After 5 years of arduous testing and design, LaCrosse Footwear’s Ursa MS is set to redefine the concept of durability in hunting footwear. Through a unique crowd-sourced approach to design, the brand has combined the voices of their consumer with over 125 years of manufacturing experience to increase miles per dollar for the avid outdoorsman.
Finding the perfect hunting boot can be a painful (and expensive) game of trial and error for many. Each foot is almost as unique as a fingerprint, making it difficult to purchase confidently without a chance to put a handful of rough miles under your soles. You can walk around the salesfloor of a sporting goods store all you want, but there’s no substitute for time on the mountain.
Leaning into over a century’s worth of footwear manufacturing expertise, LaCrosse’s new Ursa MS is the culmination of a five-year development process that was directly influenced by the voices of experienced outdoorsmen. LaCrosse has been a staple in the rubber hunting boot market for decades, specializing in high-quality construction and comfort catered to the avid whitetailer. Looking to apply the same level of mastery to a new category, LaCrosse set out to create one of the most durable leather hunting boots imaginable with the help of seasoned western hunters.
Through a mixture of focus group discussions in hotel conference rooms to countless video calls, the concept of Ursa began to take shape. Knowing that the brand was stepping foot into a mature market filled with strong products, LaCrosse identified a common problem throughout their discussions with each focus group. Durability. With extreme users accepting the fact that they’re going to spend $300-$400 each season on a new pair of boots, LaCrosse zeroed in on a solution that would meet the needs of the extreme and exceed expectations of the weekend warrior.
After three years of conversations, designs, material development and countless samples, the Ursa MS was ready for testing. Combining TecTuff® (a polyurethane-infused leather) and SuperFabric® (a fabric layered with small ceramic guard lates) to create an unbelievably abrasion-resistant upper, a double-stitched and cemented rubber rand, a breathable GORE-TEX® waterproof liner and Vibram’s MONT outsole compound, the Ursa MS is as force to be reckoned with.
Slated as an aggressive mid-season boot, the design was thrust into a myriad of different mountain environments as testers chased elk amongst the aspens in Utah, to Sitka blacktail on Alaska’s famed Kodiak Island. Every new environment exposed new strengths and weaknesses of the design, requiring LaCrosse’s development team to act upon the feedback and revise the previous iteration while keeping a critical eye on durability. Now, 5 years later, the Ursa MS is ready to help you Get Closer this coming fall…
For a quick look behind the scenes of LaCrosse’s development process, The Approach peels back the curtain on what it takes to bring a technical hunting boot to market.