Starting in the late 90's American shoe mfg started outsourcing production, by 2005 most of the venerable American shoe mfgs went BK.. The brands were bought up by Holding co's where the mfg was contracted out to factories overseas. At first the quality was almost comparable to what was being made in America. As time when ton to maintain price point quality went down, down and down.
Today Alden is the only American shoe mfg left. Allen Edmonds cuts the material in the Dominican Rep and does the assembly in the USA. For Edmonds 400 to 450 is the starting point, Alden about $600. THAT IS WHAT IT COSTS FOR A GOOD BUT NOT GREAT PAIR OF DRESS SHOES. You want a cut above it's a G. Fact of life..
There is almost a cult about the old Florsheim 5 nail Imperials...guys will spend $650 t get them restored... they won't even wear em, but put them on display. The Japaneses in particular treasure them. Some guys think they are the best shoes ever made..on a production basis anyway. It is not a bad idea to restore them considering the quality of the shoe you will wind up with.
There are still good American made boots to be had...Red Wing, Danner, Chipewa among
others...
BUT THEN WE STEP INTO A WHOLE NEW REALM of the semi custom or custom boot mfg...Whites, Nicks, Wesco, Viberg, among others..
Then what I can see is the penultimate:
https://www.kreosote.com/
Especially the Rail Road Nail boot..