Olathe Buckaroo Booted!

Greetings from Kansas City, Missouri, the heartland of the USA. I'm here for a conference. It's going well, and fairly busy. However, I got a respite yesterday afternoon when a buddy and his boyfriend took me to Higginsville, Missouri, about 50 miles East of Kansas City, to do some boot shopping at Kleinschmidt's Western Wear.

This store claims to have over 19,000 pairs of boots for sale. It was a Bootman's dream to walk through all the rows and rows of boots. While most of the boots were commonly available via other sources and were from major manufacturers, this store had a good selection of Buckaroo boots, and from a famous bootmaker, Olathe Boots. (By the way, it was made clear to me how to pronounce "Olathe", which is "oh-lāy-tha").

These boots were once made in Olathe, Kansas, but were bought by Rios of Mercedes, a bootmaker located in Mercedes, Texas, just 8 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The new Olathe boots seem to have very good quality, so I'm happy with them.

This is what I wrote for the HotBoots tutorial about this type of cowboy boot:

Buckaroo Boots get their name from the men who wore them, the California vaquero, a type of Spanish or Mexican cowboy who worked with young, untrained horses. The California vaquero or buckaroo, unlike the Texas cowboy, was considered a highly-skilled worker, who usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up and raised his own family there. Cowboys of this tradition were dubbed buckaroos by English-speaking settlers. The term buckaroo officially appeared in American English in 1889.

The Buckaroo's Boots are tall, ranging from 15" to 20" or up to the knee. They are usually two-tone, and many have multi-colored stitching on the foot and shaft. They usually have a deep scallop and pull holes instead of straps.

My new Buckaroo boots definitely fit this description. They are 18" tall, have pull holes (and false straps), and have blue leather shafts and black leather on the foot. They're really cool-lookin'. See pics of my new boots here on my website. I had always wanted a pair of Olathe boots since I saw them on cowboys at rodeos I have attended, and demonstrated by the famous DaveM of "Boots on Line" (he wears them so fine!)

I even wore them today at my conference. They are comfortable, but not for all-day wear. What I like most about them besides the appearance is that they fit snugly, but not too tightly, on my legs. I definitely know I have cowboy boots on my feet while wearin' these boots.

It was great to get away, and to catch up with two really nice guys I have gotten to know through "BOL". Alas, though, I must return to what brung me here, my conference....