Meindl

Meindl's roots go back to 1683, when Petrus Meindl was first recorded as a shoemaker in the Bavarian village of Kirchanschöring, in southern Germany near the Austrian border. Family tradition holds that a Meindl has worked as a registered shoemaker in every generation since. The modern company, however, dates to 1928, when Lukas Meindl formalized the family trade into a manufacturing business. Meindl built its reputation on mountain and hunting boots suited to the alpine terrain around its home region, developing construction methods -- including its own last shapes and Gore-Tex-lined designs -- aimed at durability over multi-day wear rather than fashion turnover. The company remains headquartered and manufacturing in Kirchanschöring, one of a shrinking number of boot factories still producing at scale inside Germany rather than shifting production to lower-cost countries. Today the business is led by Lukas and Lars Meindl, who represent the 11th generation of the family in the shoemaking trade, continuing a lineage of hands-on ownership rather than a licensed or corporate brand structure. Annual output is now more than a million pairs of boots and shoes, sold through mountaineering, hunting and outdoor specialty retailers across Europe and increasingly in the US and UK.