Country Star Chris Stapleton and Lucchese Just Dropped a Trio of Stylish Cowboy Boots
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Country star Chris Stapleton is no stranger to collaboration: the eight-time Grammy Award winner has worked with everyone from Justin Timberlake to Taylor Swift.
But the prolific singer-songwriter’s latest project concerns neither singing nor songwriting. Instead, Stapleton has linked up with legendary Texas bootmaker Lucchese to create a vintage-inspired capsule drawing on designs from the 140-year-old brand’s rich past.
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Stapleton has a history with Lucchese, which was founded in 1883 by Italian immigrant Salvatore Lucchese. Trey Gilmore, Lucchese’s director of product development and men’s design, says that Stapleton has been collecting vintage pairs for years.
“Chris is a lover of all things Americana,” Gilmore tells Robb Report. “He loves handmade, vintage Lucchese boots, he loves selvedge denim, he loves old guitar amps. That’s who he is, and his taste is impeccable.”
The relationship between Stapleton and Lucchese began in 2013, when the musician, who had been performing locally and had not yet risen to national fame, was invited to visit the brand’s El Paso factory. The seeds of the collaboration were sown in 2018 after a member of the Lucchese team lost an eBay auction on a pair of the maker’s pre-owned boots—only to learn that the victorious bidder had been Stapleton.
“We had a belly laugh about that when we found out,” Gilmore recalls.
In the aftermath, Lucchese invited Stapleton to collaborate on a capsule that would reference the brand’s extensive archives and the performer’s own vintage pairs. The Lucchese x Chris Stapleton collection, which has been five years in the making and consists of three new boots—each with two colorways—is available now online and in all of Lucchese’s flagship stores and priced between $695 and $1,195.
To an extent, all three models—dubbed the Original, the San Antonio, and the Old Friend—tell a story, though the medium is leather and cording rather than guitar and vocals.
The Original is based on a vintage moc-toe model that was one of the first Lucchese styles Stapleton acquired and is made from American buffalo leather. Its defining moc-toe detail is accomplished by cording, a technique in which a twisted cotton cord is inlaid behind the leather to create a design. The same method was employed on its upper to form a rich, detailed “Del Rio” pattern lifted from the archives.
The San Antonio pays tribute to the city that had been Lucchese’s home until the business moved operations to El Paso in 1981. Modeled after the vintage boot Stapleton sniped on eBay—one of the maker’s Gavin models—it is crafted from Santini goat leather and marked by mule ear pull straps and a “Seville” cord pattern.
Lastly, the Old Friend’s inspiration comes from the Lucchese Romeo boots Stapleton sported onstage while performing with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 Country Music Awards. In this new model, the boots are made from Italian suede and benefit from a covered side seam, a vintage detail in which the seam is turned to the outside and covered with leather, giving the boot’s leather-lined interior a softer, smoother feel.
The boots not only look good but will help support a good cause. With every purchase from the Lucchese x Chris Stapleton collection, the bootmaker will make a donation to Outlaw State of Kind, the charitable foundation established by Stapleton and his wife Morgane that has awarded grants to Habitat for Humanity, Farm Aid, and other nonprofits.
“Lucchese boots are what cowboy boots are supposed to be,” Stapleton says in a statement. “I can’t wait for people to try them on and find out what I already know: when you put a pair of these on, you don’t need anything else.”
Take it from a man who’s cornered the market on vintage Lucchese.
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