Our Story Manitobah

our origin story

As a young Métis entrepreneur, Sean McCormick began Manitobah Mukluks with the vision of creating a successful company while benefiting his community. Today we continue that vision on a larger scale, as a global brand making a positive impact in Indigenous communities across North America.

Sean McCormick spent much of his childhood in northern Manitoba and started selling leather and fur while still in high school. In 1990, he established a trading post where Indigenous artisans traded handmade mukluks and moccasins for tanned leather, skins and furs. During this time, Sean saw an even greater opportunity to connect members of his community to the growing demand for authentic Indigenous footwear. In 1996, after completing the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurship Training Program, Sean created the business plan and framework that would become Manitobah.

In 2008, Manitobah began global operations and today it is one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, with employees and customers worldwide. Despite the rapid success and growth of the brand, Manitobah remains connected to its roots and continues to provide authentic, Indigenous-designed products that return value to Indigenous communities.

Manitobah became a certified B Corporation™ in 2023, a designation that demonstrates a business meets high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials.

Manitobah – Founded 1997 – Winnipeg, Manitoba

10,000 Years of design

The original winter boot is a mukluk and the original shoe is a moccasin. Designed 10,000 years ago to keep Indigenous people warm, the unique blend of form, function, and material allows them to thrive in the world’s coldest conditions. All of our designs honour and continue the history of innovation, craftsmanship, and beauty.

Can I wear moccasins and mukluks if I am not Indigenous?

Absolutely! We make our moccasins and mukluks for everyone. By purchasing from us, you are participating in cultural appreciation, not cultural appropriation. When you purchase from Manitobah, you are directly supporting Indigenous people and celebrating Indigenous culture in an authentic, meaningful way that helping us in our vision to create positive impact in Indigenous communities.

Mukluks are soft boots traditionally made of hide, created by Canada's First Peoples for warmth and maneuverability in natural environments. The word 'mukluk' originated from the Yupik word maklak, meaning bearded seal – a key animal source for Aboriginal clothing in the north.

The Inuit and Yupik were the primary Aboriginal groups in the Arctic who wore mukluks (known as kamiks among the Inuit). In the subarctic, various styles of mukluks and moccasins, a closely-related, soft shoe, were worn by each Aboriginal group in Canada. When Western explorers arrived in the seventeenth century, they too adopted the traditional footwear for survival in the Canadian wilderness.

Originally, mukluks were made from sealskin, moose hide or caribou. The boots rose to the ankle or mid-calf, and in winter were insulated with the fur of beavers, squirrels, bears or other animals.

The soft, flexible design of both the mukluk and moccasin was well suited for travel in fragile birchbark canoes in summer and skin kayaks and snowshoes in winter. However, the manufacture of each pair represented a great investment of time and energy for both hunter and craftsperson. Under ordinary conditions, a pair of mukluks or moccasins might last a couple of months, but when groups travelled and conditions were bad, four to five pairs of moose hide moccasins could be required each day.

With the arrival of European fur traders, design and crafting techniques began to change. Aboriginal women, especially those in contact with trading posts, played an important role in this process, learning new sewing techniques and incorporating new materials and styles into their handwork. One reason for their acceptance of foreign innovation was sheer practicality. With ready-made fabrics, a craftswoman no longer had to scrape the skin, soak and tan it, stretch the hide and/or even sew the garment. Traders also took part in accelerating the change, encouraging the adoption of European fashions in the hopes that Aboriginal hunters would spend more of their time in the pursuit of fox, beaver and muskrat for the fur trade rather than hunting caribou or moose for clothing.

With this new influence, mukluk and moccasin designs flourished. Pom-poms, tassels and delicate beading patterns on the top of the footbed began to appear and over time the motifs became custom. Today one can easily trace a decorated mukluk or moccasin back to its particular geographic home.

Just as Indigenous people have always done, we strive to use natural materials. We continue to develop our products using materials that support Indigenous teachings of sustainability.