Speaker 1: 0:43

I didn't really set out this way strategically but as I look back, in the last 25 years of my career I've sort of been in training for doing this, working for Nestle and PepsiCo and Starbucks and doing, you know, all this marketing. You know Starbucks, even though it's a big company especially when I worked there was very startup-y, very entrepreneurial and you know hope was a strategy and you know we used to laugh. We don't know how we would get the doors open every day because it was kind of chewing gum and Band-Aids. But it was a really fun place to work and you've had a lot of opportunity to sort of be entrepreneurial within this company.

Speaker 1: 1:22

When I first decided to pursue this, I was feeling a little that way and a little guilty about it, if I'm honest that I was just kind of like in a what is that? Were you like kind of complacent in my career and my friend said to me don't do that to yourself. Your kids were young, you were in the thick of it, your husband had a big job, he was traveling internationally all the time. You were kind of in survival mode and you thrived in survival mode. You didn't have any time or energy to like, like you said kind of look up and look around and figure out what you wanted to do. And, like many people during COVID, I think I had this kind of awakening and, you know, opportunity to like take a step back and think about what was important to me. And you know opportunity to like take a step back and think about what was important to me. And so I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity and to have that awakening and I'm having so much fun.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Every brand you love, every product you admire, started as just an idea, Sparked by a moment shaped by a person, nurtured by a community. The Circling Podcast is proud to introduce Birth of the Brands from Oregon Media and Bend Magazine. I'm Adam Short. Join me as I sit down with founders from across Central Oregon and beyond. On this series, we follow seven brands that participated in the 10th annual Bend Outdoor Works Startup Accelerator Program, Commonly referred to as BOW. Bend Outdoor Works' primary mission is to help outdoor startups scale and achieve their wildest dreams.

Speaker 2: 2:52

On our first episode in the series, we explore what happens when a fourth-generation family business meets modern entrepreneurship. Join me as I sit down with Tiffany Huey, who left a corporate marketing career to breathe new life into her great-grandfather's legacy brand, Snowshoe Leather Care. Since 1927, Snowshoe's formula has never changed and today Tiffany hand pours each tin in her Bend, Oregon barn workshop using the same family equipment. It's a simple product with a profound story and a loyal following. How Snowshoe resonates with today's rising upkeep culture a movement away from disposable consumerism towards sustainability, restoration and goods built to last. This episode offers lessons for entrepreneurs on honoring heritage while adapting to new markets, and a reminder that sometimes the most innovative act is preserving something of true value. So we're kind of pulling back the curtain on a century of legacy and leather care Snowshoe Leather, Tiffany Huey.

Speaker 2: 4:09

It's really a family story, though I'm really excited to watch you, based on where this brand has been and the growth that it's already kind of like just the momentum that you already see there. You know, I went back and kind of looked at old snowshoe stuff and the old plastic, like you know, even just the packaging. I mean I guess there's not much to really improve upon at the moment other than the packaging because the formula is time tested at the moment, other than the packaging because the formula is time tested. But even just the packaging. Going back, you know they transitioned from that the original tin to like the plastic, like almost looks like something you get hummus out of Yep, and then now you're back to like a really fun packaging experience for people with really awesome branding.

Speaker 2: 4:53

Thanks, so, yeah, I'm excited, really awesome branding Thanks. So yeah, I'm excited, but before we get going, I want to. I want to. I want people to get to know you a little bit more because, like your dad and your brother-in-law and your grandpa and your great grandpa, everybody kind of leaves their personal mark on things. You were born and raised in Portland, oregon.

Speaker 1: 5:14

I was.

Speaker 2: 5:14

I'm a real Oregonian, you were born and raised in Portland, oregon. I was I'm a real Oregonian, yeah, and you know I'm happy to talk about as much of your life as you want, but just kind of big picture items, I mean. After high school it sounds like you shared with me that you moved out east and studied at American University in Washington DC.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:31

What did you study?

Speaker 1: 5:32

I studied international relations and economics.

Speaker 2: 5:35

Okay.

Speaker 1: 5:36

So I my dad dabbled in the stock market a little bit. We grew up pretty middle class and one year he did pretty well, and so it was a pretty big treat for me. In middle school we went over to England and France. I think those were the only two countries I went to, but we did it on a shoestring. I remember my dad had this book on the bookshelf called Europe, on $40 a day. This was a while ago.

Speaker 1: 6:02

I don't even know if you could eat at $40 a day anymore, but nonetheless we had some family friends who had a sailboat over there and so we were able to stay on their sailboat and make it somewhat affordable. But it was really a poignant moment in my life of opening my eyes as to the world outside of Beaverton, oregon, and from that moment on I decided I want to become an ambassador and so I set my sights on Washington DC and wanting to go to school actually Georgetown. And it's kind of a funny story. I met my husband in high school. We sat next to each other in junior lit class Mr DeLurba, if you're still out there and we didn't know each other.

Speaker 1: 6:46

We both came from two different feeder junior highs and we started to get to know each other and he said where are you going to apply to school next year? And I was like Georgetown University, that is where I want to go. And he was like huh, I didn't think about Georgetown. So, long story short, we both ended up applying to Georgetown. I had higher grades and he had higher SATs and wouldn't you know it? He got. We went to public school and generally those types of schools kind of took one student from each high school and he got the spot At Georgetown.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Yeah, so, my all worked out, though there was a happy ending, because I ended up going to American University, which was my backup school, and we were the only people who knew each other and you know, he was the only person I knew in DC so we started doing all the touristy stuff together, and one thing led to another, and here we are, 30 years later Congratulations.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Thank you. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, it also sounds like a really healthy beginning, friends, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:39

It is Figuring it out, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:41

Yeah, I'd love that. So then after school you kind of did you jump right into the corporate world, or did you?

Speaker 1: 7:52

did you kind of pursue that ambassador track? Yeah, yeah. So DC is a really great place to go to school because there's so many internship opportunities and I took full advantage of that. I did it. Just a wide variety. One of the internships I took was with my member of Congress, elizabeth Furze.

Speaker 2: 8:03

OK.

Speaker 1: 8:04

I think she's second district of Oregon as an intern and then when I graduated they needed somebody like the most junior position and so they offered me the job. So I came out of school with a job which was pretty awesome and started off as a receptionist and then ultimately answered all the mail that came in to her mail no email. At that point. I remember specifically the guy from the US Congress IT department or whatever coming in and setting up Yahoo on our computer like a year in which was pretty amazing. But you know snail mail, like we had to answer all the questions. It was a really tight district. So making sure you really responded to those constituents and even if they didn't agree with you, you want to make sure they felt heard. So it's a really good way to cut my teeth.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Honestly, I'm in communications. I was, like I said, an international relations major Um and then ultimately got promoted to legislative I think that's that was legislative correspondent and then I was legislative assistant and they gave me some issues to cover. International trade was one I wanted to cover, violence against women was another one, um, animal rights, kind of the junior, easier sorts of things that everybody you would think kind of would get behind Um, and so that was really interesting. But honestly this was like mid 90s and it was super dysfunctional then and frustratingly so for me.

Speaker 2: 9:23

So I don't think it's improved.

Speaker 1: 9:25

I don't think so either. I can only imagine.

Speaker 2: 9:28

So what does that role of yours look like in 2025? I don't know.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Yeah, Well, the thing that's crazy is it's a bunch of 20 year olds who are like in these roles, which is probably good because they have a lot of energy, but you know, they're really advising the members of Congress. You know, I think it's different on the Senate side, but on the House side they're pretty small staff. You know, it's interesting. I don't know how much it's changed. Yeah, so ultimately decided government was not for me. I love efficiency, and so I shifted gears from wanting to be an ambassador to the private sector.

Speaker 1: 10:07

The other thing I learned was the best way to become an ambassador is two ways to become an ambassador. One is you basically donate a lot of money to a campaign, which I didn't have. I didn't come from family money, so I wasn't going to go that route and get appointed. Or you rise your way through the ranks, starting, you know, in some tiny little country. Like stamping passports is what the vision anyway I had in my head, and that wasn't really for me either. So I was like, okay, the dream is not the reality, what do you know? And so shifted gears to the business side.

Speaker 1: 10:34

My husband got a job in Chicago and I moved to Chicago and I went and worked for this Japanese conglomerate called Mitsui, which was really interesting because the Japanese nationals were the management team and they couldn't pick up on body language and all that subtext. That's really important in negotiation. And so I was in these meetings sort of observing, you know what was going on. I worked in the general merchandise section, which meant sporting goods actually was my subsection within that. So I imported no, sorry, I exported bowling equipment to Japan and Thailand, because at the time where I exported bowling equipment to Japan and Thailand because at the time glow bowling was like a big deal and we were, can you believe we were airlifting bowling balls to Asia, Can you imagine the price of that, the cost of that shipping?

Speaker 2: 11:28

I'm amazed with like the market and what people spend money on, and it's fascinating yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:33

So anyway, you know we would come out of a meeting with, you know, the Brunswick team or whatever and they would really rely on me to sort of interpret what was not being said.

Speaker 2: 11:44

I mean, you were there a couple of years.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Yeah, I was there a couple of years. I think it was good to cut my teeth on, kind of my first business job. It required a lot of detail and I'm not as I'm a creative person I'm not a huge detail-oriented person. I think I'm getting less detail-oriented as I get older. But it was good. I'm glad I got that experience. I got to go over to Japan for the first time while I was there, so that was a pretty cool experience.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Further, feeding my desire to be in international business and get to see what that really looked like. And was it that job and others that kind of led you down?

Speaker 1: 12:19

into the kind of corporate marketing world. Yeah, yeah, I mean I I moved to Philly after that and my husband was at Wharton and so I um worked for the school there, which was really cool opportunity. A couple of friends I worked for the site called knowledge at Wharton, which basically translated all the research that was going on at Penn um into bite-sized pieces that businesses could use. People like you and I could use to, you know, bolster our business cases, because that stuff's pretty high level and highly academic. But it was a marketing tool also for the organization. And then on top of that they would allow me to go to school there for free. So I took a couple of classes and got the better part of a Wharton MBA without actually having to pay anything. They were paying me, so it was really. That's incredible, yeah, yeah, scrappy way to kind of get some of that experience.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Did you know Rob Little went there? No, did he?

Speaker 1: 13:10

No, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Yeah, doesn't surprise me. Yeah, knowing how smart Rob is. Yeah, I mean high level thinker. Yeah, totally, yeah, totally. Have you interviewed Rob? Yes, so he was. He was in here recording a soundbite for the bow episode I did last fall. Okay, he has the intro of it. He's not what. He wasn't in here as one of the guests. It was Gary and Will and Justin, but I used him, like I'll use your family today, to kind of supplement the episode and he gives really good, obviously, context and with him being, I think, the initial coercion because he was the very first brand with Karen.

Speaker 2: 13:52

So he had a good perspective on seeing Bao born from the very beginning. Yeah, people should listen to that episode. It's a good one.

Speaker 1: 13:59

I need to go back and re-listen to that Bao episode, because I actually listened to it as I was evaluating whether I want to participate in Bao and now that I know you know, I knew Gary a little bit, but I didn't know anybody else on the list there. So I need to go back now that I know them and re-listen to it, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Yeah, and it's, you know, made Gary a fan of podcasting because he's like I've done so many ads and television and whatever radio. I've never had that many people comment on hearing you know about the story through a podcast.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So yeah Well, I mean I've told you for a long time how much I love those podcasts. I think, as somebody who's a fan of Bend and like it's hard to articulate what makes Bend so special, I think you capture it so nicely in those podcasts.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Um and then bow is a double hit of that, because you know what an incredible support network that we have here in Bend and and especially with bow and the accelerator program, I mean I was trying to think to myself like if I had to put a number to how like 10X, 100x, I don't know how much did it? Has it accelerated? I think the jury is still out for me a little bit on that. But I mean I got to things that I promise you I will never have gotten to on my to-do list. They'd be on my to-do list but, and I think just sort of grounding me and centering me on what I'm trying to accomplish, what my brand stands for so critical.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Yeah, I mean their goal is to what do they say? Lead those companies across a desert of entrepreneurship where most people die Like they. You can see how they do that, you know. I mean they. They give you the tools and the kind of initial first pass understanding of how all the pieces work together.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Yeah, and the landmines to watch out for, and like the constant demand versus supply balance. And yeah, it's, it's um. I just had coffee with somebody this morning and just they've echoed, they've, they've taught me so much that I think I would have had to learn on my own that I've heard other people having to learn on their own, um, and failed businesses are just really struggling. So, yeah, I'm super grateful.

Speaker 2: 15:57

Yeah, I can't. I couldn't agree more with that. So you spent the majority of your career in the corporate world correct and kind of like marketing roles at companies like Starbucks and Pepsi and Nestle. And then a few years ago you and your husband decided to kind of pivot and move from Portland over to Bend correct?

Speaker 1: 16:18

Yeah, we actually moved from Seattle to Bend yeah we came down here. So we both are from Portland, as I mentioned, and we both came to Bend a little bit growing up here and there. And you know, ben kind of had a cool reputation back then but we kept hearing how amazing it had been. But neither of us had been here for 30 years and we used to do our mountain vacations at Whistler both summer and winter. But when COVID hit we couldn't do that. We couldn't get across the border.

Speaker 1: 16:41

So we were like, great, this is our opportunity to finally come down to Ben and see what's what, and classic story. We were here over the 4th of July week and we were like this is pretty cool. What if we just moved here for a year and like waited out? Covid and the kids were younger at that time, obviously, and you know life was pretty normal outdoors, and so what better place to live as normal of a life as you could in 2020 than Bend? You know, the playgrounds in Seattle had yellow like caution tape around them and the kids couldn't play on them. And here, you know, people were, you know, playing on the playgrounds, and you know I'll never forget my first season on the mountain. So I guess winter 2020 slash 21, it was the most normal.

Speaker 1: 17:22

I felt like, you know, we were all wearing balaclavas anyway, so it didn't feel funny. And I just remember, on the chairlift, hearing people leaping or yelling, yelping for joy, and I remember thinking, oh my gosh, this is what all of our psyches need is just some normalcy and some joy in our life, Cause it was those were tough times. So, anyway, we, we um, rented an Airbnb, fully furnished, Um, and we were like, all right, we'll just spend a year here. And then six months in we were like, oh, this is pretty great, Pretty great lifestyle. The vitamin D alone compared to Seattle was hard to leave our friends, but it was sort of easier at that time because we weren't seeing our friends as much. And then I was working for Nestle at the time and they were supportive, you know, for a year. And then you know who knew that COVID would last as long as it did.

Speaker 2: 18:08

So yeah, and then you like tell me a little bit about like that and we're going to hear from your dad. But you know, it sounds to me like Snowshoe had been on your radar, at least in terms of believing that it could be more than it was for a while.

Speaker 1: 18:35

So my dad, about 14 years ago, was ready to hang it up and so he was going to sell our business I say in quotes, air quotes because it wasn't much of a business at that time He'd been. Honestly, it'd been kind of a side hustle for him and my grandfather. So, being kind of neglected anyway, and I was like, hold the phone, don't sell it. And at the time I had my, just had my second son, I was working for Starbucks and I wasn't sure I could pull off this corporate you know working mom sort of thing and I always had this idea of like you know what, if one day I kind of restored it to its formal glory, Because at its heyday it really was a cooking business, and so we hit pause on that.

Speaker 1: 19:04

I couldn't run it at the time and my brother-in-law, thankfully, wasn't working, and so he stepped in and took over and kind of kept it going. Initially he wasn't working and then he ultimately got a big job at Redfin and so it kind of ended up on the back burner for him too. But I'm so grateful that they both kept that going, because then two years ago, when Nestle told me that I needed to move back to Seattle, I didn't want to leave Bend and I was ready for a change, and so I thought maybe this is my opportunity to finally give Snowshoe the TLC and attention it needed to return to its former glory.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Was that scary?

Speaker 1: 19:45

Super scary. I mean we were just talking about as we sat down like I'm a pretty risk averse person, but I think I'm finally reached a level of confidence in myself and you know expertise. I didn't really set out this way strategically but as I look back, in the last 25 years of my career I've sort of been in training for doing this, working for Nestle and PepsiCo and Starbucks and doing, you know, all this marketing. You know Starbucks, even though it's a big company, especially when I worked there was very startup-y, very entrepreneurial, and you know hope was a strategy. And you know Starbucks, even though it's a big company, especially when I worked there was very startup-y, very entrepreneurial, and you know hope was a strategy. And you know we used to laugh. We don't know how we would get the doors open every day because it was kind of chewing gum and Band-Aids. But it was a really fun place to work and you've had a lot of opportunity to sort of be entrepreneurial within this company.

Speaker 1: 20:33

Nestle is less that way. Within this company, nestle is less that way. You don't launch brands in 200 countries across the globe without a 17-step process for everything and really have anything nails down. And I'm better suited in kind of the entrepreneurial sort of space, less corporate-y. So yeah, I think the timing was sort of perfect. I knew I didn't want to go find another corporate job. I think I'd done that. It's not really. I'm not really a corporate person.

Speaker 2: 20:58

I think I it worked for me at starbucks when it wasn't so corporatey, but so yeah it's funny, if you don't look up, you'll find yourself in the same, doing the same thing for like a decade.

Speaker 1: 21:09

That's that's so true. And when I first decided to pursue this, I was feeling a little that way and a little guilty about it, if I'm honest that I was just kind of like in a what is that? Were you like kind of complacent in my career, and my friend, karen Ha, actually said to me don't do that to yourself. Your kids were young, you were in the thick of it, your husband had a big job, he was traveling internationally. All the time you were kind of in survival mode and you thrived in survival mode. You didn't have any time or energy to like, like you said, kind of look up and look around and figure out what you wanted to do. And, like many people during COVID, I think I had this kind of awakening and, you know, opportunity to like take a step back and think about what was important to me. And so I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity and to have that awakening and I'm having so much fun.

Speaker 2: 21:59

Yeah, you're doing a really good job. We haven't even talked really about Snowshoe.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Okay, well, we should talk about Snowshoe.

Speaker 2: 22:06

So 1927.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:09

That'll be a hundred year like legacy brand in three years, two years.

Speaker 1: 22:15

Two years yeah, that's incredible I know I gotta figure out what the game plan is yeah, well, you better have a party.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I know, I mean I was talking to your dad and and just for listeners, context, so your dad's grandpa, right, your great grandpa that's right was your family's first kind of interest into snowshoe.

Speaker 2: 22:36

So snowshoe, to the best of my recollection for listeners, was developed probably out of necessity, based on the prevalence of leather products in society back in the late 20s, right before the depression. And then, the way I understand the story is one of your grandpa's uncles, who was an attorney, was kind of paying attention to this little local brand in Portland and bought into it, and then the original owners ended up selling the majority shares and your grandpa encouraged his brothers to buy it for your great grandpa as a retirement kind of hobby business. Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 1: 23:19

I know, yeah, yeah, so my understanding is my great grandfather was retiring from the railroad and, yeah, they wanted you know him to stay busy, right, and so they bought it as a hobby business, but he wasn't much of a hobbyist because he really grew it. It was distributed by LL Bean and JC Penney in its heyday. I found these or not found, but as I moved the business to Bend, there's all these banker boxes full of files and all sorts of things, and so when I've been waiting in the manufacturing for things to heat up to the right temperature or whatever, I'll go through those files and I've learned a lot. It's a little bit like solving a mystery Really interesting correspondence between my grandfather and JCPenney, all of these letters from customers, you know, raving about the product.

Speaker 1: 24:09

You know US Naval Academy orders I mean, it really was in its heyday. You know rodeo outfitters. I think exactly what you said during the 20s were, you know, horses were still like a real thing, right, you needed to take care of your tack. And then also during the World Wars, boots were made of leather and you needed those boots to be. You know, your feet are a really limiting factor in the military.

Speaker 2: 24:35

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:36

So, like blisters, you need that leather to really mold to your foot. So not so much our brand, although maybe I wish I knew. But you know, if you read about leather care in Europe, it was a really important aspect of soldiers yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Yeah, so I thought we could start. I'm going to play some audio that I got with your dad. John in himself has kind of had a really interesting kind of career in business and marketing, so we're going to listen to him. But he shares some thoughts on his memories of Snowshoe as a little boy in Portland back in the 50s. Back in the 50s and then ultimately kind of how he found himself leading the brand, kind of breaking into this Western ranching market. Some of the customers that he made back in the 60s are still more or less brand ambassadors today. And then how he passed it off to you and your sister.

Speaker 4: 25:59

People often invent or modify, develop a product because they can. What they don't know is how to really do market research and understand what the market might want and need and why they might be buying it. It's sort of opportunistic. One of the observations I've had is an awful lot of successful companies were founded during the Depression and the snowshoe is typical of that. Well, first of all, the name snowshoe doesn't describe very much about what its current applications are. But in 1927, ski boots were made of leather. Snowshoes themselves had a lot of leather components. Leather snowshoes themselves had a lot of leather components. And the golf market was an important market as well because golf shoes at that time were made of leather.

Speaker 4: 26:52

Well, I guess in grade school and early high school I would help my grandfather actually make the product. It was located initially in a basement in southeast portland underneath one of those metal hatches that kind of opens through the sidewalk with an elevator, and so we would make this stuff and slowly raise the elevator and click on the the metal doors in the sidewalk and hope nobody was standing on it, and then raise it the rest of the way and ship boy a lot of those products out through pickup freight companies. Eventually my dad turned over the management of the company to me and at that point I was in my early 30s and you, and it was just a secondary thing for me, so I wasn't interested in particularly growing the brand. I did develop a relationship with a company in Ochocobie, florida. Boy, they would go through this stuff. So there were a lot of saddle repair shops. Turns out, florida has an awful lot of working cowboys and an awful lot of cattle only probably second to Texas. But the brand kind of stayed the same Until that point. I didn't make any aggressive marketing because, quite frankly, my career paid more for hours than what I was making on snowshoe. But I maintained it because it was kind of a fun family thing. So for me, I gave it to the two girls my daughters I guess that was 2012. And the second daughter, nicole, her husband kind of again ran it as a fun family side business and so that went on until approximately a year ago and then I think he decided that he'd had enough of it or it was time to retire or what, and Tiffany had retired from her job with Nestle's.

Speaker 4: 29:00

I was kind of looking for something new and different to do and try to develop a brand independently, a small brand, as opposed to large corporate activities and everything that goes on in the world of American corporations, good and bad. Well, I'm delighted she's doing it. I think that she's bringing it into more contemporary branding and other aspects of running a small company because, quite frankly, from 1927 to wow, that's a lot of years, almost 100 years in terms of brand. Oh, oh, think of it this way. For almost the last 100 years, it has been static in terms of the formula, which is critical, the package design, which is critical. Nothing was done to really build the brand. So, almost 100 years, the only thing we changed was the type of material that the container was made of has he seen the new packaging?

Speaker 1: 30:09

Oh yeah, I continue to consult him along the way, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:14

It's. It's fascinating to me that you can have a product that doesn't undergo any like innovation or progress for almost a hundred years. I mean, it's the same list of ingredients that they started a hundred years ago with. Yeah, no, I mean I know you have your special ingredients, but it's like beeswax pine resin. There's a petroleum product in there.

Speaker 1: 30:38

Yeah, so beeswax, pine resin and carnauba wax, which is a palm wax, are the three ingredients we talk a lot about. There's no PFAS in that no forever chemicals, no forever chemicals. So those products help with hydration and conditioning of the leather about.

Speaker 2: 30:49

There's no PFAS in that. No, forever chemicals no forever.

Speaker 1: 30:50

Chemicals? Yeah, so that those products help with hydration and conditioning of the leather, but also waterproofing.

Speaker 2: 30:55

Yeah, I feel like I have a little micro degree on leather maintenance now and and a couple of people explained it really well to me that it's actually, you know, it's the, the acids in a lot of your competitors products are what will ultimately dry out and disintegrate the, the, the material, the, the, the weave of the leather fibers.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Yeah, breaks it down, yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:19

It's. It's really interesting. It's the things you take for grand. Never really understand how they work.

Speaker 1: 31:23

But yeah, and it's interesting, right, like I think, um, you know, what's old is new again, kind of thing. I think people for a long time were thinking leather, or vegan leather as they call it, was really the more sustainable direction of things, and the reality is most of those are actually plastic. Like the alternative dairy space, right when we were like okay, cows, you know, contributing to global warming, let's go with. You know, dairy alternatives and things like almonds, you know consume so much water. So it, you know, like health, it kind of depends on what you care about. It's not as straightforward as people think.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Yeah, everything has a trade-off man.

Speaker 1: 32:06

Yeah, totally, everything has a trade-off and that's not always discussed, but absolutely true.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Yeah, I mean it's incredible to me that those you know for over 20 years, before your family, got really involved, it was kind of humming along and developed kind of a brand identity and reputation. Reputation and it sounds like those early kind of decades of consumers kind of built this like runway for many decades in terms of like quality.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm really lucky, like I said, going through these files of boxes of files, there's so many letters from, in particular, in the Northeast, which I attribute to the LL Bean distribution and even now, you know, I see orders coming in.

Speaker 1: 32:54

They come in from across the country but there's a heavy up in the Northeast. I worked the Ben Crater's market this weekend and two people stopped by my booth and they're like oh yeah, you know, I've been using this for 40 years and as I was exploring, you know, whether I was going to take this on or not, I would talk to folks around Ben and so many people would say to me like, oh yeah, should I keep that equity or not? And ultimately decided to keep it because it is got this incredible following, very loyal following. I'm so blessed to have inherited a business and a brand where the product is, you know, bulletproof, it's. People love it and you know that's why it hasn't changed and it also has a really rich story, and so my job is to amplify that story and bring it back to distribution levels where it once was.

Speaker 2: 33:53

Yeah, I had a great conversation with Mike as well, your brother-in-law who kind of stepped in for a while and ran it. Do you remember that time frame and like the company history, like when Mike was running it?

Speaker 1: 34:06

I mean a little bit you were probably pretty nose down.

Speaker 1: 34:10

I was, I was I just remember being very grateful that he was willing to do it and I think he was looking for something to do until he kind of found his next thing.

Speaker 1: 34:19

And it was funny when I started to re-engage on this in a more heavy way, looking back to our correspondence, you know, when my I thought, when I had my, I was on leave with my second child, I was like, oh, I'm going to really, you know, help Mike out, I'll tackle all the marketing side of this. And you know, those first couple of weeks when the baby's super sleepy and you're kind of like, ok, I can do this. And then and the baby wakes up and yeah, so he was trying to do a lot of the stuff. Yeah, exactly Trying to do a lot of this stuff that I've been doing, you know, as I've taken it back over, but I think, yeah, then he went out and got another job and you know, priorities shifted but I'm so grateful that he kept the patient in ICU and alive and you know, because without it, you know, I wouldn't be here.

Speaker 2: 35:05

So, yeah, yeah, let's hear from Mike here.

Speaker 6: 35:08

My name is Mike and my wife is Nicole. So John's daughter, tiffany's sister, way back in the kind of late 2000s John was, I think, just getting ready to like all right, I'm done with this, I want to pass it off to the girls. And I always thought it was just a cool little product with a cool story. And Nicole was in grad school at the time and I think Tiffany was really entrenched in her career, so both of them were like man, I don't really have the time or the bandwidth and I'm in real estate. So back in the late 2000s real estate was in really rough shape. So I found time on my hands so I basically stepped up and said we can't let this product die. Please let me step in and do what I can to run this thing you know for, for, for whatever amount of time.

Speaker 3: 36:00

I need to.

Speaker 6: 36:01

So that's kind of how I got into it and it was just fun. Like you know, john had boxes and boxes of of of paperwork that I dove into to read about and yeah, it was just, it was just cool. Like I said, I had time on my hand and it was a cool product and I was more than happy to do it. Big challenge, honestly, was just the production of it. Uh, you know, it uses the original vat, I believe, and just all this old big equipment and we had. We had, uh, we owned a home in north portland, small little home with a tuck under garage. So the biggest challenge of all was just making it. Um, I mean, it was kind of funny. I would, literally it would be stuffed in our garage. Whenever I had to make it, which was maybe two or three times a year, I would pull it out into our driveway and it was a sloped driveway so I'd have to put like cinder blocks up for the stand to sit on, and then there's massive bat arms.

Speaker 1: 37:02

I don't think I ever saw him produce it, but I remember that driveway You're using this it's like a flamethrower.

Speaker 6: 37:09

This thing can shoot like 20 feet but you know boiling up this bat and you can hear it from a block or two away. So I would have people just walking by asking me questions and kind of get a little audience. Every time I'd make it in our front yard and then, gosh, was it three years ago roughly, tiffany had made the decision. They moved down to Bend. She's like yeah, I really want to take Snowshoe to the next level and just said hey, can we just run it together? And you know I was fine with that, I was still working full time but it came really clear that she really had the energy and passion to like all right, let's make this into a real business. And I did not really have the time at that point. Really, you know more than happy to like all right, tiffy, this is yours, you run it. I'll help on the sidelines as much as I can or whatever you need me to do. And that's kind of how we've operated over the last couple of years, to the point where she's basically doing 99% of everything right now and I just help whenever I can. It's so good Like she is just like. The packaging is so much cooler now. It's kind of got the retro old look and she it's really nice and I get CC'd on her sales through Amazon and and it's like 30x what I used to do, so she's really making her mark on it. It's awesome to watch. I certainly was a little skeptical, like can you really build this brand? But I'll tell you what the groundwork that she's putting together. If this just gets some legs regionally, I think she's going to turn this into a real business but keep that original kind of Oregon Americana flavor to the brand, which I think is just awesome. The biggest takeaway from it all was how fiercely loyal the longtime customers were and are. Like they swore up and down that this is the best product in the entire universe for leather care and they would follow like. They always hit me up, like they would find me no matter what. So so that was really cool.

Speaker 6: 40:01

There was this one guy in Texas, richard gosh, and his last name escapes me. He's been around for a really long time but when I first met him he was a quote unquote distributor of snowshoe for Texas. John had met him. And this Richard God, if you could ever talk to him. His story is so good. He tells this story of somewhere in florida, I believe. They put out like 10 strips of leather in the heat and the sun and they put all these different products, including snowshoe um, on these strips of leather to see which one would last. And you know, protect the leather the best. And he says snowshoe blew them all the way they went. And if you ever hear this guy tell the story, it's fantastic I got the best audio of richard sharing that story, so it'll.

Speaker 2: 40:56

I'm excited for people to hear that I'm excited to hear it.

Speaker 1: 40:59

Yeah, he's the real deal, the real deal I.

Speaker 2: 41:04

I was on the phone with him for like an hour and I didn't want to get off. I mean we were talking about all sorts of stuff outside. I was talking with him about just the ranching industry right now and cause he's been in the game man since like the sixties.

Speaker 1: 41:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:19

Like guys, gotta be in his mid to late eighties and he's still out there. I don't know how old he is.

Speaker 1: 41:24

I don't either.

Speaker 2: 41:25

That would just be my kind of rough estimate yeah yeah, you know he rides a side-by-side more now than a horse, but like he's the real deal, you know, like it's cool, it's really cool. Mike mentioned on and we had kind of talked about it just the customer loyalty factor that Snowshoe has developed over the decades and how does it like? What are your thoughts on stepping into this with that background? I mean 97 years of kind of brand reputation, what do you think about that?

Speaker 1: 41:57

Don't screw it up, that's a good answer.

Speaker 2: 41:59

That's a good answer, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:01

I mean, a lot of family legacy on the table here. So I think it's, you know, safe to just kind of continue along with where we were. But I also think you know the people who knew Snowshoe before. They are the Richards right, and they're not going to be around that much longer and I don't want to lose them.

Speaker 1: 42:22

But at the same time, you know I need to capture the new consumer and, as you know, I have a 15-year-old son and he's a great example of you know, when he needs to buy something, he starts on eBay. Why buy new when you can buy used? And this whole concept of upkeep culture and thrifting, and you know, as these kids are concerned about, you know, consumerism and global warming. You know that's not my generation, but it was my dad. He used to sit down on Sunday nights and watch 60 Minutes and pull out his, you know, one brown pair of work shoes and one pair of black and polish them, and you know he would have those shoes for 10 years. And you know, like I said, that's not my, my generation, and so I think there's an opportunity to kind of capture, maintain that, that previous customer, while also reintroducing ourselves to the new customer.

Speaker 2: 43:13

Who are those new customers?

Speaker 1: 43:15

Yeah, I. I think there's a group of folks who are the thrifters, the people who love to go in and find something that's a diamond in the rough and bring it back home and restore shoes, the bag, whatever it is, just for more glory or upcycle of some sort, and then they love to post that on social media, tell their friends about it. Sometimes they even sell it right, kind of this hustle culture.

Speaker 2: 43:43

Totally yeah, sometimes they even sell it right kind of this, um, hustle culture, totally yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:45

So I think that's probably that. Plus, you know, obviously, uh, we're big in the equine industry. Uh, living here in bend has been really eye-opening to me as to how big that industry is and how expensive, like those saddles are like three, five thousand dollars um and they're like an asset they don't depreciate. Right.

Speaker 2: 44:04

Right, especially if I learned, if you have one from like some of the saddle makers that Richard used to work with in Florida and Texas. I mean, those guys are long gone and their saddles are still just like sought after.

Speaker 1: 44:16

It's fascinating.

Speaker 2: 44:17

And then, like I started thinking, because there's some overlap with Spiral and Snowshoehoe in my opinion when it comes to some of the ritual. Yeah, you know, and like you, bringing back like that, I remember my dad's pot, his, his shoe polish kit.

Speaker 1: 44:32

Yeah, you know, like I remember as a little boy, like opening it up, smelling the different, you know, yeah and whenever I'm working a farmer's market or a show, one of the things I offer is to condition people's shoes. And, no surprise, there's a lot of Blundstone wearers around here and these you know snowshoe will make them look almost brand new. I mean, I feel like I'm at a like you know a Costco, when they would do the like knife demos or whatever, and like the guy with the microphone, I sort of feel like I could do that because people are so amazed by the transformation. So, yeah, I think people just need their eyes opened. Actually, not last Christmas, but two Christmases ago, I was at Costco and they had a big palette of, you know, shoeshine kits, you know. So like I think it is coming back.

Speaker 2: 45:15

I think yeah, yeah, that would support your kind of this second look at kind of upkeep culture.

Speaker 1: 45:22

Upkeep culture and slow fashion instead of fast fashion. And so how do we buy higher, less things that are higher quality and take good care of them?

Speaker 2: 45:31

Yeah, yeah, there's so much upside to that. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. Talk a little bit about the relationship that Snowshoe has with that motorcycle apparel company in Portland.

Speaker 1: 45:44

Yeah, that's a cool relationship it is yeah, it's another really long time relationship with Langlitz Leathers out of Portland. So they're a custom motorcycle jacket and pant I want to call them manufacturer or sewer and it's been around. Mr Langlitz and my grandfather had a relationship and we started private labeling for them I don't know 50 years ago or so, and that relationship continues. I'm working on updating their packaging because they also are in a plastic hummus slicking container and this does not come anywhere close to fitting their very cool vibe and brand. So yeah, I really cherish that relationship and it gives us a lot of credibility. They offer a free tin of well tub, I guess I should say of the Langless leather dressing with every jacket they sell.

Speaker 1: 46:29

And these are like multi-thousand dollar jackets as a way to sort of, you know, encourage their customer to take good care of their product. And again, these things are heirlooms. These saddles, these leather jackets, they leather will last a lifetime if you take good care of it. Saddles, these leather jackets, they leather will last a lifetime if you take good care of it. And so you know, and there's all these stories behind leather too, and that's a really cool aspect of of the brand and the business and that's part of my vision for the a hundred year celebration is how do I capture those stories? You know I come from Starbucks, which is a deep storytelling culture, and that's something that's really influenced me and shaped me and something I want to bring forward into, and have been bringing forward into, this brand and business.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Where do you produce it now? You're not producing it at Mike's Garage.

Speaker 1: 47:13

No, yeah, we've moved up from garage to barn Graduated.

Speaker 2: 47:17

That seems like a very authentic environment to produce this in, though.

Speaker 1: 47:21

It is. I produce in a barn on the east side, in a hayloft, and below me are chickens and goats. There was a chicken actually walking around up in the hayloft the other day keeping me company.

Speaker 2: 47:32

Yeah, so great.

Speaker 1: 47:34

Yeah, my landlord, jimmy's awesome. He's a former entrepreneur himself and you know I was looking for a very inexpensive place to to manufacture because Mike's garage was free, so trying to keep costs low. And so Jimmy was like, hey, this will be great. So yeah, it's a good setup.

Speaker 2: 47:53

Are you still using the equipment that Mike was using?

Speaker 1: 47:55

Yeah, yeah, all that equipment. We had to get that up the hail off stairs Thanks to my husband and my son and some of his friends. Like, yeah, it was a bit tricky. We had them on, like you know, two by four. They're not. Not only are they heavy, but they're just awkward. They don't have handles on them and they're like rough edged metal from. You know, the equipment is, I think, from the 1950s, if not older. So, um, yeah, it's, it's very authentic, a little too authentic, maybe one might say yeah do you have a vision of like, like?

Speaker 1: 48:23

growing the production facility and process. For sure I'd love to modernize the production facility, and I mean the barn's quaint and cute. But one day I hope to be in something a little more professional and um yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:38

Insulated. Yeah Right, yeah, I have like a window and like one light, maybe two. Um, it's got no heat so I you know. So I try to do as little as possible in that barn in the winter, but this time of year I've been starting to do some more manufacturing. But, yeah, I've been working with OMEP. They're going to come out and take a look at where I'm at and give me some advice on lean principles. But also, what would it cost and how long would it take for me to modernize? I'm probably good, based on my current volume, for a couple of years. Honestly, yeah, but it's real manual.

Speaker 2: 49:10

Yeah, yeah, do you enjoy it?

Speaker 1: 49:12

I do enjoy it, it's kind of like you were saying about Tim, like putting the product on shoes or belts or whatever saddles is ritualistic, but so is is pouring it. I mean, I hand pour every single one. Um, you know it's, it's a, it's kind of a greasy product. So, uh, you don't want to spill it. So I'm getting better about. You know, these little four ounce tins is our. You know, power skew, as we would say in the industry. Um, you know how do I make sure that those are consistently filled and not overfilling and making a big mess? So, but yeah, I listen to podcasts. Actually, you know I'm a huge podcast fan. So I put on you know an audio book or a podcast and I just get into it and it's you know what. It's way better than sitting in a bunch of Zoom calls and meetings all day long. So I really, I really do love it and I like the variety of the work too.

Speaker 1: 49:59

You know, last week I we have a pump that we use to pump um, one of the ingredients out of the barrel. It comes in into the tank and the pump is from like I don't know the 1950s. When I moved it from Portland a couple of months ago and I plugged it in. I was like, oh baby, please work, the belts are like on their last leg. And sure enough it worked. But I need to, the barrels need to be in the bottom of the barn and I manufacture up in the hayloft, so yeah, so I had to go find, you know, an extension for the hose for a 19,. Like you know, thankfully, you know, I was able to find it. Like you know, I have no operations background, so it's really interesting for me, but I love it.

Speaker 2: 50:37

Well, that's the beauty of entrepreneurship.

Speaker 1: 50:39

You learn as you go, man, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:41

That's really cool. Yeah, I, I love the um, the new packaging and and kind of the the label ideas you're playing around with. I mean, it's just gonna I, I can just play it out in my head and see what's going to happen, which is like this this product that's got so much brand value built into it because of its quality, now is going to be in front of a lot more people who I think are going to really enjoy getting to know it. That's my, that's my assumption and prediction for you.

Speaker 1: 51:14

Thank you, I hope you're right.

Speaker 2: 51:15

I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Speaker 1: 51:17

I think you are too.

Speaker 2: 51:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:18

Yeah, I'm just really trying to grow distribution right now. So that's you know I I worked with, I love I'm the type of marketer who loves to work with sales. I like to be, you know, some marketers are brand marketers and kind of more 30,000 feet and I can do that work, but my favorite kind of work is to partner with my sales organization. So you, you know, you've got the consumer and then you've got the shopper, which a lot of people don't focus on, a shopper, but the example I use. And then you've got the shopper, which a lot of people don't focus on, a shopper, but the example I use. I have a lot of background in shopper marketing. The example I use is dog food. Right, you are the shopper of dog food.

Speaker 1: 51:51

Hopefully you're not the consumer of dog food right, but maybe baby food is a better example.

Speaker 1: 51:53

Or like when your kids want some cereal that you would never buy for them, but they're influencing you, right, because they're the end user. There's the consumer, the shopper, then the retailer right, so you got to think about the retailer. And then there's your salesperson, right, and you know, from a marketing perspective, you really need to be in lockstep with your salesperson because they're front lines dealing with the retailer. And you know, with all of the consolidation over the last decade or so and you know I mainly deal with mass and food with Nestle People are not restaffing or staffing their stores in the way they used to be, and so all of those learnings I'm bringing into this business. It's different in the outdoor space and farm and ranch space, so that's been super helpful in terms of what Bao has been educating me and trying to hire sales reps and strong sales reps. So that's definitely new territory for me, used to working with inside salespeople but hiring my own to start frontline people and motivating them and understanding their dynamics.

Speaker 2: 52:52

Well, they become the face of your brand right. That's a great point, yeah, I mean they're the first touch point of interaction with a lot of accounts and the consumer and the shopper. Yeah, yeah, a lot of accounts and the consumer and the shopper.

Speaker 1: 53:05

And yeah, yeah, yeah, and we're, you know, our, our heritage is all in wholesale, you know, wholesale channel. I'm certainly trying to grow, um, you know, direct as well, but that requires a lot of investment that, frankly, I don't. I don't have right now. So trying to kind of keep, you know, an omni-channel approach while also recognizing, you know, our bread and butter and I initially thought big box is where I wanted to go. My dream would have been to be in REI or something similar, but, as Bao actually educated me, there's a lot that goes on with that.

Speaker 1: 53:34

So all you entrepreneurs out there listening, it's complexity, they have a lot of requirements. It's just me I can't just, you know, spend a lot of time in administrative, filling out forms and worrying about chargebacks, and you know. And then there's a cost component to that. Right, they have promotional allowances and marketing allowances and that sort of thing. And so where I've actually landed is I actually don't want to go after the big boxes right now. I need to, you know, really focus more on specialty and specialty outdoor and grow the brand in that space with these, and there's so many opportunities right, there's so many authentic, whether it's, you know, cowboy outfitters, english style writing. Western style writing. You know Hestra gloves and Kinko gloves. There's the glove channel and then you know, 70% of Americans have leather shoes right, and so that's a big channel and opportunity for us.

Speaker 2: 54:28

But super fragmented Belts, purses, automotive, all of that yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:33

Ultimately, automotive works on leather furniture as well, so that's a question I get a lot.

Speaker 2: 54:39

Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 54:41

Yeah, and then the only other thing I wanted to touch on is I am affiliated with Healing Reigns, which is an equine mental health organization here in the Bend area. I reached out to them because I had some product that I wanted to donate to them and I learned a little bit about them. I'm the proverbial person who got thrown off the horse at age 16 and did not get back on, and I really wanted to reestablish my relationship with horses. But also, how do I integrate myself into the horse community in Bend in an authentic way? So I've been doing a bunch of volunteering out there and I can't say enough good things about that organization, both the work they're doing, but also Bridget, who is the volunteer coordinator out there, is a pretty amazing person and I would just encourage folks in the Bend area to check them out. It's super flexible. Somebody like me who has, you know, a part-time, unpaid Uber job in the afternoon running my kids all over the place, I'm still able to volunteer out there fairly frequently, so I really encourage folks to check that out.

Speaker 2: 55:43

Yeah, I did. I think like episode two or three was with oh, I gotta go back and listen to that one was with Healing Rains. It was incredible, really cool organization.

Speaker 1: 55:54

They have a new facility in the last year that they expanded. Yeah, yeah, incredible story it is they do amazing work.

Speaker 2: 56:03

Alright, I have one last piece of audio. This is some extra Richard audio sweet, and it's my favorite, and I even set it to music. All right, I have one last piece of audio. This is some extra Richard audio Sweet, and it's my favorite, and I even set it to music just because it makes for a better listening experience.

Speaker 3: 56:19

Well, I've really slowed down. I've got a bad heart and I've slowed down a bunch. But you get up. You know you see the sun come up a lot and, uh, you watch it come up and you, you, uh, you get. You have your day planned. You know what you're going to be doing and uh, checking cattle, and and, uh, looking for sick cattle, or, uh, cattle that are going to have babies, and, uh, you're trying to. You know, you, from one day to the next, you, you just have to, you have to keep an eye on them. You have to watch them all the time.

Speaker 3: 56:54

I I lost, uh, I lost a calf here the other day from plastic. So we have to do a little bit of everything. We have to ground keeping, uh, as well as taking care of cattle, making sure the fences are up, making sure that the cattle have food, mineral salt and just making sure that their needs are provided, and just about anything and everything. I do a lot more. I do a lot of it out of the four-wheeler or something beside now, where I used to go hunt, every day was horseback, from early in the morning until late in the evening. I've come in a lot of times at 9, 9.30 at night and put my horse up. You go as far as you can go and do as much as you can do and then you head home and dark beats your house to the house. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Speaker 3: 57:51

My introduction to snowshoe went back into the early 60s and it was a product that a friend of mine had in his saddle shop and he was a master craftsman, master craftsman. It was fascinating for me as a young man to watch how he handled his leather and how he was such a perfectionist. He was just a master and he wouldn't use anything but the best Of anything, that he used the best leather. All the products that he used it was the best. And he used no shoe and nothing else, nothing else. So that was basically how I was introduced to him, floyd Lingle, and he was a rodeo man. He was in the original Turtle Rodeo Cowboys Association, which goes way back. I have a saddle that he made for me that I use all the time and not so much right now, but in the past I've used it since 1973. And that saddle is in mint condition. Of course it's been taken care of because I knew there wasn't a replacement.

Speaker 3: 59:14

I used to set up at different types of exhibits, have the product out there and I would give samples away to people. And I had a man come in and he said well, it fixed a King Ranch pickup seats and I said if they're leather it'll work. He laughed. He said well, give me a can. So he took a can out, put it on his. The armrests were cracked and he put it. He said it'll scratch you, it's so dry. He put it on there. He came back in and bought four more tubs. I've used it on furniture, belts, boots, everything is leather. I love that. I love Texas and I just decided I was going to stay.

Speaker 3: 1:00:05

I went to work for George Nix, who owned Big Ben Salary at that time. George, he was a darn good saddle maker himself. He used to just dip his saddles in. You know it was a bathtub that was filled with a product that we won't go into. But when I introduced Snowshoe to him, he tried it, he liked it, he got rid of all his oil and cub too. We just used Snowshoe exclusively. And that was in West Texas, that's in dry. It was dry, hot, cold in the wintertime, really really bad weather conditions. And it stood up. It works, it holds up.

Speaker 3: 1:01:00

I'll tell you another real, quick little story. I was at Western Heritage Rodeo one year and Tom Morehouse and I and his son was there and he rode saddle broncs for his team and they had been fixing water gaps and his boots were just as hard as a piece of leather could be, just as stiff as a board. I took his boots and sat down right there in the tongue of his trailer and greased them up and he won the saddle bronc riding that night in those boots. That's a fact. I love ranching. I love the ranching life. I love the life that it affords me. My grandchildren all ride. I've got a two-year-old. I've got a two-year-old that is riding a horse already. So he's about as young as you're going to get one on.

Speaker 3: 1:02:01

But he asked his daddy to give him a rope the other day so he could go rope with his sister. She's a college roper. I've been very fortunate. God's blessed me with a great life. This is Richard Bryant and I was born and raised in Kissimmee, florida. I now live at the Grove, texas, between Gatesville and Temple on Highway 36. If you ever need some snowshoe product, just let me know.

Speaker 2: 1:02:34

I think Richard might be the original brand ambassador.

Speaker 1: 1:02:37

I completely agree. What a special, special piece of audio. I am so touched by that. I mean wow.

Speaker 2: 1:02:46

Well, I mean it's testimony, right it?

Speaker 1: 1:02:49

is From a guy that's.

Speaker 6: 1:02:50

I mean wow with your dad and your grandpa and like just getting introduced to it in.

Speaker 2: 1:03:08

Florida when he was a kid, working for a guy that was like a master, that guy, floyd Lingle. I looked into him Like he was. He was pivotal in kind of the evolution of Western saddles and so like there's a lot of like wow, that you know that guy would only use this stuff and that's who introduced Richard to it, or yeah, introduced Richard to it, so it's it's cool stuff man.

Speaker 1: 1:03:33

Yeah, wow, I am so grateful that he shared that with you. It shared that with me. Richard and I've had a few conversations and he gave me little snippets but nothing, quite, quite like that, so that's pretty special.

Speaker 2: 1:03:46

Yeah, I got off the phone with him. I'm like you know, we were on for like an hour. I'm like, buddy, I hate to ask, but is there anything else? I didn't ask? He goes, I don't know. I've told you about more than I've ever told my mama, you know. I mean, I got more audio that's just like next level.

Speaker 1: 1:04:03

But that's what I'm talking about. Like that's the generation that you know I'm losing, and so how do I, you know, carry that forward? Well, this should help. It's just he's so salt of the earth. It's just, you know, you could just hear his values come across there that are really special, and you know talking about his two-year-old grandson.

Speaker 2: 1:04:36

Yeah, I mean, most people have way more similarities than differences.

Speaker 1: 1:04:40

I totally agree. There's just a lot of money to be made on magnifying those differences. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:04:45

I mean, that was a highlight. Talking with guys like that are why I like doing this. You know, it's the research and these people that you get to meet, and then the authenticity that that brings to you know, a conversation about leather care products.

Speaker 1: 1:05:01

Right it's way more than that. Yeah, you know so it's good stuff. Yeah, his, his legacy and his you know story that he's passing down and the impact he's had on his family and his life, right. Oh yeah. Yeah, he's got a heart issue and I don't know how much longer he's going to be here with us and so. I can't wait to share this with him too.

Speaker 2: 1:05:24

Yeah, and his family probably, right yeah, Because that'll be a little like that'll be. They'll be excited to hear that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:05:35

I think so too. Any advice you'd give to someone starting out in entrepreneurship.

Speaker 1: 1:05:38

Surround yourself with, you know, talented and supportive other entrepreneurs. We've talked about it a little bit, but Bend is such a special community in that way. We've got Bend Outdoor Works, we have Cultivate Bend, which is more CPG and food focused. We have EDCO, the Economic Development of Central Oregon. We have a great SBDC, so Small Business Development Corporation, here at Central Oregon Community College. And then we're just lucky, we are here in a part of the country that you know is equidistant between Seattle and San Francisco and then also Portland, and so I think there's a lot of folks that have been successful entrepreneurs. Maybe, you know, made their millions and they decided to come to Ben to retire or, you know, downshift a little bit and then they can't help themselves because they have good ideas or they want to give back to the community, and so it's been nice that we all talk about that. It translates into the business community too, and I'm so incredibly grateful because there's all these mentors that are willing to.

Speaker 1: 1:06:48

You know, I just started LinkedIn people I'm like, well, what's the worst that's going to happen? They're going to like not respond to me, and the number of people who will sit down and have coffee with me is pretty amazing. You know, even you know you, Adam, with the circling podcast and Ben magazine, my cohortions in Bend Outdoor Works, but I also have just a group of primarily women entrepreneurs here in Bend and we just rely on each other, from everything very practical to like, hey, what's a vendor for packaging? Or an Amazon vendor, or whatever it happens to be. To more emotional, like hey, I'm having a rough day and you know, the other day I got a call from a supplier and he told me he misquoted me on something and it doubled my price. And I was like, oh man.

Speaker 1: 1:07:32

And then he called me the next day. I was like sorry, I was looking at the wrong thing. I'm like talking about an emotional roller coaster. Or this morning I woke up and I've been working with Amazon for the last 10 days because, you know, amazon's important, not just from a sales channel. I'm mainly on there from a marketing perspective.

Speaker 1: 1:07:47

That's where people go and do product research primarily Right, and when you've got a product like mine with a group of people who've never heard of us before, it's really important from a credibility perspective. So, anyway, for the last 10 days they've been telling me how they're going to shut down the site, my, my page or whatever my products because, um, I need to verify something. And I've been on the phone with them and they told me it was fine, they were going to take care of it. It was like a technical issue on their backend. And I woke up this morning and I look at my phone and, sure enough, they shut me down. So I call them and on the phone with them they're like, oh yeah, really sorry, it's on our end, we'll get back to you in 48 hours. That's two days of of, you know right, and that's a big deal, and so you know that's not great. But I had coffee with somebody this morning and you know she has kind of cracked the code on. You know she can't help me with that particular issue, but she was helping me with other things and you know that those kinds of conversations happen every day here and it's really incredible community. And so tap, find that community, wherever you are, and tap into it because you're going to need it. It's super fun, but it's also super challenging and it's a dynamic space out there.

Speaker 1: 1:08:54

I'm so grateful I'm a domestic manufacturer right now. I don't have to navigate that complexity. We're made here in Bend. We made all of our ingredients come from the US, except maybe packaging, which I just found actually from another coercion, maybe a domestic supplier, tim, for packaging. So you know it takes a village, no doubt. Yeah, I definitely do that. And then I think the other piece of advice is that we learned in Bao is take time to work on the business, not just in the business, which is really hard to carve out time. I think it'll be interesting now that we're done with the coercion, the formal part of the curriculum. Like you know, we should all go block our calendars Wednesday nine to noon to work in the business, not on the business, because otherwise I think you know you're too busy fighting all those fires, trying to sell and do all the things and you don't get to the foundational stuff. That's really important.

Speaker 2: 1:09:53

Yeah, a hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. That's one of the things that made me wake up anxious the other day. Is finding that time and discipline to work on the business and in the business, because they are very two different things. Both demand your attention. Attention, but just trying to find the balance yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So people listening. Go buy some snowshoe if you like it. Go on to amazon and leave a good review.

Speaker 1: 1:10:22

I've heard it helps yeah, it would definitely help. I think I think people you know people understandably are skeptical out there, right, and they want, you know, outside verification. I actually was reading an industry report the other day that talked about it was leather product industry report and they were talking about counterfeit products. And I was like what Counterfeit product? I mean this you know, it's not rocket science to make leather care, leather conditioner, so what does that actually mean? And I was looking at a competing brand on Amazon and they rank fairly high and I was like what is this product? And I Googled them and sure enough, they don't come up anywhere and I think this is what they're talking about. Is this like counterfeit product, that is, I don't know who manufactures it, where it comes from, because there's no trace of them on the internet, which is sort of hard to do. So, yeah, I think it's people understandably just don't trust out there, and so having you know, regular folks weigh in with you know, authentic reviews and recommendations is super powerful, now more than ever.

Speaker 2: 1:11:25

What do you think you'd say to your great-grandfather if he was listening?

Speaker 1: 1:11:28

Oh, man, that would be so awesome, I hope. I hope he'd be like uh excited of the direction things are going. I think he might be a little sad it was. You know, I built this thing up and what? What's happened? You? Guys.

Speaker 1: 1:11:44

But, um, you know, I think it would. He'd be proud, hopefully, that you know somebody is grabbing the bull by the horns here and bringing it back to its former glory and polishing pun intended off what he started. But yeah, I think it would be pretty cool. I wish I had opportunity to know him. Even my grandfather had Parkinson's and so by the time I was of conscious age I don't think he was really who he was personality.

Speaker 1: 1:12:10

But it's been back to those letters that I found in the boxes.

Speaker 1: 1:12:13

It's been really fun I was talking to my dad about this a couple of weeks ago to get a sense of his personality through the correspondence and he's kind of, I think, of a little bit of a rascal, and I don't I wouldn't describe myself as a rascal, but my youngest son is a little bit that way, and so it's sort of fun to sort of see that personality come through, but to also just witness the challenges that he faced as an entrepreneur through these letters.

Speaker 1: 1:12:35

And you know he ordered like 30,000 units, I think it was, of packaging out of Europe, because back then that's where you know the tins came from and JCPenney was like, oh, actually we want to change the branding and he's, you know you can't change the branding, you know these were pre-printed tins and they're like, well, sorry, we, we want to. And you know, kind of um, gentlemanly, like arguing back and forth over over mail and trying to work it out. And they did, they worked it out and ultimately JCPenney wanted to close a DC and would he direct ship and like all of these super relevant business issues of today. But you know, 50 years ago, working through it.

Speaker 2: 1:13:12

Same problems, just different tools to solve them.

Speaker 1: 1:13:14

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:13:17

Yeah, I think you'd be proud of you, man. I'm super proud of you.

Speaker 1: 1:13:20

Oh well, back at you.

Speaker 2: 1:13:21

Yeah, thanks for doing this.

Speaker 1: 1:13:23

Oh, thank you so much. It's been a real joy.

Speaker 2: 1:13:25

It's fun to reflect on kind of the wind you're blowing into it and to see kind of. I think timing in life is key and it seems like this is good timing for Snowshoe to go through a growth spurt again.

Speaker 1: 1:13:39

Yeah, and good timing for me in life too.

Speaker 2: 1:13:41

I think All the way around.

Speaker 1: 1:13:43

Yeah, as I've said, I don't think I was really mentally and emotionally and even financially prepared to tackle this. I remember when I could start to sort of see the writing on the wall at Nestle and I was feeling really panicked about it because I actually really loved the work I was doing and the team that I was working with and I was looking for a career coach, to hire a career coach, and there was a guy, steven, here in town and I was just kind of interviewing with him and I was telling him a little bit about what was going on and he was like Tiffany, this is the best thing that's ever happened to you, trust me. And I was like are you crazy, steven? This is a disaster.

Speaker 1: 1:14:16

Like I live in Bend, you know I'm, you know, a woman who's not in her thirties. Like he's like just trust me. And he's right, it is the best thing that ever happened to me. It really has freed me to do something that I am much more passionate about. It's given me flexibility that I need as my kids are getting older and that time is fleeting. You and I have talked about that a bit, and so I'm just incredibly grateful it came at the exact right time I needed it to and I'm super excited about where the journey is going to take me.

Speaker 2: 1:14:49

I think that's a perfect spot to end. Thank you All. Right, friend See you soon.

Speaker 1: 1:14:54

Yeah, don't be a stranger.

Speaker 2: 1:14:58

I don't know what that word means. On the next episode of the Birth of the Brand series from Bin Magazine and Oregon Media, From episode two with Tim Karpinski and Spiral Wax Company. Co-founder of the iconic Grenade Gloves and the creative force behind Spiral Wax Company, alongside pro snowboarder Max Worbington, Tim is helping build one of the most authentic snowboard brands in years of the most authentic snowboard brands.

Speaker 5: 1:15:32

In years. I got super into self-care to meditation. You know I did meditate a lot and I got super into like philosophy and these brilliant gurus that taught a lot of valuable lessons and stoicism, like these ancient philosophers from Greek thousands of years ago these simple tools that were unlocked a lot for me and I was just like huh, I wonder if I could bring some of that into snowboarding, taking inspiration from outside of snowboarding and skateboarding and bringing it in