Before, he built nuclear detectors. Now, he’s making cowboy boots.

Steve Christo is the owner of Perrin Creek Custom Cowboy Boots in Gloucester, Virginia. Christo makes handmade, bespoke cowboy boots in his workshop and has been doing so full time for six years.

A pair of his boots can run between $2,200 and $3,500, depending on the complexity of the design. While the price of leather has gone up since the pandemic, Christo said he hasn’t adjusted his prices to account for it since labor is still his biggest cost. A single pair of boots can take up to a month to make from start to finish.

Before getting into boot-making, Christo worked as a technologist in a physics laboratory. He took early retirement from his last job to get into the boot business.

“I thought, ‘Well, if I can build nuclear detectors, I should be able to make a boot.'”

To hear the rest of Christo’s story, click the audio player above.