Product Review: Boot Butler

The Boot Butler in action all packed and ready to go in the trailer. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The Boot Butler in action all packed and ready to go in the trailer. Photo by Kate Samuels.

As riders, there’s nothing we love quite as much as some good boots. It doesn’t matter what discipline you ride, whether it’s western or English, dressage or eventing, you’ve got a collection of boots. We have tall boots, rain boots, going-out-dressed-normally boots, and even high heeled boots for the special occasion. This can lead to a jumble in your closet, and definitely in your trailer when you pack to go to a competition.

The Boot Butler proposes a handy solution to this problem, in the most space saving way of any boot organization system. Lightweight and easy to assemble, the Boot Butler offers the opportunity to safely and securely hang up to five pairs of boots from a regular closet rod.

Usually when I’m packing for an event, I assume that I need to bring all of the different types of clothing for all of the possible weather occurrences. This means that, at a minimum, I have to bring two pairs of tall boots, my Dubarry boots, and probably some regular dress boots for dinner or the competitor’s party.

I don’t want all these boots just ratting around in my trailer, and I’m not packing another duffel bag just for my boots. The Boot Butler offers an easy answer to this problem, and I can see how packing for a show will be easier with it in my arsenal. Not only that, but it keeps the boots upright and prevents them from flopping over and creasing or getting smushed under anything.

The modular base of the Boot Butler is designed for almost all sizes and shapes of boots. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The modular base of the Boot Butler is designed for all adult sizes and shapes of boots. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The Boot Butler comes in a modular design that is easy to assemble, which means that you can customize it to your needs. If you only need to hang three boots, you can disassemble the bottom two boot hangers and make the entire thing shorter. If you have a horizontal space instead of a vertical space, you can organize the Boot Butler so that you are hanging one or two boots in a row instead of five.

The rack, while lightweight, is sturdy and once the boots are on the frames, does not pose a problem for structural integrity. The boots are securely attached, and would not fly off the rack even in the trailer as you’re driving long distances down highways and bumpy roads.

The boots hang securely on the rack, with no fear that they will slip off. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The boots hang securely and snugly on the rack, with no fear that they will slip off. Photo by Kate Samuels.

Unlike other boot storage options, the Boot Butler does not in any way affect the outside of the boot by containing it. As the hanging rods go inside of the shoe just like a boot shaper, you don’t have to deal with working about your perfectly polished tall boots being damaged before dressage.

If you are hanging five pairs of boots, the Boot Butler takes up about 5 feet of vertical space, but only requires 9-10 inches of horizontal space. For three pairs of boots, you only need three feet for the column. This is handy not only in your closet at home, but in the small trailer tack rooms we all know can get very jam packed on the way to a show. In using the Boot Butler, you are saving a ton of floor space below your clothes in your closet or trailer that would usually be consumed with a jumble of shoes all smashed together.

The Boot Butler is slim and space saving horizontally. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The Boot Butler is slim and space saving horizontally. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The Boot Butler is available online in a five-pair boot rack which contains everything you need to store 5 pairs of boots, and can be combined in any way to accommodate your available storage space and your extensive boot collection. The value of the modular design is that you can shape this organizer to meet your needs for each individual space, and the portable design means you can move it from your trailer back into your closet at the end of the weekend.