She Built the Brands You Love
Brenda Jean Van Newkirk | May 17, 1948 – February 25, 2026
She grew up the youngest child and only daughter on a farm and ranch in Sutherland, Nebraska, the kind of upbringing that leaves its mark. Brenda Jean Van Newkirk came into the world on May 17, 1948, with an independent streak and a passion for fashion she cultivated young, becoming an accomplished seamstress before graduating from Chadron State College in 1970. She started her working life as a high school home economics teacher and volleyball coach in Ogallala, Nebraska, and nobody who knew her later would find that surprising. She was always teaching. She was always coaching.
In 1975, she and her husband Bob purchased The Snubbing Post Western Wear Store in Torrington, Wyoming, and her real career began. She earned the nickname “The Pant Peddler” in those years, selling ladies’ jeans out of her car at rodeos across the region, relentless and resourceful in the way that only people who genuinely believe in what they’re selling can be. She was good enough at it that Miller Stockman’s Rocky Mountain Clothing Company came calling, and she answered. There she helped popularize the iconic high-waisted Rocky Mountain jean, putting the right denim on western women at a time when the industry wasn’t paying much attention to what western women actually needed.
In 1996, she was part of the small team of visionaries who created the Cinch Jeans brand. For more than two decades she served as its most admired sales representative and brand ambassador, the kind of person who made retailers believe in a line not because she was selling it but because she already lived it. Along the way she helped bring Cruel Girl to life as well. She later served as VP of Specialty Brands for Justin Boots, where she was instrumental in launching the Reba line, before retiring in 2021 after a career that reshaped what western women’s fashion looked like from the inside out.
Cinch celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The brand is as strong as it has ever been. Brenda Van Newkirk was part of the foundation poured before anyone knew what they were building.
Away from the trade show floor and the sales floor, she was a team roper who brought the same competitive fire to the arena that she carried into every business room she entered. She was a devoted golfer and member of both Ridglea Country Club and Alto Lakes Golf and Country Club. She was an enthusiastic traveler who rarely turned down the chance to explore somewhere new. She filled her calendar and her life with laughter, stories, and the kind of friendships that don’t happen by accident. Wherever she went, people wanted to be in her circle.
At home she was known as Honey, sweet and sassy in equal measure, the matriarch who held her family together with fierce loyalty. She was a devoted mother to sons Jake and Joel and a proud grandmother to Charley, Jaylee, Caden, and Harper. Her daughter-in-law Lorinda, who married Joel and spent years in the western industry herself, said it best: Brenda was not just building brands. She was building belief. The women she mentored are running companies and brands and retail operations across the western world right now, walking through doors she helped open.
Millions of women have worn the brands she helped build without ever knowing her name. That is not a footnote. That is the definition of legacy in this industry, where the people who matter most are rarely the ones on the label.
Brenda Jean Van Newkirk passed away on February 25, 2026, surrounded by her loved ones at her home in Fort Worth, Texas, following a hard-fought battle with cancer. The saddle is empty now. But the brands are still riding.
Brenda Jean Van Newkirk, born May 17, 1948, was a pioneering force in western women’s fashion and one of the most influential women in the western industry. She was part of the founding team that created Cinch Jeans in 1996, helped bring Cruel Girl to life, and served as VP of Specialty Brands for Justin Boots where she was instrumental in launching the Reba line. She passed away February 25, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Brenda Van Newkirk was instrumental in building some of the most recognized brands in western women’s fashion including Cinch Jeans, Cruel Girl, the Rocky Mountain jean line for Miller Stockman, and the Reba line for Justin Boots.
Brenda Van Newkirk was part of the small founding team that created the Cinch Jeans brand in 1996 and served as its most admired sales representative and brand ambassador for more than two decades, helping build it into one of the strongest brands in western fashion.
Brenda Van Newkirk’s legacy lives in the brands worn by millions of western women who never knew her name. She mentored women who are now running companies and brands and retail operations across the western world, walking through doors she helped open. As her daughter in law Lorinda said, Brenda was not just building brands. She was building belief.
Brenda Van Newkirk was one of the founding visionaries behind Cinch Jeans in 1996 and served the brand as its most admired sales representative and ambassador for more than two decades. Cinch celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 as one of the strongest brands in western fashion, built on a foundation she helped pour.
