The Modern Retail Podcast Digiday

Tecovas wants to be more than just about cowboy boots. The nine-year-old company has big plans to become a high-end 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."

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the numbers behind this year's Prime Day, and what people bought during the two-day Amazon sales event. Following that, we’re talking about Limited Too’s comeback as it relaunches in Kohl's this week. Finally, mall-based retailer Pacsun is expanding further into activewear with a new men's athleisure line called ARC.

A little over a decade ago, energy drink brand Celsius was being delisted from many of its retail partners. Now, it's become one of the hottest beverage companies on the market.
According to CEO John Fieldly, it took time and effort, but the company was able to rebrand itself as a lifestyle beverage associated with health and wellness. When it first launched, "it was positioned as a negative calorie drink. It got tons of interest from retailers," he said. The brand, however, "just couldn't get that connection or that conversion with consumers."
So what helped Celsius rebound? It was a newfound focus on health and beauty. As part of the original turnaround, it started focusing on distribution in gyms and health clubs, as well as retailers like GNC. Then, when Celsius decided to return to grocery, it was placed in the health and beauty aisles.
"In hindsight, when you look at it, [this] differentiated the brand very much so from those traditional energy drinks that are in the aisles today," Fieldly said.
Fieldly joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's evolution over the years. Now, it's become a premium player in the energy drink space. "It's really important we continue to partner with premium brands alongside to build that credibility," he said.
At its most recent earnings, the company reported year-over-year revenue growth of 37% and its stock price has grown 6,000% over the last five years.
Which is to say: The current strategy seems to be working. The focus now is on growing even more. "We've got to continue to talk about our brand story and really share those brand attributes, which differentiates ourselves in the category," Fieldly said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest funding round raised by NA beer company Athletic Brewing in an effort to meet demand. Meanwhile, Nike announced it's bringing former executive Tom Peddie back to be vp of marketplace partnerships as the company refocuses on wholesale. Lastly, in September, Costco is raising its annual membership fee by $5 -- the first increase since 2017.

Lucky Energy wants to take on the Red Bulls and C4s of the world.
The company's drink line, Lucky F*ck, launched last year and has been slowly building out its distribution. It's now available in around 2,000 store doors in Texas and California and is also sold on Amazon.
According to CMO Hamid Saify, the strategy of growing Lucky Energy has been to get people's attention. Thus, the name of its product. The company has also launched some splashy guerrilla campaigns -- including a Coachella activation that involved a billboard asking people to call a phone number if they're looking for a "quick f*ck."
Saify joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Lucky's growth so far and its future plans.
In the early days, when Lucky's founder was distributing the beverages himself, "we just started seeing really crazy velocity because people were just leaning in and [were] like, 'What is this thing?' Saify said.
Now, the focus is to continue that momentum. This includes launching in more convenience stores over the next year, as well as expanding to new regions like Florida.
For a beverage brand, the best early-stage growth strategy is focused on getting people to try the beverage. That's why Saify is so bullish on convenience stores.
"I would say our first-year approach is: we really want to start making a ton of inroads into C-stores," he said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses Amazon's next move to compete with cheap marketplaces like Temu and Shein. The Information reported this week that the e-commerce giant is planning to launch a program for sellers to ship cheap goods directly from China. This week, the Fancy Food Show also took place in New York City, and we review some of the buzziest trends from the event. Finally, Walgreens announced plans to close its underperforming stores and focusing on profit-driving locations.