We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alvie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alvie. below.

Alvie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In 2013, I was backpacking through Thailand, pondering what I wanted to do with my life, and I asked myself, what am I passionate about? I was wearing flip-flops then and realized I missed my cowboy boots back home. The idea of a cowboy boot and flip-flop company as a combination hit me, and I was obsessed, I couldn’t stop thinking about creating the business for the rest of the trip.

Alvie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2013, I was backpacking through Thailand, pondering what I wanted to do with my life, and I asked myself, what am I passionate about? I was wearing flip-flops then and realized I missed my cowboy boots back home. The idea of a cowboy boot and flip-flop company as a combination hit me, and I was obsessed, I couldn’t stop thinking about creating the business for the rest of the trip.

Until then, I had sold software to direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker and Harry’s. I also considered starting a cowboy boot business in college with my now business partner, Clay Sexton. At the time, we looked at the industry and thought there was no way to penetrate retail shelves so we quickly scrapped the idea. But D2C gave us a new way to penetrate the market, so I started journaling the idea, boot, and flop designs, and then I called Clay as soon as I landed back in the US. He was in as soon as I mentioned cowboy boots and flip-flops.

D2C cowboy boots were a wide-open opportunity. There were no other brands in the space, and we launched as the first D2C cowboy boot company a year later ( we, of course, sold flip-flops too).

I grew up in East Texas in a small town where I always felt like a poser wearing cowboy boots. I liked cowboy boots when I was working but didn’t see how I could pull them off with my style outside of work. I was more of the flip-flop guy in my time off, and I remember getting detention multiple times in high school because we weren’t supposed to wear flops to school, and I always did. In college, I inherited all of my grandpa’s cowboy boots, and it took me getting them to realize how amazing they were. Boots last generations and accumulates stories; from there, I was a boot and flip-flop guy. That story became my mission when launching the brand because I wanted to show people what I knew, which took an inheritance of boots for me to realize – cowboy boots are the most comfortable footwear that will last you a lifetime and then some.

There was no playbook to get a cowboy boot company started at that point, so we asked a retail friend where most cowboy boots came from. He said most boots are from Leon, Mexico. So we booked a trip and went door to door in Leon until we found a factory willing to take a low minimum purchase order.

Getting traction with such a low minimum took forever, but after a few trips, we had our first designs in hand. We ended up launching out of an Airstream on 3rd and Congress to sell our product D2C. At the time, we were completely bootstrapped, so everything was scrappy. We would stand in the streets with boots in our hands and direct tourists to the Airstream. We ended up with 3 Airstreams after a few years that we were selling out of Austin. But we didn’t have much experience in e-commerce, so our website crashed every few weeks, and the only place we saw scale was selling out of Airstreams. So we focused more time there.

After a few years, other D2C cowboy boot brands emerged, and before too long, people knew their names over ours. So in 2017, we looked hard at ourselves and what we had built. We decided the Airstream was cool, but we could never accomplish the goals we set out to do if we stayed focused on mobile D2C vs. Online.

We realized no one was purchasing our boots because of the price. Everyone talked about quality and comfort. Customers loved the story of inheriting my grandpa’s boots. They would discuss the experience and how they will remember buying boots with us forever. And that the hands-on, southern hospitable customer service made it really easy to see themselves in boots. So from there, we rethought ourselves and pivoted the brand entirely. We shut down all of our Airstreams, and relaunched in 2017 under the name Alvies (also my grandpa’s name). We built the business from the boot-up and focused entirely on making quality, handcrafted boots and applying everything we have learned about the industry toward a new launch.

We launched Alvies right in the middle of Covid. You can find our boots at Alvies.com, and we were come directly to you in Austin by booking a Boot Party at BootParty.com

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

We manufacture our products in Leon, Mexico. We knew nothing about how to make a cowboy boot when we started, but thanks to my grandfather’s boots, I knew what a great handcrafted boot looked and felt like. So I built off of that knowledge and learned as fast as possible to get caught up.

We tested with multiple factories and had several that were easy to say no to. We pushed back a lot in those days, and it took us almost a year to get to a place where we could launch just a few boots and flop styles. But that early work helped us launch a great initial product and create great relationships with several of the best factories in Mexico.

My biggest learning lesson from those days was to get the product exactly right with every detail and don’t rush no matter how bad you want to. Then from there, you have to make sure they make that same sample product every time.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

D2C cowboy boot brand. But within a few years after our launch, we actually looked like we were the copycat, even though we were first to market. Those brands found traction through Facebook ads, and we were playing catch-up out of Airstream. This led us to rethink the brand and relaunch in 2017, scrapping all revenue for an aggressive online business model and renaming the brand to Alvies.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alvies.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alvies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlviesBoots/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUwZhqatEmrDwe7w1pd-Iw

Image Credits
Alvies