HandsFree Labs, the parent company behind Kizik, is launching another footwear brand.
Called Blue Ox, the new brand is “built for tradespeople” and brings hands-free step-in technologies to two boot styles made to meet jobsite safety and durability standards.
The two debut styles include the Stockton and Magna boots. More specifically, the Stockton has a moc toe and wedged outsole, built with farming, ranching, and other outdoor trades in mind. The wedge shape helps the boot shed mud on uneven ground, the company noted.
As for the Magna, it takes a different shape, a round toe and heeled outsole favored by welders and electricians who don’t want debris catching at the toe.
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Both styles are offered in steel toe or soft toe and share a waterproof build and a Goodyear welt, stitched rather than glued. Steel toe versions carry ASTM F2413-24 certification for impact and electrical hazard protection. Both boot styles retail for $189.95.
Jason Lee, chief operating officer of HandsFree Labs, told FN in an interview that the company chose to launch a new brand rather than add the boot category to Kizik because the team felt it could stand on its own.
“Tradespeople ask a lot of their boots,” Lee explained. “They need protection, durability, and comfort that holds up through a full shift, and those needs shaped every decision we made. We felt that person deserved a brand built around them from the start.”
“Building a hands-free boot for the jobsite is a different challenge than building a sneaker,” Lee added. “An electrician moving panel to panel, a framer up and down a ladder all day, a rancher climbing in and out of a truck, none of them want to stop and tie their boots every morning, or touch a boot covered in mud and grease to pull it off at night. Blue Ox does both, hands-free. We built it around exactly that, without cutting corners on what a work boot has to hold up to.”
The executive noted that launching Blue Ox was a natural next step in HandsFree Labs growth. “For years, Kizik customers have asked us to bring hands-free technology to other kinds of footwear, and work boots kept coming up at the top of the list,” Lee said.
This brand launch is just the latest development from the nearly 10-year-old footwear firm. Since it was founded in 2017, HandsFree Labs has built a portfolio of more than 200 granted and pending patents and applied its hands-free technologies across athletic, lifestyle, and casual footwear, most visibly through Kizik.
“We started HandsFree Labs to bring the power of hands-free footwear into everyday life,” Mike Pratt, founder of HandsFree Labs, said. “Blue Ox is proof that idea belongs on a jobsite too, and it’s one of the toughest, grittiest tests we’ve put the technology through yet.”
Lee added that 2026 has been a “big year of expansion.”
“Kizik moved into performance footwear with its first running, golf, and hiking shoes, and now with Blue Ox,” Lee said. “Licensing is also a growing part of the business, and we continue to work with our footwear partners.”
Indeed, licensing is growing for HandsFree Lab, which inked its latest deal in March with New Balance. The agreement allows New Balance to use the technology in shoes for men, women and children. Select styles are set to launch in 2027.
At the time of the announcement, the New Balance license marked the third one for Kizik’s parent. The first licensing partner was Nike, followed by a second unnamed partner that specializes in military and first-responder product.
As for what’s next for Blue Ox, Lee is excited to get workers into the boots.
“We’ve spent years developing these boots, and watching someone step into them for the first time never gets old,” Lee added. “One of our product engineers, who helped design the boots, has actually been building his own house in them, which is about as honest a field test as I can think of.”
