The boot man and Chief Texan @ChisosBoots • Previous startup acquired by @UpholdInc • Fighting for what was and what can be again.
Texas
Joined April 2008
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Will Roman retweeted
Stewardship means caring for what has been entrusted to us. Click through for our thoughts on Big Bend, the border, and the responsibility to get both right.
chisos.com/blogs/cowboy-boot…
Will Roman retweeted
You can’t use reason to talk people out of positions that they didn’t use reason to get into.
Will Roman retweeted
On some of my group text threads it’s like “eek people disagree about this political topic, don’t bring it up” (echo chamber culture). On others it’s like “ooh fun disagreement!” (idea lab culture). When you get used to the latter culture, the former seems so juvenile.
Will Roman retweeted
The team @ChisosBoots is doing things right.
No venture capital.
No shortcuts.
No compromises.
Just a team making high quality cowboy boots.
With craftsmanship, honor, and integrity
Right here in Austin, Texas.
Damn Comfy Cowboy Boots.
Will Roman retweeted
Although there are systemic problems, your own failures are almost certainly caused by your character flaws and poor choices. The man or shadowy cabals are not holding you back. The good news is this actually means you have more agency over your life than you realize.
Will Roman retweeted
One week from today, the good times roll at Chisos HQ in Austin.
We’re talking live music, cold beer, hot food, and that old-Austin spirit you can’t fake. Friends catching up, boots two-stepping, and the kind of night that reminds you why we love this town.
Come celebrate six years of Chisos and everyone who’s been part of what we’re building. Tickets are flying at Chisos.com/party.
Will Roman retweeted
Sorry it's been hard to talk about this stuff but we are not ok still in Kerrville, TX since the July 4th floods.
I got to drive through the whole area all the way past Hunt, TX and out past Camp Mystic yesterday with my team and am having trouble describing what I saw.
There was no escaping this for the campers and residents of Hunt. The entire river valley was swallowed up by 20-40 feet of fast moving water. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing- how high the water got, how wide it went up the hillsides and cliffs. It looks totally different now- the riverbed is completely reshaped and devoid of trees that were there for hundreds of years. Every survivor that was in that area is a miracle.
My friend and business partner Dusty Block (Dealonomy's Director of M&A) is a volunteer firefighter that's swiftwater rescue trained and was out there while it was unfolding with his small team of rescue swimmer volunteers- he was there in the early morning hours in the pitch black before any reinforcements or helicopters arrived in the daylight, and he witnessed and experienced unimaginable things as he gave every ounce he had to save as many people as he could.
Him and his brother and a couple of their teammates lost their truck in a wall of water that came over the road and carried on on foot for 18 hours straight with no support, just throw ropes and their wits and adrenaline, swimming and hiking through the areas nobody could get to. They covered 60 miles running and hiking and jumping in and out of the river saving people and catching all they could.
There's 30+ people alive right now because of their heroism that they plucked from the river, but for every one they caught and saved they saw 2-3 others go by they couldn't reach, screaming and begging for help in the dark, or already dead inside mangled cars and RVs or in tree branches. They helped hundreds more get to safe areas and medical attention and get evacuated to safety.
I can't tell you all the details of the stories. I can't do it justice. But how do you deal with the emotions (as a dad of two young boys) of talking to a young boy 15 feet away, having a conversation, telling him it's going to be okay, and you're going to get him out, only to see an RV come out of nowhere and hit him broadside and take him out? Stuff like that X100 is what he went through.
Dusty did rescues 18 hours straight on the 4th, then 12 hours each of the next 2 days doing recoveries and swimming out bodies that were hard to get to, and has been out there helping most days in different ways the 2 weeks since.
Yet our business and client work continues and we have to keep working on business deals and doing calls and meetings and showing up to the office and acting like everything's ok, but man, it's not ok. We're covering for each other as a team and still getting our normal work done, but we're threadbare.
I'm grateful for the miracles and the survivors.
I'm grateful for the heroes.
I'm grateful for the outpouring of support and volunteers and donations.
But yeah I'm still really sad and heartbroken for all the losses and the trauma endured by the survivors and responders.
This has been one of the hardest months ever. We're just a small town, everyone knows everybody, we're not used to being on the national news. We've never seen anything like this.
3 weeks later everyone's moved on to the next story. But Hunt, Ingram, and the Kerrville river area still looks like a warzone- just total annihilation. I drove past miles yesterday of piles of rubble that used to be houses and cars and RVs just piled into mangled masses of splinters and sticks along the road. It's going to take many months or years to clean up, and our hearts are going to carry scars forever.
We'll never forget July 4th, 2025 around these parts.
Please keep us in your prayers, and if you want to donate to Dusty or the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department let me know. We're trying to help them replace their trucks, ropes, and gear they lost. They're a small group of dedicated volunteers that don't have the resources or attention of the larger communities.
I'll post some links below to news stories, some pics, and donation info.
But please continue to keep Kerrville in your prayers. This is going to take awhile and our hearts are very much still hurting.
Will Roman retweeted
Every real commitment includes a grief process.
Because to say “yes” to one path means letting go of the infinite imagined paths that never asked anything of you.
Will Roman retweeted
It is said that crisis doesn’t create heroes; it reveals them & I’ve been honored to have spent the last week working shoulder-to-shoulder among some of the most extraordinary-ordinary heroes I never expected to meet.
There have been MANY individuals & groups organized across all of the flood-affected areas within the 31,000mi² of the Texas Hill Country. Ours was one of multiple grassroots volunteer groups that organized for the early relief effort in Sandy Creek, Leander, Texas - an area that has, until the last couple of days, been largely ignored by media & abandoned by the county authorities.
But despite the absence of early Official support, incredible people from all walks of life, from near & far, most with zero disaster-relief experience, showed up to make a difference in the lives of total strangers who had EVERYTHING taken from them in the catastrophic Sandy Creek floodwaters on July 4th.
In the dead of night, homes were swept off of their foundations & demolished downstream. Vehicles crushed like aluminum cans. Family members & beloved pets missing or deceased. Personal belongings carried off by the current and scattered for miles. What’s left: unimaginable loss, impassable roads and bridges, gargantuan quantities of debris piled up everywhere, shock, PTSD, & an unfathomable & overwhelming amount of destruction - the likes of which you can’t imagine, pictures won’t do justice to & you truly can’t understand until you see it with your own eyes - that will undoubtedly remain in these people’s hearts long after the debris is eventually cleared.
In the midst of all the chaos, a handful of people with no prior experience mobilized to lead a grassroots, volunteer army. These leaders were motivated by a selfless, burning desire to help the helpless & are fueled by an endless supply of essential donations from the local community, by compassion & by their own won’t-quit energy despite crushing heat & humidity, confusion & chaos, sleeplessness, exhaustion, physical pain & the natural overwhelm that comes when an idea evolves quickly into a thing & that thing blows up way bigger than the leaders ever imagined it would.
From less than 100 volunteers on day 1 of cleanup, to THOUSANDS signed up just days later - all looking to a small handful of inexperienced but passionate leaders for coordination, guidance & deployment.
Each of us have stepped up to utilize whatever skills we have in order to serve in whatever capacity we can. Overnight, total strangers have became teammates & friends. Our coordination team, without titles or funding, effectively managed to orchestrate heavy machinery, chainsaws, supply lines, hot meals & manpower in a way that has resulted in making a real difference for the residents of Sandy Creek.
Volunteers have been working in dangerous & brutal conditions. Soaked in sweat, covered in mud, blistered & aching. No complaints. No job too small. No ego too big.
Volunteers risked dehydration, exhaustion, injury—not for recognition, not for glory—but simply because it needed to be done.
Amid all the heartbreak, the bonds formed in this crucible feel like family. I barely know their names. I know little to nothing about their personal lives. But I know their hearts & I’m blown away.
Thankfully, the coordination reins for our amazing group of organizers & volunteers have been handed over to the professionals for relief efforts going forward from today - a great relief for our fearless but exhausted leadership team. But there’s sooooo much more work to be done - weeks, months, maybe years worth. There is great hope, though, when I see the strength & outpouring of support from this community & the love in action that keeps showing up.
To witness such mind-boggling devastation & also such inspiring compassion & selfless service to others - the very best of humanity - in the same breath… it’s haunting. And humbling. And something I’ll carry in my spirit forever.
@DocumentingATX @bx_on_x
Will Roman retweeted
President Donald J. Trump & @FLOTUS visit Kerrville, Texas 🇺🇸
“Two words: unity and competence, if you were to ask me two words that I've seen here ... The way everyone has just pulled together. It's rare that you see this."
Will Roman retweeted
My colleague Aaron Parsley and his family were swept away in their home by the Guadalupe River.
His harrowing story and their loss are described in one of the most important pieces @TexasMonthly has ever published.
texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
Will Roman retweeted
Our hearts are heavy for those in the beloved Hill Country of Texas.
There are moments when the weight of loss just stops you in your tracks. No words feel right. No explanation feels fair or does justice to the immense grief and sorrow so many are feeling.
That part of Texas… it’s special. Where time slows down and the river cuts lazy curves through limestone and cedar. Where the sun warms your skin and your soul all at once.
I've traversed that winding road that crosses and re-crosses the Guadalupe since I was young. Stopping for burgers and ice-cold tea in Hunt, cooling off in the river. A place that always felt safe, like a little hamlet of summer from time past.
That’s what makes this tragedy so piercing. A place that gave so much peace, now covered in heartbreak.
Here at Chisos, our hearts are broken. To the families who lost loved ones, to the heroes working to help and heal, we are praying for you.
With deep sorrow,
– Will
