These Boots Were Made for Walkin', Not Ropin'

Darren Brown, News9.com

GUTHRIE, Oklahoma -- Cowboy boot aren't just made for cowboys anymore. These days it's not unusual to see businessmen pairing up suits and cowboy boots for board meetings.

Lisa Sorrell makes a fair amount of those types of  boots. 

"I do try to build a really traditional, functional cowboy boot," Sorrell said. "But I also try to make it so pretty that you don't want to wear it out chasing cows."

Sorrell learned to sew at an early age, and got into the boot making business a little over 20 years ago when she answered an ad in the newspaper. The ad happened to be for stitching boot tops.

"I had no idea what that was and I'd never worn cowboy boots," said Sorrell. "I thought I'd give it a try."  

Sorrell is unique in that she's been successful in a craft dominated by men.

"There aren't too many women boot makers," Sorrell said. "There aren't that many boot makers at all. Probably less than six or seven women boot makers that do it full time."

Sorrell's success has inspired her youngest daughter Paige to take up the old craft, but not with boots. Paige, 13, has already built two pairs of shoes and his working on her own line of leather bracelets.

"My bracelet business is really going well, and my shoemaking is going well too," said the younger Sorrell as she described a pair of blue shoes made out of patent leather, bullfrog, and kangaroo hide.

Lisa Sorrell's boots are custom-made, and she's had requests from the simple to the extravagant.

"The most expensive boot I've made so far was around $20,000," Sorrell said.  "It was an alligator boot and it had some custom silver on it."