Western & English Today

JANSB 2014

W&E; Today provides retailers and manufacturers with education and ideas that provoke innovation in the Western and English markets.

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ardner! he Sky, P ach Fer t e sions: rt conces s as airpo ck g reward stdi apin hn H. O res are re o Jo ? ecialty st estern sp be next W store ld your Cou OUNTRY MUSIC JUMPS FROM THE neon-framed walls of Premier Billy Bob's Texas into the renovated Dallas Love Field terminal, extending travelers a boot-scootin' lifeline to the famous Fort Worth entertainment venue. Inside, two women in their late 20s, rolling totes in tow, admire a T-shirt that reads "Life's Too Short to Dance With Ugly Cowboys" and laugh. Minutes later, that laughter turns into the sale of two shirts. "Tis is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the Billy Bob's brand to the world," says Billy Bob's boot-clad president Concho Minick, standing in the center of the concourse. "We've talked for a while about expanding the Billy Bob's brand outside of Fort Worth. Te airport store is at the intersection of a lot of concepts I've been rolling around about Billy Bob's." 48 Western & English Today Te specialty retail store, fush with the mother ship's autographed, wall-mounted guitars, T-shirts, custom barbecue sauce and almost 50 Billy Bob's concert CDs, is a product of the evolution and expansion of both the close-in Dallas airport and Billy Bob's Texas Investments LLC. Love Field is nearing the fnish line on a $519 million renovation project that has reinvented the concourse and vendor oferings in advance of the last fight restrictions of the 1979 Wright Amendment, established to protect the then-nascent D/FW International Airport. Tese restrictions are set to expire in 2014, which will allow Love Field-based Southwest Airlines to fy nonstop from Love to out-of-state destinations. And with the expiration of this amendment, Billy Bob's is poised for a jet-fueled expansion of its brand. About a decade ago, Billy Bob's had a kiosk at the D/FW Airport, but the experience lef the venue's management group skeptical about selling product in the airport environment. Minick explains that the PHOTOGRAPHY: SUSAN L. EBERT R

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