July 23, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode of the Work Western Podcast, join Kevin and Jed as they talk with Dale Keel, longtime Ariat rep, about what makes the brand's work boot selection tick.
• Hear about Ariat's history as an equestrian-focused brand, and their emergence as a leader in the work boot marketplace.
• Learn about some of the technologies that helped the brand carve out a path among customers who were accustomed to them as a "cowboy boot" brand.
• Dissect some of the differences (and similarities) in some of Ariat's most popular brands, along with recommendations for specific jobs, fits, and performances.
Hear all that and a bunch more on the Work Western Podcast!
And if you'd like to check the products out, here are a couple of handy links!
Rebar Lift:
WorkHog:
https://www.harrisonsusa.com/products/ariat-workhog-waterproof-work-boot?_pos=1&_sid=82bf97e54&_ss=r
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Howdy folks, welcome into the work Western podcast. We are here to talk all things work, all things Western. We do boot reviews. We do clothing reviews. We talk about rodeos, concerts, anything in that work Western lifestyle. My name's Kevin Harrison. You can find me as the work Western guy over on Instagram, TikTok got Jed Blackwell here, and we're going to have a special guest in. And, you know, for our first episode, we thought about, Hey, what, what would be a great thing to, to talk about, to hear about it. And one of the things that we, we have have often, and you know, Ariat boots, you know, Jed Ariat boots, long, long history, Ariat boots, um, clothing, those kinds of things, but you know, when you always think about them, I always think about my, my cowboy boots.
And now what you think about when you think about it? Yeah. Firstly, and I'm, I'm not, I've never been the biggest boot guy, but when, when anybody says boots, yep, cowboy boots, I've got a certain picture in my mind. Yep. Yep. And they've got some awesome cowboy boots, awesome cowgirl boots. In fact, I got a pair on right now as I'm sitting here doing this podcast, but we, we, we wanted to, to bring in a local expert and we have Dale Keel, who is, man, he's got, he's got awards from Ariat. He's been recognized for his service, for his expertise, but he's turning red over there on us. But he, he is a guy, if you want to know about Ariat, I don't imagine there's many people walking the face of the earth that know more about the Ariat brand and what they are.
But we, you know, one of the things that they've, we wanted to specifically talk about, cause you know, we are the work Western podcast is. They're not just a Western company anymore. They're not just cowboy boots, cowgirl boots, you know, blue jeans, that kind of thing. They, they've really jumped into this whole work work boot and that kind of thing. So we, we wanted to discuss a little bit of that with Dale. So Dale, welcome, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you guys. And, um, we just wanted you tell us a little bit about yourself and your history with Ariat. Then just a little short, just a, just a bullet points about the history of Ariat where they got started. Then we're going to, we're going to jump into some of the different things that Ariat is doing now.
You got it guys. Um, I've been with Ariat now starting my 26th year. They really don't award you until they, after you finish it, uh, for the full year, but I've been here for a long time and I came from the footwear industry and I worked retail for a lot of years. Um, that's really much history on me. I've had four or five states at one time. Now I'm down to like a half a state and three accounts in one other state. And, and business is just phenomenal. Just, just, just like you said, Kevin work has really driven a lot of our growth on top of the Western growth, especially in men's we really are our double digit increase every year in men's Western, uh, women's is starting to feel that,
that come back now a little bit in the women's Western, but work has really been over the top for the last few Um, to give you a little history about Ariat and a lot of people don't realize where our name comes from and our name comes from probably the biggest hearted race horse there ever was. Our name comes from the race horse Secretariat. It's the last five letters of the race horse secretariat and our two founders of Ariat, Beth cross and Pam Parker. We were founded back in 1993 and a lot of people don't realize they were marketing consultants and they were hired by Reebok to come up with an idea of footwear that is different. Well, they came out with the equestrian footwear comfort to be like athletic shoes.
Well, the funny thing is, is the idea wasn't accepted as well as they thought. And so they asked permission to keep the idea and they got to keep the idea and they grew it from nothing to a multi million billion dollar business at this point. So, but we were started back in 1993 by, um, our, and our two founders were Beth cCoss and Pam Parker. So it is, it is definitely, you say it Ariat, not Ariat Secretariat Secretariat. But, but, but when you hear commercials everywhere, it's Ariat, it's Ariat Ariat. So yes, but it's really Secretariat Ariat. That is correct. So, so when, when they started and took this technology that they were talking about developing and, and, but it was, was this straight for the horse market, that equestrian market, or was it a West?
I mean, it was built on an English market. It was built on a, an equestrian rider and, and both women or both of our founders, uh, Beth Cross and Pam Parker both rode English saddle. It, that was their discipline. And so they started coming out with paddock shoes. So we started years ago with our English paddock boot, and that's how we started the industry with comfort. and basically we grew from there. We went from English to Western to work, even if we had some work when we had Western, but really the, the, the layers of our business has been English, Western work, and I would say probably the, what's your most known for would be the Western.
would say what we're best known for is our Western because we put a lot of partnerships with, with like, we've been a partner of the PBR for years, but one of the things that really makes us different in that partnership, it wasn't, was a football player that played for the Minnesota Vikings, Josh Allen. Well, Josh Allen raises bulls and he has that part of the PBR. He takes his bulls to the PBR, but he also has a foundation that builds homes for, for underprivileged or military. He does a lot of things like that. So we get involved with, with things to build a business. Like you would recognize this one. 20 years ago, we were one of the first sponsors with the petty deal at their, at their place every summer where they'd bring kids in underprivileged kids to be at their petty camp.
And we were part of that, especially with our kids footwear. So we always like to, to, to be with a sponsorship that's going to better, always something that's going to better people. So, and that's really how we have have, we have really developed the name Ariat cause even today, guys, I can go into an airport and I can look at what's on people's feet and I can walk up to somebody that's wearing a pair of tennis shoes. And I said, um, so can I ask you a Sure. What's the first Western brand that comes to your mind? Nine out of 10 people still don't think to say Ariat, they don't think of wherewe're at,rightnowinourinourindustrywhereAriatit'sat but most people that are John Q public walking around has never heard the name Ariat.
They'll still say other names like Lou Casey or, or something like that. They won't think about Ariat. And, and, and I remember the days with Ariat start now help pioneering the Southeast when it was one pair of Ariats to another brand out there. Okay. Now it's the opposite. It's probably 10 or 15 pair Ariats to one pair of that other brand. Yeah. So, I mean, it's just amazing to see that where we've hit the marketplace, but we're still not as known as other traditional brands. Wow.That's That's, um, that's, that's a little surprising, you know, I would think because I, well, and, and from knowing more than the average person knows about footwear and those kinds of things, I would have thought, because you guys are at the top of that heat now, I would think, you know, you're, and I appreciate you saying that.
I always like to say, be humble, but you are right. We, we, we have, we have climbed up that ladder and the people who know us, like the guys who come into your stores and they're looking for a work boot, heck five years ago, they would come in and walk in and say, Hey, I want to pull on and they'd walk out 99. 9% with a pair of Ariat pull- ons. Now we're starting to see seven out of those 10 people sometimes walking out with a pair of lace- ups from you. So that are Ariat boots. So again, those guys know our name, but I still go up to some people who are wearing Ariat work boots and ask them about the Western boot and they still don't come up with our name first.
Yeah. So there's still a lot of growth that we can do to build the And I think for most of my accounts, that Western market is going to build those customers. One thing that's interesting that I found with you guys, uh, we're, we're,obviouslyuhwe're we have a outside of our podcast and other things. We, we have a family chain of retail stores and we sell some of your products and of course all the other products and some of your competitors that you won't talk about, but one of the things is I've, I've often thought of us almost as a parallel different scale, but a parallel, um, I've had the opportunity to interact with many of the people, um, including Beth as well.
And when we've been out in Dallas and doing things and, and sometimes it is, you get the feeling that, okay, you guys are growing really fast and we get that feeling a lot in our business. So, you know, we're growing really fast, sometimes faster than you can keep up with, but it's still, it almost feels, even though you guys are a huge company, almost feels like a small business. That is, that has become this huge company. And, and sometimes we're all, you guys are all clawing to keep up with what you're trying to, to move forward to. Is that a fair statement? That's a fair statement, but don't let him fool you. I've been here, like I told you, 25, 26 years, and I remember trying tosell these guys to start off with, I was groveling, begging to get my product in their stores and, and now, but I'm going to tell you, this has been a lot of years.
This is probably 21 years ago. So again, um, it's a funny story. His, his dad, you know, he's like, ah, nah, I'm okay. I don't need you. I remember he wasn't the first one I met. I did meet Kevin and Travelers Rest. And, uh, I said, you know, Hey guys, I know we'll, we'll be there for you. I promise you. And, and, and now they're one of my largest accounts, but they saw the writing on the I saw the writing on the wall and, and I'm telling you it's, it is a funny story you had to be here, but I was begging and groveling to get my product in the stores. Now we, now we are asked for by our industry.
A lot of the stores are asking for us now, but again, I like to try to do business with the ones that brought us here and, and build it from there. Um, and they are a great partner. Harrison's Harrison's is a great partner. Well, you and, and your, your late wife, uh, Liz, um, really got our, our Ariat business going, well, you did get it going and built it from literally nothing to, to what it is now. And you guys being our number one brand. And, um, it's just a great, it's a great partnership. It's a great partnership. So, so let's talk about that transition from, you know, being that wet, you know, you're talking about the equestrian, you know, the horse stuff. To the Western.
And then, then all of a sudden you jump into the work and now it seems now, and from talking to different people in different levels in the company, it seems that the real, I would even venture to say that I would guess one of the top priorities in the company is growing and expanding that work brand. Is that, is that true? That is absolutely correct. Um, it, it, it just, it goes to show you as an example, and this is a great example of what Kevin was just talking about. There's stores out there that do nothing. But sell shoes. Okay. They're not a, a work boot store. They're not a Western store. They do nothing but shoes and, and, and they don't even know this type of industry exist.
They don't even know work boots exist out there. They, they, they, they're in the back of their mind. If it's not a pair of Birkenstock sandals, they don't know that. Ariat exist in this world, but in this world, the marketplace is work. And what Kevin said is absolutely correct. Our growth pattern over the years. And it started with equestrian, which was English then into Western. we had to grow it that way to get into that work industry. I would say work is probably, if you take a hundred percent of the business out there, work is probably total of 40, 43% of our total business, as far asgrowth is concerned you know, especially in that men's market, you know, in the men's Western market is still a huge market out there because, you know, guys just want to throw on a pair of boots and a pair of jeans to go out todinner somewhere in the more,
they don't want to get dressed up in a pair of dress slacks and a pair of dress shoes and a blazer to go out to dinner if they don't have to. So, but the industry has changed because of that. Equestrian brought us to the Western started bringing us to the much more consumers that we never had before. You know, the core market, which if you ever hear in the boot business, the core market would be a cowboy in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, that would be what they would call core market industries. But I can promise you that the Southeast is probably bigger in business in Western than the core market nowadays. Really? Wow. Correct. To it, it doesn't mean that they're not doing a lot of business.
It just means that so much growth happened over the last 25 years in the Southeast from people like my counterpart in Tennessee, Philip Holden. Myself, I mean, I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and, and, and say I pioneered the whole Southeast because I didn't. But however, I was, I've been here the longest I have been with Ariat, the longest from anybody East of Salt Lake city. I'm the longest running rep, and I can tell you from the growth in Ariat, it started with that equestrian market, that, that, that English saddle rider to the Western market, and then came work. we didn't have a lot to offer in work until we came out with a style that we call work hog, just like it W O R K H O G work hog.
that really has sustained the industry. Ariat does have one thing that we set apart from our, from our competitors. you can ask these guys, this, or you can ask anybody that I sell to is we put quality first. Quality has to be there or we absolutely. We'll not make it. We'll actually say, no, this is not going to work for us. So quality is first. I've got a, I have a question related to that because I've got my own answer from, from working in the store. after quality, obviously qualities first, what's the second biggest driver? Because I have a, I have a pretty uncommon answer. Well, you probably have a better answer than me. I would say the second driver for me is style and fit.
Yeah, that, that's what that's mine too, but it's not, it's specifically the larger sizes is specifically what's offered at the top end, the 15, 16, 17, the wide and extra wide that sets y' all apart to me from, from anything else we carry. Without raising the price of a size 18 from a size eight, they're both the same price point at six, four, 300 with a size 13. That's right. I pay extra for clothes. Kind of sucks. And yes, while styles are a little bit more limited at the, at the extreme top end, they're not limited to nothing, which is what some other manufacturers offer is once you get past 15, we can't help you. Right. And they can offer quad E's a lot of them, right?
There's only a few that will offer a extra wide foot out there. And Ariat makes a line called big rig. We do the big rig and a Western boot. We do the big rig and a work boot from a pull on to aChelsea to a lace up in the work boot. And we offer size six through 18 in a double E and an eight to a size 16 in a four E. And I remember this to be the truth. I remember this five, five and a half years ago, when we first came out with the big rig work boot, my first pair of big rigs I ever sold as a rep inside of a store to a customer was right here at Harrison's. A big man came in.
I'm talking about a big guy. And he says, man, I can't find nothing bigger than a 15 double E and my toes are all crunched up. I said, well, have a seat. I put him in a 17 two E and still brought out the 15 quad E and he bought both of them and that is a true story. And it was the pull on big rig. And he would have paid a thousand dollars for him just because he had the, and you, I'm talking big and tall because that's what I am. But you mentioned the six, that's an extreme too. That's an extreme. Is it extreme? The other direction it is. I mean, you have customers that, that as an example that have a wider foot and a smaller foot, and a lot of people don't offer that, uh, another good thing that you, you got to remember that six double E could also fit a woman's eight wide.
(00:20):
To, to, to, to, to, because that's really how the sizes go. It's always two sizes difference from men's to women's. If a men's six, it's a woman's eight. Yeah. So, well, you, you talk about the work hog and that's what, that was kind of the Genesis of the work program. And it's, it's funny. We, we run reports and have different things and there are some bill 86 35 and 86 33 years that for some of you, that won't mean anything, but look up those style numbers and that's a, um, that's one of the original work hogs and, they still, they're still right up there in our top 20, right. And, and one of the things that, that is that makes you know that you're doing it. Right.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Almost every vendor out there has brought in something that they'll, and they will even say, it was like, you know, this is, I was like, that's the knockoff of the work hog and that's correct. And nobody's got one as good as that work hog on the market. There's just not one. No. And the reason is, is we offer one thing that no other brand can offer. We have what we call a U- turn system in our And in the back of the boot, the U- turn system is like having a built- in shoe horn. So when you can't make that turn into the gusset part of that boot from the, from the shaft to the instep part of that boot, that U- turn, and it's unique to only Garriott, it pushes out and lets your foot go right into it.
And you'll get that noise. We've always talked about fit in a boot. And if you don't get that noise, when you put it on the boot, like you'repushing out air, it doesn't really fit as well. You need that little noise that pops out and pushes out that air. Yeah. And, and that is, that's legitimate when you say that. And I remember the first time I saw that as kind of gimmicky is it, but it, it legitimately works and makes it, makes it better. So, so the, the work Western thing, and that, that is what the work hogs and these other things will fall in. Correct. Where it looks like a Western boot guys can put it on with a pair of jeans to go work in.
And they, a lot of, a lot of contractors and, and, and, and people that are having to go in houses and out of, out of houses and want to look, you know, a little bit, little bit nicer, they will wear some of those things. And so, so really hammered that market down there for a while. The weakness of Ariat was in lace- ups. That is correct. I mean, it was, I mean, for people, people coming in and wanting to buy pull on boots Ariat was by far, nobody could, nobody could touch them in that then in the lace- ups though, it was, Hey, we've got a couple of things here, but you know, we really can't compete with these guys over here. Yeah. We didn't have much to offer. You're right.
And, and I know you guys spent, in fact, I had some conversations, you guys had come down, um, some of the designers and we're talking about it. And I remember them saying, look, we're, we're going to figure this lacer market up. And I think you guys have done that. You've come out with some new, new technology and some new, new innovations. Innovations. So, so tell us what Ariat it has done to, to really jump in and be very competitive in that lace- up market. Well, there's a lot of things, but let's start with really took us off in the lace- up business. And that was our turbo line. Turbo was really that took us to a different level. Now we had the work cog lace- ups before we had the power line, which is the lineman's boot.
also had a few other things, but we didn't have anything that really just right. Like, like you could sit it on the counter or sitting it on a table and people just go, okay, why this? Well, the turbo, the turbo started as a dual density poly polyurethane sole with the direction injection. Well, there's other brands that did direct injection soles. And it, one of them started with the letter with the W. Okay. Well, they could never figure out the split problem in the sole. Okay. Well, the problem with splitting on the sole isn't the materials that you use. was the air that was getting into the soles when you do an indirect injection right into the, to the, to the boot for that sole to adhesive itself up to the upper.
it's almost like getting a waterproof barrier without even having a waterproof liner on the But however, the turbo was a hundred percent waterproof on most, I would say about 95% of them. So basically we figured out the air problem. So when we did in direct injection, I've been here again, since we've been selling the turbo, I have never had one returned because of splitting across the full bottom of a sole. And that's where the quality of an Ariat's different. So- And I will say this, when the Turbo was first introduced, I remember the first time you showed one, I looked at it, literally I said, and you're not going to say it, but I said, this is the Wolverine Dura- Shot. This is Ariat's version of that.
And I said, Dale- They own the Let's just say the W brand. We've had, and I said, Dale, we've had hundreds of these. Now we sold thousands, tens of thousands of them. I said, but we've had hundreds of these that have come back and they've split. is this boot going to, cause it, one of the things with Ariat's is, is they're made so well, but some of them, you put them on and it's like, okay, am I going to walk right outside right now and go work 12 hours in this without breaking them in a little bit? I hope you do. Yeah. some of them, some of them, it's like,okay they're built so well. They're a little bit, you know, you got to break them in a little bit.
This turbo came out and it was very flexible, super comfortable. You could go, you could go out and run in it if you wanted to. But I was like, man, are they going to hold up? And they have, they have. That whole turbo line has held up and it's a very comfortable boot. Price points better than, youknow than what you might expect on some. And so that turbo line, I'll echo everything you've said on that. That's been a, that's been a home run for you guys. And then moving to the next one, you're probably going to talk about is, I imagine you're going to go into the rebar. Yeah. Those have been absolute all- stars. all- stars.
I mean, I will tell you the rebar lift and I'll tell you this guys, our next in the industrial market was going to a white or cream color or white sole boot. And everybody's going, ah, yeah, white. So it doesn't matter. They're on fire. Chelsea, which is Chelsea guys is like a, a Romeo style pull on boot, but only goes up around the you know, a little bit higher. That's what a Chelsea is. And they're very popular. But even in the rebar, what he's talking about, that sole in the, if you take the outsole, which is a blown rubber and polyurethane mixture, the midsole or the inside part is still polyurethane. So you still have an, basically a direct injection type material that's going into that sole to make it a little bit more Most of them are mock toe.
And what really stood us apart when we first came out with rebar lift, and he will tell you this, was we showed only 90 degree heels. We didn't do a We did 90 degree heels. And that was because men are up on Men are spading a using a spade in the ground. So you need them to to push it down with. So then we went to the wedge bottoms in them. But really the attack on this boot was going after the industrial market Ariats. Where Harrison has, just so you know guys, Harrison also has these industrial trucks that go out to different factories and sell direct to the employees of those factories that come outside, look inside their truck. This is what they're looking for.
And that was the reason for the turbo, the reason for the rebar lift, because the industrial market is almost a 95, 98% lace- up business. It is not always a pull- on business.However However, there are some categories in those factories that can have pull- ons. So we were doing great with the pull- on part of that but we weren't getting the lace- up business. So that was really the push behind turbo, rebar, I mean, all these type of, or even like we talked about earlier, doing something in the big rig in a lace- up. So we're always coming out with new and trying to come up with better ways of taking the technology up. And that's really what we're doing right now. that is, that's been a nice progression to see.
And now you guys are just solidly and sometimes leading that category at times in that lace- up market, which was far from the case just a couple of years ago. And then you talk about continuing to do things, and then it's like every, like you show things in your show truck. I remember the first time I saw a tennis shoe, a safety tow tennis shoe. we'll be talking to your good friend, Brandon, who reps another brand and he is your good friend. Yes, he is. But they kind of had the market cornered on athletics. And so talk about Ariat's, the way they have flown into athletics and what an athletic is and a safety tow. And what has made you guys different from all the other ones that are out there on the market?
Well, again, Ariat has built their name on quality, technology, And again, what we have done with the tennis shoe styles that Kevin's talking about is because the tennis shoe style work shoe is an inside work product. It's really not made for construction. It's not made if you're gonna lay asphalt on theroad It's not made for roofing. It's not made for outdoor work. It's made for inside work. So the tennis shoe version of what Kevin's talking about is to make it lightweight, and breathable for inside work. Sometimes we do make it waterproof, but most of the time you really don't need a waterproof for inside work, only walking from your car from the inside of the factory to your car. So what Kevin is talking about is we came out with a style called the Outpace a few years ago.
And honestly, we took every material, we took the sole, we took everything that we did, and we tried to get it to a certain price level. And we still couldn't match my buddy Brandon's product on the price, okay? We could match the other ones that had it there, but we couldn't match my But we came out, what Kevin's talking about is we came out with this new one that we're not gonna ship until next year. It's a great tennis shoe. It kind of looks like a high top basketball shoe. And he says, these aren't composite toe. Yeah, they are. No, they're not. I said, Kevin, feel the Damn, excuse my language. He says, yeah, this is a safety toe. I said, I told you that. How can you make it so narrow looking?
Because you can build up the inside or use a different composite material like a carbon fiber instead of aluminum or an So an alloy would make it Steel would make it smaller. And he thought it was steel, but it wasn't. It's actually like a carbon fiber material. So we can design it to fit it properly. it is all for indoor work, guys. And it's very comfortable. You're standing on your feet all day. You don't, sometimes, you're up and down. As an example, there's factories in Greenville that are in the Ariat that we live that builds tires. There's factories in our Ariat that builds big airplane engines then appliances and cars. And, you know, there are certain things that you need built into these tennis shoe styles that these factories require you to have.
One comes to mind would be static dissipation. Because if you're building some of these things that have electronics with them they're dealing with electronics and motherboards and stuff like that, you can ruin a motherboard by wearing an electrical hazard boot. You need an SD. You don't need to have a static shot. As an example, you know, you rub your feet on the ground and you walk up and you're just messing with your wife and you stick your finger on her arm and it goes, and it snaps real good. Well, that's electrical. And that's what happens with EH. It's electrical hazard. Well, static dissipation, you could wear that shoe all day long, scrub your feet and go up and snap somebody. It's not gonna snap it. It takes the static dissipation away.
So that's another reason to do these for indoor work. And, you know, you just have to have certain things for certain industries out there, like waste management out there. If I remember, if I know correctly, the OSHA certification is starting tosay or puncture- resistant, that's it, puncture- resistant sole. Well, they, you know, you're dealing with trash all day long, so you definitely need something that doesn't go through thesole and you need puncture- resistant. So I think in the industrial world, that's where a lot of technologies are coming to effect now, not even from Ariat, from all brands. You have to have these because it is what makes it OSHA certified. One of the most interesting points to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, and here's a spoiler, it has happened before, but some of those technologies you're talking about, particularly the comfort technologies, have worked their way back into the Western line too, right?
That is correct. Kevin jokes about it, but he wears a lot of our Western boots and he's wearing a pair of our Rough Stocks right now, which, you know, I'm kind of a rain man a little bit. I mean, the style number's 1002227, okay? Because I'll know these style numbers off the top of my head, but he still wears that exact same boot. Well, that boot right there comes with a removable insole and it actually has a small square toe on it. When I say a small square toe, about an inch, inch and a half toe. Well, a lot of your replacement insoles out there do not come in a square toe, but ours do. We come square toe, round toe, whatever. So if you need a replacement insole, Harrison's the place to come.
I mean, you can get your insole and replace them in your Western boots, but I can guarantee you looking at his boot, there's no splitting on the sole. There's just normal wear and Yeah. I am not, as I said earlier, I'm not the biggest boot guy in the world, but I took a pair of Hybrid Lowboys to New York City and walked all over the city and felt great because Kevin told me that is exactly what was going to happen. And it did, and I was blown away just by how comfortable a pair of, and they're the Chelsea style that you were talking about earlier, but I was blown away by how comfortable something like that can be, even in a wide. Well, talk about, was it easy to get on?
Yeah, it was. I joke with Bonnie, my wife is our store manager inMalden and some of the girls here, I joke about having foot claustrophobia, which is a real thing. I can't stand to feel confined. Correct. I sat through a play. I went to dinner. I walked all over the city. I never felt confined. And yes, they're easy to get on, easy to get off. I didn't try it then, but I've tried it since. You can take them off like a pair of tennis shoes. You can step on the back of the heel with one foot and slide the other foot out. But it also never feels like you're wobbling around either. Correct, because of the gusseting on the side of the low boys he's talking about has two major elastic piece or elastic type stretch Ariats on each of the sides of the And it's still a boot.
Do you have the distressed one or do you have the acorn color? I have the distressed one. So he has the waterproof one, okay. Well, that gusseted still has the waterproof membrane that goes in between the two layers of gusset. So he's still, that gusset Ariat is still waterproof and everything, so. Well, Dale, you're a wealth of And you, now tell us about the award that you, a big, big time award that you got. And you get a little red and don't wanna talk about it, but talk about the award that you won from Harriet. Well, I've been here for a lot of and honestly, it's, to me, it's, I'm the type of person, if I didn't earn it, I don't want it.
And it always seems, and this is a funny thing, this is also a funny story about these awards. When I win these huge awards, it always seems that we either didn't have the sales meeting to award them to you in front of your peers. So I get salesman of the year one year. Now this is not the award he's talking about. I get salesman of the year one year, and basically that was during the year of COVID. So we're all on Zoom phone calls during award ceremony. So it was great that we were still on Zoom calls. The award he's talking about is a few years back, I've been dealing with a little health issues. And a few years back, I could not make it to the sales meeting.
And basically, it's an that recognizes lifetime achievements. And basically, there's only one award higher than that, which is the President's Award that Beth would give out, but she doesn't give it out every year. So that year, I won this award. And to me, it was, again, I wish I was there when I received it, but I was at home, actually asleep when they actually gave it out. But they called me the next day, about 10 of them were on a phone call. They were very excited about giving me the award. So I do appreciate it. It's a lifetime achievement. Well, you're modest, but it is. I think anybody listening to thisprogram or this podcast can tell, okay, there's no greater brand ambassador for Ariat than Dale Keel.
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And then there's no, you're not gonna find anybody that has more knowledge about Ariat than Dale Keel. And we've personally seen that with growing from, again, my, when you were trying to get in our stores to start with, and I said, no, we don't need you to. I begged on my knees. But then when you said that, hey, we will get there. And now you being our number one brand, it goes to show just what kind of a true sales person you are, and not only that, but a friend and a partner in what we do. And so it's very well- And we're thankful for you. And you minimize a little bit what you said a second ago. You had some pretty, very serious health issues.
And we are so thankful that you've come out on the other side of those and through a lot of prayers and thoughts and things that have gone. It's funny, I'll say this. It's just a funny little story about that award. During that time, you were walking through some of those tough, I was sitting in your living room with you. you pointed up at, you just mess like, yeah, look up there, they got me that award. It's like, yep, they're just giving it to me because I think I'm going to die. I was like, don't say that, you're not going to win. Thankfully that did not happen. And you have come out on the other side of that.
But I can assure you from talking to your colleagues and those others who are in high levels in the company at Ariat that you're very, very well thought of and respected throughout the company and throughout the industry. And we just appreciate you taking some time to come in here, share some of your knowledge and just tell that story of what Ariat it is and how they started with horses and then the Western and now have really attacked that work market. And with us being the Work Western podcast, we thought of nobody better we would want to have on to kick this thing off. Well, and I want to say, I appreciate you guys being a partnership as long as we have had. I mean, you are a partner.
Without you doing what you're I couldn't have ever won that Without doing the growth here, I couldn't have won that award. So when Kevin tells you he does go back to like Dallas and he sees all these big wigs in a he's the one that actually likes to pull up the joke and say, you know, Dale thought it was going to die when you gave him that award. You know, so I do appreciate all that stuff because they probably are like, yeah, they probably get a good chuckle out of it. Trust me. Yeah, it's a good company, good people. For those of you out there that are looking and looking for a work boot, looking for a Western boot, looking to, you know, and we're going to- Harrison's Workwear, guys.
Harrison USA, you need to be in their stores. Yeah, go to Harrison's USA, but you know, if you want to hear more about Aerie, we'll have some links in the notes. And, but this company is a really good company. Aerie, it's a good company, good people, all the way to the It's a fine company and they make quality, quality products. And we're going to review some of those. We're going to have some, we'll do some videos later, do some things and have Dale on talking about some other things. But this is, this was a great start to the Work Western podcast. This is, this is, you can expect, you can expect to have great guests like this. You can expect to have reviews and different, oh, we're going to talk about country music.
We're going to have some country music people on. We're going to, we're going to do all kinds of things on here just to, just to kind of this, the lifestyle of the, of the worker and that guy, that's the Western, the Western guy and Western gal. We're, we're here for you. So you can follow us over on Instagram, the Work Western guy, TikTok Work Western guy. And we'll, we'll have a YouTube channel that's going to be starting to launch videos soon. But until then, we are the Work Western podcast and we appreciate you listening today.
Howdy folks, welcome into the work Western podcast. We are here to talk all things work, all things Western. We do boot reviews. We do clothing reviews. We talk about rodeos, concerts, anything in that work Western lifestyle. My name's Kevin Harrison. You can find me as the work Western guy over on Instagram, TikTok got Jed Blackwell here, and we're going to have a special guest in. And, you know, for our first episode, we thought about, Hey, what, what would be a great thing to, to talk about, to hear about it. And one of the things that we, we have have often, and you know, Ariat boots, you know, Jed Ariat boots, long, long history, Ariat boots, um, clothing, those kinds of things, but you know, when you always think about them, I always think about my, my cowboy boots.
And now what you think about when you think about it? Yeah. Firstly, and I'm, I'm not, I've never been the biggest boot guy, but when, when anybody says boots, yep, cowboy boots, I've got a certain picture in my mind. Yep. Yep. And they've got some awesome cowboy boots, awesome cowgirl boots. In fact, I got a pair on right now as I'm sitting here doing this podcast, but we, we, we wanted to, to bring in a local expert and we have Dale Keel, who is, man, he's got, he's got awards from Ariat. He's been recognized for his service, for his expertise, but he's turning red over there on us. But he, he is a guy, if you want to know about Ariat, I don't imagine there's many people walking the face of the earth that know more about the Ariat brand and what they are.
But we, you know, one of the things that they've, we wanted to specifically talk about, cause you know, we are the work Western podcast is. They're not just a Western company anymore. They're not just cowboy boots, cowgirl boots, you know, blue jeans, that kind of thing. They, they've really jumped into this whole work work boot and that kind of thing. So we, we wanted to discuss a little bit of that with Dale. So Dale, welcome, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you guys. And, um, we just wanted you tell us a little bit about yourself and your history with Ariat. Then just a little short, just a, just a bullet points about the history of Ariat where they got started. Then we're going to, we're going to jump into some of the different things that Ariat is doing now.
You got it guys. Um, I've been with Ariat now starting my 26th year. They really don't award you until they, after you finish it, uh, for the full year, but I've been here for a long time and I came from the footwear industry and I worked retail for a lot of years. Um, that's really much history on me. I've had four or five states at one time. Now I'm down to like a half a state and three accounts in one other state. And, and business is just phenomenal. Just, just, just like you said, Kevin work has really driven a lot of our growth on top of the Western growth, especially in men's we really are our double digit increase every year in men's Western, uh, women's is starting to feel that,
that come back now a little bit in the women's Western, but work has really been over the top for the last few Um, to give you a little history about Ariat and a lot of people don't realize where our name comes from and our name comes from probably the biggest hearted race horse there ever was. Our name comes from the race horse Secretariat. It's the last five letters of the race horse secretariat and our two founders of Ariat, Beth cross and Pam Parker. We were founded back in 1993 and a lot of people don't realize they were marketing consultants and they were hired by Reebok to come up with an idea of footwear that is different. Well, they came out with the equestrian footwear comfort to be like athletic shoes.
Well, the funny thing is, is the idea wasn't accepted as well as they thought. And so they asked permission to keep the idea and they got to keep the idea and they grew it from nothing to a multi million billion dollar business at this point. So, but we were started back in 1993 by, um, our, and our two founders were Beth cCoss and Pam Parker. So it is, it is definitely, you say it Ariat, not Ariat Secretariat Secretariat. But, but, but when you hear commercials everywhere, it's Ariat, it's Ariat Ariat. So yes, but it's really Secretariat Ariat. That is correct. So, so when, when they started and took this technology that they were talking about developing and, and, but it was, was this straight for the horse market, that equestrian market, or was it a West?
I mean, it was built on an English market. It was built on a, an equestrian rider and, and both women or both of our founders, uh, Beth Cross and Pam Parker both rode English saddle. It, that was their discipline. And so they started coming out with paddock shoes. So we started years ago with our English paddock boot, and that's how we started the industry with comfort. and basically we grew from there. We went from English to Western to work, even if we had some work when we had Western, but really the, the, the layers of our business has been English, Western work, and I would say probably the, what's your most known for would be the Western.
would say what we're best known for is our Western because we put a lot of partnerships with, with like, we've been a partner of the PBR for years, but one of the things that really makes us different in that partnership, it wasn't, was a football player that played for the Minnesota Vikings, Josh Allen. Well, Josh Allen raises bulls and he has that part of the PBR. He takes his bulls to the PBR, but he also has a foundation that builds homes for, for underprivileged or military. He does a lot of things like that. So we get involved with, with things to build a business. Like you would recognize this one. 20 years ago, we were one of the first sponsors with the petty deal at their, at their place every summer where they'd bring kids in underprivileged kids to be at their petty camp.
And we were part of that, especially with our kids footwear. So we always like to, to, to be with a sponsorship that's going to better, always something that's going to better people. So, and that's really how we have have, we have really developed the name Ariat cause even today, guys, I can go into an airport and I can look at what's on people's feet and I can walk up to somebody that's wearing a pair of tennis shoes. And I said, um, so can I ask you a Sure. What's the first Western brand that comes to your mind? Nine out of 10 people still don't think to say Ariat, they don't think of wherewe're at,rightnowinourinourindustrywhereAriatit'sat but most people that are John Q public walking around has never heard the name Ariat.
They'll still say other names like Lou Casey or, or something like that. They won't think about Ariat. And, and, and I remember the days with Ariat start now help pioneering the Southeast when it was one pair of Ariats to another brand out there. Okay. Now it's the opposite. It's probably 10 or 15 pair Ariats to one pair of that other brand. Yeah. So, I mean, it's just amazing to see that where we've hit the marketplace, but we're still not as known as other traditional brands. Wow.That's That's, um, that's, that's a little surprising, you know, I would think because I, well, and, and from knowing more than the average person knows about footwear and those kinds of things, I would have thought, because you guys are at the top of that heat now, I would think, you know, you're, and I appreciate you saying that.
I always like to say, be humble, but you are right. We, we, we have, we have climbed up that ladder and the people who know us, like the guys who come into your stores and they're looking for a work boot, heck five years ago, they would come in and walk in and say, Hey, I want to pull on and they'd walk out 99. 9% with a pair of Ariat pull- ons. Now we're starting to see seven out of those 10 people sometimes walking out with a pair of lace- ups from you. So that are Ariat boots. So again, those guys know our name, but I still go up to some people who are wearing Ariat work boots and ask them about the Western boot and they still don't come up with our name first.
Yeah. So there's still a lot of growth that we can do to build the And I think for most of my accounts, that Western market is going to build those customers. One thing that's interesting that I found with you guys, uh, we're, we're,obviouslyuhwe're we have a outside of our podcast and other things. We, we have a family chain of retail stores and we sell some of your products and of course all the other products and some of your competitors that you won't talk about, but one of the things is I've, I've often thought of us almost as a parallel different scale, but a parallel, um, I've had the opportunity to interact with many of the people, um, including Beth as well.
And when we've been out in Dallas and doing things and, and sometimes it is, you get the feeling that, okay, you guys are growing really fast and we get that feeling a lot in our business. So, you know, we're growing really fast, sometimes faster than you can keep up with, but it's still, it almost feels, even though you guys are a huge company, almost feels like a small business. That is, that has become this huge company. And, and sometimes we're all, you guys are all clawing to keep up with what you're trying to, to move forward to. Is that a fair statement? That's a fair statement, but don't let him fool you. I've been here, like I told you, 25, 26 years, and I remember trying tosell these guys to start off with, I was groveling, begging to get my product in their stores and, and now, but I'm going to tell you, this has been a lot of years.
This is probably 21 years ago. So again, um, it's a funny story. His, his dad, you know, he's like, ah, nah, I'm okay. I don't need you. I remember he wasn't the first one I met. I did meet Kevin and Travelers Rest. And, uh, I said, you know, Hey guys, I know we'll, we'll be there for you. I promise you. And, and, and now they're one of my largest accounts, but they saw the writing on the I saw the writing on the wall and, and I'm telling you it's, it is a funny story you had to be here, but I was begging and groveling to get my product in the stores. Now we, now we are asked for by our industry.
A lot of the stores are asking for us now, but again, I like to try to do business with the ones that brought us here and, and build it from there. Um, and they are a great partner. Harrison's Harrison's is a great partner. Well, you and, and your, your late wife, uh, Liz, um, really got our, our Ariat business going, well, you did get it going and built it from literally nothing to, to what it is now. And you guys being our number one brand. And, um, it's just a great, it's a great partnership. It's a great partnership. So, so let's talk about that transition from, you know, being that wet, you know, you're talking about the equestrian, you know, the horse stuff. To the Western.
And then, then all of a sudden you jump into the work and now it seems now, and from talking to different people in different levels in the company, it seems that the real, I would even venture to say that I would guess one of the top priorities in the company is growing and expanding that work brand. Is that, is that true? That is absolutely correct. Um, it, it, it just, it goes to show you as an example, and this is a great example of what Kevin was just talking about. There's stores out there that do nothing. But sell shoes. Okay. They're not a, a work boot store. They're not a Western store. They do nothing but shoes and, and, and they don't even know this type of industry exist.
They don't even know work boots exist out there. They, they, they, they're in the back of their mind. If it's not a pair of Birkenstock sandals, they don't know that. Ariat exist in this world, but in this world, the marketplace is work. And what Kevin said is absolutely correct. Our growth pattern over the years. And it started with equestrian, which was English then into Western. we had to grow it that way to get into that work industry. I would say work is probably, if you take a hundred percent of the business out there, work is probably total of 40, 43% of our total business, as far asgrowth is concerned you know, especially in that men's market, you know, in the men's Western market is still a huge market out there because, you know, guys just want to throw on a pair of boots and a pair of jeans to go out todinner somewhere in the more,
they don't want to get dressed up in a pair of dress slacks and a pair of dress shoes and a blazer to go out to dinner if they don't have to. So, but the industry has changed because of that. Equestrian brought us to the Western started bringing us to the much more consumers that we never had before. You know, the core market, which if you ever hear in the boot business, the core market would be a cowboy in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, that would be what they would call core market industries. But I can promise you that the Southeast is probably bigger in business in Western than the core market nowadays. Really? Wow. Correct. To it, it doesn't mean that they're not doing a lot of business.
It just means that so much growth happened over the last 25 years in the Southeast from people like my counterpart in Tennessee, Philip Holden. Myself, I mean, I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and, and, and say I pioneered the whole Southeast because I didn't. But however, I was, I've been here the longest I have been with Ariat, the longest from anybody East of Salt Lake city. I'm the longest running rep, and I can tell you from the growth in Ariat, it started with that equestrian market, that, that, that English saddle rider to the Western market, and then came work. we didn't have a lot to offer in work until we came out with a style that we call work hog, just like it W O R K H O G work hog.
that really has sustained the industry. Ariat does have one thing that we set apart from our, from our competitors. you can ask these guys, this, or you can ask anybody that I sell to is we put quality first. Quality has to be there or we absolutely. We'll not make it. We'll actually say, no, this is not going to work for us. So quality is first. I've got a, I have a question related to that because I've got my own answer from, from working in the store. after quality, obviously qualities first, what's the second biggest driver? Because I have a, I have a pretty uncommon answer. Well, you probably have a better answer than me. I would say the second driver for me is style and fit.
Yeah, that, that's what that's mine too, but it's not, it's specifically the larger sizes is specifically what's offered at the top end, the 15, 16, 17, the wide and extra wide that sets y' all apart to me from, from anything else we carry. Without raising the price of a size 18 from a size eight, they're both the same price point at six, four, 300 with a size 13. That's right. I pay extra for clothes. Kind of sucks. And yes, while styles are a little bit more limited at the, at the extreme top end, they're not limited to nothing, which is what some other manufacturers offer is once you get past 15, we can't help you. Right. And they can offer quad E's a lot of them, right?
There's only a few that will offer a extra wide foot out there. And Ariat makes a line called big rig. We do the big rig and a Western boot. We do the big rig and a work boot from a pull on to aChelsea to a lace up in the work boot. And we offer size six through 18 in a double E and an eight to a size 16 in a four E. And I remember this to be the truth. I remember this five, five and a half years ago, when we first came out with the big rig work boot, my first pair of big rigs I ever sold as a rep inside of a store to a customer was right here at Harrison's. A big man came in.
I'm talking about a big guy. And he says, man, I can't find nothing bigger than a 15 double E and my toes are all crunched up. I said, well, have a seat. I put him in a 17 two E and still brought out the 15 quad E and he bought both of them and that is a true story. And it was the pull on big rig. And he would have paid a thousand dollars for him just because he had the, and you, I'm talking big and tall because that's what I am. But you mentioned the six, that's an extreme too. That's an extreme. Is it extreme? The other direction it is. I mean, you have customers that, that as an example that have a wider foot and a smaller foot, and a lot of people don't offer that, uh, another good thing that you, you got to remember that six double E could also fit a woman's eight wide.
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To, to, to, to, to, because that's really how the sizes go. It's always two sizes difference from men's to women's. If a men's six, it's a woman's eight. Yeah. So, well, you, you talk about the work hog and that's what, that was kind of the Genesis of the work program. And it's, it's funny. We, we run reports and have different things and there are some bill 86 35 and 86 33 years that for some of you, that won't mean anything, but look up those style numbers and that's a, um, that's one of the original work hogs and, they still, they're still right up there in our top 20, right. And, and one of the things that, that is that makes you know that you're doing it. Right.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Almost every vendor out there has brought in something that they'll, and they will even say, it was like, you know, this is, I was like, that's the knockoff of the work hog and that's correct. And nobody's got one as good as that work hog on the market. There's just not one. No. And the reason is, is we offer one thing that no other brand can offer. We have what we call a U- turn system in our And in the back of the boot, the U- turn system is like having a built- in shoe horn. So when you can't make that turn into the gusset part of that boot from the, from the shaft to the instep part of that boot, that U- turn, and it's unique to only Garriott, it pushes out and lets your foot go right into it.
And you'll get that noise. We've always talked about fit in a boot. And if you don't get that noise, when you put it on the boot, like you'repushing out air, it doesn't really fit as well. You need that little noise that pops out and pushes out that air. Yeah. And, and that is, that's legitimate when you say that. And I remember the first time I saw that as kind of gimmicky is it, but it, it legitimately works and makes it, makes it better. So, so the, the work Western thing, and that, that is what the work hogs and these other things will fall in. Correct. Where it looks like a Western boot guys can put it on with a pair of jeans to go work in.
And they, a lot of, a lot of contractors and, and, and, and people that are having to go in houses and out of, out of houses and want to look, you know, a little bit, little bit nicer, they will wear some of those things. And so, so really hammered that market down there for a while. The weakness of Ariat was in lace- ups. That is correct. I mean, it was, I mean, for people, people coming in and wanting to buy pull on boots Ariat was by far, nobody could, nobody could touch them in that then in the lace- ups though, it was, Hey, we've got a couple of things here, but you know, we really can't compete with these guys over here. Yeah. We didn't have much to offer. You're right.
And, and I know you guys spent, in fact, I had some conversations, you guys had come down, um, some of the designers and we're talking about it. And I remember them saying, look, we're, we're going to figure this lacer market up. And I think you guys have done that. You've come out with some new, new technology and some new, new innovations. Innovations. So, so tell us what Ariat it has done to, to really jump in and be very competitive in that lace- up market. Well, there's a lot of things, but let's start with really took us off in the lace- up business. And that was our turbo line. Turbo was really that took us to a different level. Now we had the work cog lace- ups before we had the power line, which is the lineman's boot.
also had a few other things, but we didn't have anything that really just right. Like, like you could sit it on the counter or sitting it on a table and people just go, okay, why this? Well, the turbo, the turbo started as a dual density poly polyurethane sole with the direction injection. Well, there's other brands that did direct injection soles. And it, one of them started with the letter with the W. Okay. Well, they could never figure out the split problem in the sole. Okay. Well, the problem with splitting on the sole isn't the materials that you use. was the air that was getting into the soles when you do an indirect injection right into the, to the, to the boot for that sole to adhesive itself up to the upper.
it's almost like getting a waterproof barrier without even having a waterproof liner on the But however, the turbo was a hundred percent waterproof on most, I would say about 95% of them. So basically we figured out the air problem. So when we did in direct injection, I've been here again, since we've been selling the turbo, I have never had one returned because of splitting across the full bottom of a sole. And that's where the quality of an Ariat's different. So- And I will say this, when the Turbo was first introduced, I remember the first time you showed one, I looked at it, literally I said, and you're not going to say it, but I said, this is the Wolverine Dura- Shot. This is Ariat's version of that.
And I said, Dale- They own the Let's just say the W brand. We've had, and I said, Dale, we've had hundreds of these. Now we sold thousands, tens of thousands of them. I said, but we've had hundreds of these that have come back and they've split. is this boot going to, cause it, one of the things with Ariat's is, is they're made so well, but some of them, you put them on and it's like, okay, am I going to walk right outside right now and go work 12 hours in this without breaking them in a little bit? I hope you do. Yeah. some of them, some of them, it's like,okay they're built so well. They're a little bit, you know, you got to break them in a little bit.
This turbo came out and it was very flexible, super comfortable. You could go, you could go out and run in it if you wanted to. But I was like, man, are they going to hold up? And they have, they have. That whole turbo line has held up and it's a very comfortable boot. Price points better than, youknow than what you might expect on some. And so that turbo line, I'll echo everything you've said on that. That's been a, that's been a home run for you guys. And then moving to the next one, you're probably going to talk about is, I imagine you're going to go into the rebar. Yeah. Those have been absolute all- stars. all- stars.
I mean, I will tell you the rebar lift and I'll tell you this guys, our next in the industrial market was going to a white or cream color or white sole boot. And everybody's going, ah, yeah, white. So it doesn't matter. They're on fire. Chelsea, which is Chelsea guys is like a, a Romeo style pull on boot, but only goes up around the you know, a little bit higher. That's what a Chelsea is. And they're very popular. But even in the rebar, what he's talking about, that sole in the, if you take the outsole, which is a blown rubber and polyurethane mixture, the midsole or the inside part is still polyurethane. So you still have an, basically a direct injection type material that's going into that sole to make it a little bit more Most of them are mock toe.
And what really stood us apart when we first came out with rebar lift, and he will tell you this, was we showed only 90 degree heels. We didn't do a We did 90 degree heels. And that was because men are up on Men are spading a using a spade in the ground. So you need them to to push it down with. So then we went to the wedge bottoms in them. But really the attack on this boot was going after the industrial market Ariats. Where Harrison has, just so you know guys, Harrison also has these industrial trucks that go out to different factories and sell direct to the employees of those factories that come outside, look inside their truck. This is what they're looking for.
And that was the reason for the turbo, the reason for the rebar lift, because the industrial market is almost a 95, 98% lace- up business. It is not always a pull- on business.However However, there are some categories in those factories that can have pull- ons. So we were doing great with the pull- on part of that but we weren't getting the lace- up business. So that was really the push behind turbo, rebar, I mean, all these type of, or even like we talked about earlier, doing something in the big rig in a lace- up. So we're always coming out with new and trying to come up with better ways of taking the technology up. And that's really what we're doing right now. that is, that's been a nice progression to see.
And now you guys are just solidly and sometimes leading that category at times in that lace- up market, which was far from the case just a couple of years ago. And then you talk about continuing to do things, and then it's like every, like you show things in your show truck. I remember the first time I saw a tennis shoe, a safety tow tennis shoe. we'll be talking to your good friend, Brandon, who reps another brand and he is your good friend. Yes, he is. But they kind of had the market cornered on athletics. And so talk about Ariat's, the way they have flown into athletics and what an athletic is and a safety tow. And what has made you guys different from all the other ones that are out there on the market?
Well, again, Ariat has built their name on quality, technology, And again, what we have done with the tennis shoe styles that Kevin's talking about is because the tennis shoe style work shoe is an inside work product. It's really not made for construction. It's not made if you're gonna lay asphalt on theroad It's not made for roofing. It's not made for outdoor work. It's made for inside work. So the tennis shoe version of what Kevin's talking about is to make it lightweight, and breathable for inside work. Sometimes we do make it waterproof, but most of the time you really don't need a waterproof for inside work, only walking from your car from the inside of the factory to your car. So what Kevin is talking about is we came out with a style called the Outpace a few years ago.
And honestly, we took every material, we took the sole, we took everything that we did, and we tried to get it to a certain price level. And we still couldn't match my buddy Brandon's product on the price, okay? We could match the other ones that had it there, but we couldn't match my But we came out, what Kevin's talking about is we came out with this new one that we're not gonna ship until next year. It's a great tennis shoe. It kind of looks like a high top basketball shoe. And he says, these aren't composite toe. Yeah, they are. No, they're not. I said, Kevin, feel the Damn, excuse my language. He says, yeah, this is a safety toe. I said, I told you that. How can you make it so narrow looking?
Because you can build up the inside or use a different composite material like a carbon fiber instead of aluminum or an So an alloy would make it Steel would make it smaller. And he thought it was steel, but it wasn't. It's actually like a carbon fiber material. So we can design it to fit it properly. it is all for indoor work, guys. And it's very comfortable. You're standing on your feet all day. You don't, sometimes, you're up and down. As an example, there's factories in Greenville that are in the Ariat that we live that builds tires. There's factories in our Ariat that builds big airplane engines then appliances and cars. And, you know, there are certain things that you need built into these tennis shoe styles that these factories require you to have.
One comes to mind would be static dissipation. Because if you're building some of these things that have electronics with them they're dealing with electronics and motherboards and stuff like that, you can ruin a motherboard by wearing an electrical hazard boot. You need an SD. You don't need to have a static shot. As an example, you know, you rub your feet on the ground and you walk up and you're just messing with your wife and you stick your finger on her arm and it goes, and it snaps real good. Well, that's electrical. And that's what happens with EH. It's electrical hazard. Well, static dissipation, you could wear that shoe all day long, scrub your feet and go up and snap somebody. It's not gonna snap it. It takes the static dissipation away.
So that's another reason to do these for indoor work. And, you know, you just have to have certain things for certain industries out there, like waste management out there. If I remember, if I know correctly, the OSHA certification is starting tosay or puncture- resistant, that's it, puncture- resistant sole. Well, they, you know, you're dealing with trash all day long, so you definitely need something that doesn't go through thesole and you need puncture- resistant. So I think in the industrial world, that's where a lot of technologies are coming to effect now, not even from Ariat, from all brands. You have to have these because it is what makes it OSHA certified. One of the most interesting points to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, and here's a spoiler, it has happened before, but some of those technologies you're talking about, particularly the comfort technologies, have worked their way back into the Western line too, right?
That is correct. Kevin jokes about it, but he wears a lot of our Western boots and he's wearing a pair of our Rough Stocks right now, which, you know, I'm kind of a rain man a little bit. I mean, the style number's 1002227, okay? Because I'll know these style numbers off the top of my head, but he still wears that exact same boot. Well, that boot right there comes with a removable insole and it actually has a small square toe on it. When I say a small square toe, about an inch, inch and a half toe. Well, a lot of your replacement insoles out there do not come in a square toe, but ours do. We come square toe, round toe, whatever. So if you need a replacement insole, Harrison's the place to come.
I mean, you can get your insole and replace them in your Western boots, but I can guarantee you looking at his boot, there's no splitting on the sole. There's just normal wear and Yeah. I am not, as I said earlier, I'm not the biggest boot guy in the world, but I took a pair of Hybrid Lowboys to New York City and walked all over the city and felt great because Kevin told me that is exactly what was going to happen. And it did, and I was blown away just by how comfortable a pair of, and they're the Chelsea style that you were talking about earlier, but I was blown away by how comfortable something like that can be, even in a wide. Well, talk about, was it easy to get on?
Yeah, it was. I joke with Bonnie, my wife is our store manager inMalden and some of the girls here, I joke about having foot claustrophobia, which is a real thing. I can't stand to feel confined. Correct. I sat through a play. I went to dinner. I walked all over the city. I never felt confined. And yes, they're easy to get on, easy to get off. I didn't try it then, but I've tried it since. You can take them off like a pair of tennis shoes. You can step on the back of the heel with one foot and slide the other foot out. But it also never feels like you're wobbling around either. Correct, because of the gusseting on the side of the low boys he's talking about has two major elastic piece or elastic type stretch Ariats on each of the sides of the And it's still a boot.
Do you have the distressed one or do you have the acorn color? I have the distressed one. So he has the waterproof one, okay. Well, that gusseted still has the waterproof membrane that goes in between the two layers of gusset. So he's still, that gusset Ariat is still waterproof and everything, so. Well, Dale, you're a wealth of And you, now tell us about the award that you, a big, big time award that you got. And you get a little red and don't wanna talk about it, but talk about the award that you won from Harriet. Well, I've been here for a lot of and honestly, it's, to me, it's, I'm the type of person, if I didn't earn it, I don't want it.
And it always seems, and this is a funny thing, this is also a funny story about these awards. When I win these huge awards, it always seems that we either didn't have the sales meeting to award them to you in front of your peers. So I get salesman of the year one year. Now this is not the award he's talking about. I get salesman of the year one year, and basically that was during the year of COVID. So we're all on Zoom phone calls during award ceremony. So it was great that we were still on Zoom calls. The award he's talking about is a few years back, I've been dealing with a little health issues. And a few years back, I could not make it to the sales meeting.
And basically, it's an that recognizes lifetime achievements. And basically, there's only one award higher than that, which is the President's Award that Beth would give out, but she doesn't give it out every year. So that year, I won this award. And to me, it was, again, I wish I was there when I received it, but I was at home, actually asleep when they actually gave it out. But they called me the next day, about 10 of them were on a phone call. They were very excited about giving me the award. So I do appreciate it. It's a lifetime achievement. Well, you're modest, but it is. I think anybody listening to thisprogram or this podcast can tell, okay, there's no greater brand ambassador for Ariat than Dale Keel.
(00:40):
And then there's no, you're not gonna find anybody that has more knowledge about Ariat than Dale Keel. And we've personally seen that with growing from, again, my, when you were trying to get in our stores to start with, and I said, no, we don't need you to. I begged on my knees. But then when you said that, hey, we will get there. And now you being our number one brand, it goes to show just what kind of a true sales person you are, and not only that, but a friend and a partner in what we do. And so it's very well- And we're thankful for you. And you minimize a little bit what you said a second ago. You had some pretty, very serious health issues.
And we are so thankful that you've come out on the other side of those and through a lot of prayers and thoughts and things that have gone. It's funny, I'll say this. It's just a funny little story about that award. During that time, you were walking through some of those tough, I was sitting in your living room with you. you pointed up at, you just mess like, yeah, look up there, they got me that award. It's like, yep, they're just giving it to me because I think I'm going to die. I was like, don't say that, you're not going to win. Thankfully that did not happen. And you have come out on the other side of that.
But I can assure you from talking to your colleagues and those others who are in high levels in the company at Ariat that you're very, very well thought of and respected throughout the company and throughout the industry. And we just appreciate you taking some time to come in here, share some of your knowledge and just tell that story of what Ariat it is and how they started with horses and then the Western and now have really attacked that work market. And with us being the Work Western podcast, we thought of nobody better we would want to have on to kick this thing off. Well, and I want to say, I appreciate you guys being a partnership as long as we have had. I mean, you are a partner.
Without you doing what you're I couldn't have ever won that Without doing the growth here, I couldn't have won that award. So when Kevin tells you he does go back to like Dallas and he sees all these big wigs in a he's the one that actually likes to pull up the joke and say, you know, Dale thought it was going to die when you gave him that award. You know, so I do appreciate all that stuff because they probably are like, yeah, they probably get a good chuckle out of it. Trust me. Yeah, it's a good company, good people. For those of you out there that are looking and looking for a work boot, looking for a Western boot, looking to, you know, and we're going to- Harrison's Workwear, guys.
Harrison USA, you need to be in their stores. Yeah, go to Harrison's USA, but you know, if you want to hear more about Aerie, we'll have some links in the notes. And, but this company is a really good company. Aerie, it's a good company, good people, all the way to the It's a fine company and they make quality, quality products. And we're going to review some of those. We're going to have some, we'll do some videos later, do some things and have Dale on talking about some other things. But this is, this was a great start to the Work Western podcast. This is, this is, you can expect, you can expect to have great guests like this. You can expect to have reviews and different, oh, we're going to talk about country music.
We're going to have some country music people on. We're going to, we're going to do all kinds of things on here just to, just to kind of this, the lifestyle of the, of the worker and that guy, that's the Western, the Western guy and Western gal. We're, we're here for you. So you can follow us over on Instagram, the Work Western guy, TikTok Work Western guy. And we'll, we'll have a YouTube channel that's going to be starting to launch videos soon. But until then, we are the Work Western podcast and we appreciate you listening today.
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