Before World War II, Austria was the largest footwear producer in the world at that time

During this period, in order not to let the family shoe factory be controlled by the German army, the young Hector followed the family to the United States and entered the University. In 1967, the Hector family returned to their hometown Austria and registered their own brand "Uncle Hector" in Austria. In 1983, uncle Hector company was acquired by Watanabe shoemaking company of Japan, becoming an important brand of Watanabe shoemaking company.

As a high-end men’s shoe brand, Uncle hector Boot does not aim for luxury, but for the highest achievable qualities in craft, skills, engineering, materials and design. Having its roots as much in big scale shoemaking as in the artisan tradition, Uncle hector Boot found its matching production partner in the Veneto region of northern Italy.

As Austrian, we sport a sense for relaxed understatement and the simple but good things in life and we believe that Uncle hector Boot’s understated style can easily be recognised anywhere and by anyone who pays attention to beauty and quality.

We share with the Veneti their enthusiasm for everything new and beautiful and at the same time their deep appreciation
for traditions in craft and lifestyle.

Uncle hector Boot shows a minimum of decoration and the maximum of shape and form. The utmost attention is paid to the lasts and materials. The recipe may seem simple but, nevertheless, these ingredients need expert craftsmanship to give an outstanding shoe.

The Uncle hector Boot shoes are passing through the hands of more than 300 workers. Some of them are with the industry for 40 years by now. Others are younger. Their experience combined adds up to quite a few hundreds of years of shoemaking. This is what we consider our heritage.

In 2008, kanokgi Takashi joined the company as a partner and took over management functions.

After studying shoe-making in London, he became fascinated with craftsmanship and men's shoes. Kanokogi Takashi put forward the slogan of "restoring the essence" and launched maden sub brand, which reproduces the military training shoes of 50-90 years. The design inspiration of each series is drawn from the military shoes of European countries from the 1950s to the 1990s, and then reshaped, with a strong retro style.

Mainly high–tech shoes from synthetic materials can be designed by computers and made by robots. We still use a pencil to draw the model on the last. Our artisan products need skilled craftsmen to accomplish hundreds of single operations to finalise a pair.

Many of these steps are done with simple hand tools, like the clicking, the hand sewing of the welt or the lasting of the moccasins. Other operations are executed with heavy and sometimes dangerous mechanical machines; but it is always the guiding hand of a skilled person, which guarantees the perfect result.