A Boot Collector Feature

Larry Mahan Boots

A rodeo legend's name, licensed onto a boot line after he retired from competing — famous enough that a pair gets name-dropped in No Country for Old Men.

The Story

Larry Mahan was one of rodeo's biggest stars during its golden era, competing from 1957 to 1977 and winning six all-around world championships plus two bull riding world titles along the way — five of those all-around titles came consecutively from 1966 through 1970. In 1967 he became the first rodeo competitor to earn over $50,000 in a single season, and by 1970 he'd pushed that past $280,000.

After retiring from competition in 1977, Mahan did what a number of sports stars of his era did: he put his name on a product line. The Larry Mahan Boot Collection followed, with the name licensed to multiple manufacturers over the years, including Justin Boots and Gensco. The brand carried enough cultural weight that it turned up by name in the 2007 film No Country for Old Men, where characters specifically discuss buying "Larry Mahans."

What They're Known For

Trading on one man's rodeo legacy rather than a single shop's bootmaking tradition — the Larry Mahan name carried real weight with Western buyers for decades after he stopped competing, and vintage pairs still turn up regularly in the collector market today. His influence reached individual bootmakers directly, too: it was Mahan who suggested bootmaker Don Atkinson relocate to the Texas Hill Country, where Atkinson settled in Ingram in 1985.

Tooled Work

A tooled pair from the TW Collection, also featured in our tooled boot gallery.