A PERFECT FIT: TECHNOLOGY & TRADITION MEET AT LM BOOTS STORY BY CARRIE WIRTH | PHOTOS COURTESY LM BOOTS
Sisters Isabel and Alejandra Rivas, representing the company’s fifth generation, now run the business.
The master bootmakers at La Mundial Custom Boots (LM Boots) have measured for fit by eye and hand for 120 years. Now, this preeminent boot maker is enhancing that accumulated knowledge and craftsmanship with the world’s first digital laser scanner of the foot and leg. The LM Master Fit Scan captures precise, three-dimensional measurements of the leg and foot with unprecedented accuracy to create perfectly fitted tall and short boots. LM Boots, known for comfort, performance, style and longevity, just singularly surpassed itself. The pursuit of the perfect-fitting custom boot began as a family affair in 1906. Don Francisco Rivas Figueroa was not a romantic. He was a craftsman with a workshop in the old center of Quito, Ecuador, and had a cleareyed view of what the market was about to do. In 1906, the mass production of footwear was on the horizon. He knew it. He chose handmade anyway
— not as a statement, but because he believed a custom boot was simply a better boot. Now, 120 years later, the company he founded, La Mundial or LM Boots, is still making them one pair at a time — and has just become the first equestrian bootmaker in the world to integrate 3D scanning fit technology. The Rivas family story runs five generations deep. Today, sisters Alejandra and Isabel Rivas are taking over the management of the business, which includes two Florida locations — one here in Wellington and one at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala — while production remains rooted in Quito, where 20 employees work in manufacturing, administration and client services. The company also has 30 U.S. sales representatives trained specifically in fit, style and measurement. A Name with a Plan — On Aug. 10, 1919, Don Francisco received a gold medal from Ecuador’s Society of Shoemakers as the country’s finest boot-
maker. The recognition crystallized something he had already decided. He named the company La Mundial. In Spanish: the world. It was not a boast. It was a target. He wanted his boots to cross borders, and eventually, they did. The country has produced leather goods of exceptional quality for generations. Ecuador’s leatherworking tradition gave LM Boots the raw material and craft advantage that endures today. Fixated on Perfect Fit — Getting a riding boot right is harder than most people appreciate. Calves, arches and toes vary infinitely in shape, width, height and length. Riders who spend years in the saddle develop specific fit preferences. The industry’s standard solution has always been a tape measure, a paper form and a fitter who has seen enough legs to make reasonable guesses about what the numbers mean. It works, mostly. However, LM Boots improved on the fit process. They developed a VelWELLINGTON THE MAGAZINE | May 2026 31