How Cowboy Style Took Over…

It’s Saturday night, deep in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, and a knife flies through the air, landing a foot in front of my Ariat boots. “That could have been bad,” a Professional Bull Riders (PBR) cowboy says to me. He picks up the blade he had been using to scrape down his bull rope; later this evening, he’ll be hanging onto that rope for dear life as he attempts to ride a bucking bovine for eight seconds before 20,000 people. It serves as a brief reminder: The cowboy life isn’t for the faint of heart.

This isn’t the first time a rodeo has come to New York City. But there’s a new energy around the sport, the Western lifestyle, and the country music that serves as the soundtrack to it all. Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter just won Album of the Year at the Grammys. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” also Grammy-nominated, spent much of last year as the No. 1 song in the country. Post Malone fully immersed himself within Nashville and released a double country album, featuring a who’s who of the genre.

The resurgence in music has been accompanied by a return to classic cowboy fashion. Post releases collaborative hats with Stetson. Tecovas is marketing itself to non-cowboys. If Google hasn’t served you up ads from brands like Seager, Sendero, or Diamond Cross Ranch, maybe you saw PacSun collaborating with Wrangler, whose own limited-edition Western shirts sell out within minutes online. Pharrell is designing cowpoke couture for Louis Vuitton. Joe FreshGoods released a Western-style sherpa, which he launched with a true cowboy editorial. And even Crocs made a pair of cowboy boots.

There’s been a cultural shift as of late. Loving America is back in style; it’s cool to love Jesus, too. It’s the perfect environment for a sport that supports the red, white, and blue and has an invocation before the stable of riders put their lives on the line. And perhaps it’s also the perfect time for cowboy style to permeate the mainstream.

It’s hard to deny that Yellowstone, the No. 1-rated show created by Taylor Sheridan and starring Kevin Costner, has had a huge impact on cowboy culture going mainstream. The actors played ranchhands who wore Wranglers and held onto their way of life as the world around them changed. There was even a character, Jimmy Hurdstrom, who rode bulls. The show introduced the non-country world to Zach Bryan and Lainey Wilson. It even influenced people like Fabolous to go to Montana, ride horses, and wear Louis Vuitton cowboy attire.

“I think Yellowstone helped huge with the cowboy [trend],” says PBR cowboy Daylon Swearingen. “The Western industry made it popular. That’s where America has roots and it kind of tied everybody back to it.” Swearingen, who hails from upstate NY, says that people who live in cities wanted to get on the bandwagon. “They got that feeling like, ‘Oh, wow, I want to do that,’ or ‘I want to wear a cowboy hat.’ Anybody can do it,” he says.

The influence of Yellowstone is on full display at MSG. Neal McDonough, who played the villain Malcom Beck in the series, is here in attendance. He co-wrote and stars in an upcoming movie, The Last Rodeo, in which he plays a rodeo cowboy. As his face appears on the jumbotron, he says to the crowd: “I never thought I’d see so many cowboy hats in New York City.”

To his point, if you didn’t know the event was in the Big Apple, you might have sworn you were in Oklahoma or Texas by the crowd’s attire. Or even their reaction to Chris Stapleton’s “White Horse” being played. But while many are trying to dress cowboy these days, it’s more than just a uniform. It’s a way of life, a code of honor.

“Putting on a cowboy hat doesn’t make you a cowboy,” says PBR cowboy Dalton Kassel. “You have to really be respectful of the lifestyle and be thankful for everything that it can provide for people.” For his part, Kassel looks as tough and cool as ever, walking around the locker room in his starched and pressed jeans, Ralph Lauren teddy bear sweatshirt, and a missing front tooth.

Mind you, the Ralph Lauren hoodie isn’t a random item he found at Macy’s on 34th Street before the show. Instead, he was tapped by the brand to give it an air of authenticity. “I was a model for some of the Western stuff,” he says.

PBR becoming a bigger sport has had an impact on cowboy fashion, but nothing has moved the needle more than the current popularity of country music. Morgan Wallen’s 2023 album “One Thing at a Time” went 7x platinum, and he now regularly sells out stadiums. Post Malone’s single with Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts. Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter further spread the gospel of country, and her NFL halftime performance in Houston on Christmas Day, in full cowgirl regalia, stole the show.

In a recent podcast with Andrew Schulz, crossover country singer Jelly Roll, who’s become a mainstream sensation himself, spoke on the music’s impact on the Western style industry.

“What Beyoncé did for cowboy hat sales alone is fucking unheard of,” he said. He went on to tell a story about how he visited a real Western store in Los Angeles and asked the owner how business was going. The store owner replied: “Better than ever. Two things: Morgan Wallen and Beyoncé.”

But you don’t have to go into a Western store to get in on the trend. At the Lids next to the Complex office in Times Square, you can find product from Stetson and Ariat, two of the most popular Western brands. Maybe slightly less authentic, but also available: snapbacks that read “Cowboy Hat” and “This isn’t my first rodeo.”

What’s cool about cowboy style is that it all serves a utilitarian purpose or has a meaning behind it. For example, the ostentatious belt buckles proudly displayed by cowboys show that they’ve won a rodeo title.

“I’ve worked my whole life to be able to win these things,” says PBR cowboy Mason Taylor. “Not only do I appreciate them when I do win them, but it shows me all my hard work’s paying off. So, it means the world to me to be able to strap one on every day.”

When it comes to cowboys who have caught the eyes of casual fans recently, John Crimber’s name pops to the top of the list. The 19-year-old bull-riding prodigy was not only the No. 1 guy in the PBR before sustaining a back injury, but he’s also helped the sport bleed into pop culture. He’s friends with this year’s Heisman winner, Travis Hunter, who recently showed up to a rodeo to support him.

Crimber is the son of PBR legend Paulo Crimber, who stands at the top of the chutes in his cowboy hat, canvas jacket with an upturned collar, and yellow leather gloves. He’s as cowboy as they come, and so is his son. But the younger Crimber is a Gen Z bull rider who taps into street culture and style outside of the rodeo.

“Man, deep down, I’m a cowboy. I wear cowboy clothes a lot,” says Crimber. “But whenever I used to go to school, I was wearing my Air Forces and Nike stuff. That’s all about I wore. I have buddies that have Js and stuff, Air Jordans, and I enjoy wearing those shoes. They’re comfortable, and they look cool, too.”

Crimber isn’t the only cowboy who wears Jordans. Popular YouTuber Dale Brisby has outfitted Jordan 1s with heel spurs. And Andy Martinez has customized Air Force 1s into cowboy boots. That hybrid has roots from the 1980s, when Tony Lama, the bootmaker for a slew of presidents, made a part tennis shoe, part cowboy boot called the Teny Lama. Alex Dymond made a Saucony running shoe in a hairy cowhide print for Nordstrom last year, and it was one of my favorite sneakers. Nike SB has an upcoming Western-themed Dunk for Black History Month that reads “created for the modern cowboys” on the tongue tag.

Crimber’s footwear isn’t the only area where he has broken convention. His hairstyle has also caught the attention of the PBR announcers. “Oh, shit, I had a Mohawk,” he says. “Yeah, it turned out pretty cool, but a lot of people didn’t like it. But I enjoyed it. I was wanting to get something different. We’re in New York, might as well.” Crimber says he still loves to wear gator-skin cowboy boots, when he’s not wearing sneakers or riding bulls.

So maybe cowboy style and streetwear fashion is a two-way street. If the cowboy lifestyle permeating fashion hasn’t gotten you into a pair of bootcut jeans, a Western shirt, and a buckle the size of a clamshell on your belt, it’s still hard to miss the aesthetic’s permeance in fashion.

As to why this is all happening, and why now—sure, we can point to the popularity of country music and cowboys in TV shows and in movies. But those have always been around. Maybe it’s something deeper, something we’re all searching for inside. The past few years have been rough and uncertain. Hard times, no real leaders. No one to look to for strength. You know, they say weak men create hard times, and hard times create strong men. Who better to look to than cowboys? Tough men who live by a moral code. It’s a lot of what was missing in this world over the past decade. And maybe a lot of us were searching for them, whether we knew it or not.

“Cowboy, I think, is just a decision at the end of the day—to be tough, get through things,” says Swearingen. “Cowboys back in the day, we got to take care of cattle. Whatever weather throws at us, we can’t let that affect us.

“We just have to be tough and keep moving forward.”