SHOPS WE LOVE: MCKINNEY OUTFITTERS

McKinney Outfitters is one of our newest partnerships with not one, but two boutiques opening in the South Texas towns of Pecos and Alpine.

“McKinney Outfitters is really new, it was born in March of 2019,” said co-founder Emily McKinney. “My mother-in-law, Brenda, and I have always had the dream of owning a boutique – we love fashion, we love clothes. It’s been a whirlwind, but a good one.”

The McKinneys are residents of Pecos, Texas (about an hour southwest of Odessa) and consider that the primary location of McKinney Outfitters.

“Pecos is really our flagship store, Brenda and I both live in Pecos,” Emily said. “I work in that store three or four days out of the week and then I am in Alpine about once a week. To use a Double D term, Pecos is our ‘mothership’. We have come in and really remodeled the Pecos store and are trying to get it to what we want it to be in terms of the style and the feel and the vibe, and then we’ll kind of push that into the Alpine location.”

Their secondary location, in Alpine, was borne from years of patronage and some fortuitous timing. In a way, the McKinney’s more “adopted” the Alpine store than birthed it. 

“We had been longtime customers of Peggy Walker, the former owner of the store when it was Needleworks, Etc.,” Emily shared. “When Ms. Walker got ready to retire, she came to us. She kind of knew already that we were interested, and it just all came together really great. Ms. Walker had an incredible business, she had been in retail over three decades. She had a wonderful reputation for great quality and great style, so we were really able to hit the ground running in Alpine.”

Having an already established base of loyal customers is certainly a head-start in owning a retail store, but that’s not to say that Emily and Brenda haven’t put a considerable amount of legwork into launching McKinney Outfitters in Alpine.

“Ms. Walker was very old school,” Emily explained. “The store didn’t have any sort of social media, no website, and no point-of-sale system. So, we’ve really worked to bring the store into the 21st century, I guess. But I think that says a lot, that in a world of social media, they had such an incredible customer base from just taking care of their customers. The ladies in the Alpine store really know their customers and what they like and are going to want, and that’s been wonderful and helpful to have them and their knowledge as we transition.”

In addition to the clientele and the team of employees, Emily says she and Brenda kind of “inherited” the relationship with Double D Ranch.

“We did kind of inherit the connection from Ms. Walker,” she said. “I first went to market with her last October, and I was so nervous to go into the Double D showroom because I was like’ man, this is big time! I’m just a small little fish here, and they’re a big deal!’ It was incredible that they just kind of welcomed us with open arms. And of course they’ve had a wonderful relationship with Peggy, and she probably spoke highly of Brenda and me to them, but it was an instant connection, and now when we go back, it feels like we’re getting to see our family!”

Emily says that feeling of welcoming and warmth and genuine connection is the inspiration upon which she built the customer service model for McKinney Outfitters, and in turn, what she and her team strive to provide to their customers.

“While we are getting into having an online presence, we’re still very customer-driven. We do personal shopping, we send out style boxes, we offer free alterations in-store. We are truly trying to follow in DDR’s footsteps and create this tight-knit community of our customer base that feels like family.”

As they develop their brand and especially their social media presence, Emily has taken to the phrase and using the hashtag #standoutfromthecrowd as a defining motto of McKinney Outfitters. (Naturally, we love that!)

“I think that Double D attributes to that. If you’re going to have on Double D and you’re going to go out somewhere, you’re definitely going to be standing out from the crowd. I’m glad that we carry it, and I think it definitely elevates our store.”

We are proud to be a part of the McKinney Outfitters story, and we believe there are big things in store for y’all. From one family of entrepreneurs to another, we wish you the best of luck!