For Pendleton Whisky, Heritage And Innovation Create Brand Authenticity

Authenticity is an attribute Millennials and Gen Z alike expect from brands they purchase from. How, then, does a whiskey brand founded in 2003 authentically connect to the 115 year old rodeo that inspired its creation? For Pendleton Whisky, heritage and innovation create brand authenticity.

Founded in 1910, the Pendleton Round-Up was founded to highlight its Oregon town namesake’s Western heritage and engage its community. Today, it is one of the largest rodeos in North America, annually attracting over 50,000 attendees for events spanning a week. Time has passed and the event has grown, but one aspect has remained consistent: community involvement. Just over 17,000 people call Pendleton, Oregon home. Despite this small population, the Pendleton Round-Up is entirely organized, marketed and produced by community members. The community’s century-long commitment has kept the Round-Up alive. In turn, the engagement provides a case study on authentic engagement.

Since its inception, Pendleton Whisky has sponsored the Pendleton Round-Up. The partnership provided an authentic Western storyline for the company to connect with consumers. In turn, Pendleton Whisky has strengthened the Pendleton Round-Up community. Thanks in part to Pendleton Whisky’s sponsorship, the Pendleton Round-Up has attained innovative developments, including building a full-scale medical facility on-site, modernizing its digital infrastructure to optimize broadcasts and ensuring equal pay for breakaway roping amidst prize purse increases.

Pendleton Whisky’s engagement with Western heritage has significantly expanded since its founding. In 2025 alone, it will sponsor 257 Western athletic events across 41 states. Why grow this sponsorship footprint? For Pendleton Whisky, it’s simple: Western athletic events provide authentic opportunities to engage with a key consumer base.

“We are a brand that is built on relationships, showing up, learning and engaging where we can,” said Pendleton Whisky’s brand heritage director, Tia Bledsoe. “We get to go to these places where people come together, work together and collaborate to build something great in their community.”

As Pendleton Whisky’s brand heritage director, Bledsoe works to, “embody the core of what the Pendleton Round-Up has built as a 115 year old rodeo and take that into what Pendleton Whisky is building.” Executing this requires a delicate balance of blending tradition with shifting consumer preferences.

“More so today than ever, you need to understand the history of heritage, but have the bandwidth to know how to evolve,” Bledsoe told RULING SPORTS. “When we talk about the authenticity piece of it, you need to know and understand your brand and core of who you are and do the homework of getting to know your consumer to make real connections.”

For Pendleton Whisky, this requires procuring deep insights about the rodeo communities it engages with.

“You can find ‘Western tradition’ as words on our label, but it’s more than that,” Bledsoe said. “Authentically activating is about getting to know the event space you’re representing and the consumer who’s going to be there, while staying true to who you are and the foundation you built your brand on. We have followed the code of the West: say what you mean and mean what you say.”

For Pendleton Whisky, this means thoroughly educating its emploiyees on the company’s Western heritage. For instance, this Pendleton Round-Up the company hosted sixty individuals on-site to gain firsthand knowledge of not only the event, but the Pendleton community. The hope is this immersive experience will optimize attendees’ abilities of telling the Pendleton Whisky story.

“We work to get our people to our brand home [in Pendleton] or our home away from home in Fort Worth,” Bledsoe said. “You have to live it–walk in our shoes, so to speak. Beyond that, it’s about developing the right materials. We have brand books and brand plans–everything is spelled out. We try to bring the brand to life when we can’t get our employees to our home market or home away from home market.”

As Pendleton Whisky works to authentically blend heritage with evolution, their namesake rodeo provides inspiration for how to do so and survive the test of time.

“They will not change tradition,” Bledsoe said of the Pendleton Round-Up. “But they are also innovative.”

The Pendleton Round-Up’s balancing of tradition and innovation presents a road map for others on how to authentically connect with consumers.

First, brands should remain true to their origin story. Lean in to the storylines generated the current success. It is these stories that likely first attracted the consumer base. At the same time, continuously seek innovative approaches to improve the consumer experience. How a consumer experiences a brand dictates whether their connection with it is authentic.

For the Pendleton Round-Up, exercising this dichotomy looks like retaining a ban on in-arena advertising throughout its 115 year existence, but expanding the number of bars where attendees can purchase drinks.

“You have to evolve and you have to understand consumer needs,” Bledsoe summarized.