1950s Acme Pee Wee Cowgirl Boots
Size: Women’s 5 A
Maker: Acme Boot Company (Clarksville, Tennessee)
Material: Mahogany Brown Leather with Cream Floral and Leaf Inlays
Condition: Good Vintage Condition
The Boots
A beautiful pair of 1950s-era Acme pee wee cowgirl boots in rich mahogany brown leather with cream leather floral and leaf inlays on all panels. These are a textbook example of the pee wee boot style that dominated women’s Western fashion in the late 1940s and 1950s — shorter shafts, extravagant inlay work, and the kind of feminine proportions that made these boots as much a fashion statement as a piece of functional footwear.
The mahogany brown leather shafts carry an elegant botanical motif rendered in cream leather inlay. On all four panels, long pointed leaves and flowing vine stems are cut from cream leather and inlaid into the brown, creating a climbing floral design that reaches from the ankle to the scalloped collar. At the center of each panel, a cluster of small round berries or buds sits atop the vine — three to four small cream circles grouped together like a spray of flowers. The inlay work is delicate and precise, with each leaf tapering to a fine point and each vine curving gracefully between the stitchwork. Green-tinted stitching outlines every inlay element, adding subtle color depth to the two-tone design.
The scalloped collar is trimmed in white leather piping that follows the curves of the V-notch at front and back. The vamps are smooth mahogany brown leather with an aggressive pointed toe — the classic 1950s Western profile with a sharp, narrow point that was the height of fashion in that era. The stacked wood heels sit at a moderate walking height with an underslung profile, and the leather soles show the pegged construction typical of boots from this period.
Acme Boot Company and the Pee Wee
The pee wee boot emerged in the late 1940s as a direct result of World War II leather rationing. With leather diverted to the war effort, bootmakers were forced to conserve material, and the short-topped pee wee — with its extravagant inlay work using small pieces of leather — was the creative solution. What started as a wartime necessity became a postwar fashion phenomenon. Acme Boot Company of Clarksville, Tennessee was one of the largest producers of pee wee boots, making Hollywood-inspired Western designs accessible to everyday Americans through catalog sales and retail stores across the country. Their pee wees were a massive hit with women through the 1950s, and surviving pairs with intact inlay work have become highly collectible.
Condition
These boots are in good vintage condition for their approximately seventy years of age. The mahogany brown leather has developed a deep, rich patina with natural creasing at the instep and wear at the toe tips consistent with decades of existence. The leather remains supple and the color is warm and even. All cream leather floral and leaf inlays are fully intact and securely stitched on all panels — a remarkable achievement for boots of this age. The green-tinted outline stitching is intact throughout. The white piping at the scalloped collar is in place. The leather soles show moderate wear with pegged construction visible, and the stacked wood heels show honest use but remain solid. A well-preserved pair from the golden age of the pee wee boot.
