Bootin’ Up

Weatherford bootmaker practices old-fashioned art,

hand-crafting boots that never go out of style

Rod Patrick takes at least eight hours to make a boot. Photo by Robby Robinson

Patrick's boots feature exotic leathers and attention to detail. Photo by Robby Robinson

By Robby Robinson, Texan News Service

Making a boot by hand is a Western art that’s rapidly disappearing. But Weatherford bootmaker Rod Patrick still crafts fine boots the old-fashioned way, one piece and one stitch at a time.

Born in Oklahoma in 1943, Patrick grew up wanting to be a real cowboy. “I was always fascinated with horses and the cowboy lifestyle,” he said. “My parents never agreed to let me live the cowboy lifestyle of bronco horse and bull riding, so I left home when I was just 14.”

Patrick continued to go to school and worked at a saddle shop and for an old horse doctor. That experience launched his interest in boots. “I always had a real appreciation for quality leather goods and equipment,” he explained.

As a senior in high school he began traveling on weekends with the guys he worked with to the rodeo. The local paper began writing about how a local varsity football player – Patrick -- was beating most of the rodeo contestants. His football coach told him to choose between football or to rodeo. He did. Soon Patrick was rodeoing full time on the weekends.

When Patrick was about 24 and working odd jobs on the road and doing the rodeo circuit, some friends he had worked with at the saddle shop asked him if he would be a road salesman for a saddle manufacturing company. “What more could a rodeo cowboy ask for” than to drive around the country going to rodeos and selling saddles, Patrick said.

But rodeo took a toll on Patrick. “The older you get on the road with the rodeo, the harder it becomes on your body to physically compete,” he said.

While travelling on the road with the saddle company, he ran into a man with a small handmade boot company. “I was impressed with what he did and the quality he produced,” Patrick said. “The stuff he did was a work of art compared to just a pre-manufactured product. It was handmade, that’s what I liked the most.”

Patrick went to work for the company for about five years, when controlling interest was sold to a group of people wanted to increase the size of the company, lessen the quality of the product some and focus on the bottom line.

“The thing that you have to remember when you’re talking about a handmade product -- I don’t care whether it’s a watch, pair of boots, or a saddle -- if it truly handmade, you can only make so many. There are limitations on how big you can get.”

Patrick decided to strike out on his own. He scraped together enough money to start a small boot company and in 1971 bought the Mercedes Boot Company in Mercedes, a Rio Grande Valley town renowned for its fine bootmakers that go back several generations. Two years later he became the first person to manufacture the true round toe boot and the two-stitch welt.

In 2000 he launched the Rod Patrick Boot Maker Company in Weatherford. It’s one of a dwindling number of companies that still makes boots by hand. “The average boot to be made by machines takes less than an hour to make,” Patrick said. “My boots take about eight hours to make.”

He does business with small retailers that typically are family-owned, focusing on quality and stores that are equine-driven. Some of the businesses that carry his line of boots are is David’s Western Store and Teskey’s, both in Weatherford.

Some of his boots have been worn by famous people such as singer Huey Lewis, lawyer Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, the late President Gerald Ford, actress Bo Derek and husband, John, and National Reining Hall of Fame inductee and champion horse breeder Clint Haverty of the Haverty Ranch in Krum.

In the 1980s Patrick made a limited edition dove gray French alligator boot with a silver plate at the heel and a mink inlay. He only made 50 copies and said it was the most interesting boot he ever created.

The boots in his current line come in many different styles and typically cost several hundred dollars, depending on the kind of leather and the detail. Some of the leathers include sea bass, guava pala (turkey), ostrich and lizard. Many of the leathers he uses come from Spain, France and Italy.

“Some of the finest tanners in the world have always been from Europe,” Patrick said. “You have to have good quality raw material in order to have a good quality product.”

Patrick has come a long way from riding bulls and broncs to making a quality boot. Along the way he has learned to persevere in his craft and to measure success on a smaller scale.

“To pursue something you enjoy doing, it’s hard enough even when you enjoy it,” he said. “And you have to remember, bigger is not always better.”

That’s sound advice -- even in Texas, to boot.

The Texan News Service is a project of Tarleton State University’s journalism program.