A Boot Collector Feature
A Southern California western wear chain with billboards to match its name, and a house-label boot, El Dorado, that outlived the stores.
In the early 1990s, Thieves Market was a chain of about ten western wear stores in the Los Angeles area. Writing in Texas Monthly in 1991, Skip Hollandsworth noted its billboards around L.A., including one for Justin boots that read “More snakes than a Hollywood party.” The stores carried the big brands of the day, and labels reading “Thieves Market” turn up alongside makers like Tony Lama on vintage pairs.
The chain also sold boots under its own house label, El Dorado. According to collectors, Thieves Market went bankrupt and closed in the mid-1990s.
Bringing Western boots to Southern California at the height of their popularity, and the El Dorado boots that now carry the store's name into the vintage market. Pairs are often listed as “Thieves Market El Dorado.” See the El Dorado profile for the label's own story.
A Los Angeles western chain whose name lives on inside vintage boots.
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