A Boot Collector Feature
A home-construction contractor who took up bootmaking in his 40s as a sobriety project, trained under Deana McGuffin and Paul Krause, and now builds boots for Doc Severinsen out of Nashville.
Wes Shugart grew up on a cattle farm near Cohutta, Georgia, wearing cowboy boots as a kid, then spent years in high-end home construction before bootmaking pulled him in during his early 40s. He started around 2011 as a sobriety project after quitting drinking, training with New Mexico bootmaker Deana McGuffin for process and technique and with Arizona bootmaker Paul Krause for foot fitting, rounding it out with online forums, instructional videos, and advice from industry peers. He opened Music City Leather in Nashville in 2012 after mastering the craft through trial and error.
Shugart takes eight measurements and tracings of each customer's foot to build an individual last, then cuts from whole hides and hand-stitches using traditional techniques, sourcing leather from suppliers including Hardtke, Garland Neumann, and American Tanning & Leather. His client list has included Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen, working musicians, military professionals, and international tourists passing through Nashville.
Combining multiple leather types in a single boot more often than most bootmakers — bison, shark, giraffe, ostrich, kangaroo, and alligator can all show up on one pair. "There's never been a perfect boot," he's said of the trade. "That's the beauty of handmade things, when the perfection and imperfection meld together. It's the yin and the yang."
"There's never been a perfect boot. That's the beauty of handmade things, when the perfection and imperfection meld together. It's the yin and the yang."Wes Shugart
A sobriety project that turned into Nashville's go-to custom boot shop.
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