Texas Christian University co-stars on Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman,” but the school has also been saddling up with the producer in a project to expand the marketing reach of his massive Four Sixes Ranch brand.
The partnership between the Four Sixes Ranch and TCU began in April 2025 and spans fashion merchandising, design and business with the goal of redesigning the brand’s trade show and retail experience.
“We’ve already seen the results,” said Carley Myers, the ranch’s senior vice president of marketing and a TCU graduate. Myers joined Four Sixes about 18 months ago, charged by Sheridan with expanding the brand’s reach, while also respecting the history and character of the ranch.
“He told me to not only maintain the history of the ranch, but continue the evolution of what this brand is, to really showcase that it is a lifestyle brand,” she said. “Part of my job is to make sure that the brand is excellent at every touchpoint.”
After the 2017 Horned Frog graduate approached the school, students and faculty from the department of fashion merchandising in TCU’s College of Fine Arts hopped at the chance to redesign the brand’s trade show and retail experience. The students worked on everything from booth structure and layout to merchandising strategy to point-of-sale flow.
The result was a more immersive brand experience that evoked the style and spirit of the Texas ranch that traces its history to its founding by Samuel “Burk” Burnett in 1870. The ranch now spans roughly 260,000 acres of King County scrubland with a herd of about 7,000 cattle in northwest Texas. It has long been recognized worldwide as a top-level horse breeding, racing and cattle ranch.
“Before this, our setup was built for convenience — quick to put up, quick to take down,” Myers said. “What the students helped create is something entirely different. It reflects the true quality of our brand and creates a better experience for the customer while staying true to who we are.”
Burnett, of course, carved a wide swath through Fort Worth’s history, as a longtime president of the Fort Worth Stock Show, the namesake to Burnett Park and the Burnett Building.
The family’s connection to TCU has run through the school’s history, which itself dates back to 1873. Burnett’s second wife, Mary Couts Burnett, helped establish the library that bears her name with a $3 million gift to the school in 1923. His great-granddaughter, the late Anne Burnett Marion, is the namesake of the School of Medicine at TCU.
The Four Sixes, along with its iconic “6666” brand, is one of a handful of American ranches recognizable by name alone. Its already high profile expanded after “Yellowstone” creator Sheridan, who grew up on his family’s ranch in Cranfills Gap — about 90 minutes south of Fort Worth — put the ranch onscreen. Sheridan and his wife, Nicole, both avid equestrians, later were part of a group that purchased the ranch in 2022, reportedly for $320 million.
The Four Sixes pop-up shop. (Courtesy | TCU, photo by James Anger)
The Four Sixes had a traveling booth for various Western events, such as the Fort Worth Stock Show, to sell merchandise related to the ranch.
“It didn’t really capture the essence of what it felt like to be on the ranch, to be in the big house, as they call it,” said Charles Freeman, chair of TCU’s department of fashion merchandising. “It didn’t convey the heritage of Texas. They wanted to change that.”
The students spent time with Nicole Sheridan and Myers to understand what the story was they wanted to tell via their merchandise sold at these events.
“They wanted everybody that came in to feel like they were welcome at the Four Sixes, whether you had never ridden a horse or owned a pair of boots,” Freeman said. “They wanted everyone to feel at home at the ranch through their interaction in that space.”
Freeman enlisted design professor Albert Marichal and other students who developed 3D renderings of the Supply House, the portable structure used at the various venues.
The result? A storefront fabricated by Dallas-based Bayer Brothers Sets that’s fully reconfigurable and designed to travel, adapt to different venues and maintain a consistent visual identity throughout.
The TCU students and faculty designed a cedar, barn-like space that could be moved to different locations around the country. The students changed the way the merchandise was displayed in the space and also helped pick the products to sell.
“They sell everything from glassware to kitchenware, clothing and accessories, knives, some high-end jewelry, even their special spice blends and coffee — all licensed from the Four Sixes,” Freeman said. “The students did a phenomenal job of picking products that people want.”
Myers said the Four Sixes knew they were creating a lifestyle brand.
“A part of that is making sure that the products that we carry represent that,” she said. “Another piece of it is making sure that aesthetically people are having this premium brand experience.”
The ranch’s retail experience will always include the iconic red sweatshirt and red ballcap, but new items and designs were added with the students’ input.
“We knew we wanted to push the envelope in terms of what products we’re carrying and how they’re displayed,” she said.
The TCU students have recommended some new more trendy and fashion-forward items that have already proven popular, said Myers.
“Some have sold out and others are still in product development,” she said. “The students have also been helpful in knowing the latest, trending colors for various products. They have done a tremendous job picking the products people want.”
Carys Ciobanu, a senior fashion merchandising major at TCU, spent nine months as an intern contributing to product development, buying reports and digital merchandising.
“A few of my designs are actually going into production, which has been amazing,” said Ciobanu. “At most places, you might contribute ideas, but you don’t always see them move forward. The Sheridans really trusted me with that, and that’s something I’ll carry with me.”
Even though the new display has only been up in a couple of different shows, it has made an impact on the sales side, Myers said.
Freeman said the brand has seen about a 40% year-over-year sales increase.
“Most competitors out there are seeing declining sales year-over-year right now, and they’re posting double-digit growth,” he said. “That’s impressive.”
The sales increase comes along at the same time of a renewed interest in the Western lifestyle that has come to be known as the “Yellowstone effect,” named after the popular Paramount+ series that was created and produced by Taylor Sheridan.
That impact is real, said TCU’s Freeman.
“That Sheridan universe, whether it’s ‘Yellowstone’ or ‘Landman’ or whatever, that is something that for the person watching those shows, they want to be part of it, to have a connection to it,” he said.
Freeman points to himself as an example. Growing up in Florida, he was more familiar with beaches and that lifestyle, but since moving to Texas, he’s found himself buying his first pair of cowboy boots.
“For someone like me, who’s not a cowboy, it’s a chance to be part of that story,” he said. “You can repeat that story hundreds of times over, I think. That’s part of what the impact of those shows has been.”
Neither party is ready to rein in the partnership.
“Anything that we can do to give back to the next generation is something that the ranch is very passionate about,” said Myers. “It’s been an amazing fit so far.”
She said interacting with the students is also a chance to educate them about the ranch and to promote the Western lifestyle and agriculture industry as a whole.
“That is something that we’re very excited about,” Myers said. “That’s also a part of our partnership.”
Freeman said TCU working with Four Sixes is a natural fit.
“The more successful the Four Sixes is, the more successful Fort Worth is and the more successful this community is,” he said.
Bob Francis is business editor at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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