Alligator Boots

These boots were designed as a submission for the F.A.M.E. Alligator Competition. We were each given an alligator hide to use in a product and I chose this beautiful, blue hornback. My goal was to use every bit of the hide that I could so I decided to patchwork it and make a version of Jodhpur boots.

This was my first experience using an alligator skin. It was a learning process from the beginning. Cutting this hide was scary and exciting but was a great experience. I had to learn how to work with the calcium deposits in the ‘horns’ and figure out the best ways to work with them. It was a great challenge to turn this into a pair of boots.