On The Road: Cowboy Boot Skates
In the Lone Star state you can find folks wearing cowboy boot for everything from bull riding to black tie affairs. Today I went On the Road to Walnut Springs, Texas to meet John Wayne Feddersen, Jr., a man who loves his boots so much he's taking them from strolling... to rolling.
When Feddersen was a boy, he loved to go roller skating and went so often that he wore out his roller skates. When his mom told him they couldn't afford new skates, and he would have to wear the rentals from the skating rink, he could bear the thought of it so he came up with an idea. "I took a hack saw and cut the top off of my old skates and went in my room and took my new boot and made my own" Feddersen said, "I drilled hole plum through the top of my new boots." And the first pair of cowboy boot skates was born.
What did his mom say about his invention? "Oh she got the switch after me, that's when you got a switch, and whooped me good," he laughs, "and then I got grounded from the skating rink. But after the grounding was over and I got to go skating in them, it worked out great and I've been skating in them ever since."
Through the years he has made several pair for friends and family. Each time he figured out how to better attach the skates without drilling through the boot. Now Wayne's Western Wheels is selling boot skates for everyone from little cowboy and cowgirls to adults that want a comfortable skate that has attitude. "You can see that from wherever you are in the skating rink, it draws your attention"
He makes can makes skates out of any boot and has several that he sells, from a pink girls boot to his favorite John Deere boot skates. He currently has a few skate shop around the country that sell his boots but most of his orders come on his website wayneswesternwheels.com.
So for the guy or girl who never wears anything but boots, now they can look stylish as they roll around the skating rink.
