Courtesy John Lewis
In 2009 I was tearing down an old feed mill in Cottondale. Fla. I was up on an excavator bucket with a torch cutting the Y-pipe out of the roof. It weighed about 2100 lbs. I made one cut with the torch around one side and was cutting around the other when it just snapped off. It had a chain on it for safety but when it broke off the chain, it fell towards me and the chain wrapped around my foot, slamming it down against the bucket of the excavator and pinning it there till I was let down.
The chain was removed and I was taken outside to sit down. I wear 9″ Hightop metatarsal guard Red Wing boots. It’s all I’ve worn for 15 years and it’s all I’ll ever wear. Well, anyways, we cut the laces out. My foot was swollen badly. I was taken to the hospital. I explained what happened. The doctor looked at my foot and the swelling and ordered some x-rays to see what was broken. He said he couldn’t believe there wasn’t a single broken bone, only tissue swelling. He asked about my boots and said they saved my foot. People ask me all the time about my boots most haven’t seen boots like them before . I tell them they are the best boots on the planet, and I wouldn’t own anything else. I just love Red Wing.—John Lewis
