Schwarz & Schwarz in Dillon, Montana
When you get a pair made at Schwarz Custom Boots in Dillon, Montana, you not only get a great pair of boots, you also get a handy twofer. Bootmaker Dan Schwarz tackles the lower part of the boot build, where the hide meets the road, while his wife, Julia, handles the artistic stuff up top. Working in the back of their retail shop, Atomic 79, the Schwarz team produces some of the handsomest cowboy boots in the West.
Dan says that he never really “gave two thoughts” to how boots were made while growing up in the farm and ranch country of north-central Montana and then working for a time in the cattle industry. That changed in the late 1990s when he took a pair of boots in for overhauling at Dillon’s repair shop, Blacktail Bootery. The owner must have sensed that Dan’s destiny loomed in the boot world and offered to sell him Blacktail. When Dan returned for his repaired boots, the offer was repeated.
And the second time, something clicked. After a six-month apprenticeship, the cattleman
