Come meet me this Saturday, Sept 27th from 1-3pm Heritage Boot. I’ll be signing books (…and no doubt, trying on some boots.)
Texas Custom Boots (Austin, TX)
Texas Custom Boots is truly a full-service boot shop.
Noel Escobar will be happy to make you a brand new handmade customfit cowboy boot. He is happy to sell you one of his vintage boots. He will also take your broken-down chewed-up vintage factory boots and restore them to wearable condition.
Noel has more patience and expertise for restoring worn and vintage cowboy boots than anyone I know. Noel will strengthen boot tops with new linings. He’ll relast boots… sometimes adding a wingtip or foxing as an attractive repair. He’ll resole & polish. Click through to the end of the photos to see what can only be called “extreme makeovers.”
Also, Texas Custom Boots adjoins Martinez Brothers Taxidermy, which makes for some great pictures. Come for the boots, stay for the BBQ.
Cowboy Boots at Allens (Austin, TX)
Steve says… “Sure, do you want a ladder?”
“Really? I can have a ladder? Oh, yeah…gimme a ladder.”
Which begs the question, “How many boots are there in Allens Boots?” When I asked Steve, he guessed 4,000. But no, the fella in the back with computer and the keyboard (whose job it is to keep count) says… 7,248. Wow… walk into Allens Boots and all the odds are in your favor. Lots of makers, styles and sizes.
With rows and rows of boots, it gets easy to see what’s popular. Lucchese, Old Gringo, Frye, Justin, Tony Lama and Sendra. The girls like all sorts of punchy colors… and the boys in Austin, go for the “car repair” colors… distressed, black, gray and greenish browns leathers. Cowboy boots to match the stuff that drips outa your pickup… to match your scraped knuckles.
Texas Traditions (Austin, TX)
These are some photos taken during my last couple of trips. Why aren’t there more? …because that would mean I’d have to put down my coffee cup and get up out of my chair. (Please note… even Lee Cooke, a local Austin dignitary, scored only one out of two.)
Visit my Flickr page to add some comments and notes of your own.
Cowboy Boots at Rocketbuster
Have you seen the print ads? The website? Rocketbuster’s got great new designs and swell remakes of some very cherished vintage pairs.
I like how Nevena gave a bit more pizazz to the toe and heel on these yellow bird boots.
Photographs by Marty Snortum, Cowboy Boots: The Art & Sole.
