Rockabilly Vintage Boots...Didn't Make the Tour

Rocket Ranch Roadhouse keeps a broad selection of vintage & retro boots in stock. Austin is a great market for them...partly because so many dealers carry them making for a great competitive selection. There must be thousands of vintage boots in Austin for sale at any given time.

We do love our vintage and retro here in Austin.

Selling vintage, retro, i.e "previously owned boots" is an art and a science...mostly because you buy what's available and cannot always have the right size for your clients. Or as they say in the rag and shoe business, "the distribution" of sizes is not complete.

The boots shown are a great pair of vintage Tony Lama boots with red stitching and piping and the highly sought after "roach killer" toe. This toe is from time-to-time referred to as an "X" toe, or simply "pointed toe." Boot makers will have this in their repertorie and you can find a less extreme version by Old Gringo and other retro reproducers. Here in Texas the most common reference to this particular toe is the "roach killer" so named because you could kill a roach in the corner with this toe...it's that pointed.

I was trying to find a pair of black boots for Lucky Tubb the other day before he hit the road for a tour east and then on to Europe.

If you don't know Lucky Tubb and the Modern Day Troubadors, check out their MySpace page...a great Austin Rockabilly band. They're headed out across the midwest to the east coast and then back to Texas before jetting off to Europe for some gigs in Belguim and the Netherlands...Rockabilly is hot over there as well.

This is exactly the type of boot he was looking for, unfortunately the size was wrong and we couldn't fit him...we'll keep trying.

I called around to some of my buddies who also carry a good selection but without any success...the request was very specific...black boot with roach killer toes, and preferrably a distinctive underslung riding heel. Lucky was out of luck on this one.

We love the boots, but fit is always an issue when selling previously owned boots. If your looking and find a pair you like, they fit, and they're within your budget, you should spring for 'em on the spot.

I'm going to get into some of the other Rockabilly gear we have in stock in the next blog...Austin has a great selection of "pearl snap" shirts and my good friend K T Antiques always has bunch of cool ones at great prices. But there's a lot more including accessories such as hats, belts, pants, western suits, and so on.

So for next time...look for a little about some very cool Rockabilly jackets we've been putting out for sale...they are show stoppers. I can't tell you how many times I've been stopped on the streets of Austin wearing one of Rocket Ranch Roadhouse's one-of-a-kind short cut jackets with pearl snap closures. One of 'em even stunned Mike Cavender of Cavender's Boot City.

Catch Lucky Tubb and The Modern Day Troubadors on tour right now...great music from a great tradition...is the great-nephew of ET, the great Ernest Tubb.

Until next time...hasta luego...and, good luck in your hunt for cool stuff whatever it may be.