How do we keep craft alive in an over-technological society? Is it via the individual maker? Or more of a collective workshop approach? 

Houston-based bespoke cowboy bootmaker Zephan Parker has plenty of thoughts on all of it. 

Zephan used to write graffiti and listen to hip hop while wearing Ralph Lauren. Now he runs a custom bespoke cowboy boot workshop in Houston, Texas. All those things, it turns out, are very connected. I swear. 

Zephan and I get into plenty on this one, including their entire range of offerings, how the absence of design leads to the magnification of character, how Parker Boot Company is nailing the fit on $20k custom gator skin boots via remote measuring, regional differences in Texas cowboy boots, just how incredibly different running a business is from making things, and plenty more.

https://zephanparker.com/

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We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events.

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