How Tecovas is extending beyond cowboy boots to become a Western wear lifestyle brand

“Initially, it sort of was known as the Warby Parker of cowboy boots, if you will,” said CEO David Lafitte on the Modern Retail Podcast. “We’ve tried to sort of migrate the positioning of the brand into more of a premium lifestyle brand.”

Lafitte — who previously held C-suite positions at Deckers — has been leading Tecovas for the last two years, and his mandate has been to expand beyond its cowboy boots roots. That includes expanding the brand’s apparel line as well as growing its retail footprint. The company, which has locations in 20 states, adds between 10 and 12 store every year. By 2023, it had 33 locations and is on track to open 11 stores this year.

The stores, according to Lafitte, are integral to Tecovas’s success. For one, the locations are experiential playgrounds — most have liquor licenses and they all focus on one-to-one connections with customers. What’s more, the stores present a way for new customers to learn about Tecovas and its products.

Right now, apparel represents around 20% of Tecovas’s revenue. The brand is focused on growing that — as well as growing its overall women’s business.

Along those lines, as Tecovas continues to expand, it is going into new areas that aren’t necessarily associated with Western culture. It is opening a location in Boston, for example, and is keeping an eye out for another East Coast spot.

“We’ve been looking in New York. We want to find the right spot,” said Lafitte. “I’d like to be in Soho.”

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

The new Tecovas growth strategy
“[Founder Paul Hedrick] was a Texan living in New York and was wearing cowboy boots and wanted to start a company. So he looked at a number of different opportunities and landed on this one. Initially, it sort of was known as the Warby Parker of cowboy boots, if you will. The value proposition [was] kind of taking out the middleman. And [it] was very successful — the quality of the product, the premium nature of it, the materials they choose. So we’ve tried to sort of migrate the positioning of the brand into more of a premium lifestyle brand. We want to continue with that quality authentic product, but [deliver] it through a very high level of customer experience that we call radical hospitality. [The brand] had started to open retail back in 2019. And that has been a huge growth driver for us. And I can get into it a little bit here, but the brand sets itself up very well for a high-touch experience in-store.”

Why Tecovas invests in music events
“Historically, [we] leaned on — like a lot of direct-to-consumer, digitally native brands — a lot of social and paid search. We are understanding that, these days, given the cost of acquisition [and] the reduction in the ROAS associated with that, that it’s important to go back to kind of this full-funnel approach. We do believe event activations are very important. This year, we were the exclusive boot sponsor at Stagecoach. We believe that the lift in awareness from that activation — which was very well executed by the team — was tremendous. Our Rancho Cucamonga store [both] going into the Stagecoach event and even coming out of it to this day has had a huge lift. And we’re seeing that in our newly opened San Diego store as well. We also did [Opry NextStage] in Nashville. We’re doing another festival in Bend, Oregon coming up this month… And so these are important. We want to be associated with music.”

Going beyond its Western roots
“We’ve been looking in New York. We want to find the right spot. I’d like to be in Soho. I think it would be perfect for us. We’re going to be opening in Boston next month — just outside of Boston. So we’re seeing success in these nontraditional Western markets. The other thing that we were seeing a lot of success in is what I would call Western-adjacent products. So we’ve got some slip-on loafers… We can’t keep that product in stock right now. So it’s interesting to see the permission that we have to kind of push that craftsmanship into what I call [the] Western adjacent market.”