Culture

Fill Your Boots: A Pilot Study of Texas Custom Boot Makers

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Abstract

Texas cowboy boots integral to American culture and have been immortalized in popular media via film and music. Extant academic research on cowboy boot makers is surprisingly limited. The current pilot study involves interviews with boot firm owners and makers in Texas in order to understand their lived experiences. This research project is grounded in: Scaffolding theory, Social Capital theory and Cultural Transmission Theory. The study comprised of interviews with three boot makers. Interviews were aimed at understanding experiences learning and practicing boot making and the industry, lasting 60-90 minutes. The Principle Investigators (PI) coded two of the transcripts and codes were compared and negotiated in an iterative manner. Inter-rater reliability was 71%. Frequencies pinpointed themes. Four (4) themes of Customer (23%), Education (12%), Quality (10%) and Intercultural (4%) emerged, with Quality sub-themes of Fit and Materials. These initial findings will inform a Phase II study, with the goal of interviewing a total of (n=15) Texas boot makers.

Keywords: bootmaking, bootmaker, cowboy boots, Texas, cowboy, handicraft

How to Cite:

Loranger, D. P. & Divita, L., (2022) “Fill Your Boots: A Pilot Study of Texas Custom Boot Makers”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13294