Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Fair Leather Friend: Robert Herrera learned the bootmaking trade from his father in his native Chile.




His boots are made for walking

Willow Glen craftsman Robert Herrera's handmade boots are a labor of love

By Michele Leung

For a portrait of a bygone era, look no further than Roberto Herrera, Willow Glen's embodiment of old-fashioned craftsmanship.

Herrera makes leather boots by hand, but his skills also extend to sandals, wallets and tool belts. His store, located at 1195 Meridian Ave. since 1990, overflows with evidence of his handicraft. The rich smell of leather permeates every inch of the space, and the walls are lined with cowboy boots from top to bottom. His boot sketches look like complex geometry equations, with enough base lines, perpendiculars and angles to challenge a math teacher.

For incredulous customers who don't believe that Herrera custom-makes his boots, he is more than willing to explain each step of the process with a tour of the back room where he works. "That's what sold him to me," says customer Bill Ross, who owns three pairs of Herrera boots.

"He's an artist. He's not a bootmaker," Ross says.

The back room is truly where the magic happens. Herrera, who as a teen learned under his father's tutelage in Chile, works with five employees in assembly-line fashion. He begins by taking separate measurements of the customer's left and right foot. "In thirty years, I've never found that they measure the same," he says.

After the measurements, Herrera draws the patterns for the leather to form the upper of the boot. The upper is sewn together from 10 pieces of leather and is stretched for five days over a last, which is a model of a foot. After five days, the leather is cured, ready for a sole to be constructed. In all, 25 hours of labor go into making a single boot.

"All those combinations of measurements plus the selection of the materials and thirty years of experience--that's an incredible fit," he says.

Customers appreciate the attention Herrera and his crew give to their labor. "I like the care and the precision. I like that Herrera is highly motivated and extremely knowledgeable," says Charles Davis, whose wardrobe boasts five pairs of the handmade boots, with three more in the offing.

According to Herrera, the most requested leather is cowhide, which comes to him from Chicago. But if that's too mundane, customers can choose from other hides with an international flair. "I only get the best leather in the world," including ostrich from Botswana and lizard from Argentina, he says.


Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Sole Mate: Juan Carlos adds the soles to the boots during this step of the boot-making process.




The Willow Glen bootmaker has had high-profile customers, such as Dana Stubblefield and Ralph Tamm of the 49ers and Robert Swanson, the recently deceased founder of Genentech. He has a contract to outfit the Los Gatos Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and the horse-mounted and motorcycle units of the San Jose Police. He also makes boots for carpenters, polo players, truckers, ranchers and regular folks who want to walk in style.

Herrera prefers to work with classical looks, those that have been tested by time. "That's my line of work," he says. "Fashion is different because it changes every year."

Though the Chilean expatriate has three decades of experience, he still considers himself a student. In between sketches, he finds time to bone up on the latest on orthopedic shoe technology.

Herrera is also an aspiring writer. Acknowledging that his work is a soon-to-be lost art, he would like to leave some instructions for posterity. He's even got the book title figured out: "Secrets of Bootmaking: How to Make Boots with Passion," he says.

His sons might benefit from such a book. While father Herrera would love to be able to hang a "Herrera and Sons" sign outside his window, he's not one to push. "Only time will say," he says.

His youngest son Raphael, 10, is looking forward to spending some time with his father's tools. "But I'm not going to work until I'm 12," Raphael says. "That's when my two big brothers started work."

With so much of life devoted to his craft, Herrera concedes how hard it would be to walk away. "I say I will retire every year, but I don't see myself doing anything else. I have to say that the smell, the noise, the directions--this is my life," he says.

He says he considered closing up shop after the death of his oldest son this past year, but even a personal tragedy couldn't lead him to quit. Instead, the painful event reaffirmed his faith in the healing power of his work. "When my son died, I realized that this is my life," he repeats.

While the outside world is pushed by fast-paced widgets and gadgets, Herrera's domain will certainly be driven by his labor of love for a long time to come.

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