Enid Justin (1894–1990) was the daughter of H.J. Justin and the founder of Nocona Boot Company, which she opened on September 1, 1925, with $5,000 borrowed from the local bank and five employees who stayed behind when her brothers moved Justin Boots to Fort Worth. She was the first woman to own and operate a cowboy boot manufacturing company — a fact she had to conceal for years to keep cowboys buying her product.
Enid Justin. From the Enid Justin–Nocona Boot Company Collection, UNT Special Collections via the UNT Digital Library. Likely public domain (pre-1928 photograph); rights held by the Enid Justin–Nocona Boot Company Collection at UNT Special Collections.
Biography
Enid Justin was born on April 8, 1894, in Nocona, Texas, the fourth of seven children of Herman Joseph and Annie Justin. Boot leather was the family atmosphere: her father had founded Justin Boots in Spanish Fort in 1879, moved the operation to Nocona in 1889, and built it into one of the most recognized names in Western footwear. Enid began stitching boots in the family shop at around age 12. When she left school after the seventh grade — following a suspension for dancing at her brother's birthday party — she went straight to the factory floor and never looked back.
H.J. Justin died in 1918. In 1925, her brothers John and Earl accepted incentives from the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce — a free building site, tax abatements — and moved the entire company 160 miles southeast. Enid believed her father would have wanted the business to stay in Nocona. She stayed. She borrowed $5,000 from the local bank, retained five skilled workers who chose not to relocate, rented a 1,000-square-foot building that had been one of her father's early plants, and leased machinery from a St. Louis supplier. She opened Nocona Boot Company on September 1, 1925. The first year ended $267.61 in the red.
Because cowboys explicitly told her they didn't want to buy boots made by a woman, her first husband Julius Stelzer was listed as company president. Enid ran the business in every practical sense — designing the boots, keeping the books, managing the floor, and driving a Model T Ford with a "turtle back" to make sales calls across North Texas. Her first sale was to Shabay Brothers in Jacksboro. She paid herself $3 a week while paying Julius $15.
The early market was unexpected: oil had been discovered near Nocona, and Enid designed a 16-inch lace-up boot for oil field roughnecks — tough, protective, waterproof enough for the work site. The oil field market sustained the company while she built out her Western boot line. During the Great Depression she kept every employee; there were no layoffs and no wage cuts. She later said she treated her workers as family, and some stayed with her for more than 50 years.
The boots themselves reflected her philosophy. She insisted on solid leather heels rather than hollow ones, waxed silk thread throughout, and 18-inch tops — high enough to discourage rattlesnake strikes. She developed her own design patterns, naming them after whatever inspired them: a "brocade" taken from the fabric of her couch, a "neck" taken from a wrinkled old man she noticed at a funeral. She embraced exotic leathers early — python, kangaroo, lizard, rattlesnake, elephant — and later introduced "PeeWees," a shorter-topped boot for the 1970s fashion market.
By 1948, the factory employed 240 workers and produced 450 pairs a day. Sales reached $1 million that year. By 1972, 1,200 pairs a day and $8 million in sales. By 1981, the operation had grown to 650 employees across two plants, 1,700 pairs a day, and roughly $27 million in annual sales. In 1935, Paramount Pictures featured her in its "Unusual Occupations" newsreel series — she was the kind of story that stopped audiences: a woman running a boot factory, and winning.
In 1981, following legal proceedings Enid later described as having been tricked into, Nocona Boot Company merged with Justin Industries. She received approximately $3 million in stock and continued briefly as a consultant. She had previously declined acquisition approaches from Charles Tandy and Tom Florsheim. Nocona production continued under Justin Industries until 1999.
Enid Justin remained in Nocona until her death on October 14, 1990, at age 96. She was buried in the Nocona city cemetery. The UNT Special Collections hold the Enid Justin–Nocona Boot Company Collection, including photographs, correspondence, and business records. In 2024, a book about her life was published: The Lady Makes Boots: Enid Justin & the Nocona Boot Company.
She summed up her own character plainly: "I've always been accused of having a pretty big ego, of being strong-willed, aggressive and a staunch businesswoman. I plead guilty to all of the above."
Why She Matters
- Justin was the first woman to own and operate a cowboy boot manufacturing company in the United States — achieving this in an industry that was openly hostile to the idea of a female proprietor, and sustaining it for more than 55 years.
- She built one of the top five Western boot companies in America from a starting position of zero outside capital, seventh-grade education, two failed marriages, and active industry skepticism — never losing ownership control until the 1981 merger she later disputed.
- Her decision to stay in Nocona when her brothers left preserved an economically vital industry for the town; Nocona's identity as a leather-goods hub (it also became home to Nokona baseball gloves) traces directly to her presence.
- She is a National Cowboy Hall of Fame and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee — recognized for both the craft and the historic significance of what she built.
Sources
- Encyclopedia.com / Women in World History, "Justin, Enid (1894–1990)"
- Humanities Texas, "Born in Boots: Interview with Enid Justin"
- UNT Portal to Texas History, Enid Justin–Nocona Boot Company Collection
- Wikipedia, "Nocona Boots"
- Texas Woman's University, IBID Vol. 18 (2025), "For the Love of Nocona"