Back in the 90s, there was a group of displaced shoe makers from a Minnesota production shop who banded together and sold their wares at the wholesale craft shows. They were called Beaver Tracks. I searched them a while back and they are still in business in Moose Lake, MN. Awesome shoes. They made the pair of oxfords I mentioned. In ten years, I only had to replace the inner sole.
Your husband could repair/maintain the machines, but there are a lot of different machines needed and they all start at $1500 each and go up from there. Spendy.
There is a Shoe School you can search out online, too. Expensive enough that they don’t list prices. The woman in New England actually seems to be a bargain, considering what she does.
My treadle machine, BTW, came with a complete set of belts and accessories. I’ve never used it, but our Amish clients have always looked at it with longing. However, they are cheap and don’t want to pay more than $25 or so.
It sounds as though we live in similar areas. Hubby has always said that he has had to learn to do anything because there are few to no other people around who can do it/do it right/or do it cheap. He has maintained and refurbished my 2 Berninas and keeps his own walking foot industrial machine working. He even used some epoxy to repair a plastic gear in the 1960s Bernina and it has held up well.
There are US made loggers boots, but they are very expensive. $100 is actually affordable, in comparison. My husband doesn’t like the tall lace-up boots and ends up with sore feet from steel toes. Just finding good hiking boots and the shorter work boots has become difficult, though. So many are just shoddily made.
Hub likes the tall loggers boots because when he wears the shorter boots sawdust and dirt gets inside and his socks get filthy plus it’s not comfortable with all that stuff in there. He doesnt’ like steel toes either, they’re cold and he feels the cold a lot.
He gets boots and work shoes whenever they’re on sale at places like Ross - sometimes gets good deals. He got a pair of Keane’s (or is it Keene’s?) hiking boots, just above the ankle I think, and they’re extremely comfortable, but hiking boots never hold up that well for the kind of work he does. He agrees that boots of any kind made now fall apart really fast. He does like some kinds of Doc Martins.
We’re too old with too much else to do to really learn shoe making unless we could just make a few for ourselves, it sounds as though the equipment needed is beyond the means of anyone who isn’t going to go into the trade. People should think of it, though.