Where the Cowboy Boot was Invented

Boots were no new thing to American workers in the 1800's especially to those Americans who lived on the frontier, but for many ranch men and farm hands the normal boot needed some adjustments. It is generally agreed that Charles Hyer of Kansas was the first to invent cowboy boots. Historians claim that in 1875 a Colorado cowboy came to Hyers cobbler shop and requested a new kind of boot. He wanted a pointed toe, higher heel, and scalloped fronts and backs to make the boot more suitable to a cowboy's needs. Hyer took the challenge and the cowboy liked the boots so much that he told other people about them.

Before Hyer created the new cowboy boot, there were many problems with the traditional boot for cowboys. Most boots had flat heels, round toes and were either very stiff or soft. Some were made for walking other boots were made for riding, but for the cowboy who needed a boot for both this was a problem. Hyer's boots solved all these problems and hw was soon overrun with cowboys looking for boots.

Charles Hyer and his brother Edward found the Hyer Boot Company in 1880. At this time it was known as Hyer Brothers. It was not officially known as the Hyer Boot Company until it was incorporated in 1949. Before founding the company, Charles and his brother had learned bootmaking from their father William. Charles moved to Olathe, Kansas in 1872 and found a job teaching shoe and harness making at the Olathe School for the Deaf. He opened a small store on the side and his brother helped him run it. In 1889, Edward moved to Chillicothe, Missouri and Charles maintained the company. During the depression the company stayed afloat by making boots for the military. The Hyer Boot Company, was so well known for their boots that they made them for celebrities like Buffalo Bill Cody, Roy Rogers, Harry Carey, Richard Nixon, Calvin Coolidge, William S. Hart, Dwight Eisenhower, Clark Gable, Theodore Roosevelt, Will Rogers, Gene Autry, Tom Mix and many others.

The Hyer Boot Company became one of the most successful post-Civil War businesses, selling more than 15,000 boots a year. Hyer made custom fit boots so a major hurdle was selling to people far away who could not come in for a fitting. This was overcome when Hyer introduced a catalogue that had instructions for customers on how to measure their own feet, ankles and legs. By 1965, Hyer's had over 360,000 customer patterns on file. In 1977 the Hyer Boot Company was sold to the Ben Miller Boot Company in El Paso Texas, but the tradition of boot making in Olathe did not end there. The Olathe Boot Company was started and many of the former Hyer employees were hired to work there.