The (Mostly) Complete History of Cowboy Boots, with Bata Shoe Museum Director Elizabeth Semmelhack

Last time Elizabeth Semmelhack—Director and Senior Curator of the Toronto's exceptional Bata Shoe Museum—was on the Shoecast, she ran down a (mostly) complete history of boots, overall. It was excellent. 

This time Elizabeth is back to focus purely on cowboy boots—which is exactly what she's been doing for years while writing Rough & Ready: a History of Cowboy Boots, the most recent in a hugely rich (if far too truncated) pantheon of exceptional cowboy boot books.

Where did cowboy boots emerge from? The heels, the tops, the toe shapes—when did those come into play? What do we all have totally wrong about cowboy boots and the culture surrounding them, from the 1800s until the modern era? It's all right there in the book—and on this episode. 

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We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events.

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