FOUNDED: 1978
LEGACY LEADERSHIP: At a time when retail shops were losing sales to online websites, Boot Barn expanded its retail presence under Jim Conroy. When he was recruited as CEO in late 2012, the retailer was only in eight Western states with 86 stores. Over the next decade, he helped transform the company into a national lifestyle brand with annual sales rising six-fold to $1.7B in fiscal 2024 when he left for Ross Stores Inc. Boot Barn hit $2.25B in fiscal 2025, a record year with CEO John Hazen now at the helm.
HQ: Irvine
OC SIGNIFICANCE: Founder Kenneth Meany started out with one 2,000-square-foot store in Huntington Beach, creating what is now the largest western and work wear retailer in the U.S. with more than 550 retail stores.
DEFINING MOMENT: Boot Barn went public in 2014 at $16 per share. Since then, shares have soared, reaching an all-time high of $210 in December; it currently trades at $176 per share with a $5.3B market cap (NYSE: BOOT).
BY THE NUMBERS: Retailer counts 552 stores as of May and now aims to operate 1,200 stores in the U.S. In the last 12 years, earnings have increased from 28 cents per share to $7.35 for the fiscal year ended March.
QUOTABLE: Boot Barn’s store strategy “does fly in the face of what a lot of other retailers are doing as they continue to shrink their footprint.” — Jim Conroy
FUN FACTS: Every Boot Barn store is profitable, according to CFO Jim Watkins, a 2026 Business Journal CFO of the Year Award winner. Investors say Boot Barn’s sales often track price of oil because that industry’s workers are some of the firms big customers.