Boot Barn, a leading Western wear and boot store chain, is building its first Delaware store.
The new store is taking over the former Modell’s Sporting Goods off Churchmans Road in Stanton. The store is in Center Pointe Plaza, which is also home to TJ Maxx, Ross and Home Depot.
Boot Barn did not comment beyond confirming the store’s location.
PREVIOUS REPORTING: Modell’s Sporting Goods in Stanton to close as company shuts down all remaining stores
NEIGHBORING STORE: Construction underway at Delaware’s third Ross Dress for Less
New Castle County issued a building permit for the store last Friday, and construction is already underway.
Signs posted at the front door advertise openings for manager, key holder and inventory roles.
Boot Barn calls itself the largest Western and work wear retailer in the country. The California-based company has grown quickly, having added more than 200 stores and expanding to 29 new states in the past 10 years.
The Northeast is the only region Boot Barn has yet to gain a foothold in. The company’s nearest stores are in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. It also has three stores in western Pennsylvania and four stores in Virginia.
The staples of Boot Barn’s offerings are its cowboy-style boots for men and women. Boot Barn also sells cowboy hats and jeans, and in recent years expanded to baseball hats, hiking boots, dresses and other fashion-forward items in an attempt to broaden its customer base.
The products come from a mix of Boot Barn’s own brands and outside brands such as Wrangler, Levi’s, John Deere and Carhartt.
The vast majority of the company’s sales – 84% – are made in-store.
Boot Barn’s stock has soared since the beginning of the pandemic. It’s jumped from around $15 a share in March 2020 to about $105 a share today.
At a conference for investors earlier this month, Boot Barn CEO Jim Conroy made the case that the company’s presence and success still isn’t fully realized by investors.
“We often try to encourage them to look outside the window when they fly from coast to coast because for five hours of that six-hour flight, they’re looking down on customers that are wearing Boot Barn products,” he said. “They are driving pickup trucks, listening to country music and they wear boots, jeans, cowboy hats and work wear almost every day of their life.”
That description doesn’t match all the shoppers in Stanton, but the company says its new stores near the Northeast are outperforming expectations. The Stanton store will be Boot Barn’s first test in one of the region’s most sought-after markets.
Like knowing what stores, restaurants and developments are coming and going in Delaware? Join our Facebook group What’s Going There in Delaware and subscribe to our What’s Going There in Delaware newsletter.
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
