CITY Boots · History

History

CITY Boots was founded in 2015 by Lizzy Chesnut Bentley, an Amarillo native and fifth-generation Texan. She told the Houston Chronicle that her grandfather bought her first pair of pink cowboy boots when she was four. At SMU in Dallas, classmates from out of state kept asking where to buy boots like hers, and later, at 25 and working in oil and gas in Houston, she couldn’t find a cowboy boot that was easy to wear to the office. The company began as a hobby on Facebook; when the oil market turned in 2015, she left her job, and she and her mother flew to Mexico to find a manufacturer. Her first order was 50 pairs, which sold within six months.

Bentley opened a flagship store in Fort Worth in 2019, followed by a Dallas storefront and, in 2023, a Houston store in River Oaks District. A 2025 profile in 360West counted 18 employees and showrooms in Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth, so the lineup of stores has shifted over time. The best-selling style, the Amarillo, is named for her hometown.

The boots

CITY Boots are made by hand in Mexico, and product pages print “Handmade in Mexico.” Bentley told the Chronicle in 2020 that “most brand-name cowboy boots are made in Leon by family-owned businesses,” and that her boots are crafted “the old artisan way.” The line is built around feminine, classic shapes in unusual colors such as yellow, purple, and Tiffany blue, with models named for cities: the Amarillo, the Houston, the Austin, and others. In 2020 prices started around $300, with the Amarillo listed at $950.