Casey Anderson knows his hats.
For 16 years, Anderson has been managing the Cowboy Shop in Cottonwood, currently in its third location.
“This building used to be a McDonald’s,” Anderson said, pointing out that the shop still has its original fast food doors.
Instead of smelling like burgers, the shop greets visitors with the smell of leather, as boots, shirts and all other sorts of Western wear hand on the racks and walls.
Anderson knows his hats but he knows his shoes as well.
Anderson also runs a shoe repair shop out of the back.
The demand for shoe repair varies these days in an era when it is often cheaper to just buy new footwear.
When it comes to well-made dress shoes, though, Anderson said that the cost of having shoes repaired can be worth it.
It’s kind of a family business.
Anderson is originally from Flagstaff, where his grandparents operated a shoe repair and Western wear business for nearly seven decades, off of Laroux Street downtown.
It was the Shoe Hospital, Anderson said, more commonly referred to as the hospital.
Of course, it really wasn’t “western wear” back in the day, it was just the utilitarian clothing cowboys and ranch hands needed on the job.
They still need them but times are ever changing as people continue to relocate to the area from all over and for all types of reasons.
Anderson can tell a visitor all about hats, their composition, along with proper care and handling.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Aug. 12, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
