Tony Lama Boots Canada Shop

The Tony Lama Company began operation in 1912 as a small shoe-repair shop on East Overland Street in El Paso. Tony Lama, Sr., a native of Syracuse, New York, was born of immigrant parents in 1887, orphaned at age eleven, and raised by an uncle who apprenticed him to a shoemaker. Lama served as a cobbler with the United States Army and was stationed in 1910 at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he served under Gen. John J. Pershing in the Sixth United States Infantry. In 1912 Lama left the army and opened a shoe-repair shop, where he continued to do business with the military. That year he and one assistant also made twenty pairs of boots for sale. Lama married Esther Hernández in 1917. They had six children, all of whom became active participants in the company. As the horse soldier disappeared, army trade dwindled, but by this time Lama had the reputation for being a quality bootmaker. He turned his attention exclusively to the production of the western style boot popular with local ranchers, and by 1933 Lama's factory was turning out forty pairs of boots daily. A shortage of leather goods during World War II curtailed the business temporarily, but as supplies again became available business boomed. Lama's business became a corporation in 1946. In 1948, when Tony Lama presented a pair of custom-made boots to President Harry S. Truman, he began a custom of offering a pair of boots to each president.