Lisa Sorrell is the founder, owner and artisan of Sorrell Custom Boots in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
From the July 2009 issue of High Noon’s great Monthly eMagazine.
In a most engaging conversation with Lisa Sorrell, it became immediately evident that this woman is truly an artist passionate about her work – creating some of the most beautiful boots anyone’s feet could ever don.
“I’m a boot maker, not a cowboy” is her opening statement. And how she stumbled into her craft is story of the most unlikely of circumstances. Lisa was raised in a strict religious community in Missouri akin perhaps the Amish. At an early age, Lisa began sewing her own clothes as what she was allowed to wear couldn’t be “bought at Macy’s.” By the age of 15, she was an accomplished seamstress sewing clothes for women in the community. At the age of 20, she married and together she and her new husband moved to Oklahoma. Needing a job and knowing her talent for sewing, she answered an ad in the local paper for a position stitching boot tops. She had absolutely no idea what this was – had never heard of it before. But, her sewing skills landed her the job and she spent the next 1-1/2 years working with master boot maker and designer Jay Griffith. And the rest as they say, is history.
By 1996, she opened her own business which, as she tells it, could never have been done without the dedication and support of her husband Dale. Now, both wife and mother, her husband provided her the team support to develop her artistic design skills and begin marketing her rich creations. She began by making real working cowboy boots but her real love was creating what she calls “office boots” – the kind of boots men wear with the finest suits in professional environments. It was these “office boots” that brought her artistic talent to the forefront. In the most charming of statements, Lisa believes “cowboy boots are a way for men to wear high heels in bright colors.”
Well done Lisa for in just 3 short years, her work was recognized and featured in Tyler Beard’s hard-cover coffee table book, “The Art of the Boot” published by Gibbs Smith in 1999.
Today, Lisa’s clients span the globe from Belgium to Buenos Aires. While the majority of her clients are men, the number of women she designs for is on the rise. She meets personally with each of her clients for custom fittings but more importantly so she can glean the personality of the person destined to wear them. Through that, she can create the design and incorporate the colors that will reflect the heart and “sole” of the wearer. “They aren’t just a piece of footwear, they tell a story.”
As a boot maker and an artist Lisa feels that “cowboy boots are the perfect representation of art and craft meeting.” Today in her studio, she employs an apprentice but don’t expect overnight results. The intense design work and craftsmanship that goes into each pair takes time. You can be sure, though, that they will be worth the wait!
You can get more information at her website by clicking HERE.
Lisa Sorrell
Sorrell Custom Boots
217 E. Oklahoma Avenue
Guthrie, OK 73044
405-282-5464