Over the past couple of years, I have observed that many major boot brands have been giving a name to each style of boots they make. Carson, Colby, Elson, Jasper, Keaton, Landon, Shane… you name it, it seems that all boots are named nowaways. Why is that?

I contacted several manufacturers that give boots names — Lucchese, Justin (through Justin Brands) and Harley-Davidson.

Justin Brands’ response was unhelpful:

Thank you for your question. We will refer it to someone in our Marketing Department to get back to you.

That was three weeks ago, with no response.

Lucchese’s response was:

We have found that our clientele finds it easier to refer to a product by a name than a stock number that can be confusing. We also have had experience where a customer ordered a custom boot using a stock number and then attempted to return the boot because it was not what he expected. We have not had the same problem with orders for boots by name.

That makes sense.

I never received a reply from Wolverine Worldwide, the current manufacturer of Harley-Davidson label boots. (Not surprising.)

Personally, I find the plethora of boot names confusing as well as somewhat amusing. Masculine-sounding names like Colby, Landon, and Shane for men’s boots, and feminine sound names like Flora, Alexa, and Gigi for women’s boots.

To me, a boot is a boot, regardless of what you call it. But this explains the boot naming phenomenon that has taken hold in the industry.

Life is short: wear boots — engineer, patrol, motorcycle, cowboy, whatever — a boot by any name wears as sweet.