Media Credit: John Lucas Sarah Noe investigates a sewing machine inside Texas Traditions. She and other visiting children were later given a demonstration of the machine at work.

Media Credit: John Lucas Lee Miller shows visiting elementary students different types of boot styles. Miller showed boot types ranging from alligator to ostrich.

From Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett to Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Fonda, this mom-and-pop local boot store has walked its way through Southern culture and kept the heart of boot-making in Austin.

Whether the boot is made of kangaroo leather or took stitch after stitch to make red chili peppers along the side, Lee Miller of Texas Traditions makes sure each pair of boots is a piece of art that fits just right.

Located on South Congress Avenue, hidden from site with the exception of a wooden blue sign hanging on a tree dawning the store's name, Texas Traditions can be easily passed by without notice.

But beyond the old blue sign is a shop that combines the legacy of cowboy boots and Texas folk art into something unique for each customer.

In 1977, a fourth-generation boot maker from Ireland named Charlie Dunn left his job at another boot store in Austin - Capitol Saddlery - to open his own business, Texas Traditions.

Lee Miller started out as Dunn's apprentice when the shop opened.

"He was always the person who was being groomed to take over the shop," said Carrlyn Miller, Lee Miller's wife and office manager. "Charlie called Lee his 'right-hand man.'"

Originally from Vermont, Lee Miller was an avid cowboy boot-wearer growing up and had hopes of being an artist.

"My parents had a store, and I would hang out with my godfather in the shoe department all day," Lee said. "Getting into boot-making was a combination of growing up in that environment and wanting to do something creative. Rather than being a painter or a sculptor, I thought this could be my art."

At the age of 20, Lee left Vermont to attend a two-year boot-making college in Oklahoma that was affiliated with Oklahoma State University. He later moved to Utah, where he worked at a horse ranch and then an American Indian reservation until a friend told him about Texas Traditions.

"From the minute I walked into the shop, I know I was where I wanted to be," Lee said. "At 23, it was a whole new world opening up for me. It was a huge change of culture, but I loved it."

After nine years, Lee took over the shop in 1986.

"Charlie was very much an artist," Lee Miller said. "His idea was to take art and put it into boots. We try to take what he did and take it to the next level."

Now with the help of his wife, part-time employee Ben Alvarado and UT alumna Julia Parmenter, Lee spends his days making individually designed boots for the shop's customers.

The walls are a timeline into the history of the craft. From the earliest boots made when Charlie owned the shop to old designs from past customers, the store is as much a vault for the history of folk art as it is a shop to continue the trade.

"I feel like if we can share what we do, it will keep boot-making alive," Lee said. "We are preserving the art."

Because of too many customers and not enough hours in the day, the shop is not accepting new customers. But with a three-year delivery time for each pair, there is never a shortage of work to do.

To get a signature pair of boots made by Lee Miller, the first step is the fit. At the front of the shop is an old wooden bench where each customer sits in before a detailed last - a carved copy of the foot - is made to get the shape of the boot.

"The key is the fit," said Lee, holding up an old last from Lovett. "We have a rule that you have to come in and have your foot personally measured."

A double diagram is taken of each foot. Then the customer has to cross their legs and take measurements around the balls of the feet, arch and instep.

After the last is carved and in place, each person then designs what he or she wants for the boot - from the leather and color to each pattern.

"People really put thought into what we make them," Carrlyn said. "In one day, I can talk to a social worker in Kansas, an actress in California and a doctor in Philadelphia who are all agonizing over the design of their boots."

The type of leather is even a tough decision, with options ranging from color to animal to texture types. There is a closet full of leathers in varying shades at the front of the store, including cape buffalo from Africa, water buffalo from Spain, kangaroo, camel and, the most popular, ostrich.

"On a rare occasion, we even get asked to make boots out of elephant," Carrlyn said. "It has been ages, too, since we have been asked to make a lizard boot. Good lizard is hard to find."

With a starting price of $1,500 for a basic pair, the cost increases with detail, and each pair requires roughly 40 hours of work. Designs can be as intricate or as simple as the customer chooses.

Lovett, a regular customer, always asks for his name stitched in cursive on the side.

An artist brought in a painting, depicting a cowgirl inspired by the Day of the Dead theme, to be incorporated into her pair.

But the inspiration and purpose behind each idea come from all places. Lee recently made a pair for a woman who brought in a napkin with chili peppers and asked them to copy the design for a pair of boots for her husband.

The design is Lee's art.

"When you see a pair of boots, I am in every pair," he said. "I wanted to make some kind of difference and some kind of statement, and this is how I do it."

Julia Parmenter does the stitching and what is known as "the tops" in the boot world.

"Lee's job is to make the last as pretty as possible, and my job is to make the rest as pretty as possible," Parmenter said.

A native of southern California with a degree in anthropology and linguistics from UT, Parmenter worked her way through college making costumes for local theaters.

"I graduated from UT, and, as much as I enjoyed the academic world, I wasn't sure that was where I wanted to go, career-wise," she said. "But I came from a family of artists and knew my life would be as an artist."

After approaching two other boot shops in town, Julia was turned down because of her lack of experience, but then found Texas Traditions.

"Lee has been very open, encouraging and shared more of his experience than I expected him too," she said. "They let me come in for the first three or four months just to learn. I stitched top after top after top, just to get to the complicated patterns."

Once she gained experience and skill, Parmenter began designing tops but said she still considers herself an apprentice after three years of working for Lee Miller.

"I promised my friends I would never own a cowboy hat, I wouldn't listen to country music or wear cowboy boots. Now I own several hats, make cowboy boots, and I play in a country band," Parmenter said.

The first pair of boots she made for herself are a dark brown pair with bright red and orange poppy flowers along the sides, combining the state flower of her home with her Texas career.

"What attracted me to making boots is I can make a piece of art that you don't just stick on a wall but something that becomes a part of you," she said. "The piece of art ages when you age. Boots make me feel strong and capable. I look at them as a tattoo I can take off."

And for Lee, the boots reflect the person they are being made for and are a form of American folk art.

"Cowboy boots are really important to Texas but, also, something people enjoy worldwide," he said. "Even if you are a shoemaker in Japan or a shoemaker in Texas, you all use the same tools, and you are all connected, despite our different cultures."

What began with a boot maker from Ireland is now a successful shop, keeping an important part of Texas culture alive. Texas Tradition boots have set foot on movie sets, music halls and operating rooms all over the country, but they all come from one small shop.

Texas Traditions is located at 2222 College Ave. in South Austin.

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