Tres Outlaws Boot Company · History

Why collectors care

Tres Outlaws is a small El Paso art and bespoke shop, not a volume factory. Collectors meet extreme stitch counts, kangaroo braid, and silver in-boot inlays, then need paperwork before an unlabeled spectacle pair becomes a Tres Outlaws caption.

Taxonomy here is Bootmaker. Disambiguate other “Outlaws” labels and Falconhead retail-era stock. Extreme motif alone is not a stamp.

Shop history

Illume (21 May 2018) and Falconhead’s Tres story date the house to 1995 in El Paso, founded by Scott Wayne Emmerich, Jerry Black, and Carlos Salazar. Emmerich is a Pennsylvania native who reached El Paso in 1980, sold boots in Los Angeles, and ran the Falconhead boutique that later retailed the pairs. Salazar left before 2000. Black retired about 2004. Emmerich remained the public lead.

A USPTO application by Scott W. Emmerich, filed 1 September 1994, claimed first use 28 July 1994. That filing was later abandoned. It is trademark history, not a second founding year.

Texas Monthly (June 2002) listed the shop, named Emmerich and Black as co-owners, and described supply to Falconhead in Brentwood and other high-end retail. Period figures in that profile started about $595 with a four-to-eight-week turn. Specialties included hand-stitching up to 25 rows, braided kangaroo piping, and silver inlays built into the boot. Those prices and waits are period benchmarks.

An AP / Plainview note names master bootmaker Asunción Campos, from León with Tony Lama and Justin years, and says Campos started with Tres Outlaws in 1985. That year conflicts with the 1995 founding and is not used as a company date.