This article was originally written for North 40 Outfitters and Hyer Boot Co. You can find the original article here. All photos are my own or from the lovely Megan Jean Photo.

Recently I met a living legend, or at least a future living legend. 

Hyer Boot Co. was founded in 1875 and went through many iterations until it eventually met its demise in the early 1990’s.  After quite literally inventing the cowboy boot, Hyer Boots were sported by the top celebrities of their day.  The epitome of western fashion and practicality, names like Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Regan, Teddy Roosevelt all wore Hyers.  Rumor has it that Billy the Kid was even buried in his pair of custom Hyer Boots.  And that, it turns out, was the problem: custom. 

Hyer was started by a German immigrant come cobbler in Kansas.  Supporting the local School for the Deaf and Blind through a labor exchange, CH Hyer (the company’s namesake) made high-quality hand-crafted shoes and helped to invent the catalog ordering system.  Clients from all over the country would take a trace of their foot and then send it into the company along with payment and a style selection.  A few weeks later they would get the best made boots in the country delivered right to their doorstep.  Or if they’d like, they could pick them up at the factory fresh off the lasts (the hard wooden molds used to shape the boots).  This is how Wild Bill Cody would order boots for him and his whole cast while rolling through town to perform the famous western show. By the early 1900’s Hyer was the largest boot manufacturer in the country, but soon a new innovation would push them to their limits. 

Companies like Justin’s Boots started to mass produce their footwear, not for an individual’s foot, but for a standard size.  This allowed them to get into retailers looking for an easy way to stock and sell footwear when their customers needed it instead of weeks later.  Hyer failed to adapt.  They kept making extremely high-quality footwear strictly by custom order and in such they started to fade.  As the industry moved more and more over to factory sizing Hyer Boots was left behind.  A fire at the factory and some inner company turmoil ultimately put the company in receivership with the bank and forced the sale.  After being bought by a competitor and finally by an investment group, the Hyer name was reduced to just a mere trademark in a portfolio.  It was gone.

Sorting through his grandmother’s attic, Zach Lawless (one of the most Western names you could imagine) stumbled upon some odd documents.  Why did they have so much stuff about this boot company that he’s never heard about? Why were his grandparent’s names on them?  What was Hyer Boot Co?  When he brought these questions to her, she seemed to light up as if she had been waiting years for him to ask.  She explained the story, the past, the myths and legends around this once famous and well revered brand.  Zach wanted to know more and after months of visiting libraries and museums he knew what he had to do; he had to resurrect his family’s business no matter what. 

It took 18 months.  18 months of researching and calling the same person, every Wednesday, every week. 18 months.  Eventually they caved.  Maybe it was the persistence, maybe it was that they felt compassion for this man and his family’s brand, maybe they just weren’t doing anything with the mark, but either way Zach got them to hand it over.  Once again, Hyer Boots was a family-owned company.  Now he just needed to figure out how to get it to market in the best way possible.  Luckily, Zach is not exactly new to business. 

Zach Lawless, CEO of Hyer Boots (he will remind you that he did NOT found the company, that was his Great, Great Grand Father CH Hyer), went to school in San Diego, CA, a long way from his hometown in Kansas (insert mandatory Wizard of Oz reference here) before traveling across the country to New York City as an analyst.  Wanting a bit more adventure, Lawless created a VC-funded start-up in the food space before acting as an advisor for another start-up.  If anyone was poised to get Hyer going on the right foot (boot?) then it was him.  After enlisting the help of his fiancé (and Hyer Boot Chief of Staff) Alicia, Lawless traveled to the well-revered shoe manufacturing hub of Leon, Mexico to learn more about the best practices of making the finest cowboy boots in the world.  There they spent another 18 months refining the process of how their boots should be made and recruiting the best talent to work on their team.  They found hundreds of the original Hyer boot-lasts and had them 3D scanned to make new-age lasts based on old-fashioned style and tech.  In fact, that project with the lasts may sum up the company best since everything that they do is “old meets new”. 

Handmade in North America, Hyer Boots are constructed from the highest quality materials available and take over 200 steps to complete.  It takes on average 4 weeks to build a single pair of boots painstakingly by hand.  The boots are all Goodyear welted, meaning that you can replace the soles when they wear out instead of having to throw out the whole pair.  Hyer is even working on creating a network of cobblers that can rebuild the boots on factory lasts.  As Zach showed his product to me, he explained everything.  Every detail had been planned out to give the best possible product and experience to the customer.

As you open the packaging, the first thing that you’ll see is the original box design that has graced every pair of Hyer Boots for nearly 150 years.  Inside, however, the packaging is shiny with bold letters reading “welcome to the family”.  Old meets new.  There’s even an old family photo and a personal letter from Grandma thanking you for wearing your Hyer Boots.  The stich patterns are based on the original mail-order catalogs that Hyer was famous for, but now they are available in the standard sizes that once destroyed the company.  Old meets new again.  The calfskin boot lining covers the entirety of the inside of the boot, not just the top like most of Hyer’s competitors.  The removeable dual-density inserts can be used for a softer more contemporary feel or removed to allow the boots to be fully worked-in in the traditional fashion. More old and new together.  The butyl outsole is water proof and held on by both the traditional lemonwood tacks as well as modern brass tacks for the most well built finish that I’ve ever seen on a boot.  Leather piping graces the sides of every pair, unlike the vinyl that is found on most competitor’s boots that is prone to cracking.  In all this boot is simply old school quality, but with a contemporary twist. 

It is easy to tell that Zach has a passion for what he’s doing, and to many in the western wear world this reincarnation of the legendary Hyer Boot brand is a big deal.  These boots are not just footwear.  They are a family, a history, Americana on the soles of your feet.  They are solidly built and will last years if not decades when well maintained.  The styles are creative and catchy without being obnoxious.  The materials are the best available. The craftsmanship is well worth the price.  These are not the cheapest boots out there, but when it comes time to pony up the bucks you’ll be happy that you did.

Hyer Boots died off after an inability to innovate.  Zach Lawless has brought that much-needed innovation at last, and if he can pull this off, then he will become a Western Legend in his own right.  Lawless assures me that there is much more to come (stand by for some announcements January 2024) and personally I can’t wait to see what he does next. 

Want to get your own pair?  Check out the selection at north40.com or try them on in person at any North 40 Outfitters location.  Happy trails pardner.