Pride Time, Care and By Ellen H. Brisendine I
N THE DEEP SOUTH TEXAS TOWN OF MERCEDES THERE IS AN ivy-covered building that houses Rios of Mercedes, run by Trainor Evans, chief executive offi cer, Pat
Moody, president, and Ryan Vaughan, general manager. This is where Rios of Mercedes boots are handmade. Walk through the Anderson Bean manufacturing
facility next door and you’ll fi nd craftsmen and women running modern labor-saving machines that have been carefully chosen to augment the handwork they do to build high-quality boots. When you walk across a gravel courtyard and into
the Rios of Mercedes building, you travel back in time a few decades. The metallic hum of modern machin- ery fades into a quieter chorus of mallets on wood, hand-held rasps on leather, and the clicking, clack- ing, thumping and humming that comes from antique machinery that is older than the boot artisans who operate them. “This is the old way,” Evans says, walk- ing into the Rios building, “the old handmade way.” Rios of Mercedes was established in 1853. Evans
bought the company in 1973. “The way we got in this business was we had a little plant down in Mexico doing the fancy stitch work for Rios of Mercedes, Luc- chese and Nocona boots. After a couple of years we were doing so well we were able to buy this business.”
88 The Cattleman December 2015 The Rios of Mercedes and Anderson Bean boots
are made in the U.S., as is the Olathe boot line. Evans and his partners, Moody and Vaughan, also manufac- ture boots in Mexico – the Macie Bean fashion boot, a children’s boot line and Horse Power boots. Leathers used for Rios of Mercedes boots run from
delicate calfskin to durable bull and cowhide to exotic mammal, reptile, avian and fi sh species. Leathers such as crocodile and stingray come from farming operations. Elephant leather comes from sanctioned harvesting
work. When elephants in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe destroy villages, hunters are hired by the governments of those countries to control them. “The local tribesmen are called to take the meat for their own use and take the hide to the tannery,” Evans says. Even with the infi nite variety of leathers from
which to choose, cattle leather is fundamental to the operation at Rios of Mercedes. “We can’t exist without beef cattle,” Evans says, and explains there are specifi c qualities in various cuts of bovine leather that make it useful for every part of the boot. Look through this photo story to see a few of the
steps that go into transforming a cow hide into a com- fortable, handsome, long-lasting pair of boots.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
In Mercedes, Texas, Rios of Mercedes proves that high-quality boots made by skilled craftsmen still appeal to buyers, even after more than 160 years.
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