Austin-based Chisos Boot Company is releasing a new run of the Chisos Reserve: Anniversary Edition, a bench-made cowboy boot constructed from wild-harvested Texas alligator. The release, timed ahead of rodeo season, marks one of the few annual windows when this rare boot is available. Priced at $4,950, the Anniversary Edition is positioned at the top of the company's exotic range, distinguishing Chisos in the luxury bootmaking market.
The cowboy boot market is divided into three tiers: mass-produced work boots, fast-fashion western labels, and bench-made heritage makers. Chisos competes in the top tier, building boots one pair at a time by hand using exceptional hides. The Anniversary Edition, first released in 2020, is the only small-batch cowboy boot made exclusively from wild Texas alligator. Each pair is mirror-cut from royal black alligator belly, wild-harvested from East Texas waters, with several hides hunted personally by founder Will Roman. No two pairs are alike, as each hide carries a unique signature. The boot features a hand-tooled, hand-dyed relief of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park on the collar, alligator pulls on the sides, and a Texas-shaped heel stamp.
The wild alligator harvest follows a conservation model: regulated wild harvest provides Texas landowners a financial incentive to protect the wetlands the species depends on. The project is certified by the nonprofit Texan by Nature. "Landowners are key to protecting alligator breeding habitat," Roman said. "Using the leather as a model for financing conservation is the reason these animals were able to flourish again - and the reason a boot like this can exist at all."
The Anniversary Edition sits atop a deliberate exotic range. The entry point is the Chisos No. 7 Lizard, a black-lizard suit boot retailing for $945, with other exotics at $1,295. Both boots are built on the same foundation: bench-made construction with a double-thick vegetable-tanned leather heel counter, 10-to-11-iron center-cut veg-tanned leather outsole and midsole, a stacked leather heel, and lemonwood pegs and brass nails for the sole. A conformed steel shank provides arch support, and the interior is fully lined in leather. Each boot uses Goodyear welt construction with a leather channel welt, allowing the sole to be replaced as needed. The removable comfort insole features heritage leather over two layers of semi-organic polymer with gel pads at the heel and ball.
Every Chisos boot is built at a family-run workshop in Guanajuato, Mexico, where Roman learned the trade before founding the company in 2019. Heritage leathers are hand-selected from regional dairy-cow hides, tanned in a lead-free process. Exotics are sourced from respected suppliers or harvested by Chisos themselves. "We build the way bootmakers built a century ago, because that is what this caliber of boot demands," Roman said. "A Chisos boot is meant to be the last pair a man buys, and the first thing his son inherits." More information is available at https://chisos.com.
