Texas

How Two Sisters From Texas Bootstrapped A Luxury Cowboy Boot Brand, Miron Crosby

Published

1 year ago

October 21, 2024

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Miron Crosby flagship studio in Highland Park Village, Dallas

Courtesy of Miron Crosby. Photo: Jessie Barroway

There’s a certain class of ultra-luxury brands that only a select few know about. These cognoscenti brands are ultra-exclusive, ultra-authentic and often ultra-expensive but also handcrafted for those who value ultra-quality.

That was the original definition of “quiet luxury,” until it morphed into a no-logos fashion look that everybody seems to be wearing these days.

Miron Crosby is such an original “quiet luxury” brand, but the product it makes is anything but quiet – bespoke, luxury cowboy boots. Miron Crosby serves a narrow niche within the wider luxury boot market, but that’s the thing about ultra-niche luxury brands. Its niche clientele pull others who want to be in the know into the brand’s orbit.

In true “quiet luxury” fashion, Miron Crosby whispers, it doesn’t shout. It’s become a thriving business that has grown into three stores, called studios, since its founding in 2017.

Its flagship studio is located in Dallas’ exclusive Highland Park Village. Houston opened last year in historic Lamar River Oaks center and in its first venture outside Texas, it has a studio in Aspen, CO where the quiet-luxury crowd flocks in the winter. Miron Crosby also has a thriving e-commerce business where you can design-your-own boots in your private jet.

“We are a fashion brand that makes cowboy boots and the fashion component is what really differentiates us,” shared co-founder Lizzie Means Duplantis with me.

“There was a total void in the market for handmade, hand lasted cowboy boots that were really ‘luxe’ and fashion forward, particularly for women,” though the company also offers boots for men and kids too.

Boots In The Blood

Lizzie is joined by her younger sister Sarah Means in the Miron Crosby adventure. They grew up on a far-flung cattle ranch outside Marfa, TX, which their family has run since 1884 – just a year after the fictional Yellowstone Dutton family set off from Texas to Montana, but I digress.

The company name is a take on their great-grandfather’s, Marian Otis Means, with Crosby coming from the name of a pasture on the ranch and it’s also their favorite street in SoHo.

Growing up, cowboy boots were part of the sisters’ ranch uniform, but being girls with an interest in fashion, they never settled for standard styles. They had a special insiders’ connection where cowboy boots were concerned.

Their cousins owned the Rios of Mercedes Boot Company in South Texas and the girls were able to design their own boots and play with colors and materials at an early age.

Rios remains one of Miron Crosby’s three valued manufacturing partners operating on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Winding Road Back To Texas

After attending an Austin boarding school, both sisters graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, then headed to New York City to make their way.

Lizzie’s first gig was as an intern in the marketing department at Forbes, which she turned into a full-time gig for five years. After that, she moved into finance at Goldman Sachs. Sarah followed a path in fashion, working for Loeffler Randall, which specializes in footwear.

But both women brought their cowboy boots along to NYC. “I was kind of Uptown and Sarah, as the creative one, was more Downtown, but we both wore our cowboy boots to work,” Lizzie said. “So I’d go to Goldman in my pencil skirts with my cowboy boots and Sarah did the same. Always people would stop us on the street and ask where they could get a pair.”

Sisters Sarah Means (L) and Lizzie Means Duplantis (R) in Miron Crosby flagship Highland Park … [+] Village, Dallas

Courtesy of Miron Crosby. Photo: Jessie Barroway

That early market research sat idle for a while as Lizzie returned to Texas, married, started a family and launched a furniture rental business. Sarah followed back to Texas shortly after, but to pursue a law degree at Texas Tech University.

“Being the bossy older sister, I finally sat Sarah down to talk seriously about the cowboy boot idea. I sold my rental business and used that money to fund Miron Crosby,” Lizzie said.

Sarah added, “It was a crazy time. Lizzie was pregnant with her third child and I was in law school so I had to commute back and forth to the store on the weekends.”

That was in 2017 and Sarah completed her law degree in 2018. But practicing law wasn’t in the cards. She immediately went full time to work at Miron Crosby.

Timing Right

The sisters’ instincts proved right as “cowboy chic” became a thing with the premiere of Yellowstone in 2018. “People are thinking about the West more than they were before, which only helps our category. We’re of the belief that rising tides lift all ships, and the more exposure to western wear the better,” Lizzie said.

While the company offers off-the-shelf selections, it’s known for bespoke personalization – having one’s initials or special date sewn onto the boot’s ear pulls or having a handwritten note transcribed into the liner of the boot.

The website also offers a design-your-own app where a customer can design their boots from a variety of features, colors, materials and styles. And a custom concierge service is available in studio or by phone to walk the client through creating their custom boot from the sole up.

Customization takes a bit longer for delivery, but then, the wait is part of the brand’s authentic luxury.

Taking It To The Bank

Miron Crosby has enjoyed remarkable success. Year-to-date, sales are running nearly 50% over 2023 and it increased the number of new customers by 69% in that time. About two-thirds of revenue is generated at retail, with the remaining one-third from e-commerce.

Growth like can strain an entrepreneurial venture, especially as the company was opening a new store in Houston last year. They found themselves strapped for cash but instead of turning to the venture capital markets, which Lizzie with her background would have no trouble navigating, they went to the bank for a loan instead.

“It was an interesting time trying to figure out what to do,” Lizzie shared. “We put a deck together and entertained the notion, but at the 19th hour we secured a bank loan and we’ve worked past that now. We ultimately decided we didn’t want to go the VC route and kept it in the family.”

Not being a cognoscenti in cowboy-chic style, I asked how many cowboy boots a woman can own and Lizzie said, “You’d be surprised. You can wear them any where, from work to date night to a wedding and knocking around town. But you’ll want to change them up depending on the occasion.”

Miron Crosby’s data proves that point. Some 47% of sales are generated from repeat customers.

Kicking Up Their Heels

Marilyn Monroe famously said, “Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.” Boots are even more empowering and with the right pair of cowboy boots, she’s ready to take on the universe, just ask English-actress Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton in the Yellowstone series.

Beth is truly a kiss-@ss character and how better to do that than in a pair of cowboy boots. And what professional woman doesn’t want a bit of Beth to rub off on her? I don’t mean the conniving, vengeful, brawling Beth, but to have some of her fearless strength and take-no-prisoners attitude.

That’s what Lizzie channeled in her Goldman Sachs days when she made cowboy boots part of her work uniform. Now she and her sister Sarah are giving women the chance to feel that same cowboy-boot power through Miron Crosby.

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Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Published

11 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Recruiting a running back out of the NCAA transfer portal wasn’t clean and simple after the winter window opened last week, but the Texas Longhorns were able to land a huge commitment from Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown on Thursday.

The 5’9, 196-pounder has one season of eligibility remaining.

Texas offered Brown out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana (Calif.) when he was a top-100 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. A consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 3 running back nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings, Brown committed to home-state USC without taking any other official visits.

Brown’s career with the Trojans didn’t go as planned, however — after flashing as a freshman with 227 yards on 42 carries (5.4 avg) with three touchdowns and 16 receptions for 175 yards (10.97 avg) and three touchdowns, Brown moved to wide receiver as a sophomore and only appeared in two games, recording three catches for 16 yards and a touchdown.

Wanting to play running back again, Brown transferred to Arizona State in 2024, but was limited by a hamstring injury to 48 yards of total offense.

In 2025, though, Brown finally had his breakout season with 186 carries for 1,141 yards and four touchdowns, adding 34 receptions for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Brown forced 53 missed tackles last season, 67 percent of the total missed tackles forced by Texas running backs, and more than half of his rushing yardage came after contact.

Brown ran a sub 4.5 40-yard dash and sub-11 100-meter dash in high school and flashed that explosiveness with runs of 75 yards and 88 yards in 2025, so Brown brings the speed that the Longhorns need with 31 yards over 10 yards, as well as proven route-running and pass-catching ability.

At Arizona State, the scheme leaned towards gap runs, but Brown has the skill set to be an excellent outsize zone back if Texas head coach Steve Sarksian decides that he wants to major in that scheme once again.

With one running back secured from the portal, the question becomes whether Sarkisian and new running backs coach Jabbar Juluke want to add a big-bodied back to the roster or are comfortable with rising redshirt sophomore Christian Clark and incoming freshman Derrek Cooper handling that role.

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Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Published

23 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

article

Texas lawmakers are lighting up social media with opinions about the fatal shooting of a woman in a car in Minneapolis by an ICE officer on Wednesday morning.

Reports from officers differ drastically from those of uninvolved eyewitnesses — the official DHS stance is self-defense against a “domestic terrorist,” while bystanders tell a story of an innocent woman trying to leave peacefully.

The political internet arena Texas is divided along party lines. Republicans generally condemn Minnesota leaders’ reactions to the shooting, while Democrats are calling for ICE to be investigated for the possible murder of a civilian by an anonymous officer.

Texas Republicans react

Among the most vocal of the Texas GOP members after Wednesday’s shooting, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston) was quick to question Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s dismay at the incident. Hunt posted the following to X, formerly Twitter:

“We’ve hit a breaking point in this country when an ICE officer is rammed by a lunatic in an SUV and the Mayor of Minneapolis responds not with condemnation, but by telling federal law enforcement to “get the f*ck out!”

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 22: Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hunt, currently in the running for U.S. Senate, later reposted a Fox News video of Gov. Tim Walz’ reaction. Hunt compared Walz to Jefferson Davis before posting a full statement later in the evening that reads, in part, as follows:

“The radical left isn’t turning the temperature down, they’re cranking it to 450 degrees. When leaders normalize this kind of rhetoric, the outcome isn’t hypothetical. It’s dangerous. It’s reckless. And it puts lives at risk. If violence follows, responsibility doesn’t belong to the officers enforcing the law, it belongs to the politicians who lit the fuse.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was more to the point with his criticism of Minnesota leaders, reposting a different video of Walz and referencing the recent fraud scandal within the state.

Walz in the video said Minnesota is “at war with the federal government.” Cruz replied, “Is that why y’all stole $9 billion?”

Texas Democrats react

The other side:

State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), another candidate for the same U.S. Senate seat as Hunt, rang in from the other side of the aisle.

“At our town hall last night, I called for a full investigation into ICE,” Talarico said in his post on X. “Today, an ICE agent shot and killed a civilian. We should haul these masked men before Congress so the world can see their faces.”

State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, during a campaign event in Houston, Texas, US, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Talarico is jumping into the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas, taking on a former

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, yet another Senate hopeful, also expressed his ire for the actions in Minneapolis.

“As a civil rights attorney, I’m outraged by today’s ICE shooting in Minnesota that took a woman’s life,” Allred said on X. “No family should lose a loved one this way. No community should live in this fear. ICE has become a rogue agency — operating recklessly, terrorizing communities, and now taking lives. To every community terrorized by these tactics: I see you. I stand with you. And I won’t stop fighting until you’re safe.”

Minneapolis fatal ICE shooting

The backstory:

An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

Federal officials are claiming the agent acted in self-defense, but Minnesota leaders disagree. The shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. in the area of East 34th Street and Portland Avenue. The woman died at the hospital.

Witnesses told FOX Local that a woman got into a red vehicle and there was one ICE agent on either side of the vehicle trying to get in, and a third ICE agent came and tried to yank on the driver’s side door. One of the agents on the driver’s side door backed away, and then opened fire, shooting three times through the driver’s side window, witnesses said. One witness said the vehicle wasn’t moving toward the agents. However, federal officials said ICE officers were “conducting targeted operations” when “rioters” blocked officers. One of the “rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Officials said an ICE officer who was “fearing for his life” fired “defensive shots” to save himself and his officers, killing the woman.

A video of the shooting shows a red Honda Pilot blocking the roadway as an ICE squad approaches. When agents approach the vehicle, the Pilot attempts to drive away, moving towards an agent. When that happens, the agent fires three shots at the driver. Police say the driver was struck in the head. The agent appears to mostly avoid the vehicle as it speeds past and ends up crashing into a parked vehicle.

The Source: Information in this report comes from public statements made by Texas lawmakers on social media. Background comes from FOX 9 coverage in Minneapolis.

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Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

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Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

A Texas teachers union has sued the state over what it said was a trampling of educators’ free speech rights when hundreds came under investigation for their comments after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

The Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers filed the federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner Mike Morath on Jan. 6, the union said. The suit claims investigations into at least 350 teachers after Kirk’s death were “unlawful” and that a letter issued by Morath to superintendents around the state targeting “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” prompted punishment and retaliation against teachers.

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth-focused organization, Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump. Shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has been charged with his murder.

After Kirk’s death, a wave of backlash came in response to online posts condemning his views or otherwise criticizing him. Right-leaning public figures and prominent social media accounts called for firings of people whose posts they deemed inappropriate.

Morath’s letter on Sept. 12 directed superintendents to report “inappropriate conduct being shared” to the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division, which investigates teachers for allegations of misconduct, the Texas AFT said in its suit, which was reviewed by USA TODAY. The union said teachers were investigated not for speech made in classrooms, but for posts made on their personal, often private social media pages.

“In the months since, the consequences for our members have run the gamut from written reprimands and administrative leave to doxxing and termination from their jobs,” AFT Vice President and Texas Chapter President Zeph Capo said at a news conference.

The Texas Education Agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Jan. 7.

Lawsuit claims teachers were disciplined for exercising free speech

The lawsuit filed by the Texas AFT claims that teachers in public schools have a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and that their speech in their personal capacity, such as on social media, is protected. The suit claims that teachers’ rights were violated when they were investigated or faced disciplinary action for their posts about Kirk. It also alleges that the policy to report teachers for “inappropriate” content was unfairly vague.

“These teachers were disciplined solely for their speech, without any regard to whether the posts disrupted school operations in any way,” the lawsuit reads.

Teachers whose cases are mentioned in the lawsuit were kept anonymous, Capo said, to protect them from further harassment. Many teachers are fearful to express any more opinions, effectively silencing their speech, he said.

One of the teachers, who made a post described in the lawsuit as one that “simply raised questions about the circumstances of Mr. Kirk’s death and did not promote violence in any way,” was shared by a lawmaker who used it as part of an election campaign and called for the teacher’s dismissal. The high school English teacher, who has taught for 27 years, was placed on administrative leave and later fired. She settled a wrongful termination claim with the school district, the lawsuit said.

Another teacher of 16 years and a military veteran who previously won “Teacher of the Year” in his school district and made posts criticizing Kirk for his views on Black Americans is under an ongoing investigation by the state agency, the lawsuit said.

“We denounced Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we denounced violence after Uvalde. We denounce violence,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “What happened in the next few days (after Kirk’s killing), wasn’t about violence or denouncing violence, it was about muzzling the expression of constitutionally protected nonviolent speech.”

Dozens lost jobs over posts about Kirk

In the wake of Kirk’s death in September, USA TODAY counted dozens of examples of people who lost their jobs, were suspended or investigated over posts or comments they made about the conservative podcaster, including educators, lawyers, doctors, first responders and others.

They include a dean at Middle Tennessee State, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, who was fired for a social media post saying she had “zero sympathy” for Kirk; a Marine who called Kirk a “racist man” who was “popped”; and Jimmy Kimmel, whose ABC show was temporarily suspended after he made comments about Kirk.

Some educators who lost their jobs filed lawsuits alleging their free speech rights were violated. A teacher in Iowa who compared Kirk to a Nazi; a South Carolina teacher’s assistant who posted a Kirk quote and said she disagreed with him but called the death a “tragedy”; and an employee of an Indiana university who said Kirk’s death was wrong and condemned some of his beliefs all filed suits on free speech, according to reporting from the USA TODAY Network. Each case kicked up a flurry of social media outrage and calls for the educators’ firings.

In Tennessee, a tenured theater professor at Austin Peay State University was reinstated after originally being fired for comments he made online after Kirk’s killing, the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently reported.

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