Forgotten Men of Fashion? Really? Aren’t there thousands of menswear companies? How could they possibly have forgotten anyone? To answer this question, let me start way back with a few business stories about what I might call “slap in the face” experiences, or “transitional moments” or better yet, the stylish term used by today’s entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, “pivots.” And how these pivot moments eventually led to forming our online, direct-to-consumer men’s wear company Ya Joe.
As I wrote, this story started years ago after I graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Washington. My first pivot moment came while transitioning from school into the world of business at the Emporium-Capwell Department Store on Market Street in San Francisco. At the time I didn’t know a thing about retail or men’s wear and I didn’t even know how to iron a shirt!
After a year of subsistence living in San Francisco, I vacationed to my home town of Seattle and applied for a job at the Bon Marche’ (now Macy’s). Soon after, at the ripe age of 25 I was promoted to be a Young Men’s buyer, regularly traveling to New York on buying trips. Three years later I left the Bon and went to work for a wholesale young men’s shirt maker as its merchandiser. I stayed for 6 years and then I had the bright idea to start my own men’s sweater and shirt business. Let’s get this straight, with a degree in Psychology, I had no idea what was actually involved in starting and running a business. Naïve? I guess! I think you have to be a bit naïve or you would never consider starting an apparel business. Starting an apparel business was my next major career pivot.
That first menswear company I started was called DeSar (The Sun). Nice name but bad label. After a year of floundering trying to produce men’s sweaters, I met Rick Hemmerling, who had just graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in graphic design. He wanted to make t-shirts and I said “How about joining me to make men’s shirts?” Rick liked the name Ex Officio and so did I. DeSar was out and ExOfficio was in. We raised a bit of cash from a friend and off we went to India using TWA air miles I’d been saving.
Fortunately, my wholesale apparel experience had introduced me to a factory connection in India. During that trip to India, Rick and I put together what we thought was a first rate line of men’s cotton shirts. Our next stop was men’s wear’s largest trade show, “MAGIC.”
Now comes our first eye opening experience at ExOfficio! After viewing our line of shirts, one of the buyers I knew said “Nice line, but I have a dozen companies doing virtually the same thing as you. Who could I justify throwing out just to put you in?” Eye opener? I’d call it more like our first “slap in the face”! We had absolutely no reason for being. We instantly knew the buyer was right and the feeling wasn’t good.
Pivoting to the Forgotten Men of Fashion
By Joe Boldan
Aaron Hicks, Joe Boldan, Eliam Puente