Western lifestyle and apparel brand Tecovas aims for a relaxed, friendly customer experience in its 60 stores — many of which offer open bars serving alcoholic drinks, and all of which feature boot customization processes that include actual cattle irons that associates light up with blowtorches so customers can put their own “brand” on their boots.
“It’s what we call ‘radical hospitality,’ creating retail experiences that are absolutely incredible for customers coming through the door,” said Kevin Harwood, Chief Technology Officer at Tecovas, who spoke at the Shoptalk session, AI Applications for In-Store Physical Retail on March 25.
Tecovas, which started as an online-only DTC brand a decade ago, now operates 60 stores, with the latest opening this week in Tulsa, Okla. The retailer is committed not only to creating a “hangout vibe” in its stores but also ensuring that the actual shopping experience is as smooth as possible — and that’s where AI-powered applications come in.
“Having a healthy inventory is also part of our hospitality mantra, and so we need to have the right inventory in the right store,” Harwood said. He explained that each boot color comes in a total of 26 sizes, and that the large dimensions of boot boxes means it’s not practical for each store to carry every size variant. So Tecovas worked with Invent.AI, which specializes in replenishment and allocation solutions.
“They use hedge-fund level math from the perspective of each individual SKU, to figure out the highest likelihood of selling a specific unit at the best price in a specific store,” said Harwood.
AI-Managed Categories Outperform in Pilot Test
To see the impact that these kinds of solutions were providing, Tecovas performed an A/B test in Q3 2025, dividing its stores into two groups. The boots category in one store group, and the accessories category in the other group, were both managed by AI-powered tools, with the complementary categories managed with traditional tools.
“There was a 9.6% revenue lift in the categories managed by AI, as well as a 2% in-stock improvement for products that matter — and all with reduced inventory levels,” said Harwood.
Some of Tecovas’ AI-powered deployments have been developed in-house, such as Lookout, which was designed to determine the impact of local events on a store’s staffing needs and consumer demand. “Our stores are influenced by concerts and events, but store managers previously had to build their lists manually,” noted Harwood. “So we built an AI agent that goes out to all our retail MSAs [metropolitan statistical areas] and creates an event calendar. The solution also scores each event on what the expected impact will be on the Tecovas retail stores.”
Another AI-powered innovation has been the Boot Runner program. Harwood explained that, particularly for a customer buying boots or Western wear for the first time, it can be an intimidating experience, so Tecovas has associates to help them through the process. However, that associate-customer connection would often get broken when the associate had to visit the stock room to get a particular boot.
Boot Runner makes it possible for an associate to request a product be brought out to the sales floor, but it’s even more of a sales aid than that. “We fully digitized the entire process, putting our entire inventory position into the associate’s hands,” said Harwood. “And if we don’t have the size they’re looking for in that store, the associate can immediately recommend a product that we do have in stock.”
Harwood reported that boots are “delivered” to the sales floor within an average of 85 seconds, and even more important, the Boot Runner solution allows the associate to be “physically present with the customer throughout the entire process. We’ve leveraged AI to make a better human connection based on what’s happening in the store.”
