Kim Heidt, Tecovas | Modern Retail Vanguard 2024
This is part of the Modern Retail Vanguard, a series highlighting the behind-the-scenes talent powering the world’s top retail brands. More from the series →
Kim Heidt, chief retail officer at Tecovas, joined the Western wear startup in 2022 at a pivotal moment for the company. Tecovas’ stores were largely concentrated in the southern U.S., with nearly half of them in Texas. But the startup had big ambitions to become a national brand.
It’s Heidt’s job to strike retail deals and oversee the opening of stores in new markets. Tecovas, known for its cowboy boots, started out 2024 with over 30 locations. Today, the brand has 42 stores in states like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California, and roughly 1,000 retail employees.
Heidt’s retail experience began while working at an REI store in college, before eventually ending up on the operations side. This gave Heidt an appreciation for being on the front line of a growing retail fleet, “and how much goes into running a store,” she says. “In many cases, it’s like you’re driving a minibus while actually running a small multimillion dollar business.”
Her first corporate role was with Gymboree in San Francisco, where she got her operational chops by running a retail operation with 1,200 stores and 17,000 employees. Heidt then made the move to Deckers, where she spent 12 years helping build out the Ugg and Hoka businesses.
Heidt says that she’s attracted to brands while they’re in the early stages of building out their retail operation. “The reason I made the jump to Tecovas is because I like building something and having my contribution really holding weight.”
At Tecovas, Heidt is responsible for everything from site selection to running the stores and the customer service team. “We talk a lot about omnichannel in the industry and putting the customer in the center of everything we do,” Heidt says. “But the customer doesn’t always feel those things.”
Growing and maintaining these stores requires constant monitoring and communication with the store teams. “For me, it’s looking at the performance of every store to check: are we missing something? Do we need to do more marketing?”
At Tecovas stores, the smell of leather wafts through the air while customers have their products personalized with stamps or brands, or get their boots stretched. “Customers are excited to come in and experience what we’re offering because we do feel a little bit different,” she says. That means hiring a friendly staff that can make visitors feel welcome. “We also have an area where we serve alcohol.”
Heidt has been “pretty adamant” about not cutting these programs because they’re major differentiators. “This hospitable shopping environment is hard to find these days,” she says.
Historically, Heidt said, the cowboy boots industry hasn’t been very welcoming to potential customers. “What we’re striving to do is make people feel comfortable in a traditionally masculine environment,” she says.