City saddles up as cowboy couture draws young fans

The Cowboy Boot Store sells a range of Western-style clothing and accessories

"This ain't Texas," this is South Yorkshire - but you could be mistaken for thinking otherwise inside a Sheffield shop.

Cowboy Boot Store owner Pete Tooley credits recent albums by Taylor Swift and Beyonce with making country music and fashion more popular with a mainstream audience.

Mr Tooley says he has seen a rise in the number of younger customers coming through the doors of his Division Street shop, which sells boots as well as Stetsons, belts and buckles.

“It’s just got bigger and bigger, we’ve just responded to demand," he says.

Many of the boots are handmade and can sell for more than £500

Mr Tooley, 63, first began selling cowboy boots as an online venture, but says customers from across the UK are making their way to Sheffield to get their hands on his goods.

"We have people coming here from Scotland, Wales, the south coast and a lot of people from London."

The shop was originally known as Rocky Horrors and opened in the mid-90s, selling rock merchandise and a few cowboy boots.

Mr Tooley set up the Cowboy Boot Store website in 2013.

It became so popular he decided to transform the store and change the name to follow the online brand at the end of 2023.

Pete Tooley says his store is attracting more younger customers

The footwear on offer is often handmade and comes from makers across the globe including Spain, Italy, the US and Mexico.

Mr Tooley initially believed there would not be enough demand from people in Sheffield to warrant a physical store - but says time has proved him wrong.

"Now lots of people are coming here and I think we’ve probably got the best range in the country," he says.

Although the store sells all kinds of Americana apparel, the cowboy boots are the stock the store is most famous for.

According to Mr Tooley, the popularity of cowboy boots has been on the rise for some time.

He believes it could be linked to more country music crossing over into the mainstream.

“Obviously, now there’s Beyonce and Taylor Swift, but we’ve noticed it’s been getting bigger for a few years and we’ve been getting younger people coming [in] for them as well.

"[It] could be that their parents have been into it from when they’ve been young, whereas it used to be people in their 40s and 50s who listened to country music.”

Pete Tooley originally started by selling rock merchandise

The store sells boots at music festivals around the UK and Mr Tooley says he has even kitted out some of the performers.

“We supplied Lonnie Donegan’s son, Peter, who was on The Voice.

"I don’t know too many of the stars, as I was always more into rock, but Megan Moroney bought some boots off us at the Long Road festival in Leicestershire and she ended up headlining and wearing them on stage that night!”

Megan Moroney is an American country music singer-songwriter whose debut album Lucky was named best Country and Americana album of 2023 by music magazine Rolling Stone.

With Shania Twain’s recent turn at Glastonbury and Taylor Swift’s outfits going on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London this summer, is Mr Tooley ready for an even bigger influx of Gen-Z shoppers?

“Well, you never know. We’re always ready for anything, really!”

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