About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the enduring legacy of Western wear with four fun Forever® stamps. Inspired by the clothing and gear used by working ranchers and reimagined in fun and fanciful ways, the garments and accessories of the West comprise a unique American fashion style.
This booklet of 20 stamps features four designs illustrating iconic Western wear staples — a cowboy hat, a cowboy boot with a spur, a Western shirt, and a belt buckle featuring a longhorn head. A stippling technique, creating images using small dots of color, was used to give the illustrations a worn and gritty feel. Each image is framed by elements common to the American West and iconography of the region, including cacti, snakes, roses, and stars.
The history of Western wear in the United States begins with the original cowboys. In the 16th century, the Spanish arrived in Mexico, bringing horses and cattle and eventually establishing ranches, which spread into what is now Texas, Arizona, and California by the early 1700s. The vaqueros who herded the cattle wore utilitarian garments that protected them from dangerous weather conditions and environmental hazards. From cowboy boots to broad-brimmed hats to shirts with double-fabric yokes, such articles became associated with the wardrobe of the American cowboy and cowgirl.
For more than a century, the mystique of the cowboy — popularized by Wild West shows and rodeos, dime novels, Western films, and country and western music singers — has influenced American fashion, evolving with the fads and styles of the time.
Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps with original art by Ryan Feerer.
The Western Wear stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.
Stamp Artist
Ryan Feerer
Born and raised in Texas, Ryan Feerer received an M.F.A. in design from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
As a designer and illustrator, Feerer merges typography and illustration with a sense of humor for projects ranging from hometown businesses to international campaigns. He has created work for brands that include Ace Hotel, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Etsy, Fossil, Meta, and Target. He likes to focus his work on doing “good things for good people,” creating unique and timeless designs.
In addition to his design practice, Feerer owns an apparel brand called Fieldschool with friend and colleague Mike Wiggins.
Feerer lives in Abilene, Texas, with his wife, Cassie; daughters, Rose and Sunday; and son, Oliver.
Western Wear (2021), his first project for the U.S. Postal Service, was followed by the “Yes!” artwork for Pinback Buttons (2024).