By Nick Pernokas 

The bronc rider heard the whistle and stopped spurring. He waited for the pickup men to catch up with him and handed the rein off to one of them. As he grabbed the pickup man’s waist to pull himself off, he felt his oxbow stirrup tug at his boot. A moment later he touched down on the other side of the pickup horse in the churned dirt of the Cody Nite Rodeo. 

As a bronc rider, Ty Skiver knew the importance of a cowboy boot and why it was built the way it was. Boots had been designed to protect a cowboy’s life and limb in places where there were no pick up men, let alone an audience.   

Ty was from Big Piney, Wyoming. It was cowboy country and when he was four, he rode his first calf at a local rodeo. Ty moved on to steers and rode colts for ranchers. Ty rode his first bareback bronc when he was 12, and he was hooked.  

During high school, Ty discovered the world of leather. He participated in a local 4H program. One of the perks was getting to go to local saddlemaker Ron Reese’s shop. Ron gave Ty an introduction into what could be done with leather. 

Ty began to study the tooling that was coming out of nearby Sheridan, and tried to copy it. Since he was riding broncs, he decided he would build some rough stock chaps. He met a leathercrafter who built chaps named Sterling Lamb. 

“Sterling helped me the most with my tooling,” remembers Ty. 

Ty competed in the bareback bronc riding and saddle bronc riding in amateur rodeos and in the PRCA. He won the bareback bronc championship for the local Wyoming rodeo association in 1992. 

While Ty was rodeoing, Ron Reese went to Utah to learn to build boots. When he returned, he added “bootmaker” to his repertoire.  

In 1995, Ty retired from riding broncs. Ty was looking for the next step in his life, so he asked Ron to teach him to make boots. In 1996, Ron helped Ty build his first pair. 

Ty moved to Red Bluff, California, to pursue leatherwork. He   made chaps, carved and made wallets. It was there that he met Wendy. Wendy had a three-year-old son, R.C. Landingham. The couple married, and soon Ty had a daughter, Sydney. One day, Ty heard about an old bootmaker named Jack Rowen. At 80 years old, Jack lived in the hills about an hour away and Ty began to visit him frequently. Jack showed Ty a lot about basic boot construction.   

“He showed me how to build boots the right way, with peg shanks and all that stuff,” says Ty. 

Ty was taking a few boot orders, but he wasn’t happy with the look of his boots. He went to visit former M. L. Leddy employee, Gary Tucker, in Las Vegas. Gary had opened a boot shop in Las Vegas. Gary knew the ins and outs of making a high quality boot. Ty ended up spending a lot of time with Gary. 

In 2007, an old friend of Ty’s invited him to come up to the reopened Hamley’s to do some tooling for them. Ty and Wendy moved to Pendleton, but the job didn’t work out. Ty started tooling for himself, until Randy Severe asked if he would be interested in tooling some of the Pendleton Rodeo trophy saddles. In 2007, Ty tooled several of the saddles. By 2010, he was tooling all of them, except for the all-around saddle. Finally, Ty went up to the Severe’s bunkhouse saddle shop and worked there. Randy and Ty ended up doing all of the saddlemaking together. 

Perhaps inspired by Ty, Wendy’s son, R.C., had become a bareback bronc rider. R.C. went to college at Blue Mountain Community College, and won the College Bareback Bronc riding title. Ty’s daughter, Sydney, did well showing cutting horses. 

Around 2012, Ty went to work for Lucchese Boots and began designing for them. The Lucchese design team was in Dallas, and they would come up with new designs on a computer and send them to Ty. His job was to execute them in leather. 

“Some things that they dreamed up were impossible to do.” 

When the friend that Ty worked for moved to Old Gringo Boots, Ty decided that it was time for him to move on as well. He became a freelance boot designer and worked for several boot companies in the El Paso area. This resulted in a lot of good relationships. 

In 2013, Wendy was diagnosed with cancer. The family moved back to Wyoming, to be near Ty’s family. Ty leased a ranch and began ranching. In 2016 , R.C. made the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and Ty looked for a new pair of boots to wear to the WNFR. 

“It was impossible,” says Ty. “I went everywhere in the country looking for a good pair of leather-insoled cowboy boots that you’d be proud to wear, and there was just nothing.” 

Ty made do with a store-bought pair, and another old pair that he’d made, which he rebuilt at a local boot repair shop. After the NFR, Wendy passed away. 

Ty really didn’t want to continue at the ranch. He realized that he’d always enjoyed bootmaking and it was his favorite job in the leather business. 

“But I didn’t like the bottom work. I liked the designing, tooling the tops and doing the inlays.” 

In 2017, Ty’s old boss from Lucchese called him and said that he’d found an incredible bootmaker, Fernando, in Mexico, and that he thought Ty would be a good fit with him. Fernando had a small production shop with other bootmakers who worked for him. 

By now, Ty was in a relationship with Darcie Spero. She had been raised in the leather business. Her dad was saddlemaker Kim Bendickson. Still, she was less than enthused when Ty said he was leaving that Tuesday for Mexico, to start a boot business. Ty made his flight that week and ended up in Leon, Mexico. 

“When I finished paying for my room, I had 50 bucks left for the week. But I got a free meal a day with my room.” 

Ty spent the week visiting with Fernando in the boot shop, and they made a pair of boots while he was there. 

“They were just perfect. They were just awesome. I couldn’t keep my hands off them.” 

The boots were a throwback to the cowboy styles of the Forties and Fifties. Ty ordered 12 more pairs, and had a small show with them at a Cowboy Hall of Fame induction in Casper, Wyoming. Five pairs were sold that day, and Ty and Darcie ordered more. The ball was rolling. 

Darcie had a hair salon in Fallon, Nevada, and Ty was still in Wyoming. The couple decided if they were going to pursue their new boot venture, Ty would have to move to Nevada. 

In 2019, Skiver Bootmakers had a booth at the WNFR, but found that an inventory of 30 pairs of boots were not enough to keep up with the demand there. A larger booth at the WNFR during its year in Fort Worth (2020) followed. Today, the couple are a fixture at the WNFR in Las Vegas, and they put a lot of planning into their booth there. This year, they’ll have 400 pairs of boots in their booth, which will be at the Marriott Renaissance, next to the convention center. Even the small shows are good though. Skiver Boots recently had a booth at a one-day bronc riding in Idaho, called “The Bronc Bash” and sold 15 pairs of boots there. 

Ty likes to say that their boots are customizable, but not made to measure.  

“I didn’t want to measure feet because I’m artistic and not mechanical.” 

Ty wanted to have a high-level boot at an affordable price. He decided to stock a complete inventory of sizes, which could be tried on for fit. Occasionally, someone will buy the “fitters” because they don’t want to wait for a more custom boot. Sometimes, they will buy both. Skiver’s sizes run true, and a 9E fitter will fit the same as a 9E that is ordered. This eliminates the variables from measuring feet and makes the boots more accessible. If a customer wants to order a custom pair long distance, they can pay for the fitter and have them shipped. 

If it is correct, they can send it back to Skivers and their dream boot will be ordered for them. If it the boot doesn’t fit right, they can simply exchange them for a different size to try. 

Skiver boots are known for their artistic look and especially   the leather carving that adorns some of them. Ty does all of the carving and dyeing himself. These parts are shipped to Fernando’s shop, along with the customer’s order, and assembled there. Ty has also built a few of the tops, but to save time most of them are done in Mexico to the patterns that Ty draws. 

“We do as custom as you can possibly get,” says Ty 

Skiver does a lot of logos for businesses and, of course, bucking horses and bulls. A current pair that is being built has a carved bass on them. A lot of wedding boots have the bride’s new name on them. Rough out boots are also becoming more popular and contrast the fancy tops. 

Ty’s most popular toes are the old box toe, called The Classic, which is reminiscent of the old Hyer Boot toe, as well as his version of a French toe, called The Contender, which has a distinctive bevel to it. The wider Contender is his biggest seller. The ladies styles also offer a smaller snip toe. 

The Skiver heel block is a little larger for better position in the stirrup, and more stability and safety for bronc riders who have to dismount in a hurry after a ride. The insoles are leather like most custom boots and have lemonwood pegged shanks.  

In 2021, Darcie sold her hair salon. 

“I needed to focus on this because we have a really good product, we have a lot of people that want it and Ty’s an incredibly talented artist. We needed to make this bigger,” says Darcie. 

Hunter Giovanetti joined Skiver Boots last year, and aids in sales and design.  

Their stock boots range from $650 to $750. Their customized boots base price is $1150. 

Ty also builds a lot of colorful chaps for rough stock contestants. Most are for bronc riders. Many are going to the NFR, so fall is a busy time in his shop for making chaps. 

This year, Ty, and Darcie’s father, Kim, built a beautiful carved trophy bronc saddle for the saddle bronc riding at the Pendleton Round Up. Ty and Darcie also helped produce a matched bronc riding in Fallon, called “Battle Born Broncs.” All of these activities keep them closer to their core customers. 

While Skiver Boots would like to expand, they plan on keeping their operation a retail one with a personal touch. This year, their WNFR booth will have a bar and live music stage, so cowboys will feel comfortable coming in and rehashing the bronc riding during the week. A WNFR podcast will be broadcast from their booth, which will bring in a lot of WNFR celebrities to raise the excitement a little. Now 53, Ty wants to make the booth a unique experience for his friends and customers. This gets back to the relationships that are an important part of repeat business. 

“We tell our customers’ story in their pair of boots,” says Darcie. “It’s hard to do that if we haven’t met them.” 

If you would like to meet the folks at Skiver Bootmakers, you can find them at skiverboots.com or call them at (775) 741-9780. They can also be found on Facebook.