There are many fashion items and items of clothing that have a long and fascinating history, and one which has a more exciting story than many others is cowboy boots. The truth of the matter is that cowboy boots have been around for so long and have become so iconic that whenever you research their history, several stories arise.
That has both its pros and cons, with the pros being that researching and reading about cowboy boots’ history can take you to many periods in history and several locations around the world. The cons are that you are never quite sure which of the many histories and origins of cowboy boots is the definitive one.
With that in mind, we thought it would be useful for fans of cowboy boots if we tried to piece together some historical stories of cowboy boots that seem to be agreed upon. Even so, we admit that without a time machine, we cannot verify any of it, so we must remain open to other versions of the history of cowboy boots.
If you research cowboy boots’ history, you will soon discover that how they were first created has many versions. As we have said, we cannot definitively say which of these is the truest, and it is more than likely that a type of cowboy boot may have originated from all the recorded histories. So, rather than state categorically, “This is the correct version”, we will highlight each of the most likely and those which are written off most.
- A leather boot, which many see as the predecessor to cowboy boots, was worn by Mongol armies as they rode their horses into battle. They had a distinctive red wooden heel.
- English military men wore knee-high leather boots as far back as the days of Oliver Cornwall. As they created their empire, which included what we now call the USA, these boots were adopted and worn by those who soon regarded themselves as Americans rather than British.
- The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), gave his name to the Wellington boot, but in his time, these boots were not made from rubber as they are now, but leather. Although the heel was low cut, the boot itself was calf-high rather than knee-high.
- In the 1860s, in southern US states, a cowboy boot was worn for the first time as footwear suitable for walking and riding for many hours. At this point, they were not considered a fashion item but rather an essential tool for those working on ranches.
- One little-known fact about the American Civil War (1861 – 1865) was that poorly manufactured footwear contributed to the Confederacy losing and the Union winning. The term “shoddy”, which we now use to identify poorly manufactured goods, was created to describe these sub-standard boots. Robust leather boots, similar to today’s cowboy boots, with low heels and a shaft that covered the lower leg, were worn by Union troops.
- The period when cowboy boots indeed became universal began in the 1940s when western movies became hugely popular. This spread the popularity of cowboy boots across the world to places like Europe and Australia. In Europe, they remained a fashion item, but in Australia, they also became footwear for those working on dry and dusty cattle farms.
Today, company boots retain iconic status and are worn both as working footwear and on an even broader basis as a fashion item or everyday footwear for men, women and children.