The story goes that in 1875 in Kansas, a terminus for the busy cattle drives of the era, a cowboy was just coming off his latest cattle drive with a fresh paycheck in his pocket when he strolled into bootmaker C.H. Hyer’s shop in Olathe, Kansas, and asked him to make the best boot for the cowboy’s job — no matter the cost.
This cowboy said that what he had been riding in needed some improvements more suited for life riding the range, and Hyer, a reported “mad man of boot making,” embraced the challenge. He began to innovate certain modifications to the riding boots of the time, which were traditionally more similar to a Hyacinth, a Wellington, or an English riding boot. The modifications included a higher heel to prevent a foot from getting stuck in the stirrup, a pointed toe for easier sliding into the stirrup, and
