A Boot Collector Feature
Tony Lama
A New York orphan lied about his age to join the Cavalry at sixteen, ended up a cobbler at Fort Bliss, and opened a repair shop that's now outfitted more sitting U.S. presidents than any other bootmaker in this series.
The Story
Tony Lama was born in 1887, an orphan in New York who apprenticed as a cobbler at age eleven in Syracuse, then falsified his age to join the U.S. Cavalry at sixteen, serving as a military cobbler at Fort Bliss, Texas, under General Pershing. When his service ended, he settled in El Paso, married pianist Esther Hernandez, and in 1911 opened a small shoe and boot repair shop on Overland Street. In its first year, Lama and a single employee sold just twenty pairs of handcrafted boots.
Through the 1930s, Western wear retailers began requesting his boots specifically, pushing Lama from repair work into full production; by 1933 the shop was turning out about forty pairs a day. He raised six children and taught every one of them the bootmaking and business side of the trade. In the early 1950s, the company became an industry innovator in its own right, introducing lower heels, rounded toes, and exotic leathers like alligator and ostrich years ahead of much of the field.
By 1961, production had grown to roughly 750 pairs a day, prompting a move into larger facilities, then another in 1967 to the plant on Tony Lama Street that still stands today. That same year, when a labor dispute over union representation arose, Tony Lama took an unusual approach: rather than force the issue, the Lama family worked the factory floor themselves, overtime, to keep production running. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1971. Tony Lama Sr. died in 1974, and his son Tony Lama Jr. took over leadership; by 1990 the company ran two El Paso plants, employed more than 900 workers, and produced roughly 2,200 pairs a day under president Louis R. Lama.
In 1990, Justin Industries acquired the company; the brand today operates under Justin Brands, itself part of Berkshire Hathaway, but production has never left El Paso. Tony Lama's grandson, Joe Lama, still works there as a leather purchaser.
The Presidential Tradition
In 1948, Tony's oldest son Joseph presented President Harry Truman with a custom pair of kangaroo-skin boots named "El Presidente" — the first in a tradition that's continued, on and off, for more than 75 years. Ronald Reagan received a pair in full-quill ostrich. George W. Bush's pair carried a tooled seal motif and silver horseshoe detail, and Bush toured the El Paso factory in person with First Lady Laura Bush. Gerald Ford sent a thank-you note the company still displays. Most recently, boots made for Donald Trump were built by eleven of the company's own artisans, whose combined bootmaking experience totals more than 351 years.
Reading the Label
Tony Lama never published a guide to its labels, so what follows is what collectors have pieced together. The colors are partly product tiers and partly eras.
- Black Label — the collector favorite, especially boots from the 1970s El Paso “Black Label period.” One collector reference dates a black label reading “El Paso, Texas, Made in USA” to around 1970 or earlier. Today’s Black Label Collection is a modern line that revives the name.
- Gold Label — the tricky one. Collectors say Gold Label boots carry the same black label inside, and what marked them was a gold medallion hung on the boot. Medallions came off easily, so without the medallion or the original box, a Gold Label pair is hard to prove.
- Woven pull labels — older pairs often carry the name woven into the pull strap, like the “Tony Lama, El Paso, Texas” strap below.
- Later markings — Justin Industries bought Tony Lama in 1990. Later boots are often stamped “Made in Mexico” on the back of the shaft, and newer lines such as the Signature Series are marked on the sole, as on the Tony Lama Anniversary Boot in the museum.
This reflects collector knowledge rather than an official history. If you have a catalog or dealer materials that explain the tiers, we’d love to see them.
Labels & Markings
A marking from a pair in the TW Collection. Select a photo to see it full size.
From twenty pairs sold in a repair shop's first year to a presidential tradition spanning more than seven decades, Tony Lama's boots have never stopped being made in the city where it all started.