We’re back from the Western & English Sales Association – WESA market! If you don’t follow our Instagram or Facebook pages you should seriously go take a look. There are lots of awesome things coming later this year and you can see sneak peeks from the market there!  We’ll continue to show off things over the next couple of weeks as well, so stay tuned there. Of course there was a lot to look at and ponder over the course of our four day trip, so lets start.

Boots – So Many Options

We spend an entire day looking at all the boot companies each year in Denver. This year was no different and we added Luchesse boots to that list. The prompting here came due to a few requests during the holidays and a survey we recently emailed.

While we believe Luchesse boots are extremely well crafted and use exquisite exotic and cowhide leathers, we cannot see adding their boots to our store. While this may be a bit disappointing for some of you we hope you can understand our decision; 1) Luchesse does not currently have a sales representative in this territory/region. 2) Luchesse’s requirements to become and remain a dealer were far above what we felt were attainable and maintainable from year-to-year. As always we will continue to listen to your feedback and requests and will always be open to reconsidering if things change.

Although we are not adding Luchesse, you will see lots of new boots for both men and women coming later this spring and summer (March – July) from Double H, Durango, Nocona, Tony Lama, Justin, Twisted X, and Ariat. This will include traditional leather boots, casual mocs, and exotic skin boots. Take a look at some of the options below that are coming.

(click each image to see each one larger)

Fall Jackets & Shirts

Besides spending our time looking at boots, we took the opportunity to see much of the fall’s apparel lines from Cinch and Wrangler. This includes both companies fall/winter jackets. Like 2017, Cinch’s bonded jacket is sure to be a favorite again with concealed carry styles for both men and women which includes new stitching color logo options in the basic black jacket and their new textured jackets.

We’re also very excited about some fun t-shirts and sweatshirts from FarmBoy/FarmGirl. 1) They are extremely comfortable shirts and 2) they have some rather comical sayings on them. We all chuckled at several of the styles our salesman showed! We hope you’ll find them as agreeable as we did. Several option are coming in March while the rest will be available this fall. Below are some of the caps they offer.

Comparing Circle Y & American Saddlery

Finally, in December we sent out a short survey that provided some valuable feedback. It prompted us to take a look at new options in western tack. There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in American Saddlery via our survey. So, Saturday morning we spent some time browsing through the selection of items they were showcasing.

After browsing through American Saddlery’s options we were not impressed. We looked at several saddles options from American Saddlery and found their quality to be sub-par.  The components American Saddlery used look cheap while the leather on the saddles were roughly cut and unfinished. Secondly, American Saddlery’s saddle pricing was very similar to Circle Y’s, who we already carry. We didn’t feel we could justify bringing in what looked to be an inferior saddle at the same price of a Circle Y saddle, whom we already carry. The Circle Y saddles we viewed at the market and have had in the store offer a better leather and use better component. We’ll continue to carry Circle Y and have new options in saddles coming this spring; Barrel, All-Around, & Trail saddles should all be arriving by March.

(Please keep in mind, this is our opinion of what we saw at the market. American Saddlery may very well deliver a superior product than what was present, however without seeing better quality product in person it is hard to justify bringing in something new when we carry a product that consistently appears superior.)

New Western Saddle Line Coming – Great Quality, Even Better Price

However, we are adding a new line of western saddles from a company out of Pilot Point, Texas. They make all of their saddles here in the United States and build them on rawhide wrapped, wooden trees. It was their first time attending the market and we were amazed by the quality, especially for the price. We think you’ll be surprised and excited once they arrive this spring. For example you’re looking at quality saddle options around or under $1000!

We are very excited for the new items coming and hope you are too. Continue to watch our Facebook and Instagram pages to get a few other sneak peeks of things coming as well as when new product arrives in the store!

A Quick Side Note

Although WESA stands for Western & English Sales Association it is predominately a western show in Denver. Thus we did not have a chance to see any new English companies while there at the market. We will however be looking further at Ariat and Noble Outfitters as we see our salesmen in the coming months. As always we are open to suggestions on the English apparel you liked to see us carrying. Please let us know what you’d specifically like to see.