A Boot Collector Feature

Paul Bond Boots

A bareback bronc rider who broke horses for the U.S. Cavalry as a teenager, then spent sixty years building boots good enough to earn John Wayne's business and a spot in the National Rodeo Hall of Fame.

The Story

Paul Bond was born in Seminole, Texas, in 1915 and grew up a cowhand on his family's ranch near Carlsbad, New Mexico. As a teenager he broke horses for the U.S. Cavalry and picked up extra money crafting and repairing boots at a saddle shop — his first exposure to the trade. At sixteen he turned to bareback bronc riding professionally, then developed a trick riding act, performing through the 1930s with the Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus at venues including Fort Worth, Boston Garden, and Madison Square Garden.

He made his first pair of cowboy boots in 1929, while working as a cowboy on his father’s ranch near Carlsbad. In 1946, Bond bought into a boot company in El Paso, then soon opened his own shop back in Carlsbad, making boots for the cowboys and cowgirls of the region; his reputation for craftsmanship let him relocate to Nogales, Arizona in 1957, where the shop has remained ever since. Ranchers and rodeo champions sought him out through the 1950s, and Hollywood followed in the 1960s, turning to Bond for Western film costume work. John Wayne ordered a pair in 1973, and Bond's boots were also worn by Montie Montana and Roy Rogers. Bond died in 2012 after sixty years in the trade, remembered as "the dean of western bootmakers," and the company remains family-owned and operational at its original Nogales location today.

What They're Known For

Traditional handmade cowboy boots built the long way — individually constructed from hide selection through final finishing — backed by a client list that ran from working ranchers and rodeo cowboys to Hollywood's biggest Western stars. Bond's own path from bronc rider to bootmaker became as much a part of the shop's identity as the boots themselves.

Cowboys First

Bond’s customers came to include Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Barbara Mandrell, but he was quick to say where his heart was: “My first love is making boots for ranchers and cowboys. Not much has really changed out here. Ranchers and cowboys love cattle and the country life. It’s simple and satisfying. I make a lot of boots for those folks.” Well past ninety he was still in the shop nearly every day. His team over the years included bootmaker Bob McLean, who later moved to J.B. Hill in El Paso, and a longtime right-hand man known as Spider. One collector’s custom pair, worked out with McLean, took about nine months to arrive.

Labels & Markings

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