A Boot Collector Feature
Mike Vaughn started his apprenticeship at sixteen and has spent his career building boots tough enough to outlast a store-bought pair three to one.
Mike Vaughn runs his bootmaking shop out of Bowie, Texas, in North Texas near the Red River. He began his apprenticeship at sixteen under master bootmakers Clyde and Joe Vasquez, who went on to work for M.L. Leddy's. Vaughn's work has been featured in the book Cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch, documenting handmade equipment still in daily use on one of the country's historic working cattle ranches.
Durable, working-cowboy boots built to actually hold up to ranch work — as the Waggoner Ranch book puts it, handmade boots like Vaughn's last three or four years against roughly one year for a store-bought pair. That reputation has built a waitlist of around two years for a finished pair.
A working bootmaker whose boots earn their keep on a real cattle ranch.
Pairs from smaller, custom, or long-closed makers rarely come up for sale, so this search may not find anything. It’s worth checking back now and then.