A Lifetime with Boots

1988 book by Sam Lucchese, compiled by Tad S. Mizwa from audio taped conversations

Dedication

To the handful of younger men and women who will follow Sam Lucchese’s example.

Introduction

• Sam got upset when people acted without thinking
• every boot company needs a “bootmaker” responsible for everything

• You could be his competitor, but he related to you as a friend and as a co-searcher for better construction, more beautiful, better-fitting boots.

• “Understand that what I say is not carved in granite. Conditions change. There will be a better and a different answer down the line. But for me — for now — this is true.”

• took calls from fellow bootmakers in his hospital bed

1. Our business history: its difficult demands

• Sam came to America when 16 or 17
• shoes for San Antonio Army personnel and ranchers
• son Cosimo kept the business going

• to him [Sam], a pair of boots was a commercial production, made for comercial gain.

• If he had lived longer I believe that Lucchese Boot Company would have become much more like the Justin, Nocona or Acme operations.

• bought the first inseaming machine shipped to the Southwest

• If he [Sam] got word about any new machine, he would be the first to try it.

• an inseamer machine could sew a tighter, more leakproof inseam than any man could possibly sew by hand

• machine had no awl, just a huge needle
• might still be in the basement
• bought an outsole machine when introduced
• 35 pairs per day
• San Antonio

  • the place for boots then

  • Army presence
  • railhead
  • bootmaking competitions

  • Every competitor [boot company] was pretty much on the ame level.

  • didn’t take lots of capital
• made Sam Browne belts, Army shoes, regular shoes
• business moved a lot
• acquired real estate
• Cosimo lost on real estate during Depression, took opposite approach

• My grandfather [Sam] was not in love with the beauty of the product. Papa [Cosimo] was in love with the beauty of the product.

• My father never attempted to design anything that was out of the ordinary.

• never saw Cosimo draw anything out
• Cosimo didn’t waste time selling people who weren’t about to buy
• Cosimo a perfectionist

• After the Depression was over, he never brought up his production.

• Cosimo stopped waiting on customers, had son Sam do it
• Cosimo constantly in conflict with father
• opened own shoe repair shop
• 1923: father had stroke, Cosimo came back to business
• Sam’s training

  • not like Papa’s

  • wouldn’t let him work in the shop
  • wanted him to focus on business
  • only started in shop about age 23

  • He would not let me stay in one place long enough to get good at it.

• Army spread the name of the firm

• This name is not one you will get mixed up about.

• nobody said when fancy cowboy boot idea came about
• theory: Wild West shows
  • Buffalo Bill, showman
  • get public attention
  • anecdote: high-price registered cattle traders show stock with pants rolled up, revealing fancy boots

  • “I might not win, but I will be noticed.”

• historic boots
  • 100-year old boots had no distinct lefts and rights

  • Before the 1860s, both left and right boots or shoes were made from the same last.

  • Union Army started rights and lefts
  • people rode horses or wagons, didn’t walk much

  • The few lasts of my grandfather’s that I remember seeing as a young man had the same look on the inside and outside lines. The shank was very narrow. The very small heel sat right on the center of the foot.

• fitting
  • customer didn’t expect close fits
  • charged $14, in advance

  • There still is no accurate way to measure a foot for a perfect fitting pair of boots.

  • Cosimo experiment
    • shipped thin socks to customers
    • zipper down the back
    • sprayed with plastic coating that hardened
    • spent $20k
    • didn’t work
  • tried plaster of Paris casting
    • didn’t work
    • couldn’t be sure customer would get it right

    • people will only go to so much trouble

    • “send his feet” to the bootmaker

• measuring and fitting

  • some of the people who have grown wealthy in the footwear industry ought to get together and create a laboratory of true research and development. Their goal would be to develop the technology and equipment for measuring feet.

  • Even a master bootmaker and master fitter…finds it impossible to guarantee a fit.

  • most measure and fit their own special way

  • My idea has always been to make my measurements in relation to the skeleton of the foot.

  • lay tape across particular bones

  • Without having the advantage of seeing the foot, the shoemaker is really in trouble.

  • patternmaker’s comb
    • can only show extremes
    • can’t place on last just like on foot

  • If you could make a last that really was like a foot, the only footwear you could make would be a pair of sandals — without heels.

• When my daddy died, I swore I wold not make another pair of boots according to measurements sent through the mail.

• father’s method
  • looked at height and weight
  • looked at usual shoe size
  • maybe looked at pencil outline
• few customers ordered second pairs

• The quality and workmanship was there. It had to be the fit.

• Sam’s approach:
  • bought lasts 6-14, AAA-EEE
  • stock pairs on each
  • fit each foot with a stock last
• personal preferences
  • low blood pressure: tend to want looser boots
  • “tight” different for each person

  • You can see “loose.” but he has to feel “tight.”

• experimented with foam impressions for bottom contours
• cork risers for each heel height

  • This did not work because it throws the pattern and the lasts off.

• In the end, lastmaking and patternmaking are the keys.

• walking comfort
  • “set of the heel”
  • “set of the tread”

  • Bootmakers generally are terrible in their lack of respect for what we call the tread line.

  • can alter the heel height for a last at most ¼″

  • Stand on a corner and watch the variety of gaits on the people passing by.

  • can’t walk in cowboy boots without pitch in heel
    • straight-down gets in way
    • hit the ground too soon descending
    • “could not get it out of your way” ascending
    • heel to high causes crease across toe that bites the foot

  • What you want is the smooth action of a rocking chair.

  • There is no slap, slap, slap…

  • Disrupt his stride and as he advances into his middle years he can get back problems or sciatica.

2. Let’s put the foot back into the boot

• When the feet hurt, the person hurts all over and the body gets tired all over.

• taught versus “flaccid” feet
• “American Standard lasts”
  • used for most footwear

  • 28 per cent error in sizing by the time you reach size 12

  • People with a 12 length do not have a foot so wide as the standard 12D provides.

  • We must follow anatomy instead of mathematics.

• customer files show feet get longer and narrower through the years
• feet can feel 1/16″ circumference difference
• retailers should have A, B, C, D, E, plus AA and EE if possible
• last can only fit 85% of people

• If you could gather all of your boot customers into a stockroom to choose their own sizes without any assistance, 99 per cent of them would choose the widest and the shortest boots they could find.

• study boots worn into stores
• running over?
• short fit the most harmful and most common
• ball of foot must fall in ball of last

• The longer you fit the better off you are.

• rarely too long
• longer boot gives more arch support
• rear head of fifth metatarsal juts down
• first and fifth metatarsals support weight
• flat feet: long, narrow fit squeezes metatarsals back together

• may take a lot of friendly persuasion

• if you are going to give a customer a wrong size, for Pete’s sake, give him the long size!

• riding heels
  • cowboy pride in small foot and short boot
  • on horseback as much as possible
  • wrinkles a dirty word

  • there is nothing right about the riding heel for walking!

  • The old-time cowboy pulled his boots off before he tried to get very far on foot.

  • higher heel: can fit tighter, shorten from ball to toe tip
  • more weight on ball
  • arch bones less burdened
  • flatter shank on outside
  • lower heel: rear head of fifth metatarsal presses into insole again
  • high boot: cuneiform bone on top of instep pops up
  • used to add humps on cones to accommodate
• feet swelling in airplanes
• high blood pressure: tend to like tighter fits
• flexible feet flatten when standing, need looser fit so instep won’t hurt seated

• I think the time will come when we will make a 10B, for instance, three ways: flat instep, medium instep and high instep.

• ball fitting

  • When a friend grabs your hand very deep for a handshake and squeezes it hard behind the knuckles, you feel no particular pain. If he applies the pressure across the knuckles, it really does hurt. Same way with the foot.

  • when pulling foot together, give extra length for toes to squirt forward
• big toe injury
  • too short a boot
  • “clipping the toe”
  • calcium deposit where joint spread open
  • takes surgery to correct
  • give longer and narrower
  • may slip in heel more

  • On the outer edge of the front of the boot, your toes should touch but not push against the inner wall, while standing.

  • small toe practically useless, could do without
• current fashion for round toes

• Sharp toes make no sense because they are always scraping up against something.

• long toes got so extreme in England people had to climb stairs backwards
• heel slipping
  • many assume heel too wide

  • Today’s combination lasts automatically have narrowed-down heels: heels are not too wide actually.

  • often that too long for the foot
  • hold heel down with tighter instep
  • or shorter last
• wrinkle chaser
  • [steam iron to slightly tighten spots]
  • just too hot to hold
  • use piece of tissue paper over leather
  • keep the iron moving
  • only fine-grained, soft leathers like calf, kangaroo, ostrich
• alternative: heel pad or innersole
• retailer will need stretching tools
• 15% of people can’t get stock-last boots on
• “emergency” fits: not great, but have to have boots now

• No rules say what feels right.

• you cannot dictate it

• I will sell him what he insists on buying. Maybe next pair he will change. … If I refuse to sell this man the pair of boots he wants there will be no next time …

• women’s feet
  • very different
  • more flexible
  • take more pressure

  • hold her in close

  • more corns and bunions
  • need specialized women’s lasts

3. The last comes first

• I don’t care if it takes 15 models to get the last right

• The lastmaker deals only in old patterns, wood and/or plastic. I do not want to delegate the responsibility for fitting my customers’ feet to the lastmaker.

• story: bet a man that new boots would let his toe move back out
  • return for money back
  • three months later, couldn’t wear old boots

  • you have to stand up for what is right

• The best fitting boots or shoes always come from last with an “inside cone.”

  • The ridge of your foot and the cone with a last aim towards the middle of the big toe — definitely an inside line.

  • Lastmakers say you can’t pull the leather over the inside cone with a lasting machine: the pull would not be straight. So the inside cone has pretty well dropped out because of the nature of the machinery, not the nature of the foot.

    I have since found that you can pull leather over an inside cone with a lasting machine. It takes three times as long as it does over a straighter cone. That is still one-tenth of the time a hand laster takes. It all boils down to the cost factor.

• better fit takes a long time to prove
• customer has to become aware of better fit
• “bread cast upon the waters”
• story: visited lastmaker, asked to dig out best fitting models, all had inside cones
  • “#3394 Florsheim”
  • “Old Man Nihleen’s last”
  • “Nunn-Bush’s old #47”

• Is it the foot which is your customer? Or is it your production?

• father Cosimo drummed in importance of lastmaking and improvement

• Last and pattern-making were two things he did throughout his lifetime.

• last development
  • personally make original model
  • sometimes three models to get right
  • make sample boots for someone with stock-sized feet
  • may repeat three or four times

• It is the insole bottom which controls the flexibility of the boot.

• Changing a last is brinksmanship.

• toe shape “a style thing”

• At best, no last will properly fit over 85 percent of the people.

• customers will buy boots that squeeze toes

• In adjusting the last for the new toe, it is the toe that must yield. You cannot change the ball.

• “clipping” toes
• callus on pad of big toe

• Latin Americans as a group have feet that are different from other ethnic groups.

• Most comfort and fit problems come from the fact that we walk a great deal on concrete.

• How many podiatrists are there in Kenya?

• solution: contoured insole, flat outsole

• No last looks like a human foot. No finished boot or shoe looks very much like the last used to form it.

• tried plaster casting
• Murray Space Shoe

  • distinctly ugly

  • looks more like a foot

  • reminds them of gorilla paws

  • make it possible for some people to walk rather than sit in wheelchairs the rest of their lives. We can build on this start.

• image caption: narrow square toes built on lasts with toes that come to “needle points”

4. Lasts and machines

• contoured insoles would twenty times more comfortable
• pedigraph
• contoured insole could spread bodyweight over more of the foot
• high heels change weight loading

• Overall, the shoe business is not the most profitable to be in. Its machinery is getting old. There is little or no money for research and development. Shoemakers as a group along with shoe machinery designers do not innovate, except for style.

• breaking us USMC a big mistake

• We can send men to the moon and back at a cost of billions. Why can’t we make a pair of boots that fit when we measure my feet?

• in 1950s, bootmakers tried to get machinery makers to make a machine to sew boot tops automatically
  • claimed not a big enough market
  • now have computer-controlled, developed from machines for sewing collars and pockets

  • Few people are willing to sew boot tops by hand any more.

• most bootmakers don’t go to trade shows

• Bootmakers must become better acquainted with shoemaking as a whole.

• We bootmakers need to circle up and get the machines.

• Whatever happened to the Yankee trader? He got fat, rich and lazy. If he does not watch out, foreign manufacturers with more hustle are going to serve the world’s growing appetite for boots.

  • [This happened. Boot production moved to Mexico, and eventually to China.]

• Getting together to obtain improved and identical equipment will not wipe out one bootmaker’s competitive advantage over the rest. In boot plants there are no real secrets. Every salesman for every leather, cement, finish and machinery company goes through every department of every plant. So forget secrecy.

  More sophisticated machinery designed expressly for bootmaking would be like putting a Babe Ruth baseball bat in the hands of each of us. You get yours and I have mine. Our competition would be in how each of us uses these same machines — in our creativity.

• won’t live to see the day
• can sell cowboy boots to urbanites
• last designer has to visualize finished boots

5. Patterns and cutting

• in mass production, lasting machines only have one fixed length of stroke

• In some shoe factories, they even cut rights and lefts.

• adjust for material stretch

• everything must be perfect, like going to the moon

• cut back of boot leg wider
  • adjusted stitch patterns for the width difference
  • longer counters
  • big counters were more important with higher heels
  • moves side seam ahead of ankle bones for comfort
• previously crimped vamps before sewing toe bugs and toe wrinkles
• sewed on with toe sprung, to avoid “choking” the boot, too tight where vamp joins leg
• best leather from areas of the best meat
• priority:
  1. vamps
  2. top backs
  3. top fronts
  4. heel covers
     • no strain or flexing
• leather grain
  • in direction hair grows
  • makers used to vamps with stretch from toe to heel
  • gives laster flexibility
  • legs: parallel to spine, stretch across the ankle horizontally
    • boot stretches open and snaps back
    • if vertical, tops would stretch taller
• top stitching
  • can deviate from patterns
  • used to work to hold tops to linings
  • now modern adhesives could do it alone
  • now just for looks
• lock of thread [lockstitching] should be in center of layers
• rumor that Singer making outsole sewing machines to work like old, discontinued ones
• everybody’s job is the most important job
• quality chain, weakest link

6. Lasting and inseaming

• last designer sets insole pattern
• have to position the insole on last carefully
• insoles shrink with wear over the years
• ducking rib
• man-made insoles too thin to channel
• fillers can lump up
• with channeled insoles, can fill with thin lining leather
• pullover
• some makers mark the instep, want to just see down the boot top once lasted
• set up on heel to gauge stance
• all boots sit a little forward or backward
• boot tops move forward as they drop around ankles
• pullover and lasting used to be done by the same worker, but jobs separated after ramping up production
• some side seams slant forward toward the shank
• laster can correct pullover work
• hand lasting: tack toe first, then back, opposite of mass production
  • more control of wrinkle placement
  • less strain
• boots normally lasted wet or mulled
• hygrometer for humidity
• can take two hours to reach ideal, lose it in 20 seconds
• plants in dry El Paso versus humid Houston
• Italian steam cabinet, for right by the lasters

• Bootmakers defeat themselves by not encouraging better technology.

• many boot companies have machine shops

• if each company comes up with something better and does not share it, the machine remains very homemade — a haphazardly rigged thing

• outseaming
  • around toe, natural keep flat to machine
  • this causes riding up out of the groove
  • have to dip the boot
  • drop heel and raise instep
  • around heel, raise heel and drop instep
• better method:
  • left hand on instep
  • reach around between boot and machine to hold toe with right
  • never let go of the boot
  • no error repositioning hands
  • failed to teach the better method
• if welt loose, sole wears out sooner

• The more you sew on leather the weaker it becomes.

• In cowboy bootmaking, a full welt is one that goes from heel breast to heel breast.

7. Heels, linings, and value features

• heels
  • used to build up layer by layer
  • most durable would be solid molded plastic
  • exposed edges very absorbent
  • the higher the heel, the more set under, the more length added up front

  • Until World War II, the idea among cowboys was the shorter the shank the better the boot.

  • Posting was for English riders.

  • If the cowboy used a narrow stirrup and rode it up against the breast of the boot heel, the shank rolled on him.

  • cowboys don’t want anything sticking out to catch
  • tight shirts, pants
  • calf ropers slowed down by high heels
  • “Cordoba wax” [carnauba?]
  • burnishing seals
• bottoms
  • they always finished all over

  • There is no way to make a boot without getting it dirty in the factory.

  • leather conditioner
• insides
  • had only two suppliers
    1. Sawyer Tanning Company, California
    2. A.L. Gebhardt, Milwaukee
  • finish keeps from absorbing moisture
  • glove tannage for vamp lining
  • finished cowhide worked without heel slips
  • heel slips really because sheepskin abrades away
  • want vamp liners to absorb perspiration
  • must smooth side seams and shanks (no peg points)
  • dome shaped seams
  • modified welt-beating machine
• welt
  • used to mark lines by hand
  • new machine sewed tighter and better, but left no marks
  • fudge rarely matches the stitching
  • tension control of stitching important
  • position lock 2/3 the depth, 1/3 into outsole
• set up time critical for cemented outsoles
• cemented some, but Blake stitched them
• rasp jack
• father tried 25 different files, best turned out to be a guy with a small hand using little pieces of sandpaper

• You have to believe that you are making a boot in the very best way you know how. With this you accept thhe difficulties…

• had to raise prices after father died

• Customers howled.

• story: Jourdanton, Texas sheriff
  • bought first pair for a cow and a calf
  • bought next pair for a calf, but many more dollars

• If nobody charges what the boots are worth, the whole trade goes out.

8. Cowboy boot shanks

• cowboys like high, rounded shanks for riding stirrups

• looks much more trim, less clumsy

• don’t know how it started
• nails that stay in should be made of brass
  • lighter
  • clinch better
• perhaps molybdenum

• I still say that the best way to make a pair of boots is to use pegs only

• must stagger pegs
• they used double-rib, 16-gauge steel shanks
• can’t leave even a small gap between the shank and the boot
• front of steel shanks have pointed hook for digging into the insole
• adhere with heavy black pitch
• some makers use steel shanks with attached plastic to make rounded shape
• better boots have leather shank covers
• old-time making: sew front of steel shank down
• “X” stitch across the shank

• I guess I was the last man to insist on sewing the shanks in.

• front of shank a bad place for a nail
• have to position the shank right
  • too far forward, breaks through insole
  • too far back, offers no support

  • an eye job

  • can use hole in heel plate of last to help orient
• shanks only come in a few lengths
• they use lining level to fill the foreparts
• pegging
  • holes just smaller than the pegs
  • peg must brad inside and out
  • two schools of thought
    1. points of pegs must dig into last
    2. peg should slam against metal plate
       • doesn’t brad as well
  • full thickness of the peg through the layers, not the tapered point
  • mixing pegs and nails more secure
  • consumers believe wood pegging traditional
  • father’s experimental wear tests
    • two long-time customers
    • promised to make another pair no matter what

    • the point at which the welt stops is very critical

    • too long or short weakens the shank
  • customer tried to convince that heel-to-heel welt was better, given two boots and five years, became convinced of shanks
• lightly sand shank surfaces with naumkeag

• Making better boots is the endless management of a great many tiny details.

• steel shank placement varies with heel height

• My father put the long pants on a lot of other bootmakers by paying the most careful attention to the smallest points. He was not just a perfectionist: he was a fanatic.

• He was always making and rechecking measurements.

• lasters had cards with upper measurements for various sizes
• Father checked all boots before they went out. When he traveled, boots stopped going out.

• My Daddy did not trust anybody with boots, but himself and God.

9. Shaping to the foot’s tread and the leg

• feet not symmetrical
• line through center of heel, center of ball, and center of toe, not straight
• some lastmakers straighten the line from the heel forward
• everyone walks differently
• “slue-footed”
• off-center the heel, but hide it from the top

• Since you want the front of the boot to look straight, you twist the back.

• inside cone: “This angular direction on top of the last is a reflection of the same twist of the foot as a whole, as seen from the bottom.”

• Following the bones and the bone alignment is the name of the game in making boots that are comfortable.

• ill-fitting boots might only hurt when walking
• never knew a well-fitted cowboy boot to cause harm
• blames the retailer

• customers tend to buy wide and short

• not the heel alone causing issues

• I am not talking about 3-inch or higher spike heels on women’s shoes. Some of these could kill anybody’s feet. There is no proper way to put a foot into that position.

• Paris designers knock-off cowboy boots by putting shoe heels on boots
• top: don’t press ligament on inside of the leg
• like English boots, top can be higher on outside than inside

• Historically, most of the earliest cowboy boots were made with the straight top or “stove pipe top.” Some of Napoleon’s boots were higher in front and lower in back.

• Jack boots
  • high in front, lower in back
  • popular around Gold Rush and Civil War

• When it became necessary for bootmakers to fit more peoples’ legs using stock patterns, they cut the scallop into the tops.

• English riding boots practical, provide protection
• no correlation between leg size and foot size
• short Pee Wee boots
  • 8 inches
  • popular in 1930s
  • dirt got inside
  • pants hang up in boots
• tops should fit calf pretty snug
• people in hot climates want tops loose
• personal taste
• bend in top keeps foot down over heel

• just tight enough that the top will flex

• toe wrinkle and toe bugs
  • with really high heels, important to control creasing

  • force the boot to break in a certain way

  • stitching alone insufficient, requires cording
  • Enid Justin had to fight to keep doing wrinkles on Nocona boots during WWII
  • federal government prohibited fancy stitching as wasted labor

10. Boot styling

• An oversimplified old saying says, “Whatever style is popular when a young man is of college age is the style he will be buried in.”

• rejects father’s style
• might go back to granddad’s style
• grandparents spoil grandkids
• fashion cycles every 20-25 years, a generation

• Nothing is really new.

• 1890 catalog had lots of wide toes
• colors from dark to light and back
• fancy to plain
• makers get tired of doing the same thing
• red an angry color
• blue more soothing
• figure: classic Lucchese dress boot has calf tops and vamps of same tannage

• “If you have more than two colors in a shoe, throw it away. It won’t sell.”

• exclude colors of threads
• three-toners never bestsellers

• It has been said that Lucchese boots are recognizable by their fancy stitching and inlay patterns. This is not true because a fancy/plain/fancy style cycle is also at work.

• simplicity the trend now
• focus more on leather

• The fewer doo-das you put on a pair of boots, the longer they will survive and still be in style.

• fewer rows of stitching

• It is ironic that people want fewer rows at a time when computerized stitching makes possible more rows at a lower production cost than ever.

• many older wearers still convinced that more rows means a sturdier top
  • too many rows just holes out the leather

  • thousands of tiny wicks, moisture passes from the outside

  • better adhesives today
• vamp fancy stitching was a fad
• exotic leathers

  • In the earlier days, alligator was the exotic leather.

  • people thought alligators are mean, so leather must be tough
  • cracks and breaks at hinges between tiles
• put together a whole package in a design
• many will buy boots that aren’t exactly what they had in mind

• eye appeal and shelf appeal are the keys to the future of boot manufacturing. Sales are getting more and more unassisted every day.

• the boots have to do most of their own selling

• Tony Lama
  • hang tag program

  • tell the story of each boot

  • leather information
  • care guide
• toe shape appropriate to leather
• designing: maybe right 20% of the time, wrong 80%, that’s life
• regional preferences
• pricey to make styles too similar to each other
• people can’t decide when faced with too many choices

• In my line maybe one boot style in five really takes off.

• approach: small change to sure-fire seller every year
• can’t stick with one color

• In styling, evolution is always easier than revolution.

• inventory costs money

• the stylist or the line builder should be highly retail-oriented

11. Finishing the boot

• also practical
• remove all dirt from factory
• undercoat: spray the whole top, like a wood finisher
• “table look”
• increase shelf life
• many climate changes in production, shipping, retail
• not overly glossy, except for some high-polish calfskins

• It must be human nature for shoppers to take a boot off the shelf and immediately turn it over…

• must look natural, not artificial
• customers turned off by highly glossy bottoms
• soles
  • naumkeag
  • sandpaper
  • carnauba wax
  • rub with soft paper tissue
• edges
  • highly absorbent
  • original idea was to seal moisture out

• There are relatively few people wearing boots nowadays who use them for honest to God hard work.

• all customers carefully inspect shank
• masking tape or leather with light rubber cement as protectors

• a little ink or a tiny scratch on an upper will not destroy a boot

• Somehow they expect boots to be 100 percent perfect.

• [rant on bugging machinery designers again]

• when people want something handmade, they also want it perfectly made. There is no handmade product which is technically perfect.

• There is more hand labor in the least expensive pair of cowboy boots than there is in the most expensive pair of shoes. [???]

• hard to get heel breast smooth
• nobody has invented guide, gauge, or shield for sander to do it
• as much finishing inside, for comfort
• melt thread ends

• Returning boots to the manufacturer is like making claims to an insurance company. The more petty insurance claims you make, the higher your premiums.

• pulls
  • used to be “ears” of webbing
  • would tuck ears back inside next to the legs
  • loop ears after World War II
  • people thought it ugly, so they dressed it up

  • Personally I am totally sick of the loop ear now…

• figure: rotating steel wheel for burnishing edges
• horse racers asked for pull holes cut out of the tops
• double-sided nylon tape very strong if caught in stitching

12. Pleasing the customer

• comfort is int eh feet and the mind of the wearer

• people respond differently to pressure on their feet
• hard feet and soft feet
• shaking hands gives a sense of their feet
• hard feet can be sensitive to pressure
• connected with blood pressure

• The guy who has the slightly red face is the one always in a hurry. … This man most often wants his boots tight.

• the fellow who never gets flapped … He wants his boots loose…

• personality types
• some despise wrinkles
• some customers fit really tight, then stand in a horse trough
• man who would bet women couldn’t pull his boots on
• one customer squeezed a sponge down each leg, then walked around town a few hours

• I was never sure if the leather was stretching or the feet shrinking.

• How anybody could stand to wear boots this tight I will never know.

• Maybe his feet were too numb to hurt.

• photos: Gary Cooper, Maureen O’Hara, Montie Montana, Jr.
• when shopping without fitter, people get discouraged about heel sip, nobody there to explain
• two 9Ds, but one with high instep, can’t wear each other’s boots

• Clothing makers have advanced beyond bootmakers when it comes to variation of fitting. They make suits in 30 Short, 40 Regular and 40 Long.

• Maybe someday, bootmakers will create boots in Low, Regular, and High insteps, all for the same length and width. [compare to volume sizing]

• retailers asking for fewer sizes to fit more people

• To increase the size of boot or shoe lasts geometrically would be the ruination of fit.

• father got “water on the knees” from kneeling down and measuring feet
• built a measuring table
• for years, would go to Texas A&M to measure students for senior boots
• made table with screw-on legs

• My father did not believe in putting prices in the window. I finally persuaded him to let me do it. But when I went out on the road for a while, he removed the price tags.

• To my father, all customers were alike.

• sometimes took an hour and a half with customer who couldn’t buy
• some come back eventually

• The number of customers who appreciate and can afford really fine boots may be five percent of the entire population — or less.

• each customer should always be approached by the store personnel as if this visit and this purchase will be the first of many more over the years ahead

• father made tons of measurements

• My father taught me that if you are going to survive as the successor to your teacher, you must do better than he did.

• To equal your teacher you really have to go beyond him.

• “If the student cannot exceed the teacher,” my father said, “then the teacher has failed, for there has been no progress. …”

13. The President and his boots

• LBJ story

14. Exotic leathers

• new class of owners: collectors of exotic leathers
• keep introducing something different
• anteater
  • better from younger animals
  • tiles don’t tend to lift up as much
  • very expensive
  • dries out
  • dust settles in hinges
  • not used long enough to rate it yet
• hornback lizard
  • will eventually crack
  • back rather than belly
  • have to piece together
• snakeskin
  • real big snakes
  • urethane finishes
  • so thin that have to back
  • jury still out for durability
  • less expensive than other exotics
• elephant
  • first came to market about 1963
  • supply much tighter two years ago
  • lasts well
  • feels comfortable
  • tough
  • relatively consistent grain
  • trunks scarce, so using panels
  • relatively dry
  • becomes brittle when wet and dried repeatedly
• goatskin
  • from need for replacement for kangaroo
  • less tensile strength
  • kangaroo has more tiny, interlocking fibers than any other
  • great porosity
  • not good with wetting and drying
  • ample supply
• patent leather
  • changed a lot in price and quality
  • used to be poor leather covered over
  • Canadian tanners riffed off Europeans, took fine calfskins, used transparent coatings
  • but doesn’t form well
  • some Europeans using urethane coatings

15. Of pride and pain: Princess Lorelei Lizard

• strange allegory about a lizard getting captured, skinned, tanned, and made into a boot in the first person

16. Starting new boots

• bend and flex the boots when you make a sale
• tell customer how to condition
• heel slippage normal at first

• All boots are made on combination lasts.

• to speed up bending, moisten sole along treadline
• treeing makes tops more flat than round
• squeeze in wrinkles around ankles
• for looks, you can set the creases of the vamp
• use pencils

• leather is shapable only when wet or damp

• out of box, boots dry, need lubrication
• lightly damp before applying conditioner
• wear three or four hours the first time
• old timers would fit very tight, then stand in horse troughs

• Never soak boots made of heavy latigo, oil tan or retan.

• Do not soak hard leathers…

• for heavier leathers, pour half-glass of water into each boot
• lighter, dressier leathers give enough from perspiration, don’t need soaking
• getting boots soaked wears them out faster
• wipe soles of new boots with carbon-tetrachloride, lightly dampen, apply pure neatsfoot
• over-oiling plugs up pores, makes hot in warm climates
• silicone for water resistance
  • pure white
  • no warning about petroleum distillates

  • Petroleum base ingredients harm leather.

• cotton or wool socks better than nylon for sweaty feet
• wearing same pair every day doesn’t give them a chance to dry
• when you pull your boots off, wipe dust off with a rag
• clean and polish shoes with trees in to keep shape
• treat boot leather like skin

17. Treat your boots right

• You must close the information gap on boot care, if you expect your customer to buy the next pair from you…

• dust off after each wear
• four-step process
• many mistakenly believe just one product, like saddle soap, does the whole job

• Saddle soap is like face soap. You use it to wash the dirt out. Then you must remove the soap.

• for waterproofing, bar glycerin saddle soap
• attracts grime
• if wet, allow to dry at room temp
• use soap to float away grime
• use conditioner while leather still damp
  • lanolin or fat liquors
  • neatsfoot oil
  • light, thin coats
  • wait 24 hours between coats
• let dry for a day
• can shine now
• when no longer tacky, use cream polish
  • Propert’s
  • Meltonian
  • ruby in vigorously with fingers
• brush off, then rag
• never use liquid self-polishing on boots
• can use thin coast of paste wax
• tops usually happier than bottoms
• pants brush off tops
• some people’s body chemistry breaks down linings faster
• orthopedic horsehide tanned to resist breakdown
• Gene Autry old boots story
• climate affects care
• leaving boots in window displays too long hurts from sun’s rays
• don’t keep boots in window more than a week
• can shrink to a full size smaller
• inside store, boots should be out on display no more than a month
• fluorescent lights can change color, especially of lighter leathers
• offer customers boot care packages with instructions

18. Summary

• obituary