“From her ears to her tail, a cow won’t stretch,” Evans, left, explains to Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Special Ranger Rolando Garcia. “But through good times and bad, from backbone to belly, she’ll stretch.” Knowing how leather of each species stretches is integral to knowing how to cut the leather for the various parts of a boot. If the leather is cut wrong, the resulting boot will not last or will not maintain its shape. Evans says, “Brands on the hip are not a problem. Brands on the side don’t help us, but if I can cover the brand with my hand I really don’t care about it. Damage caused by ticks and fat wrinkles are worse problems,” he explains.
Properly made boots take shape under the skill of craftsmen. Here, piping is carefully attached to the edge of the boot top in Rios of Mercedes’ detailed process. Evans says, “There’s a trick in the way he holds it with his fi ngers to keep just enough tension to make it lay properly.”
“Every piece of leather we own comes through Tony Reyes’ hands,” Evans explains. “He makes sure we get the absolute best cut every time.”
You hear a steady hum of dozens of needles working at high
speed on the computer-driven fancy stitching machines. Any design or logo can be uploaded to the machine’s operating
software, allowing clients to customize their colors, shape, size and placement of the stitching. Evans says, “We used to use an old Singer fl atbed that stitched just one row at a time.” Now,
they have machines that can embellish dozens of boot tops at a time. “These are about the fourth generation of this type of machine. A hand can’t stitch like this,” he says.
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tscra.org December 2015 The Cattleman 89
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