PAUL BOND:  WEAR THE LEGEND

“Wear the legend” is their motto, and they more than live up to it.  Paul Bond had cowboy in his blood, growing up on the family ranch near Carlsbad, New Mexico. By the age of sixteen he was breaking horses for the cavalry, riding bareback broncs in rodeos, and learning custom boot making at a local saddle shop. He became a champion trick rider and bareback rider, while making boots in the off-seasons.  In the 1940s he opened a custom boot shop, moving it to Nogales, Arizona in 1957.  His extravagant designs and unmatched workmanship drew local ranchers and working cowboys, as well as the rhinestone cowboys of Hollywood.

The cowboys-turned-movie-stuntmen that knew Bond from the rodeo circuit ordered boots, and eventually major star power such as Gene Autry, Rex Allen and John Wayne became his customers.  Hollywood’s love affair with Bond grew over time. Clint Eastwood, Stewart Granger, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra and singing cowboy Rex Allen flocked to Nogales for boots.

Bond constructed six pairs of boots for the movie “Judge Roy Bean” starring Paul Newman, who, at the beginning of the show, wore a 3-inch heel that became progressively shorter as Judge Bean aged. At the end of the story, it measured one inch.