James Owens Handmade Boots of Clarendon are family footwear made the old-fashioned way – one stitch at a time. There is no rushing the process nor the craftsman. It has to be done one step at a time. That’s how it’s been done here for more than six decades.
“Making a pair of boots is a lot like flying an airplane,” says Jim Owens, the second-generation cobbler on the main street in this historic, little Panhandle town about 60 miles southeast of Amarillo. “You can’t learn how to do it by reading a book, and there aren’t any manuals to follow. You have to feel your way.”
Owens learned leather working from his father, James Sr., who learned from Pete Gordon. “All these little towns around here used to have at least one boot maker,” he says. The cowboys from the JA and other ranches surrounding the town kept several boot makers busy mending and making leather gear.
After serving in the Korean War, the elder James Owens arrived back in his hometown in 1959. His father owned a trucking business, but Owens decided to go to work with Gordon. He bought the business and machinery from his widow in 1970. “There was a time that we had three or four boot makers working with my dad,” the younger Owens says. “There’s not a lot of boot makers out there anymore.”
These days Jim Owens does all the work on a pair of boots himself, with the exception of the stitching on the upper part of the boot. He makes 40 to 50 pairs of custom boots a year.
Owens has probably turned down about as much boot work as he has accepted since his dad died in 1999. “We’re backed up as it is,” Owens says. If you’re not local or Owens doesn’t take a shine to you, he’s not likely to let you get in line for a custom-fitted pair of handmade boots.
On the shelves lining the wall of Owens’ workshop are the wooden foot castings of 200 to 250 regular customers. Called “lasts,” these smooth brown feet with white tags hanging off the heels are a fair representation of someone’s foot. They’re used to mold the leather to the desired shape. You have to die to have your pair of lasts removed. “I inherited some of them from my dad,” Owens says.
If you have a pair of lasts with your name on Jim Owen’s wall, then a new pair of boots is as simple as a telephone call. The customer picks color, leather, shape, design, and any other aspect of the boot. “If I can, I’ll do it for you,” Owens says. “But I don’t do anything weird. Like fancy toes or crazy heels.” Don’t bother sending him a picture of a New York designed boot from a magazine, he says. Not that many of his customers would even think of such a transgression. Most of his customers are his neighbors.
Why would a man or woman pay $650 for a pair of custom boots when two pairs of perfectly good Red Wing boots cost half that much? “Some people want Cadillacs, and some are happy with a Chevy,” Owens says as he rocks back and forth in his Red Wings. Everyone who has ever made the leap to handmade footwear has their personal reasons. Fit and comfort are big reasons. Being able to design the style has to be another big one.
“Whether I make leisure, dress, or work boots all depends on what you do with them when you leave my shop. I guess that Amarillo lawyer figures that fancy pair I made for him are work boots,” Owens says. “Some last a year and some last 15 years. It’s like everything else – how long it lasts depends on how you take care of it.”
James Owens Leather Goods and Handmade Boots is at 112 S. Kearney down the block from the Saints Roost Grill in Clarendon. To see if you’re material for a pair of his custom-made boots, give him a call at 806/874-9812.
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This article appears in December 8 • 2006.
