Putting Your Best Boot Forward

See what i did? i incorporated my product into a familiar expression; thats one of the things advertisers do. My attitude towards advertising runs from cold to ambivalent; i guess i don't like thing shoved in my face
and told: this is good, you should try it; but without ads how will i know who is out there, what they do or sell? But if i'm not thinking about it, say, i'm not thinking about laser tag and i don't watch the television to see the commercial about it, am i really missing out? On the other hand, if Richard Dawkins were to come to town to give a lecture, and i missed it because there were no ads to see, i would be crestfallen and what's worse i would not know why the chicken developed that damned crest.

Well, that was a long lead in just to say that my father never advertised.
But in 1986, after 19 years in business here in the same location, downtown Burkburnett, Tx., and when he started drawing social security,
father decided to hand over the business to me. He would stay and make boots at a more leisurely pace and i just did shoe repair back then, but now i would be the owner. I have to say: dad was taking a risk, i was 24 and still as flaky as a Pillsbury Grands buscuit, but this is not the time to go into that. My first order of business was to bring in my old television into the shop, bring in a bit of the outside world, i say. Second order of business: install phone service, yep, that was my idea; i would later regret that move when the telemarketers started their rampage, but at the time it was all about modernization!

The only reason my parents had a phone at home was because in 1974 when my older sister graduated high school and started working, she had it installed, and they just kept it when she moved out.

So, there we were now, in the phone book, listed in the yellow pages: Burk Shoe Repair it was called back then. That was as much advertising as we ever did, if you can call a free listing: advertising; a few years ago i disconnected that line to go with a cell phone so we don't have that anymore. The shop has been here 42 years, i stay busy; people can see that i do the best work that i can and they tell others. My wife has gone into the retail business in the front of the shop and she has started doing some advertising; of course, retail is a different animal and to me, a whole other species.

I did say that i would never try to convince anyone that custom-made boots are the only way to go, i think that's a choice one has to make for themselves. I do put my name out there wherever i can, i want people to find me if that choice is made.

Having said all that, this part of my blog dealing with boots could be misconstrued as advertising, but i'd rather think of it as informative. So, having said that, here are just a few thoughts about what i do.

When i measure a customer's feet, which are eight measurements if you include the calf, i am going to use them to make a mold of the boots you will put on your feet, not a mold of your foot. Peoples feet are squeezed into footwear, not a great deal, but some at least; the flesh around the bones gets compacted, more in some places than others. I measure both feet, there are often differences in the size of feet belonging to the same person. Factory boots are identical in size.

I ask what style of toe do want? how high and how much slant on the heels? We're talking fashion here, but we're also talking personal taste and comfort; current trends or fads are another matter. I think the right style of heel and especially the right toe is what makes the boot. You can have the prettiest alligator skin, but on a roper style boot with a one inch heel and a big honking round toe and you're not going to impress me. You might impress some amatuer boot lovers, but you're not going to impress me. Round toes are fine; but, if you have a rough diamond, why not have it cut in the fashion that shows it off the best? Ultimately, i'm not the one that will be wearing the boots; whatever the customer asks for, i generally keep my mouth shut.

So, once i get started, the first thing i do is look for a last (wooden form)that approximates your size, i've never had just the right size last for a new customer; the least amount of time i've ever had to put into a pair of lasts is an hour. If i have a choice, i pick a last that is too small and glue pieces of leather to build it up to the size i need, rather than grind down the wood. Once the lasts are found i set them aside to work on later and find or make the patterns that i need so i can cut out all the pieces of leather that will become the boot; i make them out of posterboard.

It is agreed by the majority of cowboy boot-makers and i've done the math, we put in 30 to 40 hours of work in a pair of basic boots. A couple of times i've finished boots in two weeks but it's usually three to five weeks; i try to keep three to four orders going at the same time because of drying times. We take a lot of the stretch out of the leather that will cover your foot by soaking it in water and stretching it over a board. When the boot is put together, the whole boot is soaked and stretched over the last that now has been sized and the toes shaped. In the summer, when i leave the shop at night, i turn the air conditioning off and it's like an oven in there, so they could be dry the next day. In the middle of winter, since i only use some space heaters, they can be drying for a week.
A word about fit: when you first put on your custom-made boots they should be slightly tight, but not scrunch your toes, no matter what toe style; not all the stretch has been taken out of the leather. It is best to have your feet put the finishing touches on the fit. That may sound like a cop out, but i said they should be slightly tight, not hurt when you put them on and it should not take days to make them comfortable, one wearing should be the most it should take. Boots should be very snug around the waist of the foot, which is between the instep and the ball.
A word about leather, tanned animal hides are like people: some are hard, unmalleable, and in the end they come apart on you; and some are soft, but strong and eager to please. And like people, it's sometimes difficult to know which kind they are by looking and sometimes not even by tugging and pulling on it. Not all leather is good for the harsh treatment put on them by ranchers, farmers, and rodeo guy; so, it is my biggest concern because they are the majority of my customers.
I said before that my father took a chance on me when he gave me the business he had built, but he didn't exactly built it from nothing because this building that my father set up shop in had been abandoned by the previous renter who also did shoe repair. The first thing he did when he took the building was to take out all the equipment that had been left behind because father said it was junk, and for my father to say it was junk, it would have to be real junk. That first day that he opened, a lady came in to pick up her shoes that she had left with the previous cobbler three months before, she had seen that the shop had re-opened.
As i was saying, he gave me the shop at a time when i really didn't know what i wanted to do with my life and that manifested itself in the spring of 1988 when i wound up roaming around Dallas for three months doing this and that. I delivered Dominoes for a couple of weeks, that was interesting. It just occured to me how that mirrors the story about the cobbler who had this shop before; in june of 1967 he left a sign on the door that read: gone on vacation, back in July; he was never heard from again. At the end of September the landlord sought out my father, who had set up shop in Electra Tx. and not doing real well there, told him the story and offered him the building. Three month after that cobbler abandoned the shop my father moved in. The difference is i came back.