Safety footwear from the world first safety footwear suppliers

Safety footwear became of a great interest for the UK Ministry of Labour during World War II when foot injuries to inexperienced workers were escalating. They had been recruited in the absence of professional miners, maintaining the vital supply of coal to the war effort. In 1944, the Ministry sent an emissary, George Denton, an Englishman, to America to meet Mr. Arthur Williams, an eccentric American, and the inventor of the safety steel toecap for work boots. Over a game of cribbage, a momentous deal was struck which would change the lives of thousands of workers in the UK mining and heavy industry.

An agreement was signed with the "Safety Box Toe Company" of Massachusetts, with George Denton & Sons (Totectors) for the sole rights to their safety steel toecaps in England (and the then British Empire), making Totectors the first steel toecap safety boot manufacturer in the UK. At last, the daily hazardous working environment for the miners would be made safer by the introduction of these boots.

The Totectors brand, born in 1944, can trace its foundation roots back to 1840, when Mr. Benjamin Denton started his boot making business at a factory in Rushden, Northamptonshire. The Totectors name itself needs no introduction in the UK, as it has long been used as the generic term for safety footwear. According to an industry survey "many wearers of safety footwear believed they had bought Totectors footwear even when they might be buying a rival product. Such was the strength of the name that Totectors literally means "safety footwear" to the ordinary user."

The brand is now owned by an Indian consortium, former suppliers to Totectors PLC for 20 years. They have a history of six generations in leather and shoe making industry. With its own tannery and the latest German technology, Totectors produces thousands of pairs of safety footwear for Europe, Middle East and the Gulf states.