Tecovas is investing in vibes with ‘Love Letter to Texas’

The Austin boot company’s new ad successfully masquerades as a new short film from director Jeff Nichols.

A new short film premiered at SXSW over the weekend, written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, The Bikeriders) starring Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Ryan Bingham, Hassie Harrison, and narrated by Oscar winner Sissy Spacek. Love Letter to Texas is a 12-minute story of personal reinvention, and a beautiful visual tribute to some of the Lone Star state’s most photogenic and iconic backdrops in film history. 

It’s also Tecovas ad, bankrolled and produced by the Western apparel and cowboy boot brand. 

Founded in 2015, Tecovas is a new brand in a category steeped in heritage. It began as the “Warby Parker of Boots” but has since opened 56 stores around the U.S., including in New York City and Boston. In 2024 the company surpassed $250 million in revenue, and expected to pass the $300 million mark in 2025. 

Tecovas vice-president of brand marketing Samantha Fodrowski says Love Letter to Texas represents the brand’s ambition to show people it puts the same amount of care and attention to detail into its content as it does its cowboy boots. 

​​”We want to be known as a brand that really is investing in craft,” says Fodrowski. “If that’s something that people start to recognize and associate with Tecovas, that’s a win for us. It has nothing to do with selling products. It’s about how we’re making that first introduction.”

If this film is any indication, it’ll be a helluva ride.

High profile brand entertainment has hit the mainstream, with projects like the unprecedented deal struck between AB InBev and Netflix, WhatsApp working with Modern Arts on a Netflix doc about the Mercedes F1 team, to Dick’s Sporting Goods formally establishing an internal entertainment studio. But smaller brands, like Huckberry, are also making shrewd investments in longer form content. 

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