One of the key PNW work boot makers, JK Boots has stepped out into the heart of the west and launched a new western brand called JK Western.
But JK isn’t stopping at just new cowboy boots. It looks like they have plans for cowboy hats, trucker caps, a ladies line, and possibly even shirts as well.
Introducing JK Western
JK Western kicked off mid November 2023 with two models: The Ace and The Buck.
The Ace is a classic cowboy boot with an almond-toe and a rich smooth leather upper.
You’ll see the distinctive toe-bug, which to me is reminiscent of a head of wheat. This calls to mind the open fields of the mid-west—some real Americana stuff right there.
The Ace is available in Redwood (a brown leather with a hint of burgundy in there), and Black.
The Buck is a square toe cowboy boot with a roughout lower and a smooth shaft with some contrasting stitching.
The Buck is more work-oriented with a rubber studded sole (compared to The Ace’s butyl leather sole).
When I asked about their inspiration, Tim Khadzhi from JK told me “The Ace is for the city, and The Buck is for the country, so between these two boots, you’ll have everything you need to chase the adventure.”
JK Hats?
I was scrolling through the new JK Western social media accounts and saw that the classic cowboy hats a lot of the models were wearing were also branded JK Western. While JK Western has a few trucker caps available right now for sale, it stands to reason that we can expect to see some classic felt cowboy hats soon from the brand.
JK Western also has a section on their site for women’s boots, though that part isn’t stocked yet. My guess is that there’ll be some overlap between the design of The Ace and The Buck, but maybe with some added feminine touch for the ladies.
Where is JK Going?
I’m loving this energy from JK. They’re breaking out of the PNW bootmaker mould and going big.
I anticipate seeing JK Western grow into a fully-fledged western brand, with apparel and all. Given how well their handmade work boots are regarded, it stands to reason that these product-focused people will nail it again.
So is JK still making work boots?
Yes, I asked Tim Khadzhi, the son of JK’s founder John, if this will impact lead times or any of the operations at the JK workshop in Spokane.
“No, we’ve expanded the team to run with JK Western. We have a big part of our customers who live the frontier values, and JK Western is our chance to put that into boot form.”
I’ve noticed that lead times at JK Boots has continued to decrease over the past year, so I also asked Tim about that.
“We’ve been able to continue to get the best quality craftsman here into the workshop in Spokane. It’s not super exciting to the outside world, so we don’t talk about it a lot, but we’ve been doing so much work internally to not only produce more boots, but also make them drastically better.”
When I went to visit the JK workshop back in March 2023, they’d just added three new QC stations, which is no small investment. Based on my experience with the JK O.T. I’d say it’s working.