FORT WORTH, Texas — Dressed in a crisp button-down shirt and tassel loafers and sporting a swipe of silver hair like a movie star, Dr. Chip Brown isn’t someone you would necessarily peg as a cowboy-boot collector. But there they are — rows and columns of boots, stretching floor to ceiling across the closet wall.
And these aren’t just any ol’ boots. Each one was custom-designed by Brown, right down to the thread color. Brown has nearly 100 pairs — on this afternoon, Brown’s young grandson, Jackson, tallies 96 with only a little help in counting. Many more are in various stages of development.
“It’s a sickness,” says Brown with a laugh, and the Fort Worth, Texas, radiologist clearly relishes his self-diagnosis.
Each of Brown’s custom boots starts as an idea. Brown spies an image he likes, from a Grateful Dead symbol to a sports team logo to a design on an old rodeo program, then clips it to a sketchbook page that goes into a file that he keeps for each design. He gives each element of the boot, from the main shaft design to the side welts and pull tabs, the same painstaking attention.
For some boots, Brown has a logo or symbol stitched directly onto a piece of leather that will be incorporated as an inlay into the shaft, or sides, of the boot. Some of these designs require thousands of stitches to come together. For other images or patterns, he opts for an applique treatment that renders the design in leather on the shaft.
Perusing Brown’s collection is like taking a crash course in what is possible with leather, tools and talent. Some are adorned with roses — blooms are made of stitching or of pleated red leather. Others are emblazoned with cutout shapes like stars, barbed wire and hearts. He is working on several stripe designs, experimenting with ways to construct each individual vertical column.
But, always, there is rich, vibrant color.
Brown takes great care choosing colors, and most of his boots feature a variety of blazing shades. He starts his color selection simply — with a big box of crayons. Brown picks a few that he likes and switches out colors until he finds the right combination. Then he opens his sketch book to ensure that the shades work with the design. From there, Brown moves to the part that covers the foot , choosing the skin type and the color.
Brown works exclusively with boot expert Gene Lee Reynolds at M.L. Leddy’s in the Fort Worth Stockyards to craft his boots. Brown says Reynolds offers invaluable advice; Reynolds, who manages the store’s boot department, says Brown rarely needs it.
“He’s pretty boot-savvy,” Reynolds says. “There’s always a lot of detail to draw up in his boots, and you couldn’t ask for anyone to draw one out better. When he brings you something, you know you can do it — he knows what’s possible and what’s not.”
Each boot takes 10 months to a year to produce, and Brown estimates that his current collection took about seven years to create. Before that, Brown didn’t give much thought to boots. What he did have, though, was a passion for art.
“I’ve always been artistically inclined,” Brown says. Growing up in El Paso, Texas, he won a scholarship to an art school and took classes on weekends, but ultimately decided to go to medical school instead.
The inspiration to design boots came when his wife, Debby, won a pair of free boots from M.L. Leddy’s through her volunteer work with the Junior League. When Brown went to Leddy’s to redeem the coupon, he fell in love with a nicotine-colored, full-quill ostrich pair, and he also learned about Leddy’s custom boot business.
Brown started thinking about the possibilities, bought a couple of books about boot design and was soon hooked. “I went back, ordered my first few pairs, and the sky was the limit after that.”
Brown doesn’t do anything to draw attention to his boots, but people who know him know to ask.
“They’ll ask me, ‘What’s on your boots today?’” he says. Looking over his rows of boots, he jokes about where the next pairs will go and remarks again on his wife’s patience with his passion. “In my next life,” he says with a mischievous grin, “I promised her I’m going to collect matchbox covers.”
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Tags: Cowboy, Cowboy Footwear
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