Lisa Sorrell calls bootmaking the “perfect marriage of art and craft.” Her hand-stitched creations were displayed in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s “Cowboy Boots: From Roundups to Runways” exhibit. Currently she is busy curating another exhibit for The Birthplace of Country Music Museum, located in Bristol, Virginia, that’s opening in October. This opportunity is especially appropriate and exciting for Sorrell, a life-long music lover who names all of her boots after classic country, bluegrass and gospel songs.
Working in her Guthrie shop, Sorrell runs two businesses: Sorrell Custom Boots and Sorrell Notions and Findings, in which she sells leather tools and supplies. We recently asked Sorrell to share more about her distinctive art and craft.
Evie Klopp Holzer: How did you first become interested in bootmaking?
Lisa Sorrell: I got into bootmaking by answering an ad in the paper looking for someone to stitch boot tops. I had no idea what that meant, and I’d never worn cowboy boots, but I could sew … My mom started teaching me to sew at age 12, and by 14, she was coming to me for sewing tips, and by 15, I was sewing professionally for ladies in my church. So I called [about the ad], and the old man cussed at me and told me that sewing leather was nothing like sewing fabric. And he was correct, but he hired me anyway, and that’s how it started.
EKH: Tell me about your process for crafting custom boots.
LS: It starts with the customer coming in and sitting down; I measure their feet, and I talk to them about their fitting expectations. Then we choose their leather colors and their design, and then they wait — because my waiting time is around 18 months to two years.
EKH: What makes it all worth the wait?
LS: The goal is to get you a pair of boots that fits you well. And the second [goal], of course, is personalization. You can do purple flowers and yellow butterflies if you want; whatever makes you happy … There’s an emotional connection to cowboy boots that I don’t see in other types of footwear. When I did shows, people would come up to me and say, “I have a pair of boots that belonged to my grandpa,” and here’s what they look like, and here are stories of what he did in them. I don’t hear stories like that about athletic shoes.
EKH: Do you wear cowboy boots now?
LS: I wear cowboy boots every day, although recently, I started playing with shoes which are patterned completely differently than cowboy boots. It has been so hard for me to learn shoe patterning; I think that’s why I’m enjoying it …What I’m doing is I’m making shoes, and then I’m putting them on a cowboy boot last (a foot-shaped mold) and so they fit and feel like a cowboy boot, but they look like a shoe — and they’re super fun.
EKH: Do you have a favorite pair that stands out?
LS: It’s so nerdy, but yes: I was raised in a very conservative little church, and we only had like four or five gospel albums, but they were country … My favorite band is a brother duo called The Louvin Brothers, and their most iconic gospel album is called Satan is Real. It does not glorify Satan, I promise — but anyway, I love this album, and it has this fantastic cover art. One time I got to meet a young man named Taylor Malpass. He’s part of a modern-day brother duo called The Malpass Brothers … Taylor asked me to make him a pair of “Satan is Real” boots. Those will forever be my favorite boots.
