Nocona Boots

The Nocona Boot Company traces its origins to 1879, when Herman Joseph "Daddy Joe" Justin began bootmaking in Spanish Fort, Texas. Around 1890, the Justin family moved their operation to Nocona to take advantage of railroad shipping facilities. H.J. Justin taught his seven children the bootmaking trade, and after his death in 1918, the children continued operating the business.

In 1925, the Justin brothers decided to relocate H.J. Justin & Sons operations and equipment to Fort Worth. Enid Justin, who had worked in her father's shop since age twelve, believed her father would have wanted the company to remain in Nocona. She organized the Nocona Boot Company as a copartnership with her husband Julius L. Steltzer, along with Jess B. Thompson and E.D. Keller. The company opened for business on September 1, 1925.

Despite initial challenges including equipment purchases and local prejudice against buying boots made by a woman, the business prospered when the 1926 oil boom near Nocona created demand for strong, high-laced work boots. The company was incorporated in 1926 with $20,000 in authorized capital stock. Net profits rose from $1,180 in 1926 to $14,998 in 1929, largely due to Justin's extensive sales trips into West and Central Texas. In 1926, Justin and her younger sister traveled by Model T Ford throughout Texas selling boots.

The company repaid its initial $5,000 loan within one year. During the Depression, Justin supplemented the boot company's income by selling Norge electric washing machines, taking coal orders, and preparing lunches for oil field workers.

The original downtown factory eventually proved inadequate for growing demand. In 1948, a new manufacturing plant was constructed east of Nocona on U.S. Highway 82. The facility opened in 1949 with 33,000 square feet and the company established the Nocona Boot Company Western Store that same year. The facility later expanded to approximately 100,000 square feet.

Production declined during World War II due to material shortages but recovered afterward. The company experienced significant expansion during the 1960s and 1970s. By 1980, net sales reached $19,420,390. An additional plant opened in Vernon, Texas in 1977. By 1981, the company employed approximately twenty-five salesmen covering all fifty states.

In June 1981, Justin Industries acquired all of Nocona Boot Company's outstanding stock, bringing the two family boot companies full circle. The company became one of eight Justin Industries subsidiaries. Enid Justin retained her position as president and chairman of the board of the Nocona operation and continued leading the company until her death in 1990 at age ninety-six.