Fashion Forward: The New Wave of Corral and Circle G Western Boots

In this episode of the Work Western podcast, hosts Kevin Harrison and Jed Blackwell are joined by Harrison's Mauldin manager Bonnie Blackwell to discuss the resurgence of Corral and Circle G boots, highlighting their unique designs, fashion-forward styles, and the use of exotic materials. They explore the target markets for these brands, emphasizing the differences in preferences between male and female customers. The conversation also touches on pricing strategies and the craftsmanship behind the boots, concluding with insights into future trends in Western fashion.

Takeaways

Corral and Circle G are making a strong comeback in the market.

Their designs are recognized for being fashion-forward and unique.

The use of in-house exotic materials sets them apart from competitors.

Pricing strategies are competitive, especially in the exotic boot market.

The target market for Corral is predominantly female, while Circle G caters to both genders.

Customer preferences lean towards flashy and stylish designs for women.

Handmade craftsmanship contributes to the uniqueness of each boot.

The brands maintain quality while keeping prices lower than competitors.

Future trends in Western fashion are leaning towards more vibrant and unique styles.

The podcast will feature insights from representatives of Corral and Circle G in future episodes.

 

Episode Transcript

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Welcome back into the Work Western Podcast. This is your host, Kevin Harrison, along with my co-host, Jed Blackwell. We've got a special guest that's going to be with us. We're going to be talking about another brand that's out there in that Western market. But, Jed, we've had some really good guests on lately, and we've gotten a lot of really good feedback on some of the things that we've been putting out. What's on the menu today?
Today we're going to talk about one of our longtime brands that's in the store, but they're kind of back with a vengeance. They're back with a bunch of new stuff. We're going to talk about Corral and Circle G and their line of boots. And honestly, maybe some of the most overlooked boots in the store because people don't know that Corral and Circle G are one of the biggest brands that there are. Some of the things that they offer are just so far beyond on a scale of fashion forward and fancy looking and some of the exotic, some of the embroidery. It's really, really a different. These aren't cowboy boots.
Hey, you know, last episode we were talking about going out to Dallas to the big trade show out there and just got back from that. And I was in the Corral and I sent this out to do a lot of our. to our leadership we got a little leadership group group chat and i sent some pictures and some things that are going on there and man they are some of their stuff is so fashion forward i mean it is as i as i was walking around they've got this entire huge showroom and and every single boot that they make is is in that showroom and and some of the things and the lady that was walking me around her her name was lupe and and she She was like, I want to show it to you, but this might be a little. I was like, Lupe, that's a whole lot much. I mean, they have some things that are crazy looking, but they're selling. It's a very fashion forward. But, you know, they also have the more traditional type things, and we're going to talk about some of those, and then the brand Circle G. is made by Corral, and it's going to be a little bit more toned down. They're going to have some more conservative styles in that. So, yeah, you're exactly right. They're a very fashion-forward brand.
And we have one of your special guests with us today to talk about these brands and talk about what is selling and what the customers at the end of the, you know, we call it that end user, which is the customer that comes into a store looking at things. And she's going to be able to talk a little bit about that. So introduce our guest today.
Today we have our Mauldin store manager, Bonnie Blackwell, with us. Don't know how much more involved I want my introduction to get. My better half. So I get to hear about everything. That's why I think I got picked as the co-host. I get to hear about stuff in advance and up front.
Probably right. You've also heard about the shoes I'm currently looking at right here.
Show them the shoes. Yeah, let's show us.
How do I get it in the? There we go. These right here. This right here.
That is the number one selling ladies boot in our company over the last month.
And I will tell you, I put a pair on the other day. Super comfortable.
So you can probably tack one on whatever that sales number is.
You're going to be selling a size nine here shortly. And it's very comfortable, and it looks absolutely amazing with a pair of dark denim jeans.
So how does that boot? that you're holding up, how does that truly kind of encapsulate what the, for those people that, that aren't familiar with Corral as much as others, how does that encapsulate really what they are?
So Corral, you know, I've, I've done a little bit of research on them and they are one of the first companies in the United States that had fashion forward boots. They got inspired by Mexican bootmakers back in the 90s, and they were one of the first companies to have boots like this. Handmade, absolutely beautiful footwear. And, you know, when you were asking us what we wanted, I was one of the only ones that's like, I want the pops of color. I don't want just brown and black. And these pops of color that we have brought in, we've had a lot of people looking at them. We've sold them. They're absolutely beautiful. And once you wear them and they wear in, the fact that they're this handmade good leather, they will fit beautifully on your feet. It is a fabulous boot.
Yeah, and that is one of the things when you talk about them being handmade, when you go and you look at what they're doing and look at the styles they're coming out with and you feel the boot and look at the boot, tremendous care and and the design elements and they have they have some really out of the box designers that are that are in Mexico doing designing these boots and and and you know providing this fashion the fashion statement i mean that's what they're known that's what they're known for yeah and they i mean if you once we sell one and we get another one in that one's not gonna look the same as this one yeah it's gonna look
There's going to be subtle differences because they are handmade. All of this stitching is handmade on these boots. They are not done on a machine, which I think makes them a little bit more special. That each one is going to be a little bit different than the other one.
One of the things that kind of blows me away about them too, because Bonnie's just told you all of that about the hand stitching, the embroidery, handmade, the custom look, the way they're going to fit. These boots aren't $200.
No.
Yeah, I mean, the price point on these is really good. I mean, it's going to be, you know, they are going to be, when you put them up beside some of the other brands that we've got in the store, they're going to be cheaper. You know, one of the other things, and this is a, you know, this is a Cayman, so this is going to be what falls into that exotic brand. And exotics are going to be the skins like Ostrich and Cayman, you know, the Crocodile. And as well as the snake and other, in fact, my favorite boot, I don't have it here with me, but my favorite boot is the snake skin that they produce. But one of the things that makes these unique for Corral is they have their own farms. And a lot of the other big boot vendors, they actually buy their skins for their boots from them. And so, you know, this particular boot, if you compare it to another brand of boot, Generally, it's going to be on the exotics. It's going to be about $100 to $150 cheaper than that. But you can look at this boot.
I mean, my goodness, you know, you look at the bottom of it and look at the skin and the way it's stitched together. You look at the detail on the shaft of this boot. I mean, it is every bit the boot that these others are. It's just a more competitive price for them.
Yeah, and I think. The fact that they own the farms, it's all family owned, the farms, the tanneries, everything, helps keep that price down.

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Oh, no doubt. Yeah. That's it.
They have employees all over the world. I mean, some of these farms are in Asia and Africa and South America. And so they're able to keep that price down because they're not having to buy that product.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is kind of their calling card of. in the exotic market that's why they're able to and that's why we have we carry i think one two three we got three or four of their exotics and we've just picked up we're going to have a ladies one uh beautiful i mean a beautiful little white ostrich skin little square toe everybody loved loved it but um that is That is the thing. And, you know, one of the boots, one of the things they're known for more than anything is called the wedding boot. And this thing, man, it is white and glittery and just a – we have so many people, and we've got pictures of some of our customers with the wedding boot on. This is what they get for their weddings and put that on. You'll also see these things worn at football games and other stuff like that. But this wedding boot has been one. This is our longest tenured boot we have in our company. From Corral. That's the wedding boot.
Yeah, I think when we were bringing in the new styles, I think that was the only one we kept.
Yeah, it was.
Was the wedding boot. And it's one of my favorite shoes in the store, to be honest with you. It is just so sparkly and girly, and we sell a lot of that one.
Yep, great thing for a wedding.
Absolutely.
How about the Circle G?
So, Circle G, obviously, owned by Corral. It's the same quality.
Same leather coming from the same farms, same designers, same handmade. It is what they call their kind of budget-friendly sub-brand that they do. This blue one that I love is actually a Circle G. And it wears and fits and looks just as good as the Corral. It's just a little bit cheaper.
But it is just as good a product as the Corral is.
And they're going to be toned down. Like the one, the blue one that you just showed is going to be, that's about as wild as the Circle Gs get. Where the Corrals get really wild. I mean, they have got some fancy styles. The Circle G is going to be more of a toned down brand. And they're going to be more. Now, there's Corrals. I just showed you a Corral, especially in the exotics. The Corrals are more, it's probably the only boot brand that I can think of off the top of my head that the main people they're focusing on is the female market. You're going to sell three or four to one female boots to male boots in the Corral. Circle G is about, it's going to be more traditional where you're going to sell more of the men's boots. They've got more of those. Brown men don't like them as funky as the ladies like them. Generally. Um, they're going to have, they got some good exotics, but they've got some good, what you call just that. We've talked about just that work Western type, just Brown. What shade of Brown do you want?
Yeah.
And I mean, and that's the frustrating thing when you're out buying and you're purchasing, you know, for a company it's for men, it is generally going to be, you're looking at someone's like, Oh, I really liked that boot. It's that's man. That's a nice boot. It's. It's fancy, but you always kind of lean back to, but this brown one's going to sell. And Circle G, a lot of theirs are going to be different shades of brown, and shafts will be different colors and those kind of things. But good wearing boot, good comfortable boot, lower price point than the Corrals, but, you know, really, really good, really good option.
Yeah, and women, back to that point, women love a fancy shoe. I mean, that's just, I don't know if it's in our DNA. Or whatever it is. But we want the fancy, glittery, shiny shoes. Because a lot of times we're wearing them with dresses. We're wearing them with shorts. We very rarely have the top of the boot covered up. So we want people to be able to see that color. The whole boot. And that sparkle. And that whole boot. Whereas guys, y'all are wearing them with jeans. So the top doesn't matter as much, I guess, to a bunch of guys. But then you do have some guys out there that like the fancy boots too. But, yeah, the corrals, the sparkly ones, they sell pretty well.
Yeah, well, Reba McIntyre talked about it in her song. Fancy was her name.
Fancy was her name.
And it really is. I mean, you see it. You go out and you walk up in that boot aisles. You look online. You see the fancy stuff. That's what the girls like. And the men, they may look at one, but then they generally are going to fall back into that. hey, I want a little bit more of a toned-down type boot. We're talking about men over there. Is that right, Jed? What kind of boot do you like?
My favorite boot we've ever carried was an Ariat Cow Boss that was navy on the shaft and had like a gold, almost gold scroll. It's my favorite boot we've ever carried, ever.
Well, those are the ones, generally, whenever all of our boots come in from whatever brand it is, everybody will say, oh, that's the one.

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kevin boot that was like i want something funky on the shelf for men and we always usually end up selling yeah but but the to that point these uh corrals and circles use that we have now are as good looking as anything we got yeah i like that the cayman that you just showed us is as intricate on the shaft as you could
find probably there is all kind of design on there and then ride it like you mentioned right into that skin down on the bottom it's just a good looking boot it is beautiful beautiful boots beautiful boots so you know if you haven't checked out the corrals and the circle g's uh check out those corrals and circle g's uh you can you can find them you know come into one of our stores we've got six locations around the carolinas we uh also harrisonsusa.com you're gonna find all these boots there we'd love the opportunity to be able to get you in a pair and see what see what you think with the Corral and Circle G brand. We've got some more we'll be talking about and doing some reviews on some of the new styles that we'll have coming in for holiday as well.
Yeah, so we thank Bonnie Blackwell being the better of the Blackwells. Correct. From what I hear. Absolutely. That's what Jed Blackwell says anyway, if he wants to eat right when he gets home. But we thank Bonnie for coming on. She's got a lot of expertise in these things. I know she loves that blue boot, as do anybody who is trying that boot loves that boot.
Yeah, we've enjoyed talking Corral and Circle G. We're actually going to have somebody from Corral and Circle G in a few weeks that's going to be on the podcast with us to talk about some of their things and how they do their skins and other type deals. But for Jed Blackwell, our host, and our special guest, Bonnie Blackwell, this is Kevin Harrison, and hoping that you are staying strong in that work Western lifestyle.