A Boot Collector Feature

M.L. Leddy's

Every pair since 1922 has been logged by hand in a ledger the company still keeps — more than 250,000 customers deep now, reviewed today by the founder's own grandson, the same way M.L. did it a century ago.

The Story

Martin Luther Leddy left his family's cotton farm in 1918 to repair boots and saddles at a local saddlery, and by 1922 he'd saved enough to buy a boot and saddle shop of his own in Brady, Texas. From the very start, he kept a ledger, recording every customer's measurements by hand — a practice the company has never stopped. That ledger system now runs past 250,000 entries, and M.L.'s grandson, Wilson Franklin, still personally reviews every new measurement logged today, the same way M.L. did a century ago.

The business moved to San Angelo in 1936, then opened a second shop in 1941 inside the Fort Worth Stockyards, putting Leddy's at the center of one of the country's most important Western trading hubs. It has stayed in the family for four generations since, with two of M.L.'s great-grandchildren now working in the business alongside Wilson. M.L. Leddy was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in 2002, and across its history the company estimates it has built nearly half a million pairs of boots and more than 25,000 saddles, all of it made in Texas.

What They're Known For

The San Angelo workshop deliberately caps production at around ten pairs a day, which means a custom order runs close to a year's wait, and each pair passes through roughly seventeen specialized craftspeople before it's finished. The details are specific and consistent: a triple-scallop tongue cut that identifies a Leddy's boot at a glance, custom wooden lasts built to each individual foot, lemonwood pegs set for arch support, and a technique the shop calls "single bug and wrinkle" stitching, developed specifically to keep the leather from cracking over years of wear. Hand-stitched inlaid tops, logos, and patterns are still done by hand, work the shop's stitcher Maria Reyes has become known for in her own right. As longtime boot-fitter Gene Reynolds puts it: "What you should feel in a pair of boots is nothing."

Beyond the Shop

Leddy's influence has traveled beyond its own Fort Worth and San Angelo storefronts, too — bootmakers Clyde and Joe Vasquez, who trained a young Mike Vaughn starting when he was sixteen, went on to work for the company themselves.

The Boot Room

Part of what makes a visit worth the trip is simply how much finished work is on display at once. The shop keeps a large boot room stocked with dozens of completed custom pairs, some available for immediate purchase and others there purely as inspiration for a customer designing a pair of their own. A table near the entrance is often given over to a themed showcase; on one visit, it held nothing but fully tooled boots, hand-carved from the bootstrap all the way down to the toe. It's less a retail floor than a working gallery of what the shop is capable of.

In M.L.'s Own Words

"The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."— M.L. Leddy, founder

That line is still the company's guiding principle a century later, and it's the same reasoning that's earned the shop the nickname "the Rolls Royce of boots" — not a claim Leddy's makes about itself so much as one repeated by the people who've waited a year for a pair.

Notable Wearers

Leddy's keeps its customer list private as a matter of policy, but staff have described a clientele that includes "kings, presidents, and sports and movie stars." A few names have surfaced anyway: baseball legend Nolan Ryan's name has been spotted on an order slip during a shop visit by a journalist, and reporting has connected the company to clients including Paul Newman and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In one especially notable case, President George W. Bush gave a custom Leddy's saddle as a diplomatic gift to Prince Charles.

A Family of Bootmakers

Leddy's was a family trade from the beginning. One longtime collector writes that M.L. and his five brothers all started making boots in 1922, and the brothers' work still turns up. Wilson Leddy, one of M.L.'s brothers, made a celebrated pair of cowgirl boots for Juanita Gray, the equestrian artist, rodeo queen, and horsewoman. The next generations carried the name further: James Leddy, a nephew, ran his own family shop in Abilene, and in San Angelo M.L.'s grandchildren, Beverly Franklin Allen and her brother Wilson Franklin, took the business forward.

Dog Ears and Straddle Ears

The Leddy name also hung over Frank Leddy Boot and Saddlery in Fort Worth, whose 1947 catalog featured illustrations by the horseman and artist Monte Foreman. Its boots show a detail worth knowing: pull straps set back behind the side seams, which Mr. Leddy called “dog ears.” Set-back pulls make a boot easier to get on. The more traditional “straddle ears” sit right over the side seam, and the collector who owns this pair thinks they make the better-looking boot. Either way, the placement of the pulls is one more clue when you’re dating or identifying a vintage pair.

Names Over the Years

• M.L. Leddy, San Angelo — older woven labels like the one below name only San Angelo, where the shop moved in 1936.
• M.L. Leddy & Sons — the name used in the company’s advertising by the late 1970s.
• Vaquero — a Leddy's stock line of the 2000s, ready-made rather than custom. One collector who owns several pairs calls them as well finished and close-fitting as boots costing far more.

Labels & Markings

A marking from a pair in the TW Collection. Select a photo to see it full size.

Tooled Work

Tooled pairs from the TW Collection, also featured in our tooled boot gallery.