Give ‘em the boots: Cowboy-boot fans, retailers praise famous footwear

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 8:29 a.m.

Gator belly is hot. So is eel skin, stingray, lizard, elephant hide, otter and ostrich.

Cowboy boots made of cowhide can also be purchased. But they seem drab when held up next to a pair made of anteater, iguana or some other exotic skin.

"The first pair of boots I had made was out of hornback lizard skin, over 20 years ago," 65-year-old Pete Zabloudil said. "I couldn't replace them now. The lizard was a South American reptile that's either extinct or on the endangered species list."

Zabloudil said he knew a leather craftsman who bought all of the South American hornback lizard skin he could find before the reptile was booted from the hunting list. "I paid $650 for a pair," he said.

Zabloudil, a Las Vegas resident who grew up on a farm near Ord, Neb., almost always wears cowboy boots.

"I've worn them all my life," he said. "I have one pair of walking shoes, and they're made of leather."

Zabloudil's favorite bootmaker is Luchesse, based in El Paso, Texas, considered by some to be the top-of-the-line manufacturer in the business.

Glenn Woolbright, manager of Sheplers Western Wear on East Tropicana Avenue said, "Lucchese is the Cadillac of boots, and one of the most expensive. A boot made out of ostrich might run $799. Gator belly can go for $5,000 and up."

Woolbright doesn't have any $5,000 boots in stock, but he has plenty in the $500-$800 range, as well as pairs in the $100-$200 range.

"There are two styles of boots," Woolbright, who owns 30 pairs himself, explained. "One is the traditional western boot with the 13-inch tall shaft, the bigger heel and the round or pointed toe.

"Ropers are the second style. They are as close as you can get in a boot to an actual dress shoe. The heel is lower than the western boot, the toe is rounder and the shaft is smaller."

There are more than a dozen manufacturers turning out boots that come in every color of the rainbow pink, red, white, blue, black, brown, gray, white.

Among the most popular companies making boots, in addition to Lucchese, are Justin (which also makes the Tony Lama brand), Dan Post, Nocona and Ariat.

Ariat is the new kid on the boot block, from a company founded in Union City, Calif., seven years ago.

John Grant, an Ariat representative, is in town to promote his company during the National Finals Rodeo. He is visiting a dozen or more locations around town where Ariat boots are sold.

"I believe we are now the second largest (boot) label in the country," Grant said. "Justin is the largest, as far as volume in sales. Tony Lama is No. 3."

Pam Parker and Beth Cross, of Union City, created Ariat, the company and the boot, and brought boots out of the 19th century and into the 21st.

"Boots remained about the same for more than 100 years," Grant said. "Then these two women, who graduated with degrees in business from Stanford University, saw there was a void in the marketplace. New technology had not been applied to the boot industry."

Grant said the founders of the company put some engineers to work, who came up with a highly technical, high-performance boot that has taken the marketplace by storm.

"If you are a tennis player, you wear tennis shoes," Grant said. "The engineers designed an equestrian athletic shoe for stability in the stirrup.

"The sole of the shoe is made of rubber and carbon instead of leather and it's all in one piece. The heel is part of the sole, so if a rider is wearing a spur, and the spur is caught on something, it won't pull the heel of the boot off."

The rubber-and-carbon sole lasts four to eight times longer than leather, Grant said, and is resistant to "barnyard acid."

There is even a line of Ariats for use with English saddles, which feature stirrups narrower in width than those of western saddles.

"The Ariat is designed for the working cowboy," Grant said. "It keeps your feet from constantly torquing (twisting and turning in the stirrup), which develops arch fatigue. These boots stabilize the foot in the stirrup and on the ground."

Grant said the boots were designed with working cowboys in mind, but they are beginning to catch on with the weekend cowboy, as well as fashion-conscious people jumping on the cowboy boot-fad bandwagon.

Boots rule

Ariats are available at most major boot outlets in Las Vegas, including the Boot Barn, 7265 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

With the rodeo in town and Christmas just around the corner, the Boot Barn is riding the crest of its busiest time of the year -- not that there isn't plenty of business the rest of the year.

"About 70 percent of our business is international," Eric Shaver, assistant manager at the Boot Barn, said. "We are the epicenter, the mecca for out-of-towners. We get people from all over the world, as well as locals."

Shaver said the popularity of western boots has increased steadily since the 1980 release of "Urban Cowboy."

"There's no sign of slowing down," he said.

Shaver said there are 23 Boot Barns in the store's chain, mostly in Southern California, and its business has been increasing every year since it was founded in 1978.

The Las Vegas store, which is 5 years old, is the busiest of them all, Shaver said.

Ropers-style boots are popular these days, he said, but with the rodeo in town the classic boots are big.

However, classic-style boots -- with high shafts and heels -- also are going through some changes, Shaver said, with soles made of different kinds of rubber for better gripping ability.

Boot Barn's most popular exotic-skinned boot is ostrich.

"It's been our biggest seller for the past five years," Shaver said. "The most expensive ostrich is the full-quill point -- the hair follicle or pimples that stick out of the skin and makes it distinctive. The price (of such boots) depends on whether the points cover the entire boot. Our prices range from $350-$600."

Shaver said the most expensive boot that has been sold in the store recently is one made from "croc (crocodile) belly. Depending on who makes it, it will sell for $900 to $5,000." The more expensive boot is handmade.

"Croc belly is smooth and tough and has a classy look," Shaver added.

While the skin from the underside of an alligator is popular among some boot fans now, Shave notes that boot fads come and go.

"It seems toward the latter part of each decade something happens to make boots a fashion statement," Shaver said. "Rock stars will wear them and it creates interest among their fans."

Madonna ignited a boot craze two years ago, Shaver said. Pop star Jewel (who dates rodeo star Ty Murray) also wears boots. Country singer Garth Brooks has made boots popular among his legions of fans.

And, of course, there is President George W. Bush, who reportedly is fond of wearing lizard-skin boots at $2,000 a pair.

"He wears classic, handmade boots," Shaver said.

Merry rodeo

Tony Brown is one of dozens of boot sales representatives who converge on Las Vegas when the National Finals Rodeo comes to town each year.

"The rodeo brings in fans from all over the country," Brown, who represents Justin, said. "And people don't generally come to Las Vegas without some cash in their pockets. Hopefully, they don't leave it all on the tables."

This is also the time of year when the annul Cowboy Christmas Gift Show is held. This year it is at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Expo Center, where it runs through Saturday. All manner of western wear is available at the show, which is open to the public.

"I'd say 95 percent of the western-wear retailers set up booths there," Brown said. "I go because usually wholesalers deal with retailers, but here I get the opportunity to see customers from Ohio to California."

One of the oldest retailers of western goods in Las Vegas is Adams Western Wear, which has been in business for 50 years -- the past 46 of them at it 1415 S. Western Ave.

Adams isn't trendy. "Trends are cyclic," said 51-year-old Vickie Paublick, who bought the store from her father, Lester Adams, in 1983. "Certain types of boots will be popular for a while, then they're out a few years and then back.

"For us, we sell mostly the core western boot, with the western heel rather than the roper," she said.

Paublick recalled the "Urban Cowboy" rage that followed in the wake of the movie. Everyone wore boots and other western garb.

"But we have always been core western here (in Las Vegas), those are the customers we cater to," she said. "But we love to sell to the weekend cowboy, too."

Many of Adams' customers have been coming back for decades. "We had a couple in the other day who first came to the store in 1956," Paublick said.

Paublick said this is the best time of the year for her store.

"It's like having two Christmases."

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