Since 1957, Baker’s Boots & Clothing has been a boon for boot-wearing people of all stripes. Now in their third generation of family ownership, Baker’s is renowned for their customer service and expert sizing advice on brands like Danner, White’s, Frank’s, and Wesco—for whom they also offer full-custom builds, designed by YOU.
And on that front, there’s a hugely exciting new development at Baker’s: their extremely revamped Build-a-Boot web app.
A lace-to-toe Bounty Hunter with four different kinds of black leathers
For the first time ever, you can get an exquisitely detailed look at a pair of custom White’s Boots of your own design, on the fly, in 3D. As you click through all of the different customization options in the Build-a-Boot interface—divided into categories of Leather, External Features (toe cap or no, hardware, thread and edge color, etc), and Construction And Sole—you can see the changes happen on the boot mockup almost instantly.
You can also zoom in and out on the boot and look at it from any angle—top, side, three-quarter view…heck, you can even look at it from the bottom, because they’ve made renderings of all the soles, too. Damn fellas.
BOOM! Sole!
Brilliant stuff. No more having to close your eyes and think real hard about what it might look like. It’s all here, ready to check out in real time.
Bounty Hunters with an 8-inch shaft, burgundy horsehide, and a block heel (1/4″ lowered)
According to Baker’s CBO (Chief Boot Officer) Kyle Baker, this project has been years in the making—roughly a decade, in fact. “We had an older version of the concept that dates back to 2012,” Kyle said, “but it got outdated quickly.”
Work began on this current Build-a-Boot iteration in November of 2020. As one might imagine, it took a great deal of work to make it happen. “We were able to get large leather swatches and basically do a 3D scan so the texture was right, and then take 4K [ultra high-definition] photos to match the colors,” said Kyle.
That was only the beginning, though, according to Kyle: “Trying to get representation of rolled tops, toe caps, heel bases, soles, etc. took a lot of time and effort. We spent hours and hours (if not days!) gathering those assets or photos to get to the modelers so they could represent accurate display of the boots that ultimately the customer will like and purchase.”
In addition to making sure the visual fidelity was as accurate as possible, Kyle added that the coding had to line up with “what the factory is able and willing to do,” making certain that the rules of the builds wouldn’t get screwed up—restricting shell cordovan boots to a 6 inch height, for example.
Tallboy MP Boots with olive waxed flesh
There are currently two White’s models that can be customized in Build-a-Boot: Baker’s trademark Bounty Hunter, or the Military Police (MP) Boot. Kyle said they won’t be stopping there, either; they’re currently working on adding a Build-a-Boot for Wesco’s Boss Boot, possibly launching it as soon as this coming June. There may be more Build-a-Boots coming down the pipe, too. “We’re hoping to do something in the Western category,” Kyle said, “and perhaps a lace-up boot with Wesco and/or Franks soon!”
Kudos to Baker’s for introducing such an awesome boot design app! You can find the Build-a-Boot tool on Baker’s Custom Boots page, or by going to buildaboot.com.
(Oh, and in case you were wondering: you can still submit custom orders the old-fashioned way, too.)