Jack is the Imelda Marcos of cowboy boots. His defense of the trailer load of footwear we move from place to place is economic. For 30 years he had worn the same double vamp Olathe buckaroo modified riding boots with 14-inch tops and a deep scallop.
In 1998 the company was having a going out of business sale so he developed a calculation based on how long a pair of boots generally lasted him and how long he expected to live and he bought a lifetime supply - 14 pairs.
By the time he and I met, most of the boots were well-worn (let's not look into that analogy too deeply) and, he told me, needed to be rebuilt. He had a regular day pair and a church pair he still wore, but the rest lived in storage.
Enter the orthopedic surgeon and new hip. Cowboy boots were no longer as comfortable as they had once been.
Enter the neurosurgeon and new neck bone. Horseback riding is no longer high on his safe-to-do list.
Now what?
Well, first he was able to give his regular day pair to his granddaughter. She loves to wear them and it makes me so happy for them to have that connection.
And for the rest of the boots left in the land of misfit toys? At least one has been reborn as a hybrid, a blend of his cherished 14-inch double scallop tops and the bottom of boots from my corner of the world, L.L. Bean's rubber mocs.
Before:
And, after:
In 1998 the company was having a going out of business sale so he developed a calculation based on how long a pair of boots generally lasted him and how long he expected to live and he bought a lifetime supply - 14 pairs.
By the time he and I met, most of the boots were well-worn (let's not look into that analogy too deeply) and, he told me, needed to be rebuilt. He had a regular day pair and a church pair he still wore, but the rest lived in storage.
Enter the orthopedic surgeon and new hip. Cowboy boots were no longer as comfortable as they had once been.
Enter the neurosurgeon and new neck bone. Horseback riding is no longer high on his safe-to-do list.
Now what?
Well, first he was able to give his regular day pair to his granddaughter. She loves to wear them and it makes me so happy for them to have that connection.
And for the rest of the boots left in the land of misfit toys? At least one has been reborn as a hybrid, a blend of his cherished 14-inch double scallop tops and the bottom of boots from my corner of the world, L.L. Bean's rubber mocs.
Before:
+
And, after:
Introducting the Prius of boots!
4 comments:
genius
I do believe you should patent those. You could live comfortably on the royalties!
Awesome :)
This line had me rolling:
In 1998 the company was having a going out of business sale so he developed a calculation based on how long a pair of boots generally lasted him and how long he expected to live and he bought a lifetime supply - 14 pairs.
It's how I feel about my Danskos :)
seriously brilliant! You should market these before LL does;)
joan
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