Sure, boots are made for walking, but Brittany Cobb wants you to strut.
Late this past summer, Cobb opened the sixth location of FleaStyle, her popular boho-Western-wear shop, at Galleria Dallas. With it came a new addition to the FleaStyle experience: a boot bar. Similar to the store’s build-your-own hat bar, the boot bar will allow customers to accessorize and decorate their favorite pair of cowboy boots.
Cobb says she’s wanted to do a build-your-own boot bar for as long as she’s had the hat bar, which first launched in early 2021 at the Deep Ellum location. “I love a hat, but I know it’s not necessarily for everyone,” she says. “But I think most Texans have a pair of boots in their closet.”
The boot bar will operate just like the hat bar. Customers will pick out a tray of accessories and accents. Think pins, brooches, feathers, and scarves tied around the boot. They can bring those pieces home or take them over to a Flea Style stylist, who will “help bring your hat to life,” Cobb says. “You can go wild and really make it one of a kind with our stylists.”
Cobb says that while many of the accessories can do double duty between the hats and boots, like her favorite vintage tie bars, the boot bar will have its own exclusive accents. Flea Style’s boot offerings include chains and “boot bracelets” to wrap around the ankle and “boot earrings” and charms to embellish the pulls up top. The shop is even repurposing vintage bullet casings, adding “feathers and fun things” to them, as another type of charm. All the accessories can be removed, she says. “The idea behind it is that it’s extremely flexible, adjustable, and really changes with your mood.” a
You can keep your shoe simple, but it can get pricy, depending on how accessorized you want your boot to be. (Charms are $6, while boot scarves and chain wraps are $18 each.) The Galleria location also rolled out a new branding station to “take your boot or hat to the next level and really customizing permanently.” Get lettering or symbols like longhorns and stars hot stamped into your hats and boots for $8 a brand.
All of Flea Style’s stylists are trained to teach customers how to bring their ideas into fruition, Cobb says. “There’s an art to tying the perfect knot.” Plus, she wants to ensure your design holds up. “It’s one thing to wear something on your hat, but your boot gets a lot of wear and tear.”
Like the hat bar, the boot bar will take walk-ins, Cobb says, but she recommends making a reservation. Not only will that guarantee a stylist, but you’ll also get a free glass of champagne. You can bring in your own cowboy boots from home, or shop for boots at the store, but currently only two Flea Style locations sell the shoes themselves. The Galleria location has around 100 pairs of vintage boots, and Deep Ellum keeps a selection of City Boot offerings.
Cobb says boots are harder to carry than hats—you need more space to store them and a wider inventory of sizes. But “leaning into the boot business is something that we’re taking seriously and slowly.” While the boot bar is only offered at the Galleria and Deep Ellum locations, Cobb and her team are working to bring the experience to the Frisco and Fort Worth locations as well.
However, boots and branding aren’t the only things Cobb has in the works: Flea Style is developing its own custom hat line. There’s not much to be said yet about it, Cobb says, but the line will include five styles in 30 colors and will hopefully roll out for the holiday season this year.
Even if it doesn’t, “this year has definitely been a big one for us,” Cobb says. In addition to the boot bar and the new Galleria store, Flea Style renovated its Deep Ellum and Frisco locations earlier this year, and launched its two Fort Worth shops in late 2021.
Says Cobb, “We’re always looking for ways to make our bars bigger and better and badder.”
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