He’s Got Sole

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From his upbringing to a lifelong passion, Greg Carmack creates masterful leather goods from the heart

By Laura Beth Moore

Inhale, as the whiff of leather seeps in deep, powerfully transporting one back in time to the days of saloons, gun smoke and back when the West was still wild. As the door to the shop closes, beating rings out and bounces off the tin walls. The clash of tools ricochets off the concrete floors and behind the aged wooden counter hunched over, concentrated on his work stands Greg Carmack, owner of Carmackโ€™s Custom Cowboy Boots. Located off Highway 6 in Central Texas, just down the road from where he grew up, is the place where he first learned the craft of boot-making at age 11. An old craft, Carmack says, is diminishing quickly.

Growing up on his fatherโ€™s ranch in Central Texas, Carmack worked on the farm during the summer at age 10. When the next summer came around, 11-year-old Carmack spoke up saying, โ€œI donโ€™t think Iโ€™m cut out for this kind of work.โ€ The local boot maker, Larry Jackson, went to church with the Carmack family in Walnut Springs and little Carmack asked if he could sweep the floors of the shop. While Jackson said he didnโ€™t need a sweeper, he taught Carmack to become a welt sewerโ€”the process of stitching a strip between a shoe sole and upper portion of the boot. At the time Carmack didnโ€™t know he would own Jacksonโ€™s store one day and become a boot-maker full-time. After a summer as a welt sewer, Jackson realized Carmack had a knack for bootmaking.

โ€œYou could tell he wanted to learn, and he never failed to learn,โ€ Jackson said. โ€œGreg didnโ€™t want to make mistakes.โ€

Carmack continued working for Jackson through high school and college before stepping into the corporate world, which frustrated him, โ€œYou could discuss the issue, but no action was taken quickly to solve the problem. You couldnโ€™t make a change when a change needed to be made. I like to hear peopleโ€™s ideas and perspectives. I donโ€™t have to be right, but if we know thereโ€™s a change that needs to be made, letโ€™s make it.โ€

After discussing this with his mentor one day, Jackson said, โ€œThen why donโ€™t you just buy me out?โ€ Shortly after Carmack purchased the business from Jackson and made improvements to the boots. He said the improvements he made focus around geometry, material construction, technique and design.

โ€œI didnโ€™t invent any of this,โ€ he admitted. โ€œThis business is old, old, old, but a lot of stuff gets forgotten. So I just went back to the boot that was built in the 50s, 60s and 70s and put a few things back into that boot that took too much time for large manufacturers to produce.โ€

CARMACKโ€™S  CUSTOMIZATIONS

Carmack moves the weight bearing into the arch eliminating pressure on the long bridge of the boot causing feet to become tired. This modification holds and supports the arch of the foot making the boot more comfortable. For a man who stands on concrete 10-12 hours a day in leather soles, โ€œMy feet are happy,โ€ he said. โ€œItโ€™s not magic itโ€™s just time and understanding.โ€ None of the factory boots can provide that modification, โ€œthey just donโ€™t have the time. Theyโ€™re just trying to compete to the dollar, and itโ€™s a race to the bottom.โ€

With an emphasis on an โ€œAmerican born and bredโ€ culture surrounding many boot-wearersโ€™ thereโ€™s actually only one piece of U.S. leather in Carmackโ€™s bootsโ€”the top lining. The lack of U.S. material grieves Carmack who wants to create a truly  authentic American made boot, but now itโ€™s impossible. There are no tanners in the nation making sole leather for boots. Thereโ€™s no sole leather to be found. When Carmack began only two tanners existed within the U.S., and now thereโ€™s no U.S. sole leather and no calf skinโ€”a staple to the boot.

The last U.S. tanner of sole leather went out of business in 2005. Carmack explained the reason these tanners go out of business is due to the costs large boot manufacturing companies save by purchasing leather from a South American tanner compared to a U.S. tanner in Pennsylvania. With time he watched as the Pennsylvania tannersโ€”the last U.S. sole leather tannersโ€”went out of business.

Over the thirty years he has built strong network of people who help him find what he needs. Carmack sources his own calf out of France and sources another piece of calf out of Poland. โ€œIโ€™m lucky enough that my exotic friends of mine can get whatever ostrich or alligator I need. Mainly itโ€™s just difficult to get quality material,โ€ he said.

The strength of his network led to acquiring the finest French calf to make his boots. A partnership with a representative for a French tanneryโ€”owned by exclusive leather goods maker Hermesโ€”changed the entire quality of Carmackโ€™s boots. Now he actually stocks the leather upstairs and sells it to other bootmakers as an agent for the representative based in Connecticut.

As the only bootmaker in the shop, trying to balance 30 percent of his time sourcing materials and the remainder of time making the boots remains quite a balancing act.

โ€œYou want to know the fastest way to insult me is to say, โ€˜You know Iโ€™d like to come a couple of weekends and learn how to make boots.โ€™ So insulting. I could have been a surgeon faster than I was a bootmaker, and I could have made a lot more money,โ€ said Carmack. โ€œYou donโ€™t get to be bootmaker in a day, a week, a month or two months, a year or two years. Itโ€™s a slow, learned, repetitive, โ€˜do-it-in-your-sleepโ€™ thing, and most people donโ€™t have the want to do that.โ€

THE BOOT BUYERS

Itโ€™s his dedication to detail and perfecting the bootmaking process that brings customers flooding in to order their own pair of Carmackโ€™s Custom Boots. People who knew Carmack when he was a kid sweeping the floors at the shop still come in to buy boots from him, and now their sons and grandsons come in to order their own pair of Carmackโ€™s Custom Boots.

โ€œIโ€™m not so great with names, but if I built your boots, I could look at your boots and know I built them, and remember the boot go to the order in my head and look at the name blankโ€”and know your name,โ€ said Carmack.

While a majority of the clientele are Texas customers, Carmack has customers in all the states; heโ€™s even shipped boots to France, Germany and China.

When customers are choosing a boot design, Carmack says they go through a careful process. He keeps lots of pictures and examples for them to see. As far as if theyโ€™re going to use it for a dress boot or a work boot, he steers them to the leathers that work best depending on the use of the boot.   

โ€œItโ€™s a sense of accomplishment, when you take raw leather and combine it with someoneโ€™s idea put it all together and in the end youโ€™ve got a finished product. They smile, put it on and say, โ€˜thatโ€™s exactly what I wanted,โ€™โ€ he saidโ€”a phrase that causes a smile to turn up across his face.

โ€œIn the end if the bootmaker and the customer arenโ€™t both smilingโ€ฆthen youโ€™ve got trouble,โ€ Carmack said.

FROM ITALY TO TEXAS

Over the years, the unique machines Carmack uses have been rebuilt with new parts from wear and tear, but to purchase new machines, Carmack would have to go to Italy and pay around $50,000 for just one piece.

โ€œA company named United Shoe Machinery Corporation built all the shoe equipment, but they didnโ€™t sell a piece of it, you could only lease the equipment from them. You never owned their equipment, until a little company named Landis came along and started making shoe equipment with the tag line, โ€˜Own your Own.โ€™ They would actually sell the equipment to you,โ€ he said as the machine rattles.

โ€œI just love this machine because itโ€™s so old, and it just works and works.โ€

Walking over with a brisk in his step, eager to show off the only piece of equipment left from when he first bought the shopโ€”the sewing machine he learned how to stitch on. โ€œThe faster you go, the more you get done,โ€ Carmack said while the needle rapidly blazed a trail of thread upon the tanned leather.

THE PRIZED CURVED AWL

Along with the rare equipment, Carmackโ€™s tools for bootmaking are hard to come by. New boot-making tools cannot be accessed in America. He must travel to South America to purchase them. His tools worn with smoothed handles from the 40s he purchased from West Germany. โ€œA curved awl,โ€ the tool he sews welt with allows him to poke holes into the welt to then sew the stitches through.

As his tools began to dull, he made a partnership with a guy in Ecuador to make some cowboy boots. In passing through a market where he buys leather, the โ€œcurved Awlโ€ tool caught Carmackโ€™s eye. Immediately he recognized the tools were from Germany stamped with the brand, King, โ€œbest curved awl tools you can get.โ€ The tools were a buck a-piece. โ€œBuy them all,โ€ he said. โ€œNow I have enough to last me and even for my kids if they want to pick up the business.โ€