Once a person orders a pair of Lama custom boots, his or her measurement chart is added to this file.Īlong with the strict adherence to traditional hand-crafting, Lama has taken advantage of those production methods which can be utilized without effecting quality. To help maintain this type of quality for its customers, the Tony Lama Company keeps a permanent file of more than 50,000 individual measurements. In fact, so strict is this quality-production, that with a few exceptions in popular stocks styles, every boot is fitted to the individual customers’ foot measurements. The company has won its position as one of the world’s leading bootmakers by sticking to traditional handcrafting that assures top-quality products. Oregon.Īn unusual side of this story is the fact the Lama has never undertaken the mass production of its boots. In May of 1959, the Lama Company moved from its first location at 109 East Overland to 219 S. For then there were G.I.’s tramping almost every part of the globe, and quite a few did their tramping in a pair of western boots, with many Lama boot fans among them.Īll this time the Lama Company was keeping pace with El Paso’s own growth and the company held to its place as one of the city’s leading industries. World War II played an even greater part in the growth of western boot sales to a national industry. This event, together with the exposure to western customs and dress experienced by thousands of doughboys from eastern and mid-western states, led to a tremendous upsurge in the demand for and manufacture of western boots and clothing. Thousands of Texans who had served in World War I, along with other servicemen from the western range had taken their boots and their western clothes with them to training camps all over the United States, and western boots had been worn by hundreds of A.E.F. It was about the same time that a great change came to bootmaking and to the entire western wear industry. From the small start in 1913, the company grew at a steady pace, and in 1920 when El Paso’s population had grown to 77,000, and Lama had become the city’s leading bootmaker. He opened up shop at 109 East Overland Street combining his skills as a shoemaker and bootmaker. Bliss decided that the southwest was the place to make his permanent home. Lama came to El Paso with the 6th Infantry and after his hitch at Old Ft. was a 27-year-old shoemaker from Syracuse, the son of Italian immigrant parents. The boots were made of plain calf and kidskin and were a somber black or a sober brown.Įl Paso in 1913 was a border town of 42,000, and was a thousand miles from anywhere. In 1913 western boots were rough, rugged pieces of foot-gear – practical and utilitarian, designed to protect cowboys and western outdoorsmen from the rattlesnakes and rough range and desert flora. This year Tony Lama boots are sold by more than 1,500 retail stores throughout the world. From a production of approximately 20 pairs of handmade boots during that first year, the company has grown to where it now turns out over 350 pairs of handcrafted boots a day. began producing handcrafted cowboy boots in El Paso. This is a part of a success story that began nearly 50 yeas ago when, in 1913, Tony Lama Sr. Today an El Pasoan traveling anywhere from France to Hong King is just as likely to see a pair of El Paso made Tony Lama boots as he would had he traveled from his home to the downtown area. This Octoarticle details the success of his boot making company that made Tony Lama boots known world-wide. Editor's note: Tony Lama came to Fort Bliss as part of the 6th Infantry.
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