I really hate letting this blog go sallow. Here it is July 2024, and the last time I posted was in April.
So where have I been?
Contrary to perceptions you may have that I have fallen off the planet, I have just been busy doing other things.
In May I traveled to Hawaii for 10 days (for an advisory committee meeting!) I just returned home after almost a month in Canada (for play!)
I do appreciate receiving messages from people who have read deep within this blog where I …
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It is interesting to me that since I changed my website and this blog to re-introduce myself as a gay man into boots, leather, dress shoes and suits that I have receive more email in the last two weeks than I have received in a long time. I appreciate the complimentary feedback.
With permission of someone who asked me a question, I am answering it here.
“I see you’re into men’s business suits. You look great. I am a young guy, just graduated from college, and started a new job where the boss asked me to wear a ‘power suit’ when I meet company leaders visiting next week. I didn’t want to tell him that I don’t really know what a ‘power suit’ is. Will you show me yours?
Sure thing!
According to what I see on search engine results, consistent with my own thinking, a “power suit” is…
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When my husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2020, he knew his life would be shorter than we anticipated. Actually, he thought he would die much sooner than I did. Unfortunately, he was right — six months after diagnosis, surgery, and failed chemo treatments, he died.
Knowing I should have a hobby to concentrate on and enjoy, for my last birthday (I do not have birthdays any more) in August 2020, he bought me one of the best digital SLR cameras available on the market. He knew I had creative talent, but I was so focused on my career which was highly technical and scientific, I did not use the creative side of my brain (much.)
In my new life after my husband died, I took a year to grieve. The year of 2021 was a fog. But when I look back at what I did that year, I was …
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I realized I posted in 2023 about wearing boots with suits. This choice of clothing is a preferred choice often for me.
Some style queens you find on the internet write reviews that are not accepting that some of us prefer to wear boots with suits and good-looking dress cowboy boots can make a man stand out from the crowd of dress shoe wearing suited men.
Don’t misunderstand, I like dress shoes too, and wear them with my suits as well.
But… being a Bootman from way back, I enjoy…
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My Booted Harleydude website has been around since 2005. The screen name was selected because:
a) I own and wear a lot of boots. This website was created primarily to catalog my extensive collection of cowboy, dress, motorcycle, and work boots.
b) I was (note past tense) a biker and owned and rode a Harley. I am also an old-school gay Leatherman, so I cataloged my motorcycle gear and fetish leather gear. Over time, I built quite the collection.
Well, come March 2024, I have made a hard decision to sell my Harley, hang up my helmet, and stop riding motorcycles. Long ago, I decided not to attend any Gay Leather events. I don’t have the interest, stamina, or desire to attend those types of events.
Why?
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Over the years, I have written posts on this blog expressing my opinion about wearing cowboy boots while operating a motorcycle.
Like other guys, I like to wear cowboy boots. I began wearing them at age 10 and didn’t stop. Over many years, I developed quite a large cowboy boot collection.
Most traditional, dress western, and older cowboy boots have smooth leather soles. Such soles are a bad choice to wear while riding a motorcycle because the soles provide no traction at all. The slightest amount of water or oil on the road makes these boots slide on those soles.
Back in 2013 or so, more boot manufacturers began applying rubber soles, Vibram soles, and/or lug soles on cowboy boots. I bought my first pair of Chippewa cowboy boots with a Vibram sole that were perfect for using on my Harley.
Nowadays, many boot manufacturers offer a cowboy boot / work boot with rugged rubber soles.
As an experienced rider, I choose …
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Way back in the day when I wrote my “how to wear boots with jeans” tutorial on my website, I once said that a guy should “stack” his jeans, which means
the jeans are long enough to come down to the foot of the boot, but not so long as to drag on the floor behind the heel. The jeans may form a soft fold along the foot of the boot. That is “stacked jeans” — simply, the jeans are long enough to stack (or fold) on top of the boot foot.
Usually that was done with straight-leg jeans.
I never recommended or wore “boot-cut” jeans. A “boot-cut” has a wider opening, which looked like old-style flared jeans. It never was necessary to have a wider leg opening to accommodate a traditional western boot. Straight-leg jeans would stack just fine.
These days, most men (including me) choose tapered-leg jeans. Why?
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I have written posts on this blog about wearing boots with suits. Over the years, I have received questions from men who had concerns that “a man does not wear boots with a suit!” Poppycock.
I have provided gentle counsel along the lines of “wear what suits you best.” Generally along the lines of “wear what you like; to heck with the opinion of some style queens or your mother. Be your own man!”
During my working career, I wore suits for important and high-level meetings with the Big Cheese and his direct reports. However, I admit, I never quite felt comfortable in a suit. To me, a suit felt confining and hot. I felt ill-at-ease, and that would show on my face.
After I retired at the end of 2019, I donated the suits I had to charity, and thought…
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I have the great fortune to be planning a two-week trip to Western Canada in July. The tour will begin in Vancouver, then a train will take me to Jasper. There I will transfer to a small group that will go on a photo tour in the Canadian Rockies, and includes Lake Louise and Banff. The tour will end in Calgary where I have tickets to attend and watch two days of the Calgary Stampede — described as “the greatest outdoor show on Earth.”
I have a “boot dilemma” on what boots to wear while viewing this event that perhaps my readers can help me with.
Three pairs from my cowboy boot collection are staring me in the face. Each pair is screaming, “wear us! wear us!”
Here are my conditions of wear, and three choices:
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Rujo Boots entered the cowboy boot market in 2020 with a slogan of “Be Brave.” The word “rujo” means “roar” and certainly this company has a superb product line that unto itself roars with quality.
A lot of guys, especially in the Eastern U.S., are hesitant to wear cowboy boots. All I have to say about that is, “get over it.” No one, no one, will say anything, except perhaps “nice boots” when they see you wearing them.
I own and wear four pairs of Rujo Boots and soon will buy some more. My review and personal opinions follow…
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