Cash cow gone with rodeo
For artisan vendors, event’s cancellation means losing bulk of their yearly sales
If you can dream it in leather, Tania Alejandra can make it. A handbag crafted from your daddy’s old boots, a wallet debossed with your child’s favorite Pokemon, a purse with a secret compartment for concealed carry, a mask that makes it appear as though a parasitic alien is laying eggs in your face — you name it, she’s done it.
But for Alejandra, the creative, intimate endeavor of creating a custom piece for an individual was largely made possible by the wholesale orders that typically make up the bulk of the revenue for her Texas Luxury Goods. The event that drives the largest sales of the year? The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Hundreds of artisans in the Houston area and beyond who make hats, jewelry, clothing and
other one-of-a-kind crafts yearround are able to keep their businesses afloat through the yearly infusion of sales that comes to town with the rodeo. The threeweek event draws more than 1 million people to the grounds where vendors set up their booths, according to a 2019 study by Economic Analytics Consulting commissioned by RodeoHouston. Those visitors spend a cumulative $18.5 million on merchandise, supporting 275 vendors, each of whom bring their
“It’s one of the best shows out there for what I do. Twenty-five percent of my income is done at that one show.” Tammye Black, owner of Black Market Boots
own staff to help them sell.
When RodeoHouston announced Feb. 3 that it was canceling all events outside of the Junior Livestock and Horse Show competitions, Alejandra said, “Seventeen thousand dollars just went through my fingers.”
The loss of that business represents a hit to the community of mom-and-pop artisans who converged every year at the rodeo.
“The Houston rodeo — it’s one of the best shows out there for what I do,” said Tammye Black, owner of Black Market Boots. “Twenty-five percent of my income is done at that one show.”
For Ginger Jo Sklavos, who owns the Family Jewels of Texas, a shop with a location in the Heights selling turquoise jewelry, hats and belts, among other goods, that number is even higher. She estimates 90 percent of her sales come at RodeoHouston. Her booth usually commands a corner spot on a prized walkway known as Million Dollar Row.
“I always say rodeo is my life,” Sklavos said. “Not joking around.”
The cancellation of the rodeo in March 2020 marked the beginning of COVID-19’s reshaping Houstonians’ day-to-day lives, and small-business owners who had gone through a
tough year of sales had begun to look forward to this year’s event as a first step toward a return to normalcy. Instead, those business owners broke bad news to workers and rushed to cancel orders.
Black has had to tell the five contract workers that she usually calls on for big
shows to look for other work. “I just told them: If you can, find something else,” she said. “Because it looks like it’s going to be fall before I can help you again.”
While RodeoHouston gave three months’ notice of its cancellation, some businesses had already racked up expenses in preparation.
Alejandra had hats that she was working on for a rodeo vendor piled up to the ceiling in the corner of her office, which she downsized in February as work dried up. Work was well underway on Black’s boots, which are handmade by Old Gringo and take three to nine months a piece to prepare.
“I’ve got to plan six months ahead,” Black said. “I canceled all the ones that I could that weren’t so far along in production.” Already, she has cut expenses by no longer staying in hotels when she travels to the smaller shows that have not been canceled; instead she stays in her RV, so she does not have to eat out.
The effects also rippled out beyond Texas. Shorty Koger, who runs Shorty’s Caboy Hattery in the Oklahoma City stockyards, estimates a fifth of her sales are made at RodeoHouston. Twenty-one percent of rodeo vendors come from out of state, and 2 percent from out of the country, according to the 2019 RodeoHouston economic impact study.
But while vendors described a year of hardship, they also recalled moments of grace.
One of Alejandra’s customers reached out to ask her if she was having difficulty with rent and gave her $3,000 to help with expenses. Sklavos said a Heights hairdresser, Venus Hair, has invited her to set up a table outside of the shop. And local artisans have been referring so many customers to one another that Alicia Hoog, an assistant manager at Cavender’s, has been able to turn her knack of fashioning feather hat adornments, known as trim, into a side business.
“I didn’t realize how many of the shop-small community promote each other until this past year,” Hoog, owner of the Feather Lady, said.
“It really reinforces the pay-it-forward,” Alejandra said. “Everyone’s in the same boat.”