![]() ![]() , headquarters to El Paso and moving more assembly operations from the El Paso plant into GTE's maquila or ''twin'' plant across the Mexican border in Juarez. He is moving manufacturing operations from GTE's San Carlos, Calif. Miller says the end of the fad ''certainly doesn't change the positive outlook'' for Tony Lama.Īnother example of positive outlook comes from Robert Hamilton, general manager of the General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GTE) Lenkurt plant in El Paso. The urban-cowboy fad, he says, brought a sudden leap in earnings last year, making '82 earnings look poor by comparison. He adds that the company has benefited from good management, a position as an industry leader, and ''a favorable labor environment in El Paso.'' Miller says the only additional change may be to put more capital into the El Paso firm. With an $81 -million friendly takeover nearly complete, Mr. vice-president in Houston, agrees that the Tony Lama Company's prospects are bright. Stock analyst Harry Miller, an Underwood Neuhaus & Co. This area, says Lama, is growing fast and every newcomer - such as El Paso's Connecticut-Yankee Mayor Jonathan Rogers - is bound to need boots. One reason is that 88 percent of his boot sales are west of the Mississippi in the Sunbelt. ''Our regular customers are getting by with buying one pair instead of three pairs.'' Sales are off, and retail outlets are carrying smaller inventories and so Tony Lama has a 45-day inventory of boots rather than its normal 30-day supply. ![]() This is down from last year's 1,625 workers and 5,400 pairs a day - a drop that has cut into company profits. has 1,350 employees turning out 4,200 to 4,400 pairs of boots a day. Lama Sr., a former cavalryman, started the business in 1911 to repair boots for El Paso's US Cavalry units and for local ranchers.Īfter overseeing four major plant expansions and now preparing for the next one, Tony Lama Jr. was turning out 125 pairs of boots a day. Lama started working full time for his father in 1954, Tony Lama Sr. He recalls with a broad grin just how spectacularly El Paso has changed. One of the direct beneficiaries of bank building has been Tony Lama Jr., chairman of the board of El Paso's 1-million-pair-a-year Tony Lama western boot company. Jordan, now a mergers and acquisitions consultant, ''and then the bank builds the community.'' He put Mexicans on the bank board and became a banker to Juarez as well as to El Paso. Jordan brought in a team of 18 other outsiders and launched ''a very aggressive loan policy,'' visiting everyone from company presidents to cotton farmers to let them know expansion capital was available. To help the explosion along a little, Mr. Shop, your Tony Lama store, for a great selection of Men's, Women's and Kids' Tony Lama Boots.When Glen Jordan gave up New York City winters to become president of El Paso's State National Bank in 1970, he found both year-round golfing and ''a little country town with country bankers that was fixing to explode.'' Together, Justin and Tony Lama set the standard for cowboy boot quality and craftsmanship. In 1990, Tony Lama Boot Company joined the Justin Boot family. In 1961, almost 50 years from the time Tony Lama opened his first store, the Tony Lama Boot Company moved to larger headquarters and began making 750 pairs of cowboy boots a day! After Tony Lama died in 1974, his sons and daughters continued the Tony Lama heritage of quality handcraftsmanship, making the Tony Lama family's story a real American success story. To keep up with demand, he fashioned inventive ways to produce more boots without sacrificing the important steps in handcrafting cowboy boots. Ranchers and cowboys came from far and wide – joining the cavalrymen already patronizing his business – bringing hides and asking for custom made Tony Lama boots. While Tony Lama and his small shop still devoted a good amount of time to boot repairs, word began to spread throughout the Southwest about Tony Lama's cowboy boots. Having learned first hand from the soldiers the great importance of a good fitting boot, he wanted to create the best fitting, most comfortable boot possible. Cavalry as a cobbler for the soldiers of Fort Bliss, Texas. Post turn of the century, he went to work for the U.S. There, he learned about leathers and the boot trade. ![]() By age 11, he had embarked on his training in the boot industry as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Syracuse, New York. The son of Italian immigrants, Tony Lama, was born in 1887.
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