Broadway Hit Show “Jersey Boys” Features Our Varsity Jackets and Varsity Letters

If you happen to be on Broadway and see the hit show Jersey Boys, you’ll notice our companies provided the varsity jackets and varsity letters. It’s nice to add the live stage to our growing roster of film, television, and magazine clients who know we can provide finished goods on short notice for high-stakes projects.  

Of course, these prestige projects are not where the real money is made. The actual cash is generated by serving thousands of ordinary customers, day in and day out, including high schools, teams, and clubs across the country that have a direct relationship with us, returning year after year. We build a moat by having their design files perfectly customized to exactly what they want and after initial setup, they can call, email, or use personalized web portals to order highly customized merchandise with little to no friction. The absolute key, above all else, is that unlike many companies in the industry, we have never lowered quality. We don’t use thinner wool on the jackets to try to expand margins. We don’t cut stitch count on the chenille patches to try and save on yarn. Prices are still competitive, but our longevity and look is knowable instantly if you’ve ever compared it to a competitor side by side.

It goes back to my mom’s philosophy when we were growing up and my parents had no money. They had risked everything to purchase the original chenille machine they placed in the garage of the house we rented in a farm town. My siblings and I would help them run the machines and if something wasn’t perfect, my mom would make us redo it. We wouldn’t get paid and the company lost money on the materials that had to be discarded. It didn’t matter. She would tell us that some kid, or that kid’s family, might have spent hours at a job saving to buy what we were making; that it represented time of their life they had sacrificed and traded for something they wanted and had earned. It doesn’t matter if we’re tired, or have other things on our mind, or would rather be doing something else. What we produce, in that moment, would likely be in their lives for 50+ years, first as a practical product that kept them warm, later as a reserve of memories and nostalgia. It was a matter of basic respect. Don’t cut corners and never accept less than your best because if the situation were reversed, it’s how you would want to be treated. When it’s taken out of the box two generations in the future, it should still be pristine provided the customer hadn’t abused or neglected it.

Aaron and I then built on this when we formed our own company for the online era. We went direct-to-consumer as well as via wholesale. It’s been quite a trip being out in public in recent years and randomly encountering people wearing our clothing, or watching a movie and seeing the fruits of our labor. That cash then gets distributed into the ecosystem that is our compounding machine, sometimes funding new ideas or, more often, adding to our ever-growing collection of wonderful businesses acquired through the public capital markets. We’ve redeployed profits into everything from cheeseburgers to software, soft drinks to laundry detergent. Those companies, in turn, grow and raise their dividends, generating more cash for us. It’s a virtuous cycle that provided comfort, security, and, perhaps most importantly in his and my case, financial independence so we can build our lives. The doors that were open to so many other people simply weren’t open to us so it was our way of smashing through the wall.

It really comes down to doing what we can to never disappoint a customer. People remember that. Over time, good things tend to happen.

Update: See also the related post from today on our letterman jackets appearing on Saturday Night Live.