Acme Custom Cowgirl Boots

Sweet pair of 1950s Acme cowgirl boots.

Made for Acme by the Lucchese Boot Company in San Antonio.

Lucchese made a damn good boot in those days.

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Single needle stitching

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Cowgirl Boots: Collection J. Davis

Photography: J. Davis

1930s Acme Cowgirl Boots

An excellent pair of PeeWee cowgirl boots from the mid to late 1930s. Made in the day when Jessel Cohen and Acme made an outstanding Cowboy boot. Beautifully proportioned and very well made, these boots are a great example of the high quality boot Acme Boot Company produced back then. Boots like these, along with some savvy marketing, made Acmes’ "rep". By the early 40s, Acme was the largest manufacturer of Cowboy and Cowgirl boots. It remained the largest manufacturer of Western boots style until the 1980s.

Acme remained the largest manufacturer of Western boots until the 1980s.









World War II created a dilemma for Cowboy boot makers. The finest hides were destined to become boots for our troops. The shortage of high quality hides forced Acme and other boot makers to work with lesser quality hides and incorporate “new” materials like cardboard and metal nails into their manufacturing process.

Some did it well. Some not so well. And some chose not to do it all.

Photography: J. Davis

Sweet Acme Cowgirl Boots

Here's a fine, and very rare, pair of PeeWee style Cowgirl Boots made in the early 1940s for the Acme Boot Company. These beauties were prototypes, the 1930s design "borrowed" by Mr. Cohen, they were handmade to spec in limited quantities, probably by Tony Lama. It was not uncommon for Lama and Lucchesse to produce small custom runs of Acme Boots. These boots were used as salemen's samples and shown at rodeos, stock shows and trade shows. This way orders could be taken while the Acme factory tooled up and produced a more often than not lesser quality boot of the same design on their assembly line.

To the best of my knowledge, Acme never rolled out this design. WWII, and the shortage of leather, probably had a lot to do with the decision not to tool up the Acme factory in Lebanon, Tennessee and produce this design on their assembly line.
These cowgirl boots were worn a time or two, rodeos and trade shows most likely. They have no style or sizing codes and they have plain white canvas pulls. The only way you can be sure they're Acme Boots is to look at the sole... the Acme logo is burned into the leather.

Photography: J. Davis