Business is Booming at Broncy Donkey Leather 

Moccasin-style footwear collections spark leap of success and faith  

By Lynn Ascrizzi 

It’s easy to recall a business that has the charmingly quirky name, Broncy Donkey Leather Company. It trips off the tongue and delights the ears, and Read more

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Footwear for the Stars 

Sharlot Battin has made a full career out of building shoes, boots and sandals for Broadway actors — and beyond. 

By Lynn Ascrizzi 

Who’d think that someone born and raised in the old railroad town that is Whitefish, Read more

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Tim Bishop: Just What He Wants to Do 

By Nick Pernokas

Tim Bishop was raised in the small, eastern New Mexico town of Logan. Tim’s high school had only 13 in his graduating class. In this rural ranching community, there were only a few choices in lifestyle Read more

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Boots from Harlick & Co

A Skater’s Dream 

by Gene Fowler 

Figure skating legend Brian Boitano, who won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, still has the first pair of skates he got at the age of nine. Why hang on to Read more

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Music City Leather

Wes Shugart: Makin’ Boots in Nashville 

by Gene Fowler 

Wes Shugart heard the call of leather back around 2011. 

At the time, the Nashville-based cowboy bootmaker was a builder of multi-million-dollar homes. “But I was stressed out, big time, Read more

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Houston’s Parker Boot Company

LIVIN’ A TEXAS LEGACY

by Gene Fowler 

Most fine, custom cowboy bootmakers have at least a passing awareness of the artists and artisans who preceded them. But few live that legacy as fully as Zephan Parker, who hangs his bootmaking shingle in Read more

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Brad Glenn’s Journey

Soul to Sole: A Bootmaker’s Redemption 

By Gene Fowler 

Matt Sager (left) and Brad Glenn turn out about 150 to 200 pairs of boots a year at B G Leather Shop and Custom Boots in Lubbock, Texas.

Every fine Read more

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Mercedes Boot Company: A Legacy of Horsemen

By Nick Pernokas 

You probably noticed those old boots over in the corner. Leaning up against that canvas suitcase like an old dog begging for one more road trip. Orange tops. Black bottoms. Yeah, I know, not to everybody’s taste. Read more

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Oklahoma Boot Maker Finds Solace in Leather

by Liisa Andreassen 

When Dan Hickman couldn’t find the right boots to fit his feet, he decided to take matters into his own hands – quite literally – and has been making boots since 1975. Bootmaking was not really a job for him; it Read more

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Run and Hide Leather to a Whole ‘Nother Level

‘Cowboy Booties’ Ascending 

by Gene Fowler 

Shoe and bootmaker Murphy Thiel of Run and Hide Leather in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, knows a thing or two about taking it to the next level. She moved back to the Eastern Seaboard just recently Read more

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