I have never owned boots. It is either good sneakers or leather dress shoes. But the boots which look reasonably good and comfortable in your catalog are $175 and up.
I can buy a more comfortable looking and more attractive (in my eyes) imported pair of boots for $75.
The sneakers are great for every day running around, and are so comfortable. Every Nike pair I own is made somewhere else. So are my golf shoes. My dress shoes are made in Italy. Just bought a pair of very warm slippers with fur lining and suede leather exterior, made in China, of course, for 20 bucks.
Again, let us not get away from the main point...which is for items which require low tech manufacturing is much cheaper to import. Free trade is the way to go, so long as it is fair trade.
Yep, they are.
But, you buy those and you get a lot more footwear than you do if you buy sneakers ... which you said would cost $200.
If you want to subsidize slave labor and massive poisoning, that doesn't speak highly of you.
We should not, as a nation, be willing to put up with the wage and environmental arbitrage that is a natural by-product of what constitutes "free trade" in the modern era.