Mingo Boot Company · History

History

Mingo Boot Company was an El Paso family shop at 6966 Alameda Avenue, profiled in Joe Nick Patoski's June 2002 Texas Monthly roundup. The company was founded by Domingo Jauregui, a former foreman at the Tony Lama Boot Company, and was later run by his sons George, Mike, Julio, and Mingo Jr. The 2002 profile says Jauregui founded the company in 1973 after Tony Lama Sr.'s death, but Tony Lama's own company history, the Handbook of Texas, and a New York Times obituary all place that death in January 1974 — a year later than the profile's account.

The shop specialized in Vibram rubber bottoms, basic boots, all-leather side-sewn insoles, and orthopedic boots, priced from $200 with a three-to-four-week turnaround. It was a multi-person family operation rather than a one-man bench, and it is a different business from the Tony Lama factory itself.