July 2010
A Heel of a Time Making Boots
by Cindy Bellinger
After making custom boots for 30 years, Dave Brunson still loves his work and has no plans for stopping. “I figure (if the Lord allows) I have another 20 years to enjoy this trade,” he says from his shop in Artesia. As a young man, Brunson began working in a boot shop in Roswell. “The owner had been making boots since the early ‘30s. He was a master craftsman and I picked up a lot of knowledge from him.”
Brunson found he had a knack for working with leather, and after a two-year apprenticeship an opportunity arose to get his own equipment. Not wanting to be in competition with his former boss, he moved to Artesia. “The town didn’t have a boot shop and my wife grew up there so it was an easy decision,” he says.
Today, Brunson Boots has a steady clientele, many of them repeat customers. New customers find him by word of mouth and at big rodeo events, some of which draw people nationwide. “I get a good portion of my business from these,” he says. Though it’s easier to custom fit boots if customers come in for fittings, he’s figured out a long distance system that works just as well.
He makes about 85 to 100 pairs of custom boots a year and usually has three pair going at once—stitching on one while the glue dries on others. He spends from 26 to 30 hours on each pair. Many of his customers are working cowboys. “If you’re in your boots all day every day, they are important. Cowboys take their boots seriously and ask each other about them.”
As to the intricacies of making boots, Brunson says he likes the challenge of taking what is in a person’s mind and creating a pair that matches that image. “Each pair is unique. None are the same. The art of boot making is in the tops, the stitching. There are all kinds of stitches. Just a myriad of patterns,” he says.
His business partner is his daughter Judy Elkin. “She was born in the shadow of a sewing machine and started sewing when she was three. Now she’s pushing the old man on who’s the better boot maker,” says Brunson. That his daughter took to the art and the business is an assurance for Brunson that one more generation will get quality handmade boots.
Three years ago they relocated north of town, building the new shop with all the equipment in mind. “It’s twice the size of the shop I had for 24 years. Now everything works a lot smoother,” he says. The business is a mix of dress boots and working boots. Dress boots are of exotic hides such as alligator and ostrich. Working boots use a variety of calf, cow and bull skins.
Depending on how fancy you want to get, Brunson’s prices range from the hundreds to the-sky’s-the-limit. “But you know, I can hardly charge anyone more than $1,800. Guess I’d rather have them come back for another pair,” says Brunson, who when not making boots pastors a fellowship at a rancher’s church in Dunken, a nearby small town.
If you know anyone who'd make a good profile for this column—including yourself—let us know at sespinoza@enchantment.coop.
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