Boots are consistent rodeo fashion favorite

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- It’s rodeo time! Get your boots on! And there’s no finer place to get a good pair of boots than Outback Western Wear. Year after year, co-owner and buyer, Michelle O’Rourke, says boots are the number one fashion statement for the annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

Outback Western Wear can be your personal stylist from hat to boots, so that you don’t show up at the rodeo like some tenderfoot. For instance, you’ll need a boot for traipsing through the blood, the bar-b-q, and the beer, but if you have a hankerin’ to mosey through the Livestock Show, you’ll want to wear a good work boot. O’Rourke recommends the Ariat Terrain Pull-On H2O Boots. The kind that hold up well when you have to scrape the sides of them on the curb after your misstep in the cattle barn. But if you’re going Country & Western dancin,’ you don’t want to stink up the dance hall with your work boots. Scrub yourself up and put on a pair of Lucchese Black Belly Caiman Crocodile Boots. You know, the kind rich folk wear to the Cattle Baron’s Ball.

“What set us apart is that we want to to take our customers’ foot measurements,” said O’Rourke. “We really take the time to make sure they have a perfect fit. It’s important that the customer is pleased with their purchase. That’s what keeps our customers coming back.”

The friendly, helpful staff at OWW is adept at ensuring you’ll get a great fit. With a dozen different boot manufacturers and over seven dozen styles to choose from, you’ll have a hard time making a decision. Take a gander at what the sales team is wearing. People who buy and sell boots are always going to pick out the best for themselves. Outback Western Wear carries boots from approximately a dozen different boot manufacturers, and a bigger variety than big box stores.

“We carry the most popular styles,” said O’Rourke. “Our customers tell us all the time that we have a larger selection than other stores.”

Ladies like their boots all gussied up. As the sayin’ goes, “if a little is good, a whole lot more is better.” The womens’ boots come with heavy flame stitching in all colors, studs, pink embroidered roses, and new this year, the vintage look with leather fringe.

“We have boots with leather fringe that are very popular,” said O’Rourke. “Fringe is also popular on handbags and leather skirts too.”

Think Patsy Cline, or like Dale Evans wore when she rode off into the sunset with Roy.

Taller boots are popular too, with a higher shaft (the part that covers the leg.) And more brides appear to be favoring a western-themed wedding, and are sashaying down the aisle wearing boots with their wedding dresses.

“Brides prefer dark-colored boots for contrast in Sepia-toned photographs,” said O’Rourke. “Red and turquoise boots work well for this, and with the bride’s wedding color scheme.”

Outback Western Wear can outfit the whole wedding party in western attire. A vintage-style wedding dress with boots, and the wedding party in decked out in boots and cowboy hats, and the wedding looks like something out of the old west in the Sepia photos.

Western wear is not just for the rodeo or weddings. Boots are being worn with contemporary fashions too. Just having returned from the market in Dallas, O’Rourke said the hemlines on dresses are coming down, in contrast to the Kid Rock look...boots with miniskirts. Non-western attire is being worn with boots; tunic tops and leggings worn with western boots, is a new fashion statement.

A good pair of boots is not only a fashion statement, it’s an investment. At OWW it’s not only important that customers get a great-fitting boot, but that the boots are properly taken care of for years of enjoyment. As another value-added service, Outback Western Wear will resole boots. Mondays and Fridays boots are taken for boot repair.

Although boots remain number one in popularity in rodeo wear, at Outback they have everything from heaven to amen...belts, buckles, cowboy hats, jeans, jewelry, and outerwear.

“Bling is still a big thing,” said O’Rourke. “And so is the chunky jewelry with the dull metal finish. It’s all about fusion. Mixing western wear with your current wardrobe.”

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is March 4 thru 23. Mosey on over to Outback Western Wear and get those boots and trappings now, before there’s a stampede on the store. Conveniently located between The Woodlands, Tomball, and Magnolia, at 30405 Dobbin Hufsmith Road, just west of Woodlands Parkway and FM 2978.(77354). ‘Where being a Texan is always in style!’