Mobile Shelving for the Tecovas Retail Store in Hillsboro, OR
How Material Handling USA designed and installed a high-density mobile shelving system for Tecovas’ back-of-house stockroom — wide-span boltless shelving on mobile carriages, engineered to hold up to 4,360 boxes of premium western boots and apparel.
4,360 boxes
Design storage capacity
7 levels
Per shelving section
Up to 2×
Density vs. static shelving
1–3 days
Typical install window
A Premium Brand’s Back Room, Rebuilt for Depth
When a fast-growing retail brand carries hundreds of boot boxes in dozens of sizes, the stockroom — not the sales floor — quietly decides how many customers leave with the pair they wanted. Material Handling USA was brought in to solve exactly that problem for Tecovas at its Hillsboro, Oregon location in the Portland metropolitan area.
The answer was a high-density mobile shelving system: wide-span boltless shelving mounted on rolling carriages. It combines the load capacity and accessibility of industrial shelving with the space efficiency of a compacting mobile system, and it was engineered to hold up to 4,360 boxes in the room Tecovas already had.
This case study walks through the brand, the storage challenge, the system we installed, and why the same approach pays off for retail, commercial and industrial storerooms across the Pacific Northwest.
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About Tecovas
Tecovas is a premium western brand built on handcrafted cowboy boots, work boots and western wear. Founded in 2015 by Texas native Paul Hedrick, it started as a direct-to-consumer online business selling authentic, handmade boots at more accessible prices, then opened its first retail store in Austin in 2019.
Every Tecovas boot is made by hand in León, Mexico — a city known for generations of bootmaking — in a process of roughly 200 steps. That commitment to craftsmanship carries into the stores, where the brand leans hard into what it calls “radical hospitality.” Today Tecovas operates more than fifty locations across the country and continues to expand.
A brand built on selection — a broad range of sizes, styles and premium leathers — lives or dies on inventory availability. Keeping that depth of product close to the sales floor is precisely where the right storage system earns its keep.
The Challenge: Deep Inventory, Limited Back Room
Retailers that carry a large catalog of boots, apparel and accessories face a storage problem most shoppers never see. A wide range of sizes and styles has to stay instantly available for customers, while the sales floor stays clean and uncluttered. That means hundreds of boxes of boots in multiple sizes, plus seasonal apparel, hats, belts and accessories — all behind a single stockroom door.
- Hundreds of boot boxes across many sizes and styles, kept ready for same-visit customer service
- Seasonal apparel and accessories competing for the same shelf space
- A finite back-of-house footprint that could not simply be made bigger
- Pressure to preserve leasable floor area for selling rather than storage
Traditional static shelving would have forced a bad trade: either give up valuable floor space to a larger stockroom, or carry fewer products. Either choice chips away at the customer experience and at sales. Tecovas needed to store more in the room it already had.
The Solution: High-Density Mobile Shelving
Material Handling USA designed and installed a mobile shelving system for the Tecovas stockroom built from wide-span boltless shelving with particle board decks, mounted on mobile carriages. Instead of the many permanent aisles a static layout needs, the rows compact together and a single working aisle opens only where an associate is standing.
Each section provides seven shelf levels, giving deep vertical storage for boot boxes stacked by size and style. The wide-span design accepts retail carton dimensions, the full-width particle board decks give boxes a smooth, stable surface to slide across during fulfillment, and clean white end panels give the whole system a finished, retail-appropriate appearance.
The result reclaims the floor that fixed aisles waste and converts it into storage — without asking the store to give up a square foot of selling space.
Where the numbers come from
The 4,360-box capacity and the run length come from the project’s own layout drawing. The seven shelf levels, wide-span boltless construction, particle board decks and white end panels are all part of the system as installed and shown in the project photographs on this page. We do not publish a specific per-shelf weight rating for this store — capacity is engineered to the product and confirmed for each project.
The System Drawing
Every install starts as a layout engineered to the exact room. The drawing below shows the mobile shelving configuration designed for the Tecovas Hillsboro stockroom — the carriage runs, the shelving bays and the single working aisle — optimised for maximum inventory within the available footprint. It is dimensioned for a run of roughly 18′-6″ and a design capacity of up to 4,360 boxes.
What’s in the System
Six features that make this system right for a premium retail stockroom — each visible in the project photographs above and below.
Before & After
Before: an empty back room
The project started with a bare back-of-house room — four walls, a concrete floor and no storage system. On static shelving, a room this size would have swallowed most of its area in aisles, leaving only a fraction for actual product.
Material Handling USA managed the complete project from on-site measurement and design through delivery and installation, engineering the system to the specific dimensions of the stockroom and the product Tecovas needed to store.
After: a compacting, high-density storeroom
The finished installation fills that same room with seven-level wide-span shelving on mobile carriages. Delivery and installation were coordinated to minimise disruption to store operations, with the system assembled and operational within the scheduled window. The gallery below shows the completed system from several angles.
Compacted AislesRows park tightly together; one aisle opens where a worker stands.
Seven LevelsDeep vertical storage for boot boxes stacked by size and style.
Full Shelving WallWide-span boltless shelving and particle board decks lining the stockroom wall.The Payoff for Tecovas
The combination of wide-span boltless shelving and mobile carriages gives Tecovas the best of both worlds: the capacity and accessibility of industrial shelving with the space efficiency of a compacting system. Here is what that changes day to day.
| Factor | On static shelving | With the mobile system |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory depth | Static shelving forced a choice between a bigger stockroom and carrying fewer sizes. | The compacted system holds up to 4,360 boxes in the same room, so more sizes and styles stay in stock. |
| Sales-floor space | Deep back-of-house storage eats into leasable square footage that could sell product. | Doubling the stockroom’s density frees floor area for selling, fitting and hospitality space. |
| Speed of service | Hunting for a size across scattered static racks slows associates and makes customers wait. | Organised, labelled runs let associates pull an exact size and style in seconds. |
| Brand presentation | A cluttered stockroom undercuts a premium brand and slows onboarding of new staff. | White end panels and tidy, uniform runs keep the back room as considered as the sales floor. |
The return on investment
For a retail store, the return on a mobile shelving system is driven by two levers: inventory availability and how the lease is used. Carrying a deeper in-store inventory reduces lost sales when a customer’s size sells out, and maximising the stockroom’s density means more of the total leased space can stay dedicated to the revenue-generating sales floor. In a competitive retail market like the Portland metro, both levers feed straight into store profitability — which is why high-density storage is an operations decision, not just a shelving purchase.
Curious what your room could hold?
Tell us your stockroom size and what you store, and we’ll estimate the box capacity a mobile system could give you — before you commit to anything.
Our Process
Material Handling USA manages the whole project in four stages, from first measurement to a system that rolls smoothly on day one.
Assessment
We measure the stockroom on site — footprint, ceiling height, columns, doors and the flow in and out — and talk through how the team picks, restocks and receives product.
Design
We engineer a carriage-and-shelving layout to the exact room, choosing shelf count, depth and run length to maximise box capacity while keeping a working aisle where the crew needs it.
Delivery
All carriages, rail, uprights, decks and end panels are shipped and staged at the store, scheduled around store hours to keep the sales floor running.
Installation
Our crew sets and levels the rail, assembles the boltless shelving, fits the carriages and end panels, and confirms every row rolls smoothly before we hand it over.
Mobile Shelving and Storage Across Oregon & the Pacific Northwest
Hillsboro is one of the largest cities in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area and a major commercial center in Washington County. Retail stores, distribution centers and commercial businesses throughout the Portland area — including Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Gresham and downtown Portland — face the same challenge Tecovas did: maximising storage inside a fixed, and often expensive, commercial footprint.
Material Handling USA serves retail, commercial and industrial customers throughout Oregon, Washington and the wider Pacific Northwest with storage solutions including mobile shelving, boltless and wide-span shelving, pallet racking, mezzanines and modular offices — designed, delivered and professionally installed.
This retail stockroom is one of many high-density projects we have completed. Compare system types, drive options, safety features and project examples on our main mobile shelving page.
Mobile Shelving for Retail: FAQs
What is mobile shelving for retail stores?
How much more can a store hold with mobile shelving?
What type of shelving is best for storing boot boxes?
Can mobile shelving be installed in an existing retail stockroom?
How long does it take to install mobile shelving in a retail store?
Does Material Handling USA install mobile shelving in Oregon?
What other storage systems can you install for a retail or commercial business?
Related Products & Resources
Mobile Shelving Systems & GuideHow high-density mobile shelving works, where it fits and how compacting carriages roughly double storage in the same footprint.
Boltless & Wide-Span ShelvingThe rivet-style boltless shelving used in this project — high capacity, fast assembly, no nuts and bolts.
Request a Mobile Shelving QuoteSend us your stockroom dimensions and what you store, and we’ll design a system and quote it — free, with no obligation.Need a Storage Solution for Your Retail Store or Business?
Material Handling USA designs and installs mobile shelving, boltless shelving, pallet racking and complete storage systems for retail, commercial and industrial customers across the western United States. Send us your space and what you store for a free design consultation and quote.