Yes, another lovely internet search landed a visitor to this blog, with the query: “why would a gay man wear cowboy boots?”
Man, I have blogged about this a lot, but in this post I will avoid jumping to conclusions about implied stereotypes and answer it seriously.
Why would a gay man wear cowboy boots?
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A recent internet search on this question [sic], “can u wear cowboy boots with a bussiness suit?” directed a visitor to my “How to Wear Cowboy Boots” page on my website.
Well, yes, a guy can wear cowboy boots with a business suit. No problem.
But whoever searched this question needs to learn how to write and how to spell. Oh well, with so many people texting these days and using abbreviations, I can understand (though I still dislike) using the letter “u” to represent the word “you.” However, if the guy can’t spell “business,” then he should just go back to wearing his boots with his jeans and return to school.
Life is short: lern hw 2 spel n compleet sentensses (nd uz apostrophe’s rite. Employerrs notis itt.)
Sometimes I am annoyed when I read these on-line “style guides” whose authors have made some statements that are derogatory about wearing boots in particular situations, such as in a business settings. Oh well, their loss; some of them just don’t get it.
Anyway, I found a silly “25 Shoe Rules” on the about.com website, and thought I would offer a Bootman’s perspective. Below, the “shoe rule” is in regular type. My suggested “Bootman’s Rules” are in italics below each “shoe rule”. Enjoy!
1. Your shoes should be darker than your pants.
Your boots should be darker than your pants if wearing dress pants. Otherwise, boots that contrast with jeans look great!
2. Your shoes should be the most expensive part of your wardrobe.
Your boots should be the most expensive part of your wardrobe.
3. No socks with sandals.
Men should not wear sandals. Period. Nobody wants to see your feet. Nobody.
4. Buy new flip-flops each summer.
Never buy or wear flip-flops for any reason. They are unsanitary, unsightly, and just plain wrong on so many levels for adult men.
5. Be careful when wearing sneakers with khakis, you run the risk of looking older than you are.
Wear boots with khakis for an interesting appearance of style and fashion.
6. Your socks should be a nice bridge between your shoes and your pants.
When you wear boots, no one will see your socks. But always wear comfortable socks that are part wool, part cotton, and part synthetic, to have the advantages that these materials offer (absorption of sweat, comfort, and durability).
7. Your dress shoes should always be shined and looking good.
Your dress boots should always be shined and looking good.
8. The darker your suit, the darker your shoes.
The darker your suit, the darker your boots.
9. No flip-flops at work. Unless you work at a surf shop.
No flip-flops, period. See revised rule #4.
10. Match your socks to your shoes.
This is repetitive. See revised rule #6.
11. Know how to shine your shoes, and if you can’t do it, find a professional shoe shiner. You’ll get great looking shoes and an interesting conversation.
Know how to shine your boots, and if you can’t do it, find a professional shoe shiner. It will probably cost a bit more to have boots professionally shined, but you WILL have a great conversation (as those guys rarely have the chance to shine men’s boots).
12. Always spend money on shoes rather than shirts or pants.
Always spend money on boots rather than shoes, shirts, or pants.
13. Loafers go with just about anything.
Repeat after me: loafers are what you find sitting on the couch. Boots are what you find on your feet.
14. When in doubt, go conservative over edgy.
When in doubt (about wearing boots), go conservative, but stop obsessing about what other people think. Wear boots!
15. Always choose fit over style.
For boots, always choose fit over style, even if that means having boots made custom to your size requirements.
16. Cowboy boots don’t work with suits. Unless you are a real, honest to God cowboy.
This is bullshit stereotyping. Cowboy boots DO work well with a suit, regardless of your employment. Get over the self-imposed fear and learn that dress cowboy boots go quite well with suits! (proof here).
17. Be fitted for running shoes if you’re going to push yourself.
Be fitted for tactical boots if you’re going to push yourself.
18. Wingtips are cool again.
Wingtip boots are cool again.
19. Make sure you have one great pair of boots.
Make sure you have at least two great pairs of boots so you can let your boots breathe between wearings. As you obtain more pairs of boots, you can donate your shoes to charity.
20. Your shoes should match your belt.
Your dress boots should match your belt.
21. Replace your workout shoes at least every six months.
Replace your tactical workout boots at least once a year (boots last longer than sneakers.)
22. Don’t wear sandals if you have gross feet.
Don’t wear sandals at all. See revised rule #3.
23. Buy a nice pair of brown oxfords, they go with almost anything.
Buy a nice pair of brown dress cowboy boots to alternate wearing with your black dress cowboy boots. They go with almost anything.
24. Splurge once a year on that pair of shoes you really want.
Splurge once a year on that pair of boots you really want.
25. Try out the new athletic shoe trends before training with them.
Just cut to the chase, and buy tactical boots to wear if you will be engaging in sports or running.
So, there you have it — a Bootman’s take on silly “style rules for shoes.”
Life is short: wear boots! Dump the shoes and never, ever, wear sandals or flip-flops.
During my business trip this week to the Seattle area, I “only” brought two pairs of boots. I packed one pair in my luggage and wore one pair.
What boots did I bring? Lucchese cowboy boots — dress black and brown wingtips. Both are comfortable and fairly lightweight on my feet.
However, for a Bootman like me, this “restriction” to “only” two pairs of boots for a whole week is driving me crazy. For example, I wanted to go for a long walk in the morning, but these boots aren’t really suitable for hiking. The weather was nice most of the week, but began to rain later in the week, and not having Vibram soles for better traction bothered me. I do not want to risk a slip and fall caused by wearing boots with smooth leather soles.
During a short few-hour break on Thursday afternoon when I went into downtown Seattle with some colleagues to stroll around and have dinner, I wore a pair of lightweight leather jeans, and would have preferred to wear a pair of black motorcycle boots with the jeans, but … I only had black cowboy boots so they are what I wore.
Yeah, I own many pairs of boots. My usual custom is to wear 3 – 5 pairs of boots each day, changing my boots depending on what I am doing and where I am going, and how much walking I will do, or what transportation I will use. Having “only” two pairs of boots with me while traveling does not offer me the choices of boots to wear for various activities outside of my meetings.
Oh well, I’ll survive.
Such is life of a Bootman.
Life is short: wear boots!
A friend sent me a question asking how to stop (or reduce) severe cowboy boot heel squeaking that he was hearing.
Most cowboy boot heels have a thin rubber plate attached to the bottom. This rubber plate can easily pick up oil from a surface that you walk on. Even if the surface doesn’t look oily, it’s possible that some type of oil may be on a roadway, sidewalk, or even a linoleum floor, for that matter. Oil from what you walk on forms a thin film on the rubber plate on the bottom of boot heels. Then you hear a very annoying noise — squeak, squeak, squeak, when you walk.
It does not take much oil to cause an interaction between the rubber and certain flooring products such as tile, hardwood, or other finished surfaces. The interaction results in that annoying squeaky noise.
To get rid of the noise (or reduce it), try this simple and inexpensive home remedy:
1. Find an old toothbrush or any form of small bristle-brush.
2. Pour a little bit of laundry detergent — the best type to use is the powder form — into a small, flat-bottomed, container (dish or bowl.)
3. Drop a few drops of water onto the detergent and mix it with the brush, so you have a paste. It really doesn’t have to be any certain consistency. I’m just saying that a paste works better than a liquid.
4. Using the old toothbrush, rub the detergent paste across the bottom of the rubber heel plate. You do not need to create a bubbly foam. What you are doing is using detergent to break down the oil. That’s what detergent does (and much better that regular soap, so that’s why you should go for the laundry stuff instead of the dishwashing stuff.)
5. Once you have brushed/scrubbed the heel plate with the detergent paste, then rinse the heel plate with water. Remove all residual of the detergent.
6. Let the boot heel plate dry in a well-ventilated area but not in direct sunlight.
Once the boot heel plates are dry, pull your boots on again and see if the squeak is gone.
If you still hear squeaking, then the noise is probably coming from the boot itself, not the heel plate. That’s a topic for an entirely different blog post.
Life is short — hear a good solid cowboy boot heel clunk, not squeak-squeak-squeak!
You can verify it for yourself — someone from Houston, Texas, used his Android to search, “how do gay guys wear their boots?
Really?
I guess his smart phone is smarter than he is, because it directed him to two entries on this blog. The searcher spent almost 20 minutes on this blog, looking at only two posts (here and here). Hmmmm…
But these were not the posts that address the question, in my opinion. This one or this one would have been better.
Anyway, back to the question: How do gay guys wear their boots?
…on their feet like anyone else.
Sheesh. There are two ways one can look at this question:
1. A guy who is gay and on the “bubble,” that is, he’s not ready to come out yet, so he is wondering if how he wears boots may give away his sexual orientation. That’s bullshit — all guys wear boots the same way. Boot-wearing has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Contrary to stereotypes, gay men who wear boots do not prance around on their tip-toes.
2. The question was entered by another homophobe who in some idiotic way thinks that gay guys wear boots differently from anyone else. I shall refrain from making remarks about the origin of the query or the intelligence (or lack thereof) of the person asking such a question if it were asked with this intent. If he thinks for a moment that gay guys wear boots differently from anyone else, he has been indoctrinated too long by the culture in which he has been exposed all his life. So sad.
Life is short: give benefit of the doubt, but do not suffer fools; if they are old enough to have an Android phone and pay for it’s monthly ransom, they are old enough to be better educated.
An interesting search landed a visitor to my most-visited web page, wearing cowboy boots.
The question was, “what is the most common heel style for everyday wear on cowboy boots?” It was searched by someone in Texas, where cowboy boots are worn often.
Generally, there are three heel heights on cowboy boots — a walking heel, which is about 1″ (2.5cm); a riding heel, which is about 2″ (5cm); and a heel height that splits the difference and is about 1-1/2″ to 1-5/8″ (3.8 to 4.1cm) high.
As far as heel style goes — walking (roper) heels are usually flat and blocky, with little if any slant. Riding heels are usually what’s called “underslung.” That means that the heels are larger at the place where they are attached to the sole and taper to a smaller size at the bottom. However, unlike high heels on women’s shoes, underslung cowboy boot heels usually have a fairly large area at the bottom, rather than taper to a point.
Walking heels are found on boots like ropers which are very commonly worn in the U.S. West and Midwest. Ropers are affordable and easy to wear while walking or working.
Cowboy boots worn for riding (a horse) are usually about 2″ (5cm) high and are usually underslung (tapered). These heels make it easier to hold the boot in stirrups and control a horse. However, heels of this height are harder for men to walk in. Most men are unaccustomed to wearing “high heels.” Also, some men are afraid to wear higher heels because of their fear of ridicule or labeling, but I won’t go there….
The vast majority of traditional cowboy boots split the difference, and have heels that are half-way between a walking heel and a riding heel. Various bootmakers call this heel height by different names — cowboy heel, low riding heel, or walking heel even. Regardless of what it may be called, heels of this height are the most common (to answer this question). These heels also usually taper slightly from the where it meets the sole to the bottom where it meets the floor — but the tapering is minor in comparison with a true underslung heel.
This traditional heel height allows for pants (trousers) or jeans to stack (fold) softly across the foot of the boot and not come down below the place where the back of the leather on the foot is attached to the heel. If pants come lower than that, then they can become worn and frayed at the edges.
It is also easy enough for most men to learn how to walk in boots with a heel of this height. Men who do not wear boots often may at first have some trouble walking in boots with this heel height. Sometimes, men may miss a step (that is, catch the heel on a step because he did not raise his foot high enough to clear the heel on the next step.)
One thing to note as well about the physics of cowboy boot heels, besides how the height affects walking, is how the height affects sound. Generally speaking, the higher the heel and the more mass (size) it has, the more sound the heel will make on the floor, sidewalk, or pavement. Think about it something like a drum — the bigger the size of the drum, the more deep, resounding sound it makes. About the same thing is true for cowboy boot heels. That’s why many men’s dress cowboy boots have rubber sole plates on them — to dampen the sound.
Hearing the sound of a “cowboy boot clunk” is music to some guys’ ears and an annoyance to others. I know some guys who have replaced a rubber sole plate with a wooden one they made themselves, so their boots can be heard! I know other guys who have a cobbler install a double-sole plate made of soft rubber, to dampen the sound. It really varies. (What do I do? I leave my boots the way they come. If they clunk, that’s fine. If they don’t, that’s okay with me, too.)
So now you know — what is the most common cowboy boot heel style? A heel that is slightly slanted, but not deeply underslung, and of a height that is about 1-1/2″ to 1-5/8″ (3.8 to 4.1cm).
Life is short: wear cowboy boots!
It is (or has been) back-to-school time. Traffic is heavier as all the families with children have returned from summer vacations and school buses are back on the roads.
Over the last week or so, I have noticed that some people from high schools (that’s what their servers show) have entered into a search engine, “Can you wear cowboy boots to school?” or “is it cool to wear cowboy boots to school?” or “How can I wear cowboy boots to school.”
I won’t bother correcting the English — of course you “can” wear cowboy boots “to” school but the real questions remain, “do you want to wear them all day while in school?” as well as how you perceive what others may think about you wearing cowboy boots.
Here’s the deal — second issue first.
High school students continue to be exceptionally concerned with the clothes that they wear, including footwear. They notice what other classmates are wearing and usually choose to wear what is popular and considered the current style. Seldom (while there is a lot of talk about it), high school students cannot assert independent choices in the matter of clothing and footwear. They get all wrapped up in worrying about what other people will think of them.
Consider this a lesson of high school: as you become older and more mature, you will learn that worrying about current fashion and style, as well as what other people think about what you are wearing, is kiddie stuff. Seriously, it really doesn’t matter.
Now, on the matter of whether you want to wear cowboy boots all day while in school — that has a lot to do with how far you have to walk and how much you have to stand. Generally, well-made cowboy boots have well-constructed footbeds and insoles, meaning that they are comfortable to walk in and to stand in, such as in lines for various things. But walking miles in cowboy boots or standing for hours can take its toll on your feet. Consider that.
Also, let me warn you — pay less than US$100 for a pair of cowboy boots, and you probably will be very sorry about buying them. Cheap boots are usually very uncomfortable. They are usually made in China by machine, assembled with glue instead of stitching, and the materials and craftsmanship are awful. You’ll be sorry — so if you can’t afford to get a decent pair of cowboy boots on the entry-level (US$150 – $200), such as made by Justin, Dan Post, or Tony Lama, for example, then continue wearing sneakers.
A lot of guys choose roper-style cowboy boots, rather than traditional 13″ cowboy boots. And that’s of any age, not just younger guys. Personally, I’m old-fashioned and like the traditional cowboy boots instead of ropers, but that is a personal opinion and is not a reflection on the style of boot itself.
When I was in high school, I wore boots every day (except in gym class, when I had to wear sneakers.) That was back in the ’70s, so the most popular boot style for guys was Frye harness or campus boots. But I also switched out and wore several pairs of cowboy boots throughout my high school years.
I admit, sometimes some other kids would make a wisecrack. At first I was way too sensitive and their comments hurt my feelings. Kids can be very cruel to each other. But I continued to wear boots because I liked them. Eventually my classmates stopped making wisecracks and remarks because I stopped responding to them. Plus, at least in the 70s, Frye boots were the “cool boots” to wear, and lots of other guys were wearing them.
These days, particularly on the U.S. East Coast where I live, few high school boys wear boots. But I have noticed at least one exception — a student who lives down the street from me. I have seen him wear cowboy boots to school a lot — I see him as he is walking home while I am returning from work. Sometimes I stop and give him a ride, particularly in bad weather. He has asked me about boots and told me that he likes to wear them. He thinks his classmates give a nod of approval, because he said that others have called the boots “cool.” He also said that a few of his friends have begun to wear boots to school because he started the trend. Good for him!
In summary, some independent-minded, free-spirited, “I could-care-less-what-others-think” guys will choose to wear cowboy boots to school. I just recommend that if you do that, get good quality boots so they will be comfortable. I think you will be pleased at the compliments you’ll get from others by wearing boots to school.
Life is short: wear boots!
This message was posted on schedule on August 24, but got overshadowed by a fresh post I did that day, so I moved it to today. Enjoy.
One might think that maintaining a website that catalogs a large collection of cowboy boots and motorcycle boots, as well as leather gear, might generate a number of visits for various reasons. What has amazed me is that for more than a year now, over half of my daily visitors land on my web page titled, wearing cowboy boots. Not leather, not any particular brand of boots, and not even cop galleries (which remains second highest in daily visits.)
Take a look at the list of internet queries on the left. That’s a real-time image of the internet searches that bring visitors to my website. The most frequent keywords or questions entered into an internet search engine that drive visitor’s to my “wearing cowboy boots” page are:
Oh, and I loved the one that said, “where cowboy boots with a suit.” That guy has to go back to school… but I digress.
Sheesh… it continues to cause me to wonder why so many people — literally, thousands per day — use the internet to ask these questions. Well, I know one reason is that an internet search is anonymous. Nobody really knows who is asking such questions. But I wonder if the sheer volume of these kinds of questions poses a larger question: are guys that insecure? Curious? Inquisitive? Looking for confirmation?
I really don’t know. However, because of the volume and frequency with which questions like this direct people to my page about how to wear cowboy boots (with jeans, khakis, and suits), I updated that page, compleat with images that demonstrate how long jeans should be, what color boots go well with certain clothes, and that it IS okay to wear boots with khakis and suits in an office (or a wedding, etc.)
It really IS okay to wear cowboy boots, guys. If you’re asking, you will get that confirmation from me. Heck, I wear boots every day, including with dress clothes in an office. No.big.deal.
Life is short: wear boots!
I have commented fairly often that my twin brother and I share an indescribable bond. We know what the other is thinking, what he likes, what he dislikes, what he will say before he says it. It’s eerie sometimes — not to us, but to those who love us, who observe us speaking in shorthand and finishing each other’s sentences. I’m not saying it’s 100%, but it’s darn close!
We are not identical twins. We are physically and emotionally different men. But rather than tick off a comparison of our similarities and differences, let me share a funny thing that this “twin thing” did with boots.
I blogged on August 7 that my brother bought me a very good-looking, classy, and comfortable pair of black Lucchese Classic Goatskin cowboy boots. I wore them with a suit to his retirement reception, and plan to wear them when dressing up is required (which for me, fortunately, is not often.)
What I did not describe is that the day before he gave me these boots as a gift, I had ordered an identical pair in dark brown. I was looking at them in black, but my size wasn’t available and would have been back-ordered until November. The dark brown version were immediately available — one pair left in my size, at a really good price considering the quality of these hand-made, American-made beauties.
I ordered the brown version and they arrived a week ago. (More photos of them here). Again: identical in almost every respect except for the color and the toe style. My brother got me boots with a pointed toe (which I prefer) and my brown boots came with a narrow-rounded toe.
Okay, so I knew the boots that I ordered were in process when my brother gave me his gift. I thought that I didn’t need to spend the money since I had received the same style of boots already. I went on-line and tried to cancel the order, but it was too late. The boots had been shipped. Yeah, I could have gone through the process of a return, but decided not to do that. I will wear these boots on dressy occasions, too. Heck, I will wear both pairs during winter months when I cannot ride my Harley to work and have to commute in my truck. (I will not wear boots with smooth leather soles when I ride my motorcycle, as smooth soles provide no traction.)
I assure you, my brother and I did not talk about this particular brand or style of boots before each of us ordered them separately. My brother arranged for his order to be shipped to a sibling’s house so he could keep them as a surprise and have a chance to wrap the box. I didn’t tell my brother that I was looking at this style of boots, either, nor did I tell him that I ordered them.
Imagine the surprise that my partner and my sister-in-law expressed when they discovered that both pairs of boots were ordered by each of us separately — same maker, same quality, same style. Weird (to them.) Natural (to us.)
Life is short: enjoy quality boots!