A Boot Collector Feature

Deana McGuffin

A third-generation Albuquerque bootmaker whose own career, once read about in a magazine, was the spark that sent another woman — Lisa Sorrell — into the trade.

The Story

Deana McGuffin is a third-generation bootmaker: her grandfather opened his boot shop in 1917, her father L.W. McGuffin learned the trade from him, and Deana began her own apprenticeship under her father in 1981. She opened her first shop in Clovis, New Mexico in 1985, later relocating to Albuquerque, where she still works today.

Beyond building boots for individual clients, McGuffin has expanded into teaching the craft directly, after New Mexico's state arts division approached her about running classes. She now offers a Boot Camp Master Class aimed at people pursuing bootmaking professionally, and a separate Boot Retreat for hobbyists who want hands-on exposure to the trade without making a career of it. That teaching extends to formal mentorship, too — bootmaker Jes Márquez refined her technique under McGuffin through New Mexico's Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program, and Nashville's Wes Shugart trained under McGuffin for process and technique before opening Music City Leather, making McGuffin a direct link in multiple other makers' paths into the craft.

What They're Known For

Custom boots built to individual measurements and taste, which McGuffin describes in terms closer to art than manufacturing — "wearable art," in her own words. Three generations of hands-on experience back that description up, and her decision to start formally teaching the craft has helped pass a shrinking skill set on to a new generation of makers.