RV - Stop Wearing Cowboy Boots Wrong (How To Rock Western Boots AUTHENTICALLY)
[0:00:00] If a man is wearing western boots, should
he tuck his jeans into the boots shaft?
I know some of you guys are thinking, “Come on, Antonio.
A man never tucks his jeans into his boots.”
And for most guys, that advice is spot on.
Now, you will see women in various situations tucking their jeans or trousers right into
the boots and that’s because they’re wearing the boots as a fashion piece.
I mean, hey, they’ve got a good looking shaft on their leg, they want to show it off.
But for most men the boot is less fashion than it is function because they’re comfortable
because they work with your outfit because for a lot of guys they become their day-to-day
wear.
That being said, there are situations in which a man would want to tuck his jeans into his
boots.
Maybe you’re walking across town, walking across the farm and it is raining, there’s
mud out there.
You want to protect your pants, you don’t want to get them dirty, then tuck them into
the boots.
Or maybe you’re riding a horse or a motorbike and you’re going through brush and you want
to better protect your legs without, yeah, damaging your trousers.
Historically that was the purpose for the high shaft, protection from the elements,
animals, brush, anything you can think of.
In today’s video, gents, how to work cowboy boots even if you’re a city boy.
[Music] Now, that first mistake, definitely a big
one, but not the biggest one on this list.
Now, that’s the majority of men do not even try wearing western boots because they think
for some reason, you got to be a cowboy to be able to pull this off.
Here is the secret, gents.
To be able to rock western boots, you just need to have the confidence to get started.
Gents, it doesn’t matter if you’re commuting to L.A. because you got a house in the valley.
Or maybe you’ve always just viewed yourself as a simple boy, you grew up in Long Island.
You may even be a liberal, holding out in the village.
But, here is the thing, you can go country.
Look at them boots.
Please tell me somebody got that referenced.
I know for me I bought my first pair of boots because I want to dance with a beautiful girl.
I was in high school and I got invited to a prom and I had a great time and never looked
back.
Seriously, guys, you want to meet the ladies, get on the dance floor.
And that takes us to the next mistake not wearing the boots, that’s why I think having
a reason, having a purpose of where you’re going to wear them whether it’d be work,
whether it’d be the dance floor.
Find a reason and actually start putting these things on.
I practice wearing them around the house, not only breaks them in, it gets you used
to simply wearing them, then you’re wearing them out, you’re not even thinking about
it.
The next mistake is not getting the right fit.
So, the big mistake here is you go into it thinking, okay, it’s like buying a running
shoes.
No, it’s not.
You want to pay attention to a very particular part of the fit.
Now, functionally, western boots are made to be able to slip off.
We’re going to talk about why a little bit later in the history, but understand that
it’s okay if you’ve got a little bit of looseness in the back or even in the front
area, but you want to make sure you got a firm grip right here, again, in the bridge
sole area.
Now, gents, if you’re looking to grab your first pair or your tenth pair of western boots,
you need to go check out the western boots over at Thursday Boots.
Yup, gents, you heard me right.
Thursday Boots now has western boots.
And they’ve got three styles that you’ve seen throughout this video.
First up, we’ve got the Frontier.
This is their clean and classic roper design.
The roper is perhaps the perfect style if you’re looking to pick up your first pair
of boots, you want something that’s versatile, something that you can walk around town in,
something that you could work in, something that you simply could dress up if you so choose.
Now, these ropers over at Thursday Boots are made using the highest quality leathers featuring
a mix of hand-finished full grain and a rugged resilient leather.
In addition, you got natural leather outsoles and midsoles.
Plus, a classic roper heel that’s going to give you traction.
Next up, we’ve got the Desperado.
Now, this is a timeless cowboy style boot made with rugged and resilient leather.
It’s got a functional square toe lasts and shaft piping pattern.
It’s also got a rubber outsole, which makes these incredibly comfortable and functional.
I know some of you guys are wondering, Antonio, that’s a square toe, how can you even talk
about it?
Well, here’s the thing.
Square toes in western boots have been around for a long time.
They’re incredibly functional because sometimes you need to be able to kick something to keep
it moving along and you don’t want to cause any damage.
And if you’re looking for a boot style that you can dress up wear with a sports jacket,
check out the Maverick.
This is a premium refined cowboy boot designed to stand out, so you could stand confident.
It’s got a dress boot last and a western heel.
It’s made with a hand-finished full grain leather and an intricate quintuple stitch
pattern.
And all the boots, by the way, have a Goodyear welt construction.
On the inside, they’ve got fully lined supple glove leather interior.
Their insoles are made to absorb shock.
And on top of all that, gents, these boots were made as a passion project.
So, a guy named Tony Thomas works over Thursday Boots.
He’s retiring, this was something he wanted to see happen for years.
And this guy had like forty years of experience working with tons of different boot companies
and he brought the best to Thursday Boots.
Again, gents, click on that link in the description of today’s video.
Go check out Thursday Boots and all the other great boots all the different styles shoes,
all the different options, all the different products they’ve got over there.
Thursday Boots, a great company, proud to support them.
The next mistake I want to talk about is not buying the right style for your needs.
I talked about three different styles.
We have two of them in the classic western design, they’re going to have the higher
shaft and then, you have the ropers.
But, first up, let’s look at one of these classic pair of boots right here.
And this is very similar to the first pair of boots I ever bought as a teenager when
I wanted to go out dancing.
I went with a black because it’s one of the easiest colors you can already match a
lot of things in your wardrobe. [0:04:58]
When you wear a pair of pants over this, you’re going to notice that, hey, they actually most
people won’t even notice you’re wearing boots, but you are going to stand taller.
And, again, what you want on a pair of boots like this to be able to move across the dance
floor.
That’s where a lot of people use it is simply, hey, you want to have that little bit, you
want to have that leather right here on the base.
You can have rubber back here, this gives you a little bit more traction and I do like
that.
But, yeah, you want to be able to glide, you want to be able to move.
Now, could you use this in a horse?
Yes, you could.
And I know some of you guys do own animals and you’re up on horseback, so it would
make a great, you know, basically the heel was designed, the cowboy heel and traditionally
cowboy heels are even longer than this.
They can go an inch and a half to almost two inches.
That would allow you to be able to get a really firm grip in the saddle.
And I know I just misspoke there, I meant stirrup, but in general on a saddle if you
know all the parts of it, which I’m not going to get into those details.
I did grow up riding horses, so I know a little bit about what I’m talking about.
Any West Texans out there or Midland- Odessa, Midland Greenwood that’s where actually
I’m from.
But, let’s talk about a more functional boot.
This is one that you definitely want to have a rubber sole and there’s a number of companies
that made names for themselves.
Now, practicality or historically, this isn’t something that we saw rubber soles, but when
it comes to being able to get traction, if you’re going to just want a pair of boots
that you can slip on slip off, you’re going to be working in, that’s where actually
having a square toe is really nice because you can kick things, kick machinery.
You know how it is.
You kick it, it starts to work again.
Guys, this is a practical simple boot.
In addition to leather, it is going to be very rugged.
It’s going to be able to make splash water on it, throw water on it, walk through puddles,
walk through mud, and you want to be able to clean these up.
You’ll also notice the color here is lighter.
Those other ones, you could actually wear with the sports jacket, you could dress them
up.
I mean, gosh, you could even wear, you know, go with a Texas tux, where you basically have
a tux on top, then you got black jeans with the boots.
But, I know, not really a thing outside of Texas.
But, this right here, these are going to be casual.
You can wear them with jeans every day, but not really going to dress these up too much
because they’re always going to be casual in style.
That being said, you wear this with jeans and a t-shirt, maybe a long sleeve henley,
good luck.
But, if those last two styles are a little bit too cowboy for you, then you want to go
for ropers.
And I know there are ropers out there with laces.
In general, the ropers I’m talking about are going to be slip on and slip off, so not
going to have any type of lacing.
The shaft is going to be shorter.
For a lot of guys, this is a great place to start, they’re not as heavy, although, cowboy
boots in general are not, I don’t think very heavy.
But, right here, you’ll also see at the bottom, we’ve got the rubber sole on the
back, we’ve got the leather right here.
So, these are also great for dancing.
The heel in general on the ropers as well is going to be a little bit wider.
So, these are just easier to walk and, you know, if you’re getting your first pair,
I highly recommend you look at ropers.
Now, this next mistake can really come back to bite you when you keep your first pair
of western boots and they have a leather sole.
And this applies to dress shoes as well.
You want to wear them preferably on some cement on something rough because you are going to
want to create a little bit of traction.
If it’s something you’re living in a part of the world or you’re going up and down
really slick stairs, then I would recommend finding something either with a full rubber
sole or taking this to a cobbler or do these things that you can basically put on your
soles that will give them traction.
But, you do not want to wear these right out the box.
And now, let’s address the issue of comfort.
So many guys stay away from western boots because they’re like, “Oh, look at that
heel.
They just don’t look comfortable.”
Guys, once you go western boots, you ain’t going back because they are so comfortable.
Slip on and off, great for travelers, you are going to get compliments.
You’ll be over in London, people will want to buy these boots off you because, yeah,
they just simply look good.
They’re like, “Oh, I’ve always wanted a pair.
Are you from, you know, Oklahoma, New Mexico?”
Not all cowboys are from Texas, what Colorado.
Point being is there’s so much character and they are besides being comfortable, they
just, yeah, they’ve got so much style.
Now, at this point, I want to go a little bit deeper into what exactly is a western
boot, a cowboy boot.
Those words used interchangeability, although, cowboy is more of a style.
But, the western boot, which includes the roper, includes the cowboy, includes the buckaroo
in general we look at the pieces, we’re going to see that there really isn’t lacing.
Again, there are some ropers with lacing, but I’m skipping those.
We see that really it’s a very similar style to what we see as the Chelsea.
But, the big thing here is going to be the shaft.
In a nutshell the western boot has a very distinctive style, but there are going to
be some characteristic differences in the different families and the function of the
boot.
Let’s look at the toe.
We talked about the square toe and this one, again, very functional when you’re working
on a farm, you’re working on a ranch, you want to be able to kick some use those feet
for more than just walking.
You got the traditional and, again, this one is great especially for dress boots.
One of the issues is you don’t want to kick things that you can puncture.
Next up, you’ve got the snip toe.
A lot of guys really like this because it’s easy to get in and out of the saddle.
At the same time, it is functional for them.
And then, you’ve got the more rounded toe.
We see this on a lot of ropers or a guy that’s got a wider foot.
This is probably be one of the most comfortable styles out there.
Now, what about the history of the western boot?
Where did it come from?
[0:09:58] Well, ever since men have been riding horses
and women, we have worn shoes that protect our feet or in that easy to get in and out
of.
So, we saw a wide variety of equestrian boots especially coming out of Europe.
Now, in the American Northwest, what we saw happen in the 1860s were the huge cattle drives
from Texas up to Kansas.
At the same time, we had a number of immigrants coming over from Europe to the opportunities
out west and many of them were skilled shoemakers.
So, they were taking up residence in Kansas, in Oklahoma, in Texas because you had these
huge cattle drives, these cowboys with a lot of money, they were ruining their footwear
going up.
And so, guess what?
When they’re up in Kansas, they would buy a brand new pair of boots.
A lot of times buy multiple pair of boots.
One pair of boots that you can wear in town, another that you would simply wear when you’re
in the saddle working.
Now, over a fifty-year period with this boom as you can imagine, the boots got a little
bit intricate.
This is when we really started paying attention having fun with the design on the shaft.
Guys like to be able to show off a little bit of money, they got a nice pair of boots
and they also got picked up by the budding fashion industry.
Now, the cattle drives ended in 1880s, killed by barbed wire.
But, why didn’t barbed wire, why didn’t the loss of the cattle drives kill the western
boot?
Well, first up, it was established.
Second up, it was incredibly functional, and you had something that guys liked wearing,
they love the design feature.
Men continue to ride horses for another fifty years and to this day, you still got many
men that are riding horses and women.
But, what we see here is a boot that really is the apex of its design.
If you want to wear something that you could wear comfortable in a western saddle, to be
able to keep it right there in the stirrup, you’re not, you know, if you fall off the
horse, you’re not going to get dragged to your death because the boot is going to slip
right off, it doesn’t have any laces.
And overall is just a good looking functional piece of gear.
The western boot has survived because people still flock to it because of just all the
great capabilities and functions it still has.
Now, when it comes to the style aspect, the fashion industry has picked up boots on and
off for decades and you’re going to see all different types of designs.
There are companies out there like Rocketbuster, where you can spend like $10,000, $20,000
on a pair of custom made boots with intricate designs.
Very cool.
Definitely go check them out.
But, right here the big thing that you’re going to notice is the heel, isn’t what
it used to be.
And that makes sense because people want something more functional than majority of people that
are buying these aren’t going to be up in the saddle all the day.
Which brings up the question, okay, if you’re not going to be up in the saddle all day,
does that mean you’re a poser if you buy a pair of western boots?
Of course not, because you may be [rying] that – riding that steel horse, maybe you’re
riding motorcycle, you want a pair of boots that looks good on and off.
Yes, biker boots are awesome, but they can grab a lot of attention.
They’re made necessarily, you know, some of these be worn with a whole on leather suit.
If you want something that you can just walk into the bar walk into the party and just,
hey, no one know that you showed up on that Harley-Davidson or Indian motorcycle, then
maybe this is a great style for you.
And what to wear it with western boots?
Now, I already talked earlier about the differences between the formal casual and trying to wear
them in those situations.
If you have the confidence, you can pull this look off in New York City, but for the majority
of people I want to say that boots should sit in the casual row.
So, match them with jeans, that is the easiest piece to be able to wear with them.
Sometimes people are going to, hey, can I wear them with khakis?
I don’t think so.
Can I wear them with shorts?
My uncle did.
I’m not going to say anything bad about Uncle Mike.
For the majority of us, though, wearing this with shorts, wearing this with khakis, no,
simply wear this with jeans is an easy combination.
Then, what to wear with the jeans?
Do you need to wear a western shirt?
No, you don’t.
You can wear t-shirt, you can wear a variety of button downs.
You can actually even pull off a sports jacket if you so choose.
Point being is though try to keep it casual.
Don’t think that you’re really going to be wearing the whole dress shirt dress trouser
combination and then, yeah, trying to wear a pair of casual boots like this.
Which takes me to the question, could you actually wear western boots with suit?
A pair like this, you’re in Houston, Texas, go for it.
If you are outside of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, you want to really make sure, again,
you are in a position where you can pull it off, maybe you’ve got the confidence, maybe
you own the company, maybe it is where you’re from, you’re, you know, Montana, you can
definitely pull this off.
But, I would be careful in areas where, yeah, you just don’t have that – that power,
you don’t have maybe the confidence because it can draw sometimes unwanted attention.
Now, if you disagree with me, I want to hear from you down in the comments especially if
you love wearing western boots.
What situations, what outfits you’ve pulled them off with?
I know a lot of my answers here are very subjective.
It’s my opinion and I always love hearing from you guys down on the comments below.
Now, we talked about jeans, what are the best jeans?
Do you really want to wear a strong blue?
No, I like darker jeans.
In general, black jeans or gray.
Gray jeans as well.
But, again, darker is really when it’s going to be at.
If you want to go with jeans with a bright color or, you know, ones that are lighter
in color, I just don’t feel it always works great.
But, again, some of you guys may prove me wrong.
[0:14:58] The weight of the jeans, I do think that this
is important.
Don’t go with really lightweight jeans, you want to go with something a little bit
heavier.
I’m not saying you got to go all 16 oz Japanese denim type thing with raw.
But I am saying that go with, you know, that’s – there’s a reason why a lot of guys wear
Wranglers because they make styles that just simply work and they’ve also got that boot
cut.
Do you always have to go with a boot cut?
No, but avoid skinny jeans or any type of really tight taper or thin cut that is not
going to allow you to basically get the jeans around the shaft.
And what colors should you choose?
Black or brown?
Again, black is going to be more formal, brown is always going to be more casual and you’re
going to see a lot of the styles.
But, the style does have something to do with it.
A black in a square toe versus a dark brown in a curved toe that has just a really nice
classic design, maybe the black has a little bit of decoration on the shaft and on the
front of, you know, the toe area, then in that case, yeah, you just have to understand
there are many different options out there and the rules I lay out here are in general.
So, what video to watch next, gents?
Why are cowboys so damn stylish?
Seriously, I talk I breakout the hat, I breakout the shirt, I breakout the jeans, and, of course,
I breakout the boots.
But, this is it’s a great video, guys.
I really enjoyed putting this together, get deep into the history about each, even a handkerchief.
So, if you want to learn more about dressing with a little bit of a western flair, you
want to check out this video right here.
It’s a great one.
[0:16:21] End of audio