I think their design work is hit and miss. Old Gringo at its best is timely and hip…keeping up better with fashion and colors than everybody in the boot biz. Other times, their off kilter styles kinda wobble, and it seems like some of their designs just doesn’t sit quite right on a cowboy boot. (…and I can’t say I’ve forgiven them for their sexy COWgirl boot years ago.)
BUT, I do like to give credit when credit is due… the new Erin cowboy boot is brilliant. Old Gringo uses its heavy monochrome stitching like tooling across the boot’s vamp and the collar with florals and scrolls. Box toe.
A “shelf” boot which evokes handcraft, without resorting to bad embossing or hurried handmade copies. Well done.
Pascal’s boots always best when they are good ‘n’ beat up. Absolutely thrashed. His customers are guitar heroes, bikers and Hollywood folks who walk down the red carpet, without wiping their feet first.
Thrashing pretty boots like these? …Yep. You just watch me.
The strip of leather that runs up and down the back of the inside of the boot lining to stiffen and support the boot top. Your heel “slides” down this piece when you’re putting on your boot. Also, called a “back stay” by some bootmakers.
Heel slides are in almost every pair of cowboy boots they are seldom as fancy as this pair. Heel slides are particularly important in a boot’s construction when a boot top is made out of a thinner leather, like kangaroo or kidskin. With everyday wear, boot tops made of thin or soft leather are likely to wrinkle and maybe even bunch at the ankles… if the top stitching and the heel slides weren’t providing support.
Pascal Davayat stitches each heel slide in the shape of an iron cross. His boots are about non-comformity inside and out.
