One Boot Led to Another

"We could have a little western store in Muleshoe, but that's not what we're after. We want you to remember that you came to Joe's Boot Shop."
- Joe Rhodes

By Kristen Tribe

Muleshoe doesn't give away keys to the city, but if you play your cards right, you could become the namesake for a burrito. Just ask Joe Rhodes. Down the street from his boot shop, Leal's menu offers the Joe Rhodes Special - a stew meat and bean burrito with cheese on top, stew meat on the side and two flour tortillas.

Although a good burrito is hard to beat, what Joe is really famous for is boots. He and his wife Darla have been fixtures in Muleshoe, Texas, for more than 30 years. They own and operate Joe's Boot Shop and Country Junction and he runs stocker cattle, sheep and goats.

Back in April, he didn't have any cattle in the feedlot, but he was planning to possibly start back up in the summer. Joe buys his cattle in Florida at about 200 pounds. He starts them on wheat, goes to grass, then back to wheat before sending them to the feedyard. This was the first year he'd run any sheep in a while and he ended up with a pretty good group of goats, too.

"I started feeding in 1969," he says. "Every once in a while, my wife will ask me why I keep doing it . . . It just gets in your blood.

"Being in the cattle business and the sheep business, I'm a trader. I don't consider myself a merchant. I think that changes the whole atmosphere," he explains. "We've got a price to sell a boot, but if you bring in a carving [in reference to several around his office] or ostrich feathers or something, I'll try to trade with you."

This could be called good customer relations, but it stems from Joe's kind-hearted nature. He agrees we all have to make a living, but if someone needs some boots, he's willing to work with them.

Even though he doesn't like to call himself a merchant, his good business sense literally brought the boots to town. For the first several years, Joe and Darla sold boots out of their garage before moving a portion of their inventory to a shop in town. In 1983, they completely closed the business at home and moved everything to the downtown location. 
"We could have a little western store in Muleshoe, but that's not what we're after," Joe says. "We try to make it a happening . . . we want you to remember that you came to Joe's Boot Shop."

Base of the business
Walking into Joe's is like going into a local business back home. Everybody smiles and greets you like they've been trading with your family for years. An eclectic collection of boots line shelves the length of the store, and as you weave your way through tightly packed clothing racks, you'll find yourself in the hat department.

"We've got more than 16,000 pair of boots, 10,000 hats and only 4,000 people in Muleshoe," Joe chuckles. "But we know that if a person drives from Amarillo or Albuquerque and I don't have it, he'll never come back."

Michael Dean, a.k.a. The Hat Doctor, has a customer that makes the roundtrip from Fort Worth to Muleshoe, all in one day. His wife is in bad health, so he can't be away from home for long. He leaves around 4 a.m., gets a hat, then goes back - all because he's never been happy with anyone else.

"Now that's liking how somebody creases your hat," Joe says pointedly. "But we have a deal here that if (Michael) doesn't crease it like you want it, you don't own it."

There's probably not many people that have turned down one of Michael's hats, though.

Joe and Darla's son, Dusty, actually started the hat department, doubling the business Joe says, but sadly, he was killed in a car accident in his early 20s. Michael was a friend of Dusty's and he'd been helping crease hats whenever they had a big sale or special event. Shortly after that he began working full time.

All of Joe and Darla's children helped with the boot business as they were growing up. Their oldest daughter, JoRonda, married to Mark Northcutt, lives in Ethel, La., with her four children, which includes a set of triplets.

Their middle daughter, Lavon, married to Curtis Hunt, is still a big part of their business. She is head bookkeeper, assistant buyer and is in charge of all their advertising. Her two sons, now teenagers, have been doing Joe's commercials for the past eight years.

The road to downtown Muleshoe
Joe was raised in Whiteface, Texas, but he left there to do a little ranching on his own, before he returned to West Texas and went to work for a feedyard in the late 1960s. While he was there, he started buying boots at a discount and guys he worked with decided they might like a pair. Joe started bringing in a few extra. Before he knew it, one boot led to another and Darla and the kids were selling them out of the garage.

"It was never planned," Joe admits. "If we would have planned it, it would have never worked.

"The trade I made with Tony Lama was when they called and said they had boots, they were mine until I turned them down. When I turned them down, they'd hunt somebody else," he explains. "They may call me next week with 5,000 pair of boots, every style, shape and toe. I may have three of one style, 10 of another and only one of a totally different one."

This meant Joe and Darla usually traveled to El Paso every week or so, and he says there'd be racks and racks of boots. He and his wife would take a look and then make an offer on the ones they wanted.

"One day, Louie Lama picked up a boot and asked me how much I'd pay for it," Joe says. "I told him my price, and he said, 'That's all you'll give for this boot?'

"That's all I want to give."

Joe says Louie walked to the door, turned around and threw the boot at him. "Sell them to him!" And he walked out disgustedly.

"We don't do it that way anymore," Joe laughs. "It's all done by computer. They send a document with the style, toe, heel and size listed. We circle the ones we want and then send it back to them. It's altogether different."

As if attracting customers to your garage, miles from town, wasn't challenging enough, Joe wasn't allowed to advertise, except by word of mouth. He was selling boots so much cheaper that Tony Lama didn't want it to hurt their dealers, so for 10 years he operated with no advertising.

Now, of course, they have billboards, print ads, and radio and television ads. They've even started advertising in a Spanish newspaper, Spanish radio stations and will soon be on a Spanish television station.

Since his stock is so varied, it's impossible to sell through a catalog, but he does ship all over the world. And if it doesn't fit or the customer isn't satisfied, it can be shipped back with no problem.

All the trips to El Paso led to the establishment of Country Junction. The boot shop says "Joe," but when you step inside Country Junction, right next door, you definitely think "Darla."

Country Junction carries a variety of items to decorate your home, many with a western flare or Darla's personal touch. Every trip to El Paso they got to know more people and would end up coming back with more trinkets and home accessories. Joe smiles and says it helped pay for gas, and eventually the trips were more about the Junction than the Boot Shop.

Annual event
Fourth of July is when things really heat up in Muleshoe, literally and figuratively. For the past 18 years, Joe's Boot Shop has held a Fourth of July Tent Sale. But this isn't like a Wal-Mart sidewalk sale or the discount buggy with expired canned goods at the local grocery. This is 4,000 pair of boots, $19 to $109; more than 5,000 shirts, $15 to $18; and 1,300 belts for $15 - all bought specifically for this event.

For four days, there's free musical entertainment, food and drawings. The first Fourth of July celebration was actually held while they still worked out of their garage.

"I cooked seven briskets and a guy from Portales came and played all day for $125 at the first one," Joe says. "Seven briskets and we thought we had a big show." He just shakes his head and smiles.

These days a typical Joe's Boot Shop Tent Sale and Fourth of July Celebration serves 96 dozen tamales a day and 10,000 barbecue sandwiches and requires them to hire 64 people, mostly family and friends, to work the event.

"It's outgrown us," Joe says with a grin. The tent reaches from the front door of the Boot Shop all the way across the parking lot to Country Junction on the corner, and although the celebration only lasts four days, the tent stays up for 30.

Joe says your feet will never hurt as bad as they do after working those four days. But customers look forward to it every year. He knows of one family from Washington State that plans their vacation around it so they can meet their kids in Muleshoe.

Such a loyal customer base is hard to come by, especially in a town of only 4,000 people. Of course, this has attracted the attention of a few chain western wear stores, but Joe says his inventory usually overwhelms them.

Doesn't seem like he'd want to sell right now anyway.

Joe credits much of the success of his business with the people they hire and the friendly service they provide. But his good-natured generosity and feel-good attitude doesn't hurt either.

"Regardless of what you buy, we want you to get your money's worth," says Joe matter-of-factly. "And another thing, if you need something, we'll try our best to find it for you."