Interested in New Boots Made in Mexico?

Luclandon1Most cowboy boots and some motorcycle boots sold in the United States are made in Mexico. The location of manufacture is for two main reasons (IMO), and if you want to take advantage of decent pricing, my recommendation is…

…to look for “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” deals and order your boots this year.

I explain why below, but understand the economic drivers of my recommendation.

The two main reasons why so many boots are made in Mexico are:

leonboot-400x4001) The state of Guanajuato, Mexico, is the location of the Bootmaking Capital of Mexico, León. There are literally hundreds of bootmakers located there, most in small shops. While small-shop bootmakers in León produces many pairs of boots, most commercial large-production manufacturing of boots in Mexico are located in towns on the U.S. border: Ciudad Juarez on the border with El Paso, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo on the border with Laredo, Texas. Most major label boot brands like Justin, Nocona, Tony Lama, and Lucchese (to name a few) have major commercial boot production facilities in these Mexican border towns where they take advantage of skilled labor and available supplies of decent quality leather.

Which is related to the next major reason why more boots are made in Mexico:

2) Trade agreements between the United States and Mexico (North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] chief among them) provide for significantly lower tariffs on boots imported into the United States (and Canada), as well as easy border crossing for citizens of both countries employed by boot manufacturers.

Chippitstop22Because the blustering buffoon who will soon become the next U.S. President has repeatedly said that he would eliminate the NAFTA and other international trade agreements because he believes (quite incorrectly according to educated economists) that NAFTA resulted in significant loss of U.S. jobs, I predict that the reaction from boot manufacturers will be to pass on higher costs (such as higher tariffs) to consumers as well as reduce production which will also drive up prices.

So if you want new cowboy boots, order them now, especially when significant “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” sales are occurring this month (in the U.S.) because I predict that within a year due to reactionary response to the threat brought to trade agreements with Mexico, the prices of boots (as well as other goods made in Mexico or Canada and imported into the U.S.) will go up significantly.

Life is short: pay the consequences for electing a buffoon.