All summer long, customers at Crossroads thrift store in downtown Evanston have shown buyer Lucy Garcia inspirational photos and videos from TikTok, Pinterest or Instagram. Many of them have one thing in common: vintage boots.

With summer festivals in full swing, boots have become an essential accessory to all kinds of outfits. Whether it’s a floral dress with cowboy boots, a denim skirt with full-grain leather Frye boots or long-forgotten skinny jeans with daffodil-yellow banana boots, these outfit pieces are everywhere from the shelves of local stores to paparazzi photos of celebrities. 

“It’s getting harder and harder to find vintage cowboy boots because everybody wants them right now,” said Elizabeth Perez, 25, co-owner of another downtown Evanston thrift store, Heyday Vintage Collective. “This is trendy.”

Glamorized in 1930s Western cinematography, cowboy boots reached a zenith and downfall in the span of the last century. Soon after that, ‘60s go-go boots climbed the fashion pedestal. They were replaced with Y2K furry boots. For a long time, the now-trendy boots went out of style.

Last year, however, the narrative shifted. In 2025, the global vintage boots market was valued at $4.8 billion and is projected to expand to $8.1 billion by 2034, according to DataIntelo, a global market research and consulting firm. During July’s first week, Amazon US Weekly searches for “cowboy boots” were approximately 28,000, surging 175 positions from the previous week. 

Caroline Bierig of Chicago, 17, said she’s seen many people wearing vintage boots on TikTok and Pinterest recently. Before going to a country music concert with her friends in Chicago, she found inspiration for her outfit by looking at photos of other attendees of the festival. Boots were a staple of many of the photos she found. For the festival, Bierig ended up wearing a white floral dress in pair with dark brown cowboy boots. 

Still, Bierig said she wore vintage boots even before they went viral. 

“It’s always been a personal preference for me. I just like the way they look,” Bierig said.

Elizabeth Perez of Schaumburg, 25, has a different perspective on the prevalence of boots. Doing a project for her speech class, she concluded that celebrities and niche influencers are the drivers of microtrends like vintage boots. Perez said they post videos reviewing their expensive clothes, and then they “disregard it and move on to the next thing.” She said the boots trend is a nostalgia for ‘60s Americana style with a low heel and side zippers on boots, but she is pessimistic. She thinks they’re not going to stay popular.

Meanwhile, Bierig borrows her mom’s vintage boots to go out with friends. The same boots her mom wore when she was her age. With a revival of country-styled clothes, now Caroline uses the shoes for specific occasions. Bierig is confident the trend is “here to stay.” She thinks cowboy boots have become a staple in people’s closets.

“I think people will continue to wear them,” Caroline Bierig said. “I know I will.”

Back at Crossroads, Garcia, 22, has watched the trend evolve from conventional vintage boots to an array of modern interpretations from high-fashion brands, as well as mass-market companies. Though some of them are more expensive, the quality correlates with price.

“It sort of became like the Miu Miu ones, and then it was the Steve Madden ones, and then slowly they started trickling down into Amazon dupes,” Garcia said.

The boots industry is growing rapidly. Whether it’s because of overconsumption, celebrities or their good fit with your floral dress, the fact is vintage boots are at the top of summer’s must-have outfit pieces, despite their disadvantage in a heatwave.

“I’m sweating in them,” Garcia said. “But they’re cute.”