How do you size a cowboy boot?

Size is really subjective. It's hard to answer that question with 100% accuracy because what fits tight to me may fit perfectly snug and comfortable to you. Some people prefer a tighter fit and some people prefer a looser fit. But basically you measure a boot or you fit a boot using two criteria; one being the length of the boot and the other being the width. So it's really important that you obviously get the right size, otherwise blistering can occur and you probably would never buy another pair of cowboy boots, if it doesn't fit correctly. So typically there is some kind of fitting device that is used in traditional footwear stores. You can find them just about anywhere and that's a very good place to start. That will tell you exactly what length your foot would be; whether it's a nine, nine and a half etc., and it will tell you the width of your foot. There are people who are really, really interested in making shoes that fit perfectly to their liking. We can fit their feet for a custom boot. There are probably 20 different measurements that are taken starting with the circumference of your calf, depending on how tall you want the boot. We would measure the calf at that point, to your heel, to the ball of your foot, and of course the length and the width. We measure your instep and any irregularities that may be on your feet. May be you've got a bone spur or something else that might prevent you from wearing a standard, "off the shelf" size. And most of the time you know 90% of the population go into a store and pull something off the shelf and it becomes comfortable when they walk out of the store. So you know we can go as far to accommodate. Let's say you wear a standard eight off of the shelf, but you may have a more athletic calf. We can build the top of the boot to have a deeper scallop, which will allow for and will compensate for your calf size. Or we can make the boot shorter, so it doesn't go up all the way to your calf. Or we can obviously expand the top of the boot only. Since our Lucchese classics are handmade one at a time, we were able to do that. So it doesn't matter if we are doing a size nine or six in the same run. We have to make one at a time anyway so.