Your article, “Red Wing Shoe Co. bucks industry trend” (BDN, Jan. 17-18), was an excellent description of the major shoe-boot resource of Winterport Boot Shop. I was pleased to see in print what I already knew, that the wide range of Red Wing Shoe brand work shoes and work boots sold in the United States are still made in this country. Each time our staff tours the principal factory in Red Wing, Minn., it remains obvious working conditions are among the best in the shoe manufacturing industry.

At Winterport Boot we are pleased to be a member of the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, the only retailer-consumer partnership in the nation that is working to educate the buying power of the public toward demanding “clean clothes,” i.e. items made according to international human rights standards where workers receive a fair living wage, are free to organize and are protected from working excessive hours under dangerous and unhealthy conditions.

We are confident that our Red Wing boots and shoes offer eastern Maine consumers an opportunity to direct their purchase power toward buying “clean footwear.” Donna Allen Winterport Boot Shop