Cowboy boots

[mmmargeologist]

Hard to beat a J-toe

 

[FrankCowperwood]

@mmmargeologist looking good. How's the leather wearing on those?

 

[mmmargeologist]

@mmmargeologist looking good. How's the leather wearing on those?

My gargantuan shoe collection and office day to day has limited wears but after about 10 or so, they have a couple scuffs but nothing zany. I think they’ll age just fine. Leather is soft like gloves. Theyre comfy too. TTS is perfect

 

[UnFacconable]

Thanks everyone. They aren't really that loose around the forefoot, it's more ankle/heel. I will try on with different socks and hopefully find some time to break them in before the trip. The good news is that I agree with younger me that these are the right style of boot. I couldn't remember if I had chosen really simple ropers or not and I definitely prefer this style given that they will remain my only western boots. It might be fun to have a wilder pair but that doesn't really fit with my personal brand lol.

Thread update. Despite all of the helpful advice, didn’t have enough room in my backpack for the boots and didn’t want to break them in on a plane.

Ended up doing a 3 hour cattle drive today at the ranch and fortunately they had loaner boots. I now definitely appreciate the unique qualities of cowboy boots that make them ideally suited to their purpose. Definitely going to BYOB next time I ride but re-considering whether I will ever integrate boots into my everyday lifestyle. I definitely see the appeal.

 

[hoodog]

What's the 2000 line by Lucchese?

 

[gnatty8]

Western boots by Heritage in Austin, out in the sort of wild..

 

[Gus]

Anthony Bourdain mentioned on an episode that he had been wearing cowboy boots since he was 14

 

[SixOhNine]

What's the 2000 line by Lucchese?

If memory serves correctly, it's their entry level line that is mostly machine assembled in Mexico, rather than handmade in the US. Pretty comparable to similarly priced boots from the Justin/Nocona/Tony Lama conglomerate.

I think they were discontinued or renamed as something else several years ago.

 

[Gus]

My local flea market has a ton of cool, old cowboy boots

 

[hoodog]

What's the received wisdom on stingray boots? Too flashy?

Edit: Like these bad boys from Rios de Mercedes

 

[Jazzmenco]

Very nice, not flashy at all.

 

[SixOhNine]

New and clean, stingray is flashy as hell. Scuffed up and dusty and it's a lot more under the radar. It's supposed to be really durable, though I don't have any personal experience. I know it's a pain ********** to work with and a couple of bootmakers have told me they won't use it because it's just too much trouble. Apparently, needles can only go between the pebbles, which makes stitching straight lines nearly impossible. Hit a pebble at the wrong angle and the needle will snap.

 

[DWFII]

a couple of bootmakers have told me they won't use it because it's just too much trouble. Apparently, needles can only go between the pebbles, which makes stitching straight lines nearly impossible. Hit a pebble at the wrong angle and the needle will snap.

Smart makers--that's 100% true. And I'm with them.

I think you have to have a certain degree of pride to take that position. For me, I couldn't bear to turn out the kind of shoddy workmanship that stingray forces upon you.

But that's just my opinion...YMMV

 

[cale.robertson]

I really don't know why this comes up in every shoe thread.

Half of CM nowadays is just dedicated to shoes. I can't think of a single thread anymore dedicated to discussing how to dress. This is is on a forum called StyleForum. In the past, Manton had that Good Taste thread, which was about how to dress. Some members made "weekly summaries" highlighting good WAYWT outfits. There were many discussions here about how to dress well.

Now half the front page is just dedicated to shoes. In any of these shoe threads, if you bring up this question of how to wear a certain shoe style well, you will be met with two answers:

1. I wear them however I want and any time I damn please
2. I wear them with suits, sport coats, tailored trousers, chinos, and jeans (no one ever says shorts because sartorial gentlemen don't wear shorts). There is often little to no discernment here, just a list of nearly every type of clothing.

If you push back and suggest there may be better ways to wear certain styles, you will get piled on. People will be very upset at the idea that there are better and worse ways to wear shoes. (I was recently in the TLB thread, where, for the first time, I saw some discussion that maybe oxfords aren't the best with jeans, but this is a very rare instance).

I don't get why the forum has become like this. It may be that cowboy boots are the exception and you can really wear them with whatever. But could it be that this forum is now just a "shoe forum" full of people who are averse to this discussion?

If you were to ask:

1. How do I buy these shoes
2. How are these shoes made

You will be met with dissertations. People will write long answers about how to import shoes from Romania and how the leather was tanned. But if you ask "what are some better ways to wear this style," people are dismissive at best. In @DWFII's post, he calls me prejudicial. I don't even know what I would be prejudicial against. But @Jmr928 just mentioned that he went through Lucchese's IG tags and saw some bad outfits. I have tried combing through IG accounts and seen the same. If someone is spending so much money on these things, why not take the time to figure out how to look good in them?

I'm not asking people to post photos of themselves. I don't post photos of my outfits and respect people's desire to be anonymous. I also try to not post outfits here that I dislike, as think that's needlessly mean (at least when they involve real people and not models). But if people think the more elaborately styled boots can be worn well, what's wrong with asking for examples?

Back in the day, there was an AAAC member who listed the clothes he wore every day. So he'd list something like "Kiton sport coat, John Lobb shoes, Hermes scarf, etc." It would just be a list. Then one day he posted a photo and ... the outfit looked quite bad. This happened for a while at The London Lounge. Back in the day, people didn't post outfits, they just described what they wore. But when people finally posted photos, clearly some people were well dressed while others were not. It can be up to the viewer to decide what is aesthetically pleasing and not, but clearly, words are not enough to convey an outfit.

Anyway, if people don't want to discuss how to wear cowboy boots well, I'm fine with that. I'll take this discussion elsewhere. I vaguely suspected that this is not the right thread for it anyway.

I'm a bit late to the party but relatively new to SF. In my part of the country everyone wears cowboy boots. It's trendy these days to wear square toed boots, but those really only look good under jeans IMO. I've tried them under olive or tan khakis with a sport coat, but that's about the upper limit of formality where they still look good. Although, I have a pair of round toe, medium brown lucchese's off of eBay that look better with khakis or flannels than with jeans. To me, cowboy boots can be "worn with anything if you dgaf" but it really depends on the shape of the last. Just like with shoes, more chunky = more casual. But there are some boots I've seen that can ride the line from jeans to suits reasonably well, although with suits it's still probably a bold choice. I'll try to get some pictures of what I mean later if you're still interested.

 

[Gus]

My friend, Wendy, has this shop in Santa Fe and offers RTW and custom boots.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/n...cle_138250c0-fa03-11eb-8581-4f9932ecec12.html