Porch Notes
Hush Puppies Were Born in a Small Michigan Town — and Named After Fried Dough
History and culture
Those soft suede casual shoes called Hush Puppies started in the little west-Michigan town of Rockford, just north of Grand Rapids.
They were created in 1958 by Wolverine, a shoe-and-leather company that had been tanning hides and making boots in Rockford since the early 1900s — so deeply rooted there that it once built and ran the town’s electric company. During World War II, Wolverine developed a new way to tan soft, brushed pigskin for the U.S. Navy, and after the war that supple leather became the basis for a comfortable, casual shoe — perfect for a country where workers were trading farms for offices and city life for the suburbs.
The name is the best part. A Wolverine sales manager heard the term “hush puppies” at a Southern fish fry, where the deep-fried dough nuggets were said to quiet barking dogs. It clicked: “barking dogs” was also slang for sore feet, and these comfy new shoes soothed sore feet just like hush puppies hushed hounds. The company picked the name and a droopy basset-hound mascot, and a brand was born.
It took off fast — by the early 1960s, around one in ten American adults owned a pair. Wolverine grew so much it renamed itself Wolverine World Wide. And it’s still headquartered in Rockford today, where a small Michigan town quietly helped invent the whole idea of “casual.”
Where to see it
Rockford, Michigan, remains the headquarters of Wolverine World Wide (and the Hush Puppies brand). The walkable downtown along the Rogue River is a pleasant stop in its own right.