trade, carried forward into the next generation.

The elastic sided boot found its way from worksites into popular culture. Worn by rock bands and trendsetters in London and Sydney, the Australian Chelsea boot became a symbol of both work and style.

When many manufacturers moved offshore, George Cloros made the call to keep production in Australia, establishing the Viscount footwear brand and moving production to Wagga Wagga. "Handcrafted in Australia" took on even greater meaning. It was more than a label it was born of the earth and soul of the Riverina. Cloros family boots held a promise of quality that would not be compromised.

Viscount established their operations once again in Sydney, taking a site in industrial inner-city St Peter’s. Then two of George’s sons, Mark and Matt, started their own business. In 1987 they acquired the North Queensland Boot Co-operative, keeping skilled bootmakers in work and building on the tradition of durable, fair priced boots.

The Redback name was launched, quickly becoming a mark of Australian toughness. Artist Reg Mombassa summed it up: "I can't work without my Redback boots."

Production expanded to a new site in Waterloo, lifting output to 650,000 pairs a year. Redback became the preferred boot supplier for fire brigades, police, emergency services, and steelworkers.

In 1998, Redback secured the contract to supply the Australian Defence Force, formalising a partnership that began early on and continues today.

Nearly a century after it all began, the bootmaking heritage behind Redback boots was being worn worldwide. From miners in Pennsylvania to oil riggers in the Timor Sea, the boots carried the same reputation for rugged Australian durability. Redback also became the only foreign made boot supplied to the US military.

Redback boots still come out of our Sydney workshop today. The range has grown, but each boot is still hand crafted around a traditional high strength innersole by a skilled local workforce. For the Cloros family, the first duty of care remains the same as it always was – to their workers, their craft and the boots that carry people through their lives.