When George Henry Bass started the company in 1876, he created a reputation which endured for more than a century. He constructed durable footwear in the finest shoemaking tradition. Among the devotees of craftsmanship was Charles Lindbergh, who wore Bass aviation boots on his first trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.
The company had existed for sixty years before it introduced its signature style, the Weejun, in 1936. College and high school students avidly wore the style, and they gave it the nickname “penny loafer” for the pennies they put in the slit at the vamp of the shoe. In the 1960s and 1980s, the style experienced skyrocketing sales, and it has remained a popular style since its introduction