Lucchese Boot Company

Lucchese has a leg up on the competition—and it is looking to stay that way. The Texas-based footwear company makes a product that has stood the test of time, one that is deeply ingrained in American culture. It makes cowboy boots. And by many accounts, particularly by Southerners, it makes the best cowboy boots.

It is this perception that has put Lucchese miles ahead of other labels that also use the same detail-oriented techniques and have the same provenance. So how did it become the leader in this distinct category? How has it become the go-to for cowboys and those that want to emulate that style? It comes down to creating a superior product, and making sure that consumers are well aware of it.

As the industry trends have shown, most successful brands have ridden on its lore. They continuously promote a story or idea that entices buyers to think it better than the rest. To whit, it’s about selling the cachet more so than the actual item. But for Lucchese, the myth and the make go hand in hand. It has stuck to its guns and hasn’t cut corners to widen its profit margins. In a factory in El Paso, Texas, it employs hundreds of craftsman, many of which have worked there for decades and are skilled in a particular facet of the boot-making process.

It begins with simple sketch and later goes through a painstaking assembly line, where one shoe is touched by nearly 150 hands during an 18-day cycle. Once the leather is selected from a room of nearly every conceivable animal skin (ostrich, American alligator and, yes, even elephant), it travels to a plethora of stations—from the woman runs it through the machine that creates the elaborate topstitching, to the man who puts in the solid leather heel counter, to the one who adds a steel shank that preserves the curve of the arch, to the one who hammers roughly 45 lemon-wood pegs to insole and outsole. Every aspect is carefully considered so as to form an item that is well worth the price, which ranges from $500 to $13,000.

“Really, at the end of the day, we’ve been building the same type of boots since 1883,” said Trey Gilmore, the director of product development at Lucchese. “Other brands that have been in the business close to or longer than we have now do very little in the U.S.”

Salvatore Lucchese immigrated to Texas from Palermo, Italy in 1882. A year later he set up his footwear company, making boots for the United States Cavalry School in San Antonio. It was these horse riders who ended up with some of the first pairs of cowboy boots—a style of shoe that is distinguishable by is long shaft, blocked heel, stylized toe shapes, straps and topstitching. Back then, these flourishes served a purpose. For example, the “stitching was actually used to hold the tops up from flopping down,” said Gilmore. “They were practical and still are. They were created to withstand rugged terrain."

Nowadays, it has evolved past its utilitarian origins, becoming an inherent part of Southern identity. For individuals with roots in, say, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, cowboy boots are not a fad or style for special occasions. It is part of their everyday lives; it is their uniform.

“I haven’t had a pair of shoes since I got out of the army,” said George Hamilton, a proud Texan and founder of Hamilton Aerospace. “It’s always been boots. The bottom line is, I’m running out there with 50 businessmen, and they may not know my name, but they always refer to me as the cowboy with the wild-looking boots.”

Hamilton, like so many other fervent Southern men, is deeply committed to cowboy boots. And those with extra means, like him, look to Lucchese as their only supplier. They are deeply loyal to the brand and have as much knowledge of its origins as the craftsman that work in the factories. They own several pairs and use each one for a variety of functions. They not only value brand’s incredible quality, but the history behind it.

“I don’t wear it like a costume,” Hamilton said. “I wear it because it’s a part of me and my natural evolution. My philosophy is, let the product speak for you. And that’s what Lucchese has done.”

This commitment to the South is essentially the crux of Lucchese’s success. And they spend a great deal of marketing dollars to relay that message. The brand is continuously forming partnerships with names that appeal to its faithful consumers—the biggest arguably being the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL team that has its scantily-dressed cheerleaders wearing its boots since 1961. It has also outfitted many U.S. presidents and the majority of Nashville superstars past and present.

Still, Luccheseis fashion label that aims to play in the big leagues, which is why it doesn’t limit its marketing schemes to those that strictly adhere to Southern traditions. It has recently created pieces for buzzy fashion brands like Ralph Lauren, Vetements and Brandon Maxwell, looking to garner the attention of those who may not wear cowboy boots as part of their uniform, but may want to own a pair.

Even with this mobility toward the North, Lucchese is very keen on expanding its base in states that already hold the brand in high esteem. According to Teddy Boxberger, the brand’s senior director of marketing, nearly 50% of Lucchese’s yearly sales come from Texas alone—and almost all of them are men. So, to increase even more consumer spending in the area, the label will start to introduce additional categories to its den of cowboy boots. Come September, there will be two new categories: Frontier Tech and Frontier Casual.

The former will take traditional Lucchese boots and tweak them to comply with regulations set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The brand has many customers that work on construction sites, oilrigs and other hazardous environments that require more precautions. This why it has created pieces with plastic soles and premium micros fiber that line the heel counter, which is intended to offer greater comfort throughout. “We took some of elements of our boots—pool straps, stitch patterns, crown shape and toe shapes—and carried them over to Frontier Tech,” explained Gilmore. “But at the end of the day, it is a very different product that requires different aspects so it can function properly.”

As for Frontier Casual, Lucchese will start to create styles that existing labels already do well—like loafers and Chelsea boots. The reason for this stems from the younger generations affinity towards more relaxed pieces. No one is wearing silk ties anymore, and less people are wearing suits,” said Gilmore. “We live in a much more casual world—and we see that in the boot business. They are wearing this type of product more. They still have their boots and they still wear their boots, but there are certain occasions where they are going to wear these types of products. And why not capitalize on that.”

This certainly makes sense from a business standpoint, but for loyalists like Hamilton, this trajectory is not at all alluring. “You’ll never catch me in a pair of Lucchese loafers,” he expressed. “Not even at my funeral.”

Though, he does admit that there is a market for them: “I guess the people that are moving in here want footwear, too. But they are definitely not Texans.”