Western culture isn't what it used to be, and that's not a bad thing.
The customer has changed, but the values haven't. A generation ago, western wear brands primarily served ranchers, rodeo competitors, and rural communities. Today, Western culture reaches far beyond the West. Customers discover it through Yellowstone, country music, social media, and their first pair of boots bought online.
Kimes Ranch was built for that customer from day one. While traditional western brands focused on value and durability for working ranchers, Kimes saw a gap and filled it with higher-quality construction, more tailored fits, and a modern eye for style. What followed was one of the most unlikely success stories in Western apparel.
Started From Zero
Matt and Amanda Kimes had zero experience in design, textiles, or production when they launched their brand in March 2009. Neither had ever made a pair of jeans.
It was the height of the Great Recession. Matt's business was struggling, Amanda's wasn't exactly thriving either, and the two of them had just gotten married. So naturally, they decided to start a clothing company. Starting a clothing company wasn't the obvious move, but they did it anyway.
They taught themselves the basics of jean production through research, trial and error, and conversations with industry experts.
What they did have was a genuine connection to the Western world. Both came from families of cattle ranchers, bull riders, and horsemen. They knew the lifestyle from the inside, and they knew the frustration of denim that didn't fit right, didn't hold up, and didn't look like anything worth wearing off the ranch.
So they drove to the Garment District in Los Angeles, bought rolls of denim, and started figuring it out. When they couldn't find a contractor to sew for them, they found someone off Craigslist. Six weeks and a lot of money later, they had their first pair of jeans. They were terrible. Amanda wore them in downtown Scottsdale, and they ripped immediately. Back to the drawing board.
They Sold Jeans Out of a Motor Home
Matt and Amanda Kimes loaded their kids into a motor home and drove from rodeo to horse show to anywhere that would have them, selling jeans one at a time. Kimes Ranch was not an overnight success, it was built pair by pair, show by show, over years of grinding it out on the road.
After a difficult period involving an unsuccessful partnership, the company reorganized and relaunched as Kimes Ranch in 2014.
But something unexpected happened while they were gone: people missed the product. When they relaunched in 2014 under the Kimes Ranch name, customers were waiting for them. From that point on, the brand grew consistently, year over year.
The Logo Has a Story Too
Before the jeans, before the brand, Matt and Amanda had two Texas Longhorns. A heifer named Betty and a steer named Barney. The plan had been to build a cattle operation. It didn't work out the way they imagined, but the cattle stuck around.
When it came time to design a logo, Matt dug up a doodle he'd made in a sketchbook, taught himself Adobe Illustrator, and cleaned it up. That longhorn horn silhouette is now one of the most recognizable logos in Western apparel, and it came from a hand sketch and a YouTube tutorial.
Their first women's jeans were named Betty, after the heifer. It became their best-selling style and still holds that title today.
The brand's first name was Longhorn Jean Company. A letter from a certain Texas university put an end to that. After a brief detour through LJC Apparel and an admittedly bad stint as Lone Horn Apparel, they eventually put their own name on it. Kimes Ranch was officially born.
The Fit Factor
All of that backstory matters because it explains why the product is what it is. Matt and Amanda didn't build Kimes Ranch from a business plan or a fashion background. They built it from a genuine frustration with what was already out there.
When they launched, western denim was cut conservatively: low-rise on the women's side, oversized and overprocessed on the men's. Kimes Ranch went the other direction. Higher rise. Slimmer. Darker denim. It was a big leap from what the market was used to, and early on, customers weren't ready for it.
But the fit eventually found its audience. The women's jeans became a cult favourite for fitting through the hip and seat without gapping at the waist, a problem that had plagued western denim for years. The men's line earned the same reputation: slim enough to feel current, relaxed enough to feel like western, built to last.
The denim itself is ring-spun and requires a break-in period. That's a feature, not a flaw. The quality is why customers come back for a second pair, and a third.
“We were early on Kimes because you could see right away they were building something different. The fit and the quality just worked in a way most things don't when they are just starting out. Around here you learn pretty quick what is going to last and that was one of them.”
-Chung Mah, co-owner
As Seen on Yellowstone
If one moment pushed Kimes Ranch into mainstream recognition, it was the show Yellowstone.
Yellowstone was unusually deliberate about the western brands it put on screen. The show's creator, Taylor Sheridan, is himself an equine enthusiast with deep ties to the western world, and it showed in the wardrobe choices. From Season 1, Kimes was featured across multiple characters. Jimmy wore the Dillon Jean from the very first episode, Rip wears a Kimes skink jacket, Kayce and Monica wear Kimes trucker hats. No matter the character, Kimes pieces continued appearing throughout the series. The show's audience was enormous, and a significant portion of it was exactly the kind of viewer who would want to know what those characters were wearing. Kimes Ranch suddenly had a national profile, and retailers started taking notice.
Read our blog on how to get the Yellowstone look
Western Roots, Modern Eye
What keeps Kimes Ranch growing isn't just the Yellowstone bump. It's that the brand holds up outside of that moment.
Their design stays grounded in Western: the colours, the textures, the workwear DNA that runs through the category. But the details feel current. Tonal stitching instead of flashy embroidery. Clean washes. Refined hardware. Cuts that photograph well and wear just as well off the horse.
The result is a brand that reads Western without screaming it. Someone who doesn't know Western might just call it "really good denim." Someone who does know exactly what they're looking at.
Kimes Ranch works because it understood that shift early. Rather than relying on tradition alone, the brand built products for the way modern Western customers actually live, work, and dress.
How We Found Kimes
Before Kimes really took off, Wei's co-owner, Chung Mah, remembers the Kimes team stopping by the store in Red Deer to introduce their new jean line. It wasn't an immediate yes, but over time, Kimes became one of our top sellers, and today Wei's is one of the top independent Kimes retailers in Canada. Since then, our team has built a strong partnership with the Kimes owners and has even visited the Kimes Ranch in Phoenix, home to the same longhorns behind the logo.
We carry a curated selection of Kimes Ranch denim, tops, and accessories for men and women in-store and online. Come find your fit.