The original Dayton '64 logger boot

Dayton '64s are the original boot that built Dayton's reputation. Their story tells the story of British Columbia's logging industry and characters.

Before there was a Dayton Boot, there was a popular gambling and drinking establishment at 64 East Hastings Street in Vancouver called the Lumbermen's Social Club. The club was managed by C. H. 'Charlie' Wohlford. Charlie had a long history in the logging industry. Before managing the Lumbermen's, Charlie worked as a troubleshooter for Holt Caterpillar Tractor Company. Charlie was well known to loggers and lumbermen in the Pacific Northwest as a first rate problem solver.

As the logging industry grew dramatically in the post World War II years, one of the major needs was quality footwear. Charlie was not a bootmaker and never repaired a boot in his life. What he had was the ear of the men who wore them. From his Holt years he knew loggers up and down the coast, and from behind the bar at the Lumbermen's he heard the same complaint over and over: the boots failed, and nobody was building them properly.

As legend has it, one evening in the back room of the Lumbermen's, a group of loggers aided by a case of whiskey, convinced Charlie to start building a line of quality logging boots. Rather than call the company Wohlford Boots, the name was rejected as too difficult to pronounce. Day as in the term, "Good Day" was picked and evolved that fateful evening into Dayton.

The first boots were produced during the winter of 1946. The first Dayton Logger Boots named the 'Dayton 64' were introduced in May 1947 built in the original production location on Commercial Drive in East Vancouver. Charlie believed 64 was his lucky number. So in addition to the original Lumbermen's address of 64 East Hastings, Charlie had a gambler's instinct about the number 64.

As luck would have it, the Dayton 64 became an instant success. Loggers from all over British Columbia prized the Dayton 64 as the logger's choice because of its rugged, durable and comfortable benefits. Dayton quickly became the footwear standard for loggers, construction workers, rough necks and longshoreman as well as fire and police forces.

Today, the site of the original Lumbermen's Social Club at 64 East Hastings is a vacant lot and the dream that was hatched that fateful night continues on down the street at 2250 East Hastings where 60 years later, Dayton still makes the same quality, durable footwear with the same passion and craftsmanship that would make Charlie Wohlford, his family and logger buddies very proud.

Corrected August 2026. An earlier version of this post said Charlie learned the craft of shoemaking from his family and repaired boots for his customers. He did neither. He listened — and then he assembled the people who could build.