HANDMADE IN LEÓN, MEXICO
Our motivation to start RUJO was kindled by our passion for cowboy boots. After all, as native Texans, we were practically born in them. After lifetimes choosing from selections of overpriced and underbuilt boots, we abandoned the search for the perfect cowboy boot and instead, decided to make it ourselves.
So, our story takes us to the source. We sought out the origin of the footwear which is so well-known and well-loved today: León, Mexico. Known as the Cowboy Boot Capital of the World, this city has the highest concentration of bootmakers on the planet, and is renowned for its premium quality leathers, hides, and master craftsmen.
It was in León that the first cowboy boots were made for the earliest cattle ranchers, known as vaqueros, in the 1700’s, and it was there that the tradition of the cowboy boot was born. Since then, the famed craftsmen of León have continued to make boots by hand for hundreds of years. They are, quite simply, the most experienced and most talented western boot makers on Earth.
Every stitch is painstakingly sewn, every peg is carefully hammered into place, and every fragment of leather is carefully scrutinized; yielding a finished product that is elegant, strong, and true to the roots from which it was born. Today, the name León is synonymous with a heritage of excellence that exists nowhere else in the world—a heritage that lives on in every pair of RUJO Boots.
When you lift the lid on a box of new RUJO’s, you are unpacking over two hundred years of American history, distilled and refined into the ultimate example of the modern cowboy boot. All that's left to do now is slip it on and enjoy it.