Ariat, Tecovas and Filson are seeing the ‘Yellowstone’ boost after premiere

“Western wear and Western boots have been our bread and butter for years. But when a show like this comes along, it elevates everything and brings in new customers.“ said Shane Holman, vp of global western merchandising at Ariat.

Western wear brands like Ariat, Tecovas and Filson are poised for growth as the show airs over the next five weeks. Ad spots for cowboy boots from Tecovas will deliver as much as a 6x lift in traffic compared to an average baseline. And interest in these brands has continued to grow over the course of Yellowstone’s existence. Following the premiere of the second half of season 5, heritage outdoors brand Filson has seen roughly a 300% increase in revenue compared to the premiere of the first half of season five. And there’s a larger, less measurable effect that the show has had on these kinds of brands: an amplification of the timeless look of Western attire.

Ariat, a privately held company, wouldn’t share figures on how much the “Yellowstone” affiliation has boosted sales. But Holman said it’s part of a larger trend that intertwines with other pop culture or fashion touchstones, like Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” or Pharrell Williams’ Louis Vuitton collection. “Cowboy is cool, and cowboy is trending — and ‘Yellowstone’ is a big part of that,” Holman said.

The western wear demand also benefits companies like Boot Barn, which in October reported net sales of $425.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. That makes an increase of 13.7% over the same time last year, fueled by same-store sales growth and 15 new locations. Even rural lifestyle retailers like Tractor Supply Company are growing and finding ways to capture new market share; the company added 16 physical stores last quarter, acquired an online pet health service, and forecasts net income of over $1 billion for fiscal year 2024.

The new Ariat x Yellowstone collection, which is part of this season’s costuming, is designed to resonate with both rural residents and so-called city slickers. Johetta Boone, the designer behind the collection, said pieces come worn in and ready-to-wear, like boots already distressed. “We wanted to bring that to the audience so that they didn’t have to work on breaking those pieces down themselves.”

Boone said that part of the appeal of western wear is because it has a certain timelessness. But when combined with the dramatic narratives that unfold on Dutton Ranch, viewers may be inspired by the characters themselves. “People very much have fallen in love with their look, their attire and what that represents,” she said. “It represents power for them, it represents strength for them, it represents a certain amount of courage. And then when you get those pieces, you are assuming and you are very much feeling that empowerment as well yourself.”

Filson, a 127-year-old outdoors goods brand, has had pieces appear on the show since 2018, showing up on lead characters like Rip Wheeler, who routinely wears the brand’s short-lined cruiser. Katie McElroy, Filson’s marketing director, told Modern Retail that the show’s audience overlaps with many of its core customers and brings in new ones too. “That romance of the Western lifestyle and that ranch lifestyle really pulls people in,” she said.

During the premiere of the first half of season 5, which aired in 2022, Filson saw an 8.7% increase in year-over-year website/incremental visitors after running an ad, which fueled 7.5% increase in gross revenue after.

This season, Filson is putting out two new ad spots that will air during the show. Beyond ads, it’s running a promotion around the men’s cruiser to give a $50 coupon off orders of $150 or more.

Nine-year-old boot brand Tecovas has run ads on “Yellowstone” since the reruns of Season 1 and discovered it was a powerful customer acquisition tool. By Season 3, it locked into a multi-year agreement for its ads. In addition to ads, characters also frequently don Tecovas.

Krista Dalton, CMO at Tecovas, told Modern Retail that the brand felt strongly about the show from the start. “We’re very grateful that we negotiated and committed to this in a bigger way,” she said. “We knew it was a cultural fit. We knew it was aligned with honoring the West and crafting its future and being innovative within the space.”

To help measure any lift from the sponsorship, Dalton said, the team will compare baseline visits of direct traffic to Tecovas.com for an average Sunday compared to when the ad spot runs. In 2022, that yielded a 6x increase in web traffic. The “Yellowstone” viewers who returned to the site converted about 50% more often than the non-“Yellowstone” cohorts, yielding about three times as much revenue.

The data also shows how well “Yellowstone” works as a vehicle for bringing new customers to Western brands. The traffic that comes to the site is about 78% new customers, with around 54% placing orders. “‘Yellowstone’ outperformed, for our TV agency, many of their Super Bowl spots for our brand,” Dalton said.

Beyond the numbers, “Yellowstone” has also helped Tecovas foster other relationships like with Ryan Bingham, who guest starred on the show and is an Americana singer-songwriter outside of his acting career. There is also the overall elevation of the Western lifestyle that Dalton said helps attract people who may not live in the West or on a ranch but want to emulate that feel in their daily lives.

“One of our internal beliefs is the West doesn’t need more people,” Dalton said. “But maybe more people need the West.”

Correction: This article has been updated to clarify what kind of sales lift Filson saw after running ads during the premiere of first half of the Season 5, compared to the premiere of the second half of season 5. This article has also been updated to remove a line about Filson’s women’s line being part of this season’s costuming;  Filson can’t speak to whether any of their women’s clothing will be featured in the costuming this season as they didn’t pay for any wardrobe placements.