This Bespoke Cowboy Boot-Maker Just Launched a Made-to-Order Program
For the last decade, the Parker Boot Company has been quietly building bespoke cowboy boots out of its Houston workshop. And now, for the very first time, the Texan maker’s wares are available made-to-order.
It’s a move that reflects the growing popularity of Western boots worldwide, a trend that’s been noticed by founder Zephan Parker.
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“If you go to France today, or if you were at Pitti, there were a lot of cowboy boots there,” he tells Robb Report, in reference to the biannual menswear trade show held in Florence. “I say a lot in comparison to Texas, obviously, but you’re seeing cowboy boots show up in these places where they were really out of place at one time.”
Such boots would never have been out of place for Parker, a Houston native who proudly touts a “cowboy lineage” earned in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Northern California on his mother’s side. However, his own upbringing had less roping and more Ralph Lauren: growing up in an urban environment with an appreciation for preppy clothing, he soon developed an interest in bespoke tailoring. These two aspects of his background would merge when a nattily dressed congregant from his church referred him to the Jass Boot Shop in Lampasas, Texas, in 2011.
Intoxicated by the sights and sounds of an old-world bootmaker making for real, working cowboys, Parker commissioned a pair—and soon ordered a second, with the request that he be able to build them himself alongside the makers. Having caught the boot bug, Parker drifted into work with other Lone Star custom makers including the Kimmel Boot Company and the Wheeler Boot Company before setting up his own shop in 2014, with the aim of producing bespoke footwear at the same level of English and European houses.
“I chose the Western boot because of its unique placement in American fashion and style. But I wanted to place it in a better, more refined wardrobe,” Parker says. “I didn’t want to be a guy sitting on a fencepost.”
Fittingly, Parker Boot Company’s pricing is on par with other bespoke shoemakers, starting at $2,500 for the most basic design and reaching as high as $15,000 for a top-to-bottom exotic hide, but hovering around $4,000 for the average commission. In comparison, the made-to-order range is priced at $995 or $1,695, depending on the model.
But whereas other bespoke footwear makers will outsource their made-to-order lines to third-party factories, each Parker boot will continue to be made in its workshop by a team of 11 highly skilled craftspeople.
“It’s the same building, it’s the same house, the material drops on the same dock and is sorted by the same people,” Parker says, adding that the made-to-order range will be made at the same level as the bespoke at every step, requiring around 40 hours of production for each pair.
The difference, of course, is that the made-to-order boots are not made on a last particular to the client and cannot be additionally customized. Instead, made-to-order patrons will choose between two iterations: The Caldwell, a more traditional silhouette with a half-inch heel, inlay, and overlay detailing and either a rounded or box toe. The other option is the Kent, a sleeker, short-heeled model that might slide more easily into city-slicker wardrobes. Each is available in a variety of colors and hides, including calfskin and roughout suede, and will be fulfilled within four to six weeks after the order is placed.
“It’s a way to taste-test a bespoke maker,” Parker says when asked how the program will benefit his customers. But his workshop will also very likely enjoy an increased output, allowing Parker to eventually hire and train more skilled craftspeople—a key aim of his business.
“I want to be on the frontier, blazing the trail for the next generation of truly American-made products,” he says. “We celebrate American-made, we celebrate the American craftsmen, we celebrate the opportunity to facilitate whatever they need to do… If this team needs to get to 1,000 strong, I’m completely content if the movement will allow that growth.”
And once that job is done, we presume that Parker may ride into the sunset like his forebears.
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