The folks at FINELIVING: Found In America paid a visit to El Paso custom bootmakers, Rocketbuster & Tres Outlaws. During their stay, Rob and Emily learned little about the tools of the trade, and got their photo taken with the world’s largest pair of cowboy boots. (Made out of genuine leather and thread.)
There has always been a sort of push-and-pull between trends among custom boots and the “ready to wear” pairs. If people have seen something on the shelf they’ll often want it with a custom fit, for instance the past popularity of the round toe, and the unexplainable fondness for the double stitched welt. Conversely, if a boot is popular enough to generate lots of custom orders, you are likely to see it showing up on the retail shelves…a good example of this is ostrich skin boots. Ostrich boots used to be an eye-catching luxury item, but now with inexpensive imports…they are well within reach for most boot wearers.
Ostrich is a good leather for boots. It’s soft yet fairly sturdy…makes an ideal dress or everyday boot. One of the benefits of its growing popularity has been the increasing number of color choices. But with such popularity do we still get to call ostrich, an exotic leather?
When I looked up the word “exotic” in the dictionary, it gave two meanings. One was “exotic” meaning non-native, like a plant…the other was “exotic” meaning strangely beautiful or alluring, like an exotic dancer.
I certainly consider ostrich to be “non-native” to a cowboy boot. I would probably say this was true of any leather not indigenous to the cattle drive. What is “native” to a cowboy boot is probably a question that was settled back around 1880.
On the other hand, individual taste will always make the final decision about beauty. One thing I will say about ostrich is that it’s lost its edge. Part of what makes a cowboy boot exotic is the What is it? factor. Do you remember when you saw your first ostrich boot…that What is it? moment?
When too many people can identify a leather…or when you see it silk-screened on swapmeet handbags, for many boot wearers it has lost its allure.
Bootmaker Luis Jovel and I agree about some trends we’re seeing in exotic boots. Custom boot wearers who are dead set on something exotic are no longer satisfied with ostrich, anteater, or alligator…they want something DIFFERENT. Where will these new critters come from? Are we going to see a return of “novelty” leathers like bullfrog and rattlesnake? How long will it take before these fill up the shelves. Only time will tell.
And what about custom bootmakers? Where are their customers headed next? I predict a booming business for bootmakers offering “re-invented exotics”…new finishes and treatments of existing exotic favorites. New on the scene is shark in new matte finishes…also buffed and/or painted stingray. Each guaranteed to get a proper What is it? response from bystanders.
(NOTE: I saw the painted stingray when I visited Bangkok…sure to appear in the U.S. soon)
Is it legal to sell a vintage pair of sea turtle boots? What about a bootmaker making new boots from an old skin that they’ve held onto for years? Well, the answer is …it depends.
The international and interstate sale of sea turtle products is illegal. That’s why eBay won’t allow sellers to post old cowboy boots made from sea turtle hides. Occasionally, I will see a pair placed up for auction as “vintage” or “fake alligator.” These boots will often have the glossy shine of alligator leather, but the “tiles” will be smaller and rounder. Some of these eBay sellers might be genuinely confused, and there may be others trying to sneak their boots in under eBay’s radar.
The sale of sea turtle boots may be legal, if the buyer and seller are located in the same State (…not interstate, get it?)…AND provided their State’s laws allow it. In these cases, both the buyer and seller often need permits. (Contact your State’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office for more details.)
There are other exotic hides such as anteater (a.k.a. “pangolin” or “Manis temmincki”) which remains legal for sale in the U.S. only if a seller can prove the hides were legally obtained/imported. If you travel wearing exotic boots, you may save yourself some trouble by keeping a copy of your sales receipt tucked in your suitcase…especially if you are transporting more than one pair. Never attempt to enter or return to the U.S. wearing sea turtle boots! (More help with travel & souvenirs)
In California, the list of unlawful species is contained in the California Penal Code: Section 653.o. It reads as follows…
653o. (a) It is unlawful to import into this state for commercial
purposes, to possess with intent to sell, or to sell within the
state, the dead body, or any part or product thereof, of any
alligator, crocodile, polar bear, leopard, ocelot, tiger, cheetah,
jaguar, sable antelope, wolf (Canis lupus), zebra, whale, cobra,
python, sea turtle, colobus monkey, kangaroo, vicuna, sea otter,
free-roaming feral horse, dolphin or porpoise (Delphinidae), Spanish
lynx, or elephant.Any person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of
a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine of not less than one
thousand dollars ($1,000) and not to exceed five thousand dollars
($5,000) or imprisonment in the county jail for not to exceed six
months, or both such fine and imprisonment, for each violation.
(b) The prohibitions against importation for commercial purposes,
possession with intent to sell, and sale of the species listed in
this section are severable. A finding of the invalidity of any one
or more prohibitions shall not affect the validity of any remaining
prohibitions.”
NOTE: At the time of this posting, the California State Attorney has chosen not to prosecute bootmakers for selling cowboy boots made with kangaroo hides, if they can prove that the skins were legally imported/obtained.
As long as there have been cowboy boots, there have been “border boots”…only now our borders are halfway around the world. (No subscription is required to read this Christian Science Monitor article.)
So, do you want to know a secret? Sometimes I go into western wear stores just to see what boots they have sitting on the shelf…and when I do, I do what everybody else does and I pick up a boot and turn it over. I look for the pegs. The pegs are hammered into the sole of the boot and they run along the underside of your foot’s arch and under the boot’s heel where you can’t see ’em.
Only I don’t stop there…oh, nooo…not me. Then I take my thumbnail and scratch the layer of black wax off the top of the pegs, and double check something. Most of the “pegged” shelf-boots are now using these kinda rectangular peg-shaped brass nails instead of the traditional wooden pegs. Ugh. The beauty of the wooden peg is that it absorbs water and swells along with the sole of the boot when it gets wet. Yeah sure, today’s glues are strong enough to outlast any leather or stitch…but that’s not the point. When I see a row of wooden pegs I see craftmanship and skill. For every peg on a boot’s sole an awl is dipped in wax, a hole is punched, and a peg is hammered in…and the magical thing is that the hole you punch with your awl is round and significantly smaller than your peg. Square peg into a round hole…get it? You do it wrong and your peg goes halfway into your leather sole and snaps off at an angle. Experienced bootmakers have a special hammer, one with a textured face to grip the peg, and the hammer is set into a rhythmic motion…one light tap to set the peg in place…then a harder one to drive it in….over and over.
Big bootcompanies like using brass nails because they are fast and foolproof. If they can make a boot faster, it’s the same as making it cheaper. I understand this. I just don’t like it when they are square…it’s misleading. People have learned to turn a boot over and to “look for the pegs”…like thumping a melon in the grocery store.
Yeah…go ahead look for the pegs, but bring your reading glasses.
