BOZEMAN, Mont. — Slip your foot into the Montana. Don't think about the $165 price. Now luxuriate in the softness of the bison leather and imagine yourself taking it easy in the Big Sky State.

        Eight years ago Harrison Trask went fly-fishing in Yellowstone National Park, watched some bison and wondered about using their kind for shoes. Now his company has a niche in men's footwear.

        With annual production of about 200,000 pairs, H.S. Trask & Co. is a small-town cobbler. But Trask found its footing by catering to the man who likes craftsmanship, Western panache and the notion of natural.

        “There's a little boy in everybody,” said Mr. Trask, who left Reebok International Ltd. after 13 years to start his own shoe business in 1994. “I think wearing bison shoes from a company in Montana gives a guy a nice feeling.”

        The company makes just over half of its shoes from bison leather, 10 percent from elk and the rest from cowhide. The Montana, a lug-soled oxford, is one of 68 shoe, boot and slipper styles that sell for up to $225. Others include the Saddle Bronc, cowhide with detailing by a Montana saddle maker, and the Mad River, an elk loafer.

        “Put whatever you need to put in the shoes, and let the price fall where it may,” Mr. Trask said. “You can't phony-up stuff.”

        His company's logo touts “authentic American footwear,” although some of the shoes are made in Brazil and Italy. Advertisements promise “old shoe comfort right from the start.”

        In 1990, Mr. Trask moved from Boston to Bozeman with Reebok, his choice as a regional manager who loved fly fishing. A few years later, at 55, he tapped his life savings and started his own business. He still finds time to fish, and he encourages use of fishing creels and 5-foot canoes in store displays of his shoes.

        “Trask got in at the beginning of the corporate-casual look,” said Terry Vickrey, Nordstrom Inc.'s men's shoe buyer for Utah and Colorado. “The shoes are casual, yet dressy enough to wear with a sport jacket and slacks. They're popular shoes with guys who like to wear khakis.”

        Nordstrom is one of the retailers that sell Trask shoes. Others include Dillard's Inc., Orvis Co. and L.L. Bean Inc.

        Tom Kirkpatrick, an insurance agent in Crane, Texas, owns a half-dozen pairs.

        “Men don't usually comment about things like shoes,” Mr. Kirkpatrick said. “But I've had guys come up to me and say, "Those are Trask shoes, aren't they?' They've got a pair, too. It's like people with BMWs noticing other people with BMWs.”

        Mr. Kirkpatrick said the story behind the shoes is one of the things he likes about them.

        “It appeals to my entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.

        Mr. Trask refers to his upscale buyers not as customers but as his “constituency.” He meets customers at stores where he holds trunk shows, sometimes featuring buffalo burgers and fly-tying demonstrations.

        The suppleness of bison leather is a big selling point, he said. “This company would never have started and been successful without bison leather.”

        Many of the hides come from a ranchers' cooperative that raises the animals for meat. The co-op includes the Montana bison operation of media magnate Ted Turner.

        “Field-tested for a thousand years,” says an advertisement featuring brown slip-ons beneath a picture of nine bison bulls.

        Bison leather's loose fibers make it so soft that it has to be firmed up in tanning, unlike cowhide, which requires softening, Mr. Trask said. He described the hide of elk as naturally soft — “meaty, plump, buttery.”

        At the company headquarters just off Interstate 90, the bison line and other Trask shoes are on display. Footwear fills a warehouse and new styles emerge in a design shop.

        Mr. Trask said he wants the company to remain focused. It makes shoes and belts only for men, adheres to classic styling and has rejected an array of expansion proposals, including one for Trask cologne.

        Mr. Trask markets to himself and finds that what he likes usually succeeds in stores. He pads around his office in an old pair of elk moccasins, casual even by Bozeman's relaxed standards for business wear.

        “I like to break rules,” he said.

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