Kemo Sabe isn't the only Western-themed store in Aspen, Colorado, but it may be best known thanks to influencer Alix Earle.
While vacationing in Aspen last month, Earl and some friends bought custom hats at Kemosabe. As soon as she stepped outside, she was accosted by local residents who seemed skeptical of her new appearance.
“So we all just made hats at Kemo Sabe because we were trying to embrace the Western spirit of Aspen,” Earl said in a TikTok video documenting the moment after the shopping trip. “And this girl came up to us and said, 'I love your Aspen outfit.'”
“We were immediately humbled,” Earle added, bringing up the word “authentic” to emphasize his point.
The video has been viewed nearly 4 million times and sparked a debate online about the difference between the real thing and cosplay. Some commenters also discussed the price of his Kemo Sabe hats, which range in price from $350 to thousands of dollars.
Founded in 1990 by Tom and Nancy Yoder, the boutique-cum-bar store also sells belts, boots and other Western wear, and has since opened in Vail, Colorado, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, We have expanded to 6 locations including Park. City, Utah.
In 2020, the Yoders sold the store to Wendy Kunkle, a zoologist from Ohio who had moved to Aspen and climbed the Kemosabe ladder, and her brother Bobby. A month later, the pandemic hit the United States.
The Kunkles were able to keep their store afloat with the help of vendors who sold them products with the promise of repayment. Their gamble paid off. With travel bans across Europe, customers “flooded the store, so when we opened, the onslaught of humans that hit the mountain town was incredible,” Kunkle said in a video interview.
With support from celebrities and influencers, business remains strong. Kunkle and Kate Vardomanis, the brand's vice president of marketing, said this support is completely natural, noting that Kemo Sabe does not pay celebrities or online influencers to feature its products. .
Earle, who visited the ski resort with her boyfriend, NFL player Braxton Berrios, followed up her “Aspen Outfit” video with another TikTok post showing her and friends making custom hats at the store. posted.
“She made that video herself,” Kunkle said. “She paid for the hat. We didn't promise her anything. She did it naturally, which is crazy to me, because she… Because he’s one of the top influencers in the world and he gets paid for everything.”
Kunkle doesn't even like social media that much.
“Social media is scary to me,” she said. “I don't understand it. I'm older, almost 54 years old. I mean, for me, I didn't grow up watching it and I don't understand it. That's why I don't know if they're like, 'Oh, influencers. , give them a hat!’ I’ve always been a bit of an asshole in the room. I'm like, “No, no.” If they don't believe it yet, why on earth should we pay someone to talk well about us? ”
“It's not real,” Kunkle added. “We want it to be authentic.”
Since Earl's “Aspen Costume” TikTok went viral, Kunkle's son has been recording online conversations about kemonosabe. Her management said that when she read “all the terrible things being said on TikTok,” she started crying.
“This is a real store,” Kunkle said. “We have real people working here. We are hard-working locals and they think we are a big company backed by celebrities. But we don't want to pay celebrities. We don't do that. We never did that.”
Marketing Director Vardomanis agrees. “People have this perception of Aspen that we're like Rodeo Drive in the mountains, and to some extent that's true,” she said. “But we were a mining town. We were cowboys first.”
The store name is also a point of contention. “Kemosabe'' is the nickname given to the main character of the long-running radio and television series “The Lone Ranger,'' which began in 1933, by his Native American sidekick, Tonto.
There is no definitive explanation as to the origin of this phrase or whether it is a term derived from an actual Native American language. Either way, it's certainly not the kind of name a white couple would be encouraged to name their business in the 21st century.
“People are angry with us about that too,” Kunkle said.
The store's name, chosen by Yoder more than 30 years ago, doesn't seem to have influenced business, especially among the rich and famous. Loyal customers include Beyoncé, Shania Twain, the Kardashian-Jenner family, Rihanna, and Kevin Costner, who has a 160-acre vacation home in Aspen.
The store's popularity grew after it served as the backdrop for the so-called “Tequilagate” episode of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” In the 2022 episode, Kyle Richards introduced the cast to Kemosabe and his girlfriend's “VIP Bar.” Over margaritas, castmates Lisa Rinna and Kathy Hilton got into an argument over which tequila was better: Kendall Jenner's 818 brand or Ms. Hilton's Casa del Sol.
“I'll tell you it was really fun to watch and it was very realistic,” Vardomanis said. “That wasn't in the script.” Kunkle declined to say which tequila is more popular with customers, saying each tequila is “very different.” And now some “Real Housewives” fans are heading to the store to see where the “Tequilagate” scandal took place.
With the rise of cowboy style, hats have become a fashion staple, especially among some of the well-paid city-dwellers who have social media accounts and flock to skis and bars.
A recent TikTok uploaded by Austin-based content creator Hannah Chody features more than a dozen women, including herself, at the Aspen airport, each wearing a customized cowboy hat from Kemo Sabe. was.
“Skipping Kemosabe is a crime,” Chody, who bought his hat at a Park City store, captioned the post.
For Chody, hats are fun souvenirs. “People get them just for the experience of going and making them and checking them off their bucket list, especially if they're visiting from New York, Chicago or Los Angeles,” she says.
And while big-name influencers may irritate certain TikTok commenters who feel their style is inauthentic, Kunkle says they're open to all kinds of customers.
“They want to feel romance, and there's nothing wrong with that,” she says. “And actually, it's terrible that people become like 'Aspen Outfits.' Can’t everyone get that feeling?”
