photography by Jeremy Sharp |
It’s eerie how the life of Cowboy Cool owner Heath Calhoun changes every two years. He moved here in 1991 to model for Elite. Two years later, he left for Colorado to get his master’s degree, and two years later, he moved back to Dallas to model and work as a personal trainer. He then left for Los Angeles, yes, two years later. Calhoun worked there on some soaps before moving to Tyler in 1999 to open a gym. In 2001, on a trip to New York, he ran into a girl wearing cowboy boots. He thought they were cool and contacted the manufacturer and, by 2003, opened Cowboy Cool in the West Village. His passion for “cowboys boots, rock ’n’ roll, and motorcycles” is not his alone. Everyone from Cattle Baron’s members, Kidd Rock, and Billy Bob Thornton flock to his store. So last year he opened a store in Austin and has plans to open in Houston and Las Vegas in—you guessed it—the next two years.