Boots

Introduction
Welcome to Full Cow, a podcast about leather and kink where your host, Edge (he/him), shares his 30+ years of experience in the community. This time our theme is boots.

In the first segment, Edge talks about his relationship with boots, what they mean to him and what role they have in his leather life. Then, in the second segment, we discuss how to get started with boot buying tips and a guide to basic boot care. Finally, for our third segment we have a conversation with Girlfriend, the 2020 (and still) Florida Community Bootblack to learn a little more about the art of bootblacking.

Related Links

• Stompers is a community-owned business and a good source for boots. They also carry a good starter boot at a pretty decent price.
• Check out Girlfriend's linktree to find her TikTok, Twitch, and more.
• And since Girlfriend raved about it, you might also want to check out the  Leather Archives and Museum

Transcript

Edge : 0:05

Hey, let's talk about boots. This podcast contains material intended for a mature audience before proceeding, please check your local laws and confirm that you are an adult. Welcome to full cow, a podcast about leather, kink and BDSM. My name is edge and I'll be your host. And I'm so very grateful that you're joining us again. In this episode, we're going to focus on boots. We'll start with a segment where I talk about my personal relationship with boots as a way of thinking about how leather folk relate to their gear. In the second segment, we'll go over some boot buying tips and some basic boot care. And then in our third segment, we'll have an interview with girlfriend, the reigning Florida community boot black and really talk about the art of boot blacking, I think we have a great episode for you, I hope you enjoy it. Let's get started. Before we get started, I wanted to share a fun fact about and that is, I have crazy small feet. Now in general, I'm a lot smaller than most people expect me to be. Because you know, I'm mostly in photographs, and there's not a good sense of scale. And leather makes you look bigger. It's part of the home presence and image and power that it conveys. But I'm generally we I'm five foot seven, which is about 1.7 meters, even then my feet are small for my frame. I wear most times an eight and a half. But really, I'm a seven and a half double E. And last time I got custom whiskers, they actually built them on top of a seven triple E pattern. I was talking to the owner of stampers bear man and he was joking that if my feet weren't so wide, I would topple over. And I don't think he's wrong. So there you go, a little insight into edge. But let's talk about my relationship with my boots. And let's pause there because that's a statement that needs unpacking, I have a relationship with my boots. I don't have a relationship with my toaster. I don't have a relationship with my TV. I don't have some people perhaps to have a relationship with my car. But I have a relationship with my boots. And I don't think I'm an outlier in this. I think other leather folk, in general have special relationships to their gear and perhaps especially to their boots. So let's talk about how that relationship starts, how I build and maintain it and how that plays a role in the kind of stuff I do in the playroom and in the dungeon. Now, I'm not really a woowoo kind of person, like oh, there's a great spirit in my boots, I don't really subscribe to that sort of animism. But at the same time my boots were once alive. They were one some cow walking around a field. And there is some sense that I don't know something residual exists in the boots. On a more practical level moving away from the woowoo boots are foundational. They are the thing I stand on. They are grounding. They literally connect me to the ground. And they are armor and protection. Let's not forget, all the boots we wear as leather folk come from contexts where you need to protect the foot, the ankle, the lake. All of those things are reasons why I form that relationship with boots. And I find boots have personalities. I know that sounds weird. I know that sounds a little woowoo but it's true. I think of it a little bit like a cowboy and a stallion breaking in a horse. And we do literally break in boots you have to break in your boots. And I find some boots are very willful and require a lot of energy and effort on my part to break in. Other boots are so happy to be with me and that they immediately become a part of me. The thing with breaking in boots is that when we tune that they come to become fit to us to our anatomy. They reflect the uniqueness of our feet. The particular crease on my harness boots comes from my instep. The particular sag around my chip will high shine boots around my ankles represents my leg in motion. And that's part of why boots end up feeling, I think so personal. And again, setting aside the woowoo part of what boots do for me as a leather person is they enable a shift in headspace I move out of ordinary space and time and I move into my leather self when I put on boots. Even if I'm just wearing boots and a pair of jeans, I'm moving into my leather self. And so me thinking about having a relationship with my boots, treating them like they had a personality, forming and building and maintaining that relationship is a big step that enables me to to step into a particular headspace. As part of that, I will say, I don't take really good care of my boots, I'm not all about keeping them spit shined and boot blacking them all the time. And there's good reason for that. Boots, the boots, I wear our work boots, and they're kind of meant to be dirty. And I feel like my boots love being used, they love being worn. They love being dirty, and they love being cleaned by hungry men. And so I keep them pretty dirty. There are exceptions, if I'm going to a fancy leather dinner, or a really nice leather event, I will take the time and invest myself and black my own boots. And that's an important skill for me as a leather person, that I know how to care for my own gear. I do have a ritual with my boots that helps me to maintain the relationship I've built with them. That relationship starts when I get them and I find their personality and I break them to my will I break them in. And then they conform to me and they serve me they enable me to step into my leather self as I move out into the world and out to the leather bar and into the dungeon. And I keep them dirty because they like it. I like it, everyone's happy. But one special thing I do to maintain this relationship is that every time I wear a pair of boots, even if just for a few minutes, they get to spend the night in my bedroom at the foot of my bed. This isn't a woowoo kind of ritual like, Oh, my beautiful steed, my boots have served me well. And now they get to stay at the foot of my bed. I frame it like that. But here's the truth, the boot rack is in the dungeon. The bed is in the bedroom. When I get home from the bar, it's late. The boot Jack, which helps me take off the boots is in the bedroom, I take the boots off, and I'm tired and I don't want to walk into the dungeon and put them away. That's how it started. But the beautiful thing about rituals is that we can take simple actions that inherently have no meaning and we can place meaning into them. They become containers for meaning. So even though there's no grand old guard tradition of letting your boots sleep at the foot of your bed, I have invested that meaning that my boots serve me My boots are so important to me that they get this special privilege that no other piece of gear gets, they get to spend the night with me. That's how I maintain my relationship with my boots. All of this then enters into my play. I've recently been really resisting the term boot licking and favoring the term boot worship. I feel that boot the king centers the boot instead of the man. Boot licking is really about the surface. But boot worship is about the man healing before me taking his hunger and his desire to serve and letting it spill out onto my boot and his tongue pressing so hard into that bootloader that I can feel it through the boot leather. The worship is the worship of the dynamic we are creating. It is the worship of the intimacy we are forming in the space in the playroom. And that's why I tend to think boot worship instead of bootlicking. Boot looking to find term if you use it, I'm not going to think any less of you. But it feels so surface. And for me boot worship is so deep, and my boots are so key. So maybe you'll take this chance to reflect on your relationship with your boots or some other items of your gear. How you can create meaning with them in ways that are really resonant for you and for your leather soul. How they enable you to step and transition into that leather headspace how you treat them and care for them and mark them as special and yours so that that relationship really gets fostered. And if you do that, I hope you find some really good ways to relate to your own gear. Because for me, it's a really important part of being a leather person. When people approached me because they're interested in leather, the first item I recommend buying is a pair of boots. And that's because for me, they are the entry point into the community. If I'm at the leather bar, and I see someone and a pair of boots and a pair of jeans and a T shirt, they are perfectly recognizable as a leather person. And that's what you want. You want to be visible to other leather people. That's where your leather journey starts. And that's why I recommend boots. So let's talk about boot buying. Now, if you're a boot fetishist, there will never be enough boots, you need one of every kind, one of every style one of every color. However, in my opinion, for almost any occasion, a leather person might have an anything leather person might wear, probably need only four pair of boots. One tall pole on one tall lace up one short pole on one short lace up. And the real truth is that you can easily cover more than 90% of what you might wear as a leather person with only two pairs of boots, one tall pole on and one short lace up. For tall pylon, we're generally talking about knee height, and we're usually talking about an engineer boot. For short lace up. We might be talking about a work boot or a combat boot, but I really want to recommend instead a longer boot. Start with your short lace up boots. Not only they're going to be more affordable, but they are so versatile. You can wear short lace up boots with jeans, you can wear short lace up boots with leather pants, you can wear them with chaps, you can wear them with shorts, which is not something that really looks good for any kind of pull on boot. And you can wear your short lace up boots in the dungeon naked or in a jockstrap, they go with everything. And that versatility is part of why they're great initial investment because you will wear them a lot, and they will last a lifetime. In terms of what to buy, I used to recommend the Corcoran jump boot, which was a good standard combat boot. But my understanding is that for some unfathomable reason, they're no longer making them. So what I like to recommend instead is the nine inch Carolina lager, Carolina is a great brand, it'll be instantly recognizable to other leather people and other boot people. And the nine inch is a good height, and the nine inch longer is actually fairly affordable. At most online retailers. It'll be about $150. But I'd like to invite you to check out stampers boots, it is a queer own business. In the leather community. They have a lot of boots, they have fairly competitive pricing, they're not the lowest price, but they're not ridiculously more expensive. And it's a way to really support the community by buying from stampers. boot fit is a little tricky. When you first get the pair of boots, your heel should slip a little but not pull out. And it will slip a little because boots do need to break in. And that breakeven is happening at the end step and as you wear them more and as they break in, then you will find them more comfortable. Now I realize $150 can still be a very intimidating price point, particularly in this economy. If you think about it, it's not bad compared to West cose, which probably started $500 and can easily cost you $750 or more. But it's still a lot of money. And I recognize that a really good alternative is used boots, my first pair of boots as a leather person I got at a thrift store and I think I paid 20 Maybe $25 They were black work boots or combat boots, I'm not sure they were lace up and had a round toe and we're just sort of flat soul not a lug soul. They were fantastic. I wore them for years. I still have that because they were my first pair of boots, they're really special. And they were extremely affordable. So definitely think about buying used boots, not only are they going to be more affordable, used boots are so hot, because they're used and at least in my context, the gay male context that means some other man has used them. His sweat has been in there his energy has been in there and then I'm stepping into it and claiming it as my own so hot. So so hot. Check your local thrift stores. eBay is also really wonderful source for used boots. You can find a wide variety at some pretty decent prices. Another shoe source you may want to check out for boots probably not use but not bad for good boots is if you have a local Army Navy surplus store, they generally have a supply of boots and you might have some good prices there. Some people like to get the style of combat boot with a zip up the side. I'm not a huge fan of that. But if you like it and if it makes you feel sexy, absolutely get it. However, try to make sure that the boot is all leather, not canvas and actual leather, not some sort of plasticize thing. But once you get your short lace up leather boots, you are well on the way to your leather journey. So let's talk about boot care. boots come in two kinds of flavors. There are boots that will take a shine and they're pretty obvious because they're shiny. And then there are boots that are called oil tan leather, and you can recognize them because they look matte or dull. Most of the boots leather people wear tend to be oil tan engineers, harness loggers, those are all going to be oil tan boots. Oil tan boots are amazing because they are so easy to care for. It's all the same steps first you clean the boot and then you condition so if you have the lace up boot, we take out the laces make sure you remove them. Wipe off any visible dirt or dust and then you're going to use saddle so saddle soap is a wonderful product and easily available here in the United States. You can find it most any grocery store or drugstore in the shoe care aisle. Kiwi saddle soap, it's reliable while you're there, pick up a small round brush. So when you're ready to clean the boots, you take the small round brush and get a little wet and get it all soapy foamy in the saddle soap and then you fresh fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh. You just brush it all over the boot until it's a kind of soapy filmy mess and then you clean it off with a paper towel. I like to use the blue shop towels sold at auto supply stores because I find them a lot tougher and that can handle a little bit more abuse. But all you need to do is brush that saddle setup all over every part of the boot and then wipe it off. What the saddle soap is doing all this delicious little bubbles are lifting the dirt out of the leather and then you're wiping it away. Once you've cleaned them then is simply a matter of conditioning the leather. There is a variety of opinion on the best conditioner to use on boot leather, and different leather people will have their own opinions and certainly boot blacks will have their own opinions. One of the most popular ones is called Hubbard's shoe grease. The thing about Hubbard shoe grease is that it's non toxic, which means technically, it's edible. People can use it as lube, probably more for jacking off than for penetration. It can be applied with someone's tongue because it's non toxic, and it can be rubbed all over the body as well as all over the boot. I do know bootblack people who essentially have quite a bit of sex with their Hubbard's I prefer product called Open offs. And part of the reason I like it better is because it smells better. Hubbard's has a very kind of Oh, I think it's a pine tare smell this one I want to call it an open ofs smells like bees. I know that's a ridiculous statement. I know that bees don't have a smell. But OpenOffice is made with propellers which is some sort of product that bees make. And therefore whenever I smell it, I always think hmm, it sounds like bees. open us up at the letter oil or the more heavy duty sort of wax here leather protector. What you do once you've chosen your leather conditioner is you scoop some up with your fingers and you simply rub it into the boot leather all over the boot leather. And then you let the boot sit for a bit. I usually do 10 or 15 minutes but depending on how dried out the boots are, it might take longer. And what you're doing is you're giving the boot leather a chance to eat up all that delicious conditioner restoring the beauty and playability and health of your leather. After you've waited, you take another clean towel and you simply wipe off whatever excess is left and it's actually quite revealing. When you do that to see how much the boot leather has soaked up. If you have boots that require a shine, most cowboy boots, military boots, combat boots and something like a danger patrol boot. If you have boots that require a shine, it's a much more complicated process. It has the same sorts of steps first you clean and then you shine. But the work of shining is extraordinary labor The truth is, when I have boots that need to shine, I bring them to boot black, because that's a lot of work. And I want someone who loves doing the work to do it. Because I don't love doing that work. If it's oil tan boot, I will take care of it myself. Easy peasy, saddle soap a little bit, OpenOffice, bang, bang balm done. But for things that require a shine, it's so much more labor intensive, but the basic steps are vaguely the same. Take your saddle soap, scrub, scrub, scrub, clean off the boot wipe off on saddle soap. And then you're going to take polish and basic Kiwi black boot polish is absolutely fine. You rub your fingers into it into their little black and you start rubbing it onto the boot leather in circles covering the whole boot. And it will be dull, it's polish, it's dull at first, your goal is going to be essentially to just gently melt the polish with friction to bring out that shine. And the way you do that is by buffing. So take an old cotton t shirt, or even some old socks and you move your arms like crazy. You want to move rapidly and you want to be a little soft, you don't want to be too hard because that'll actually remove the polish you just put on and that's not the goal. The goal is to slightly melt it so that it creates the sort of hard wax shell that creates that beautiful shine. One good trick comes from the military. And that is using pantyhose, there's something about pantyhose that creates just the right coefficient of friction to create the most beautiful shine. Still, I would recommend, find a good boot black support them, let them shine your boots that take a shine. Those are your boot basics. Buy a pair of short lager boots down the road, you can get your tall engineers and then you're basically set and take care of them. By cleaning and conditioning. You take care of your boots and your boots are going to take care of you I have boots in my boot rack that I've had in my possession for over 20 years. Boots are such a lifetime investment and they're easy to repair to any cobbler can replace a soul or something like that. So it's a good reason to start your leather journey with a purchase of boots because they are this foundational thing. They are the moment when you will be recognized as a leather person and they are going to be with you for probably most if not all of your leather journey. And I am here with girlfriend who is currently the reigning Florida community bootblack girlfriend Welcome to full Kyle. Hi, girlfriend. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Oh, well, we are so excited to so could you start by telling us how you identify in the community and your pronouns? Gotcha. So my pronouns are she her the them that bitch. I identify as girlfriend I am everybody's girlfriend. I am a disabled pansexual polyamorous switch with a little bit of Latina and just a dash of brat. And I'm also the Florida community boot black for 2020 So I got I got a lot of hats to wear. That's fantastic. Speaking of boot blacking, how did you get started in boot blacking? Oh, okay, so I started blacking in 2015.

Girlfriend: 23:33

It was my first Florida event. I'm originally from Chicago. So I'm a transplant I'm hitting high if you miss my native home, um, but I first came to a Florida event, which which it was like my love of it was right off the bat. I was then dating my my boyfriend who is now my husband at at Central Florida Leatherman in 2015. Reid dragged me over and he's like, I wanted to meet my all my friends. And I'm like, Cool, awesome. We had like discussed earlier, early on in a relationship, but we were both in the kink. And I'm like, great. That's awesome. Like, that's a really big important thing to me. And I haven't reached out community to here yet. It's my boyfriend dragged me this competition. And then he ended up getting dragged into the competition competing and he left me in a room full of boot blacks and a whole bunch of leather. And I asked if I could like help with anything and it has stuck ever sets with me. Wow, that's a fantastic beginning. So then what made you run for the title of Florida community boot black. So I chose to compete. So people can have someone who's like me. I'm a very fun boot black. I'm a disabled person who uses a service dog and I'm also Latina. So I haven't seen anyone see like all those platforms of one person. So I want I really, really want to see someone like me compete. And then when I was like I'm not seeing anyone do that. So why not me at this point, and I had been given so much from the community before I had even like thought to really compete. And I'm like, why not, like, give back to the community at that point. And I never thought through COVID This is gonna last this long. I'm like, oh, cool, like, we'll stay indoors for a little bit, you know, a couple events will get canceled. Now, it's been forever. So trying to carve out like a new path away for like leather and kink to survive, and like kind of this digital era that we're going through right now. So it's been it's been actually very difficult, different than I thought my title would be.

Edge : 25:37

Well, I love that you talked about both giving back and this sort of digital era, because I know you do a lot of community service work on social media, like tick tock, and do you I think you also do Twitch, right? Can you talk a little bit about what that's been like, what your audience is, like, what kind of feedback you get?

Girlfriend: 25:55

Gotcha. So I, before I even, like, started doing any of the fun blue blocking stuff, I was, like, you know, like a minute, like, really take this seriously, I should probably get more comfortable practicing in front of a camera and like, talking about what I'm doing for the process. So I just started like, you know, I'll start posting it up on YouTube and just shining on there just getting practice in like, what's the worst that could happen? someone watches me and gets feedback. Somehow that turned into Twitch, which my husband was streaming, and I'm just like, oh, like, I could totally just do this under the art category. And like, I might maybe get paid from it one day, who knows. So then it just kind of evolved into I stream Twitch on Twitch every Monday. I also have my own podcast show slash YouTube show that shows up every month, we get to talk in interview with a person in the leather that like a super admire and adore. And that gets posted on to YouTube as well. So I it's it's a little bit of a live show and a little bit of like edited feedback for later on. So it's, it's been very interesting. My audience on Tik Tok definitely has shifted. Because when I first got on Tik Tok, I got very, very popular because I'm cute, and I'm curvy. Does not like that very much anymore. So it's it's definitely changed a lot in in like, recent months. So I'm just like, you know, I'm building like a stronger community. And that's completely fine. People find me they find me if they don't. I'm still here. I promise just just come hang out on the kinky stuff. I promise I'm there to even if it could be a little bit PG. I'm apologizing for that. Because I promise you I love doing erotic blocking. I just can't do it on some of these platforms.

Edge : 27:33

Oh, that's something I want to I want to get back to that. But I will make sure to include all of your links to your social media in the show notes if people want to check you out on the various platforms. And I know for me on twitter I'm encountering, I like to say my typical Twitter follower is a 19 year old pup gamer. And I was wondering sort of what sort of audience do you feel you're reaching with Twitch and

Girlfriend: 27:59

also feeling that I am reaching a very young and I use preference in every show? I do. So you're 18 But papa gamers as well. I do reach a lot of gamers on there. Because Twitch is a gaming platform. Sometimes they do video games, it's been very rare. Lately, I still play video games. I'm just not doing it professionally on Twitch. And so then professionally boot blocking on Twitch, which is a whole weird subcategory. But it's really funny because people who find me on tick tock like the other day had someone come in they're like, oh my god, I find my side of tick tock and I'm like, You should come over on twitch if you want to answer questions and like be more engaged and they like hopped right on over it. I'm just like, whoa, like, thank you. I appreciate it.

Edge : 28:42

Yeah, I think it's great that you're creating these sorts of spaces in these really cutting edge digital spaces. Like I'm from the Tumblr days, right? I'm older. I tried Tik Tok. I thought it was so mean to me. I didn't want to go back. But I think it's so important for us to do that outreach to the very, very, very next generation. So I love that you're doing that.

Girlfriend: 29:04

I still get me in comments on on tick tock, and I'm pretty sure on BDSM alar, which was like the replacement for Tumblr. I'm sure I still get and that's okay, because everyone loves being a keyboard warrior and I really don't care anymore.

Edge : 29:20

I think that's a great attitude. And you mentioned something about erotic boot blacking and I was really curious about that because in in the gay sis male world like boot blacking has a strong sexual component. And but I'm not sure how that translates outside my little tiny segment of the kink community. So can you talk a little bit about erotic boot blacking?

Girlfriend: 29:41

Of course I can. So yes, I do love doing erotic boot blacking. It is probably one of my favorite like forms of like, giving back to the community, especially for clients that I get to have sit down and like just be sensual and love on them. Because I'm a bready switch. You never know what you're gonna get For me, because I'm very, very gentle and sweet. And sometimes I will literally pin you up against the wall and spank you until your leather and send you on your merry way. It just kind of depends on the mood and what we negotiate with being a bootblack. Like, especially doing erotic, like sometimes it's just like taking off the leather and putting it back on and like just rubbing up and down. I absolutely enjoy it. And I wish I can do more fun things. But sadly, the platforms don't allow me to do that. But I will be doing that, hopefully this weekend. So I'm very, very excited.

Edge : 30:35

Wonderful. We're so happy to have some in person events returning I know. So I've always thought boot blacking was I'm not going to call it a cult, but let's call it a guild, right? Like it's a very, it's a very specific subculture that has its own everything. And and can you can you kind of help us understand what's it like to be inside boot black as a culture? Like, do y'all talk to each other? Are there special special boot black apps or digital media? I mean, how? What's it like being a boot black? What's the culture?

Girlfriend: 31:09

The culture, we're mostly still on Facebook of all places. There's a big Florida community bootblack right there. And you don't have to be a bootblack to join it as a fun fact, you can be in anybody and just be like, Hey, I have a leather question. And I need help with this. It's actually a very, very like giving community like because if you don't know anything, or if you're like, I really don't know how to take care of this one like, obscure kangaroo hide jacket that I own. I don't know how to take care of it. Someone in that group somewhere in the world knows the answer to that and will gladly respond to you almost like within hours. So we do have like some fun events like the blue boot plaque round up. And that one happened digitally online this year as well.

Edge : 31:55

Of course Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you have your applies this. I've been in the community 30 years. Why is the first time I'm hearing there's a specific boot black event? Can you tell me more about this round up?

Girlfriend: 32:06

Oh my goodness. Yes. So the roundup is, it was like a three day event this year. And it was all online. So like we they had people come in and teach all around the world. So like in the US, I find that boot blocking is very, very prevalent here, which is great. I absolutely love that. But in Europe, it's not so much everyone kind of takes care of their own stuff and just kind of sends along there is now a European bootblack who's doing flippin amazing and will be at IML highly recommend go get your child by them. They also sell their own leather care conditioning soap, the whole shebang. There's just so much wealth and knowledge. With that Roundup, though that happened, um, they basically came on in, they're like, Hey, we're doing this digitally this year, like go ahead and put some presenters in. I sadly had a prior commitment but I did stop in on some of the classes and like we were talking about like race play and boot black and like how the hell that was interpreting and other friends and bootblack and such and like how you identify conditioners, just different methods and techniques for everything because there's no one proper way to bootblack there is a way to mess up people's stuff there is Don't Don't get me wrong, you could screw it up. But then you'll learn so much from that one experience and be like, Ah, I won't do that again and be like okay, I've learned a lot, but it was actually a really really good event for the parts of it that I was able to enjoy. Of course there there was IML there there was a title there for the male contestants and then there's the ICB which international community bootblack which my my lovely leather dad AJ Porter's the international title for for our contest. Wow

Edge : 33:46

that's a lot a lot of bootblack and around you.

Girlfriend: 33:49

Yeah

Edge : 33:50

that's wonderful. So if someone wanted to get started they're curious about booth blacking. What would you recommend to them? Like how what's a good way to get started with this?

Girlfriend: 34:02

Gotcha Well it's kind of weird because like my old way of method is like just come join us it just come do but with COVID Right now I'm really gonna put the press and about about being safe on yourself make sure you use gloves of course like get get vaccinated Maxim vaccines are of course at your own discretion and such and clean up your brushes more like if you learn how to clean up your brush and have a good kit you'll probably have a lot better over time. Your kit does not have to be giant. I personally started off with my kit was a plastic little bag with a Canna hovers a little bit of saddle soap and a brush. And that was it. And that was my kit for like a year. And it was learning again that that Facebook group black group was amazing. They also had some really great resources um, I was also talking to other boot blacks and be like, hey, like what reading references Do you have like, so I started grabbing like a whole Knowledge full of library stuff. Beyond boot blacking by daddy Wendell is phenomenal. You can pick it up on Amazon, Amazon shopping queen. Absolutely love that. So a lot of great methods and tips in there. And again, there's no one particular way to move up, try out different methods try different soaps, different products out there, they all act a little bit different I bootblack for the community. So like my kids huge and like, I will start taking in like mental notes like, oh, people are asking for this one particular kind of conditioner. I should test it out and see if I like it if I don't have it in the kit for those like ones are like really really diehard Aussie fans are really really diehard Hubbard's fans, and like I got, I got I got what you need. It's not my favorite. But

Edge : 35:45

I've been I'm an Open Office fan in case you're keeping track. So I love some of the things I heard that I loved is that first of all this a very open welcoming community. So you can ask questions, that there are print resources people can get, and I love the sense of you can start small, I mean, I, you can really start by going to the grocery store and getting a can a little tin of saddle soap, I mean, that's the beginning your boot. blackhead. Right. And so you don't have to have everything all at once you can kind of grow into it. And I think that makes it more approachable for people.

Girlfriend: 36:14

And honestly, like the boot blacks, like I feel are like the history keepers a lot for leather community because we get to have everyone sit down in our chair and like get to pass on that love and like joy of what we do. And to make them look the best that they possibly can see, a lot of people are sitting in your chair. And if they're open to ask them questions, ask them who they are, and like where do they come from? And like, what's their leather journey like? Like, that's why I started doing my podcasts, focusing more on my podcast, less YouTube show, focusing more on the people themselves and like recording that history. Because like, just from the AIDS epidemic, like we've lost so much of that history. And I'm like, look like we need to start preserving this now with COVID. Like, I don't want to lose a single one of you. I really don't. It breaks my heart every time I read that someone passed away. And like I'm just like, oh, no, we need to like get to as many people as we can and like save their stories,

Edge : 37:11

you absolutely blew my mind when you talked about boot blacks as the history keepers, because I'm so into sort of tribal archetypes that operate in the community. But it had never occurred to me that boot, blacks could be the history keepers who are literally keeping the leather alive and keeping the stories alive. So I'm so grateful for that insight that is absolutely brilliant.

Girlfriend: 37:33

Perfect. And if you want to learn more about like leather archetypes and leather history, the leather Archives Museum in Chicago is absolutely wonderful. If you're into kink, leather, BDSM and such like that, honestly take the full day and go they have a wonderful reference library. They have a beautiful bootblack stand, they have stories and patches, like our history in person and you can touch and you can if you book it well in advance, you can actually email them and be like, Hey, I'm really into like, leather dyke motorcycle history, can you tell me about that? And they'll pull up and sit down with you and just be like, yes, here is everything we have on the subject. Or if you want to get very specific, like a state or something like that, or a particular group. If they haven't, they'll definitely sit down and pull it out with you. Also, the Carter Johnson Library Foundation is great as well. They have wonderful resources there for their love. I

Edge : 38:30

you know, I love that you've sort of woven a thread through this conversation about this continuity of community, including using digital media to reach out to the next generation, bring them in, give them a welcoming space to learn. And you know, mourning the loss of who we've lost through a couple of pandemics now, and then doing our best to preserve it, and also to research it and to learn our history. And that is such a wonderful message. And I thank you for that.

Girlfriend: 38:55

Oh, no problem. Trust me, I took I took a big step back when I was like learning about community and such one of my dear friends. I will not name them. They're very lovely. But their first event they're like, why the heck are there drag queens here, and someone legit yelled at them and told them to sit down and learn about their history. And I'm like, I should really sit down to learn about my history because I don't know why drag queens are at some of these events. And I'm like, Oh, that makes a lot of

Edge : 39:21

sense. Yeah, I've always thought if the drag queen says the warriors of our tribe, and the leather man is the priests and now I have bootblack says the history keepers. So I'm filling out my little map of archetypes. I am so super grateful for this conversation has been it really has changed my perspective on boot blacking, and that's just amazing. So thank you so much for joining us.

Girlfriend: 39:43

Oh, no problem. Thank you for having me. Yeah. And

Edge : 39:45

you will you be competing at international this Labor Day, is it?

Girlfriend: 39:51

I don't know what it is because they haven't announced it. Um, I normally would say yes. 100% If COVID wasn't the thing I I'm sadly very immunocompromised. So I do have to pick my events very, very wisely. So unless it's outdoors in Texas, don't I love you guys, I really, really do it. I wish I could be up there on the stage with you, but I can't risk it for my own health. I love each and every one of you guys. But if things get better, I'm more than happy to

Edge : 40:19

well, however, it turns out, we wish you the very best of now extended title years and on behalf of all the people I know in Florida, I certainly want to say that we're very grateful for the service you've given. I bet a lot of people out there are grateful as well. And thank you again for joining us here on full cow.

Girlfriend: 40:37

Oh, thanks. Thank you.

Edge : 40:42

And that's it for another episode of 4k. I am so grateful that you joined us and please, if you like the show, consider subscribing and make the journey extraordinarily blessed.