Garden City ? Emilio Lopez will be the first to admit he likes to talk.

“I like to talk, and I talk a lot,” Lopez said with a smile.

Lopez, the owner of Botas Chihuahua has gained a captive audience while operating one of the few, if not only, shoe shine stands in Garden City.

Lopez said the experience has been a rewarding one.

“You get to know a lot of people,” he said. “They come for a polish, and they tell you stories and you tell them stories. You get good conversation when you’re doing a polish.”

He said there are a lot of people who stop for a shoe shine that he doesn’t know.

“But you start talking with them and have a good conversation, and they come back,” Lopez said.

He said that shared conversation is the best part of a polish.

Lopez started polishing boots as a young boy in Chihuahua, Mexico.

“I learned how to shine shoes when I was a kid,” Lopez said. “I always liked to polish my boots. When I got my first boots, I went to the guys who clean boots and looked at how they did it. I never did it for work in Mexico, but I started doing it here.”

Lopez said shoe shines are popular in Mexico.

“There’s a lot of people there that like to polish their boots because the boots are so expensive they like to keep them clean and get more life out of them,” Lopez said. “They are paying so much money for boots, sometimes a pair of boots may only last a year if they are not taken care of. Then you have to spend $200 or more on a new pair of boots. If you take care of them, they last more like five or 10 years.”

Lopez said he moved here about 20 years ago from Chihuahua, where shoe shine stands were plentiful.

“Most of the time you see them in the parks there,” Lopez said. “Because a lot of people like to walk around the parks.”

He said the key to a good polish starts with the special soap used at his stand, followed by a cream polish. A shine takes about five minutes and costs $6.

Lopez services about 20 customers per week at his stand, outside his store, which also offers unique custom, handmade boots.

“We make different kinds of boots like skins from stingray, ostrich, alligator, armadillo, fabric or mixed leathers,” Lopez said.

All of Lopez’s boots come with belts, and all his creations can be customized with names or initials or special designs. He also cleans and shapes hats at the store and repairs belts and boots. The store also features clothing for men and children and custom-made boots for women.