PrintSan Antonio's Big Boots
Big Boots by Bob "Daddy-O" Wade
When Bob Wade talks about all the places his children have been over the last 30 years, he speaks of road trips, TV commercials, book covers, billboards, and the inside of snow globes. Wade’s “children” are four stories high, weigh five tons, and can hold, according to Wade’s estimations, 300,000 gallons of beer each.
Thirty years ago, the well-known Texas artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade created the world’s largest boots. Since then, Big Boots have made their way from Washington, D.C., to San Antonio, undergone renovations, sheltered a homeless man, housed a country-Western radio station, and been viewed by millions of people. When Wade first made the boots he didn’t know if they would still be standing in a year’s time. Now, after gaining national recognition and a NASA-developed sealer coating, it looks as if the boots will last longer than him.
The artwork, two 40-foot-high ostrich-skin cowboy boots made of urethane foam and steel — much of it recycled from torn-down buildings in the D.C. area — was brought to life by Wade through the Washington Project for the Arts in November 1979. These profound images of the West stood three blocks from the White House for a year before they had to be replaced by a new installation. Wade had no idea what to do with the mammoth footwear until the Rouse Company, a shopping mall and community developer, contacted him and requested to buy the boots and relocate them to Wade’s home state of Texas. Three freight trucks and 1,600 miles later, the boots made it to their new home in front of San Antonio’s North Star Mall, in plain view of Loop 410.
Bob "Daddy-O" Wade poses on a rooftop overlooking Big Boots.
Of course the boots’ hike wasn’t easy. The oversized cargo got stuck in an overpass before leaving the city. “Too high, too long, and too wide,” Wade recalls, “It could have been a country song.”
Knowing the load was not regulation size, the movers decided to take back roads to avoid the police, constantly asking drivers in the area about the presence of police on the road ahead via their CB radio.
Today the Texas-size boots sit adorned with lighted stars in front of Saks Fifth Avenue. And they’re here to stay. North Star Mall has no intention of removing the work of art that has helped put it on the map and become a symbol of San Antonio.
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