Wild Bill

Hi folks, I'm Bill Dewbre and welcome to Wild Bill's website. I'd like to invite you to have a look around and if you don't find what your looking for, give us a call and let us personally help you find just the right boots, hats, belts or anything else you are looking for.

If you are in Dallas, drop by our store located in downtown Dallas, TX, where we've been for over 40 years and where you'll find the finest in western wear, boots, hats and many other Texas gifts you won't likely find anywhere else.

We also specialize in custom boots and western events and parties, so if you want to "give boring events the boot," give us a call. We have the willingness, desire, expertise and integrity to add "The Spirit of Texas" to your event anywhere in the world.

Please feel free to send any comments; we would love to hear from you.

If anyone's steeped in old-time Texan cowboy spirit, it's Dewbre.

Now a sprightly, tanned 59 year old, he's been in Western-wear since the age of 12, when he first began to learn the trades of fine leather craft, engraving and hand tooling from his master-craftsman father.

In archetypal cowboy-style, Dewbre Senior lived his life in adherence to a handful of pithy campfire mottos.

"One of the sayings that sticks in my mind my dad used to tell me is: 'Anything's easy if you know how- practice just helps,' Dewbre says. "I didn't really get it at the time, but I did practice a helluva lot. And I guess I practiced it until I could do it well."

This emphasis on friendly fireside spirit is proof of Dewbre's observance of another of his father's favorite aphorisms: "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet."

Or perhaps it's simply the Texas host in him. "To me," Dewbre says, "a Texan sets his mind to something, and he'll do it-there's no messing.

But we're also a friendly bunch. The friendliness ain't just a legend."

Eye the merchandise in Dewbre's store, and you're left with no doubt as to why celebrities are drawn to it like stampeding bulls. Wild Bill's Western boot leathers are impeccable, filling the stores with the musty scent of resin. The designs are all his or his father's. The hats are measured, shaped according to preference (the Garth Brooks or perhaps the Clint Eastwood, depending on customer taste) then steamed to fit perfectly.

For Dewbre, it's sound business to dress cowboy; you'll find him kicking around in worn-in jeans and a Western shirt. "I've been doing this since I was 12 years old, so I've seen a few changes in my life and in this business," he says.

"But the typical boots people like – and the Western shirts – they've been around since way before I have. Sometimes you'll get new fashions, like when Urban Cowboy [a 1980 John Travolta flick] came out, it made a huge difference to what people would ask for. But, basically, it's just the cowboy boots they've always desired since they were kids."

Buy your Britney Spears hot-pink Stetson elsewhere folks; this is the real deal. "As I see it, a good boot takes an artist to design it, an artist to cut it out in leather, and an artist to stitch it back together," Dewbre says. "You want something cheap? Any cheap store can sell a plain-Jane cheap pair of boots. With my boots, people ask me how long they're gonna last, and I say, 'It depends on how much fun you're planning on having!'"

He continues, "You may think it's not there, but it's inside us all-I guarantee. I see it in people when they come in to try on a hat, or put on a pair of cowboy boots. They'll just throw their chest out and strut around like crazy."

And with that, "Wild" Bill Dewbre, gatekeeper to the Old West, digs in his custom-fitted boots and rides off into the sunset.