Why I should not be making boots

I'm totally serious; reason number one: i'm a perfectionist. Time is money, perfection is not accomplished in little time; the more boots that i make, the more money i make. My father was not a perfectionist; that does not mean that he made bad or really ugly boots; it means he did not care about all the cosmetic defects that you get from working fast. It is one reason he could keep his price low on bespoke boots and his customers appreciated that and had no problem with some uneven stitching and cuts that were a bit off; those features did not take away from the sturdiness of the boot.

I think perfectionist get a bad rap. People probably picture proffesor types or British people who go around pointing out imperfections around them.
I remember, long time ago, telling my wife, Trish, that i thought i was a perfectionist; she said: that's ridiculous, you're the most imperfect, defective person i ever met; i said, exactly! being a perfectionist is a mental
defect. I'm really only a perfectionist when i'm making boots and what that means to me is that i'm striving for perfection in what i create and the smallest uneveness in the stitching or the knife cuts will just dig at me and dig at me until i either replace the piece of leather or sit myself down and tell myself: let it....go, just let it go, and from now on, no more imperfections.

My boots have many imperfections, still; but i keep trying and that takes time, time that could be spent making more boots. Most people would not spot them right away if ever, but i know they're there. I think a mastercraftsman is just someone who is good at hiding imperfections.

Reason two: don't expect me to talk anyone into a pair of custom-made cowboy boots. My starting price is $800 for non-exotic leather, no decorations; full quill ostrich starts at $1200; that is a lot of money for a pair of boots! Working fast or working slow, that's what it takes now days to keep the door open in a business and buy material and pay yourself a living wage. So, when you walk into my shop i'm not going to put my hand on your shoulder, look you in the eye and say: friend, you need a pair of bespoke boots on your feet, they deserve them! or any of that car salesman
talk, even if i could. When you walk into my shop you should have already
decided that you need them, you want them, you just want to drive your spouse crazy by getting them, whatever the reason. If you can't afford them
and you can fit your foot with a factory made boot, then good for you.

Of course, father left me a business that's been in the same spot for 40 yrs.
I don't lack for customers, but i like to think that i would do the same if i did not have enough customers. As a matter of fact, i know i would because
i'm not a salesman. Ask me what's the scariest movie i've ever seen and i'll tell you: it's Glen Gary Glen Ross. When Alec Baldwin comes out and starts lecturing, i almost peed in my pants.

Why I make the cowboy boots

I don't think of it as the family business; it's really just my father and i; dad got into it because of his older brother Rafa who was a cobbler in Mexico. Dad took it further and learned shoe-making and when he moved back to the U.S., because he was born in Kansas City Mo., he learned boot-making.
If one of my kids were to become a boot-maker/cobbler then i would start calling it the family business; i doubt they would and i don't encourage them, although they are welcome to come and learn. We tell them to get a
higher education and find something they love to do that would pay a lot more than what a bespoke boot-maker like me can make.

Bespoke is an old English term that just means made to order and when i think of myself as a bespoke boot-maker it makes me feel special. So, what
Nocona, Justin, Acme, and many other boot-makers do is mass produce their boot in many sizes; they design it, choose colors, and type of leather
to be used. Most of them make some beautiful boots and when i was a kid
i wanted some Acme boots because i was sure you could get them with little rocket engines in the heels that would propel you up onto any nearby cliff. True story.

What father learned here in Burkburnett Tx. from an "old timer" boot-maker that sold him shoe repair supplies out of Lubbock, was how to measure feet to make the wooden or plastic form (the last) that will give the boot it's shape and size and how to make patterns to cut the pieces of
leather to be sewn together that will be soaked and stretched around the
last. All that dad passed down to me, so i make boots designed by the customer; i don't make them my boot, or they would all be wearing cool pointed box toes, 2-1/2 inch riding heels, and 8 inch tops with an inlayed butterfly on front and back. That's why i don't like to show pictures of the
boots i make; i do have a photo album on my counter with pictures of boots
i have made for customers; i want people to see my work. What usually happens is: they happen to see some high heeled boots first and they want to know if i make short heel boots; they see a picture of a round toed boot
and they want to know if i make any other style. I tell people those are pictures of my work; you design your own, if it is within my means, i will
build it for you.

That's what i do, why i do it is because when i was a child my father made me work in his shop and learn shoe repair, i had no choice in the matter.
When i was about 31 years old, and there were two children in la casa, dad
asked me if i wanted to supplement my income by making boots for him;
now, i had been working for him since i was seven years old, it took a long
time for me to want or feel the need to learn this new craft. Some of it was
intimidation, when you don't know how you get flat pieces of material into
the form of a boot and make both of them match, it can be intimidating and i had been around it all my life. Some of it might have been me saying: you forced me to learn shoe repair, you're not going to force me to learn anything else. Anyway, when i did start learning i was hungry for something new and challenging, and it has been that and continues to be that. I am crafty, slightly artistic, but not a mastercraftsman, not there yet.

I'm tempted to have my own boot, like some bespoke makers do; so, if you were to like my boot, i would just measure your feet and make them for you; you would have the option of putting your brand or initials on the tops to personalize them.

So, i like working with my hands, with leather, and i like creating things that can be worn and enjoyed.

Throwing poop and shoes

I'm no ethologist (animal behavior), but i think fewer primates would throw their poop if they could speak the words: hey you! Spoken and written language is what separates us from the other animals.

Of course, it wont stop all monkeys from throwing their poop, some of them just think it's funny.

Luckily, our brains evolved with the ability to organize symbols into languages that we can all enjoy because i'm sure it's safe to say that our ancestors still threw their poop a couple of hundred thousand years ago. If we absolutely have to throw something, modern man will pull off a shoe and throw it. My mother was a shoe thrower; i don't know if she was always one or she became one when i came along. I was a runner as a five and six year old and mom was forty and --well, she was not a thin woman-- so, she knew she was not going to catch me; put a little sombrero on me and i was Espeedy Gonzales. It was her fault, i would do something "bad" and she would say: wait right there, let me go get a belt! (in spanish)

This was in Matamoros, Mexico before we moved to Texas and before i knew my father who, before we moved to Texas-- i assume, because i never asked him-- was looking for a place to set up shop; he was a shoe repairman back then. He worked in shops in Los Angeles, Brownsville, and New Orleans before he settled in Burkburnett in October 1967. He moved my mother, sisters, and i here in September the following year.

My sisters were thirteen and three; i was seven and went into Mrs. Mullins
second grade classroom at Hardin Elementry. That day i began to learn english and started to forget a lot of spanish; at home i began to learn about my father and about shoe repair, i worked with shoes and belts.

When i say "home", i mean we actually lived in the back of my father's shoe repair shop on main street for about nine months. The shop that i own now where i do less shoe repairing and more cowboy boot making.

Fortress of Solitude

I am a middle child between an older and a younger sister, hence the name of this blog; and i am not having nor do i expect to have a midlife crisis in the future--any crisis that i could afford on my income i would rather not bother with. I am not complaining about these things, mind you, it's just my way of introducing myself to those of you who don't know me; one has to start with something.

I, however, seem to be having a midlife event, which has led me to this form of expression. At age 48 i'm looking at the top of that hill and idon't know what could be on the other side, but really that is not what i'm here to ruminate about--most of us know what that's about. I suppose the most important reason for my being here are my four children. Remember in the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeves, young Clark Kent plants the crystal in the snow to create the Fortress of Solitude and there his father has recorded the history of Krypton to help Clark find himself? I hope this will be their Fortress.

And, no, i'm not dying, as far as i know; i do talk to my children, their
mother and i are together, we are a typical family. The things that i want
my children to know about me and my life would take time and explanations that i know i could never get through talking to them because they take any and all opportunity to make wise cracks and poke fun of me and my stories; but, i like that about them because it shows me how clever they are. This way they will have an archive of what i have to say
available to them when they decide they're ready to look.