@weiswesternwear Black boots used to be the only boots. Now it's brown. 👢 Chung has watched trends like that come and go for over 30 years as our owner and buyer. In part two of our buyer series, he shares how he decides what earns a spot on the shelf, and it starts with people, not spreadsheets.
♬ Just A Simple Thing - HomeGrown Ed
Anyone can stock a shelf. Deciding what belongs on it is the harder job, and it's the one that actually shows up in the quality of what you take home.
At Wei's, that job sits with two people who've spent a combined 60 years doing it. Chung, who owns the store and has been buying for more than 30 years. And Wendy, our store manager of 30 years, whose background in equestrian and ranching gives her an eye for tack that no line sheet can teach.
We sat down with both of them to talk about what actually happens between a new catalog landing on the desk and a product landing on the floor. Here's what separates the buying that happens at Wei's from the buying that happens everywhere else.
Chung: three decades of knowing what a "yes" looks like
Chung has been deciding what goes on the shelves at Wei’s since long before many of our customers first walked through the door. Ask him how he decides, and the answer isn't a spreadsheet, it's people.
"Whenever I'm buying, I always like to see how it looks on a model," he says, "because nothing beats how a person wears a product, how it makes them feel, and if it brings a smile to their face." A catalog photo can sell you on a piece. A real person wearing it either confirms that or kills it on the spot.
The second check is closer to home. "Our staff are the next most important piece of feedback," Chung says. "They know our customers firsthand, so their guidance helps me base my buying on their decision."
He's also watched customer taste shift under his feet, and he's learned to read the shift rather than chase it. Cowboy boots are the clearest example: "People only used to wear black, now it seems like it's brown," he says. Social media and TV nudge the trend, but knowing which shift is real and which is noise takes decades of watching it happen.
That judgment is built on 70 years in business. "We'd like to think we have a pretty good idea of who our customer is," Chung says, and it shows in what doesn't change: "One of the things that separates us is the quality products we stock, and we stand behind each and every one of them."
Wendy on buying tack: why she checks the leather and hardware first
Wendy specializes in buying tack. She has been with Wei's for more than 30 years, and her buying instinct for tack comes from somewhere most buyers don't have: she's used the gear, on actual horses, in real Alberta weather.
"Things are much more digital now," she says. "In the past it was very much in-person shows and sales people making trips to us." The relationships haven't gone away, but the way product gets in front of her has. Now, most of the buying is done online.
What hasn't changed is the legwork. "We do our best to study trends," Wendy says. "We make trips to western shows, are present in the community, and use our instinct to know what sells." Not every trend deserves shelf space, and she's clear-eyed about that: "Some things are a fad that are in for a season, some things will be forever."
For tack specifically, her check comes down to two things: "I always check the quality of the leather and the hardware. Something soft and supple, that's going to last."
Why every product at Wei's is hand-picked
Every product on Wei's shelves passed through two people who've spent decades learning to tell a fad from a staple, and a well-made product from one that only looks the part in a catalog photo. That's not something a bigger, faster retailer can replicate by adding more SKUs. It's slower, it's more deliberate, and it's the reason customers have trusted what we stock for over 70 years.
Shop the collection that makes Wei’s unique, the Family Favourites.