About Spur & Stitch

Why this site exists

Almost every guide to buying cowboy boots is written for someone who already owns a pair. They open with brand comparisons and leather grades, and they assume you know what a welt is, why a heel is angled, and which toe shape suits your foot. If you are standing in front of a wall of boots with a concert in three weeks, none of that helps.

Spur & Stitch starts from the other end. Every page here is written for a first-time buyer: what the decision actually is, which bits matter, and what to ignore. There are currently 93 guides across six sections, and they are ordered the way a first purchase actually goes - pick a boot, work out the size, learn how not to ruin it, then build the rest of the outfit.

Who writes it

Selena H. is the owner and editor of Spur & Stitch. She started the site after discovering how much western-boot buying advice assumes you already know what a welt is. Every guide here is written for the person buying their first pair.

That bio is short on purpose. We do not claim decades in the western industry, a background in bootmaking, or a testing lab, because none of those would be true - and a thin honest bio is worth more than a rich invented one the moment anybody checks.

What we do differently

• We say what we have not done. We have not worn the boots we write about. Our methodology page says so in the first paragraph rather than burying it.
• We do not publish prices. They move too fast to keep accurate, so every product links to its live listing instead. The site is built so a price cannot be typed into a page at all.
• We match products to buyers rather than ranking them. The right boot depends on your foot, your budget and what you will do in them, which a ranked list cannot express.
• We name products we earn nothing on. Some of the best boots are sold direct and we make no commission on them. They are in the brand map anyway.
• We answer the adjacent questions. Toe shapes, shaft height, width letters, heel slip, break-in, socks, boot jacks, resoling. The small questions are the ones that decide whether you enjoy the boots you bought.

Who publishes it

Spur & Stitch is owned and published by Selena Hann. It is part of Juniper Reviews, a small group of independent review sites.

The site is funded by affiliate commission - when you buy through one of our links the retailer pays us a percentage, at no extra cost to you. The full detail is on the affiliate disclosure page, and our editorial standards are on the editorial policy page.

Get in touch

Email contact@spurandstitch.com, or use the contact form. Corrections get read first.