HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- "Hand-cut, handmade and handed down is what custom boot making is really all about," beamed Parker Custom Boots owner Zephan Parker. Inspired by American history, Parker set ...

They’re about as “Texas” as anything can be, engrained in the state’s history, its traditions and its identity. Cowboy boots, especially the custom, handmade kinds, are an important piece of our ...

When George Vlagos, 31, was in middle school, his cobbler father deposited him unceremoniously in front of a pile of shoes at the family’s shoe-repair shop in the western suburbs, where he grew up.

From the highway, Ed Martin’s house is just a bump in a cornfield east of the Fort Lyon prison. It’s not until an apron-clad Martin opens the door of his workshop — a 1920s-era ranch house his aunt ...

Once upon a time in the American Old West, every cowboy riding across that craggy, untamed land wore boots that were handmade by a bootmaker. Nowadays, to keep costs down, most cowboy boots sold in ...

When a conversation about quality bootmakers comes up, there are certain shoemakers that are bound to be mentioned. Red Wing, Viberg, Tricker’s and Clinch are just a few of the names which are lauded ...

You’ve always thought there was something right about an apprentice working at the side of a master, learning his craft, growing his passion and one day having the skill to strike out on his own. And ...

Like so much else in Texas these days, apparel—the kind that proudly proclaims our Western heritage—ain’t what it used to be. Jeans were co-opted 25 years ago, when Gloria Vanderbilt designer-labeled ...