The 1990s have brought about a resurgence in the popularity of handcrafted western gear. Collectors and Old West enthusiasts are snatching up spurs, holsters, belt buckles and saddles and the better gearmakers are booked for months. A lot of people I sell spurs to own horses and that's their getaway, they're weekend cowboys. No one can seem to pin down exactly when the cowboy craze began, but collectors and gearmakers agree the last few years have been good for craftsmen who excel at this functional form of art. I don't think anybody has ever stopped making spurs.
Opinions vary as to what drives the market.
Others say buyers are drawn by the romance of the Old West. But the scarcity of true antique equipment probably plays a larger role than either of those reasons. Buyers are having a hard time finding quality artifacts from the cowboy's heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and when they do, the gear is usually prohibitively expensive. Museums and the doctors and lawyers have bought just about all the good stuff. Consequently, contemporary gearmakers have been given an opening to go after would-be buyers who have been left out of the antiques market.