These boots are made for talkin’
“I’ve always been a cowboy-boot girl,” says Lizzy Chestnut Bentley. As a child, she often wore a pink pair to school. She never wanted to take them off .
Now, as the 29-yearold founder of City Boots, she doesn’t have to. The direct-to- consumer company Bentley established in 2015 specializes in “top-shelf boots for the modern cowgirl, city slicker and everyone in between.”
And yes, they come in pink. City Boots are unapologetically feminine. It’s part of their appeal.
“So many boots for women are clunky, too big in the calf or really loud,” Bentley says. “Ours are a little more classic, with fun design elements.”
Including color with a capital C. Yellow, purple and Tiffany-blue cowboy boots aren’t exactly traditional, and that’s just fine with Bentley. She was inspired to launch City Boots after a search for customizable boots at a reasonable price yielded unsatisfactory results.
“When I went to (Southern Methodist University), there were a ton of out- of-state girls from California and Chicago who had no idea where to buy cowboy boots,” she recalls. “Then, when I was 25 years old and working in oil and gas, I couldn’t find a professional cowboy boot that was easy to style. Those two things came together, and that’s where the idea for City Boots was born.”
Her company started out as a hobby on Facebook. Bentley says that she’s always had the entrepreneurial itch, and designing footwear provided a creative outlet.
“When the oil market turned in 2015, it was time for me to leave and explore other industries,” she says. Thankfully, her business was already underway. On a whim, she and her mom flew to Mexico over a long weekend to find a manufacturer. “Most brand-name cowboy boots are made in Leon by family- owned businesses that are really quality conscious. Our product is crafted the old artisan way.”
And it’s likely the reason City Boots are so comfortable. Bentley says they can be worn on
the same day they’re purchased — in other words, her customers skip the painful breaking-in period.
Who is City Boots’ target audience? “Someone who’s not afraid to take a risk,” Bentley says. “She might wear her boots to a parent-teacher meeting, the grocery store, a rodeo gala or with a blazer and jeans to work on casual Friday.
“I wear mine under black-tie dresses,” she adds with a wink.
Her most-requested style is currently the Amarillo, a $950 leather and suede mashup named after her hometown. With a 16-inch shaft — which is 1 inch taller than classic City Boots — and two-tone beige and bone colorway, it’s Bentley’s rendition of the recent white boot trend.
The Chadbourne, $850, is another popular, albeit unique, choice. “It’s hunter green with lighter stitching accents,” Bentley says.
She’s no stranger to taking risks and trusting her gut. When she launched the company, her biggest challenge was figuring out how many boots to place for the first order.
“I didn’t have a lot of money because I was so young,” she says. “I ordered 50 pairs, and that was a huge deal for me. Worst case, I would sell them to friends at wholesale, but fortunately, they flew off the shelves within six months.”
During those early days, Bentley built the website herself and would drive traffic from social media. Instagram has long been her business’ biggest marketing asset — she says that platform resonates deepest with millennial consumers.
City Boots’ founder also makes the Junior League and country- club rounds. Female shoppers like to meet the woman behind the boots.
“We’ve just launched our kids line, which is so fun,” Bentley says, remembering how much she treasured her own pink pair. “That’s the best feeling, when I run into a customer who can’t wait to tell me how much they love their boots.”