by Art Young

Created on: November 18, 2011   Last Updated: November 19, 2011

You could hear Jeff Kilman’s exclamations throughout the office. “Dude! My boots are here! Check it out!” Kilman, the usually mild-mannered and logical CEO of the Dallas-based marketing agency, Pocketstop, was certifiably over the moon over a pair of boots.

What kind of boots? Cowboy boots? Hiking boots? Hunting boots? No. Kilman’s glee was over a brand new pair of combat boots. More accurately, he was excited by what they symbolized – an entire movement to help returning veterans.

The Boot Campaign has become a cultural phenomenon and both famous and regular people have started lacing ‘em up.

The act of buying and then wearing a pair of combat boots strongly communicates that the wearer is walking in the shoes of those heroes who deserve our gratitude for their sacrifices. This is the real genius of the Boot Campaign.

The highly quotable, Baldwin Spencer’s words, while meant for another context, are appropriate for the Boot Campaign: “There comes a time when what is needed is not just rhetoric, but boots on the ground.” 

“When They Get Back, We Give Back!”

The organizers of this social movement are five young women from Texas known as the “Boot Girls.” The homepage of the organization’s website notes that it is a grassroots initiative that “provides an easy and tangible way for Americans to show appreciation for troops (both past and present), raise awareness of the challenges they face upon return and donate funds to charities supporting their transition home.”

The net proceeds from boot sales are donated to organizations that assist returning veterans and active troops in dealing with emotional, mental and physical issues. The organization rhetorically asks: “What better way to say thank you to our troops than by sporting a pair of boots just like theirs?”

A Survivor’s Story Started it All

As with many social movements, the Boot Campaign came about as the result of a book. “Lone Survivor,” by Marcus Luttrell, is the first-person account of a Navy Seal’s survival against overwhelming odds. 

In June of 2005, Luttrell and three other U.S. Navy SEALs embarked on a mission to capture or kill an al Qaeda leader in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small, but heavily armed force. As the Amazon review of the book notes: “Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive.”

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