Tecovas, as a brand, is entering a similar hallowed space in Texas that Timberland occupies in New York. The Western boot maker puts out the best of the best in quality, and makes it look good. It puts in just the right touch of stylistic flair to be taken seriously in any environment, so it would make sense that its new flagship store is now open on South Congress Avenue, a trendy urban place surrounded with real reasons (on a wider radius, perhaps) to wear a work boot.
Photo by Brianna Caleri
The new Tecovas flagship is a lot like the old South Congress location, but bigger.
The 4,0700-square-foot store on South Congress Avenue marks significant growth in the brand, which has only existed since 2015, when it started as an online, direct-to-consumer model. This is not the first Tecovas store in Austin, nor even on South Congress; just a block down the road the previous location with the recognizable cowhide mosaic quietly closed, announced via signs on the windows to make room for this location up the block in the old Tesoros Trading Company space, which closed this summer after 33 years, now almost completely unrecognizable.
The flagship proudly wears local art by muralist Federico Archuleta, whose work is recognizable around town in the form of mosaic-like Virgen de Guadalupe illustrations. The mural on the corner of South Congress and Elizabeth Street updates his existing Guadalupe, turning it into a candle beside Willie Nelson’s guitar in the foreground, and a Texas flag filling the wall behind it. Artists were working on the mural during an opening party on Friday, October 21.
Winemaker Becky Atkins was also onsite for the party, serving Summer Revival wines at the bar. It’s a fixture at all Tecovas location, welcoming customers with complementary drinks — in Austin that includes local products like Ranch Rider hard seltzers, Garrison Brothers bourbon, and “several” beers — but this one is one of the largest. Atkins reached out to Tecovas after recognizing a similar business model, with no middle man retailers and “no fluff.”
This location is one of five openings in Q4 alone, and it rounds out a 25 percent increase in the brand’s retail footprint across the entire year. The brand plans to open “approximately 15” more U.S. stores in the next year and a half. Similar to the previous South Congress location, the new space smells of leather, sells hats and other apparel, and anchors the area in the (South)west despite an increasingly bi-coastal vibe across Austin. With more sales space, it can store and sell more stock, but besides the expansion, it’s business as usual.
More information is available at tecovas.com.
