Business • Downtown Las Vegas • Arts & Culture
Old Country Boots Opens at Neonopolis in Downtown Las Vegas
What began in a Las Vegas garage has grown into a Fremont Street workshop where Javier and Amy Martell are preserving a labor-intensive bootmaking tradition shaped by both American and Mexican Western culture.
By Samantha Reyes | Las Vegas News
Photography by Megunmi Yokoi / Las Vegas News
Published Sept. 10, 2026
Old Country Boots formally celebrated its Neonopolis location at 450 Fremont Street on Thursday with city leaders, business figures, community guests and representatives from federal and state offices. The event highlighted the Martell family’s growth from a garage operation to a Downtown Las Vegas workshop built around handmade cowboy boots and leather goods.
LAS VEGAS — With Mayor Shelley Berkley presenting recognition to Old Country Boots founder Javier Martell, Councilwoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong smiling behind the podium and Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi applauding nearby, the Sept. 10 grand-opening celebration quickly became something larger than a routine retail ribbon-cutting: a public showcase of small-business growth, Western craftsmanship and a Las Vegas family story that now has a prominent home on Fremont Street.
The ceremony drew Mayor Shelley Berkley, Councilwoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong, Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi, Latin Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Peter Guzman, Mexican Consul Patricia Cortés Guadarrama, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chair Mike Dreitzer, community leaders and invited guests.
Also attending were Dr. Katherine “Katie” Duncan and her husband, Dr. Reed; New Hope Foundation International CEO Ryuichi Fujita; singer-songwriter Gloria Jones; Las Vegas News Editor-in-Chief Prince Adeyemi; Rose Price; and other dignitaries and community figures.
Gov. Joe Lombardo, U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus did not attend personally, but their offices were represented at the gathering. During the ceremony, Old Country Boots also received formal state recognition, including certificates from the offices of the governor and Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony.
From a Las Vegas garage to Fremont Street
The polished storefront at Neonopolis is a long way from where Old Country Boots began.
Javier and Amy Martell say they started the family business from their garage with a goal of bringing back American-made cowboy boots built with traditional methods. The company’s published history says demand grew first among friends and then through word of mouth, eventually turning the craft into a business.
Javier Martell told KLAS that his interest accelerated after expensive commercial boots repeatedly failed on him. He took classes from a traditional bootmaker, began making boots himself and eventually opened a shop near Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue. As the operation grew, Old Country Boots moved to Neonopolis for additional space.
Martell, a Rancho High School graduate, has also connected the craft to family history. Entravision’s Noticias Nevada reported that his grandfather made boots in Sonora, Mexico. Old Country Boots separately says Javier and Amy later trained with Montana bootmakers Dan and Julia Schwarz, whose traditional work and teaching were profiled this year by the American Craft Council.
That combination matters. Martell’s story is not simply one of inheriting a family trade, nor simply one of formal instruction. It is a story of cultural influence, deliberate training and years spent turning a difficult handcraft into a viable Las Vegas business.
A craft with deep roots in Nevada’s Western history
The heritage Martell describes also has a documented place in Nevada history.
The Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, in its extensive research on Nevada buckaroo culture, notes that Hispanic California vaqueros preceded Anglo cowboys in the Great Basin range-cattle industry and strongly influenced Western horsemanship, equipment and vocabulary. In northern Nevada, the Spanish-derived word “vaquero” eventually evolved in local speech toward “buckaroo.”
That history gives context to Martell’s own description of the craft. In an August interview, he told KLAS that the tradition belongs to both American and Mexican culture. His goal, he said, is to keep a demanding style of bootmaking alive at a time when mass production dominates much of the footwear market.
The Sept. 10 celebration also came just days before the official Sept. 15 start of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the national observance as Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, while the City of Las Vegas had already begun promoting its 2026 Hispanic Heritage programming.
What “handmade” means inside the shop
The workshop behind the storefront is central to the story.
Old Country Boots says its custom process begins with design choices and precise measurements, then moves through pattern work, cutting, decorative stitching, shaping the vamp, lasting the leather, building the insole and attaching the sole and heel. The company’s process guide describes the use of wooden pegs in traditional assembly and stacked leather in heel construction.
For bespoke clients, the business also offers individual foot casting rather than relying only on standard shoe sizing. Martell told KLAS that a highly customized pair can take roughly 300 to 600 working hours, reflecting the amount of hand labor involved.
The new Downtown location gives visitors something the previous business model could not emphasize as easily: a view into the making itself. Customers can encounter the finished boots at the front of the business while the workshop behind them shows the slower process that gives the product its value.
A different kind of tenant for Neonopolis
For Neonopolis, the addition also reflects the continued evolution of a property built around experience-driven Downtown traffic.
Neonopolis describes itself as a roughly 250,000-square-foot complex at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, with dining, nightlife, entertainment and event spaces. Old Country Boots adds a different dimension: part retail store, part workshop, part custom-fitting studio and part demonstration of an old craft.
The opening also follows renewed attention on the long-term role of developer Rohit Joshi in Downtown Las Vegas. Las Vegas News recently profiled Joshi’s decades-long path in business and his vision for Neonopolis. The Old Country Boots opening offers a ground-level example of how that strategy can translate into an individual tenant — a local maker using a high-visibility Downtown address not only to sell products, but to make the process itself part of the visitor experience.
Civic leaders, business advocates and community figures gather
The guest list reflected several parts of Las Vegas civic life.
Mayor Berkley, elected in 2024 after previously serving seven terms in Congress, joined Councilwoman Summers-Armstrong, whose Ward 5 includes culturally significant portions of Fremont Street and Historic West Las Vegas. Latin Chamber President Peter Guzman attended as the organization marks 50 years since its 1976 founding; the chamber says it now serves more than 1,500 members across Nevada.
Mexican Consul Patricia Cortés Guadarrama brought another connection to the event’s cross-border cultural theme. Her official biography says she has more than 25 years in Mexico’s Foreign Service and has held diplomatic and community-facing posts in the United States and Europe.
Nevada Gaming Control Board Chair Mike Dreitzer was also among those attending. Gov. Lombardo appointed Dreitzer to lead the board in 2025 after a career spanning gaming regulation, law and executive leadership.
Dr. Katie Duncan, founder of the Las Vegas Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce and a longtime Historic Westside community figure, attended with her husband, Dr. Reed. Duncan’s public biography credits her with leading restoration efforts at the historic Harrison House and supporting small-business development in the Westside.
Ryuichi Fujita, CEO of New Hope Foundation International, joined other nonprofit and community leaders. Federal nonprofit records compiled by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer list Fujita as the organization’s chief executive officer.
Country music gave the ceremony its soundtrack
The celebration did not stay confined to speeches and certificates.
Las Vegas-based country entertainer Chase Brown performed for the crowd, bringing the event’s Western theme from the workshop onto the stage. Brown, who describes his act as a Texas-to-Las Vegas blend of country music and showmanship, has built a recurring local performance presence in the city.
Veteran singer and songwriter Gloria Jones was also among the guests in attendance. Jones is best known for first recording “Tainted Love” in 1964 and later working as a Motown songwriter and recording artist. She attended Thursday’s celebration but did not perform.
The distinction matters because the musical performance belonged to Brown, while Jones’ presence added another strand of cultural history to a gathering already centered on heritage and preservation.
More than a ribbon-cutting
Grand openings are common in a city built around constant reinvention. What made this one different was the contrast at its center.
Outside, Old Country Boots now occupies a high-traffic Downtown address surrounded by entertainment, tourism and the neon energy of Fremont Street. Inside, the work still depends on measurements, patterns, leather, stitching, wooden pegs, hand tools and time.
That tension between old methods and a modern Las Vegas location is what gives the business its story.
Martell has said he sees traditional bootmaking as a craft worth preserving precisely because fewer people are willing to invest the time required to learn and practice it. The American Craft Council has documented a similar challenge among traditional bootmakers, noting that formal opportunities to learn the trade have become harder to find.
On Thursday, the result of that preservation effort was visible not only in the boots on display, but in the mix of civic leaders, business advocates, artists, community figures and government representatives who came to mark the next stage of the Martells’ business.
For Old Country Boots, the move from a garage to Fremont Street is a measure of growth. For Downtown Las Vegas, it adds another locally rooted business to a corridor often defined by spectacle. And for visitors who step inside, the most interesting part may be what happens after the ceremony is over: the slow work of making the next pair.
Old Country Boots: 450 Fremont Street, Suite 179, Las Vegas, NV 89101.
Photography: Megunmi Yokoi / Las Vegas News.
Reporting note: Attendance details and the distinction between officials who appeared personally and offices represented at the ceremony were confirmed through Las Vegas News’ on-site reporting.
