What I do....

As several of you know, I have been a custom cowboy boot maker apprentice for some time. My apprenticeship is almost over, and I will be making boots hopefully for a living some day. I have been very fortunate to have one of the top boot makers in the country teach me. The deal between us is that when his customers can't tell the difference between his work and mine, then the whole thing becomes mine. There are maybe less than a hundred people in the county who do this for a living. This man is at the top. I guess it would be like having Ernie Ells teach you golf or Eddie Van Halen teaching you how to play guitar.

Two years ago he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. He is doing well considering, and builds boots every day. My life has had ups and downs and I haven't been able to be in the shop as much as I would like. I went through a divorce, got remarried, had a son, lost a daughter, list my dad, then was diagnosed with Miller Fisher syndrome. My illness had a very long recovery time but I am a hundred percent now. The past few months I have been putting as much time as I can into the shop and it seems to be paying off. He likes my work and always makes comments "when the shop is yours, do this" or "do that".

We are at the point where I am top stitching boots that sell for $1,500 dollars. And his name is in the boot. That makes me feel pretty good. At any rate, I don't know how much time he has left. Today he looked so good that you couldn't even tell he is sick.

So anyway, here is a thread featuring what I am passionate about. This is the card that life has dealt me. I am happy about that.

I side-seamed this pair today.

$1,500 for a pair depending on the leather. Elephant can run $3,000 and croc can run $6,000. All of our boots are custom fitted and most of our boot are for people with feet problems. $1,500 is actually inexpensive considering that the boots can last years and years, and that they are custom fitted to the individual. Also, a typical pair of boots takes a 40 hour work week to build. So in reality, $1,500 is a bargain. People drop $450 easily for a pair of boots that aren't properly fitted and that will only last a year if they are lucky.

And Jordan's are Chinese pieces of junk. Justin Boots, Tony Lama boots, any store bought shelf boots are pieces of junk. Well, they are pieces of junk in my world.




DL

Awesome question, Kevin. We take 9 measurements per foot. We could probably get away with less, but 9 covers all that we think is necessary.



DL

cmontgomery said:

when are you going to do custom golf shoes?

Click to expand...

Never.



DL