A Boot Collector Feature

Richard Cook Custom Boots

A bronze sculptor and longtime Texas peace officer who became Jack Reed’s last student, then bought the legendary bootmaker’s business when he retired.

The Story

Richard Cook came to bootmaking after two full careers. For 25 years he was an artist making bronze sculpture, and his work includes three public monuments, among them the Texas Ranger Monument commissioned by the Former Texas Rangers Association. He also served 19 years as a full-time Texas peace officer. He is a direct descendant of William G. Cooke, a leader in the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas, and takes real pride in that heritage.

He learned bootmaking from Jack Reed, the Burnet bootmaker who made cowboy boots for about fifty years. Cook was Reed’s last student, and when Reed retired in 2000, Cook bought his business. Today he builds boots in a shop at his home in the small community of Zorn, near Seguin, east of San Antonio.

What He's Known For

Handmade, made-to-fit Western boots in fine and exotic leathers, built in the tradition he learned from Reed. Cook carries on his teacher’s belief that when cowboy boots are made right, they are works of art and engineering, a view that suits a bootmaker who spent a quarter century as a sculptor. The shop keeps short weekday hours, works by appointment on Mondays and Saturdays, and doesn’t take credit cards.