This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The show is sponsored by
G three Aparo. The views expressed in the following program are those of the
sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven ten wor or iHeartMedia. Who is
Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here to help you find your
success from the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His
global success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational. He's gone from
clerk to CEO twice. Mark is classic proof that the American dream is alive.
And well, here's your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Mark Weber. Before driving into the city tonight, I took my Defender to
the car wash. Now, washing cars it's not an easy job for anyone.
I do wash my sports cars myself. It's manageable. I look at
it as a badge of honor for me to take care of those things that
I work hard to buy. But the Defender, there is another story,
just too big, just too tall. At the car wash, I watched
the process. It's fascinated by the juxtaposition between man and machine. The conveyor
belts, the system for solf distribution. In the water rints. The workers
greet they prepped the car, They washed the car, then dry it.
It's a backbreaking work, I would assume for minimum wage. Now where is
the story, let alone a lesson. The first step began with the carpets.
Two guys open each of the front doors. One guy takes out the
vacuum as you would expect, and vacuums the floor. The other one was
special. He opened the door and looked in and saw I had rubber mats.
Something bothered him, I could tell. He removed them at went nearby
and hosed it down, and then I noticed him plugging it in air hose.
Why to disperse the water so that he would then be able to towel
the mat dry. The attention to detail was significant. No one was watching
at me, yet he took the time and effort to do the right job.
One guy in a car wash, A special guy. I found it
amazing doing a little thing and being noticed for it. Fascinating. There's so
many monumental things confronting us every day. There's so many decisions dealing with life,
happiness, freedom, and our futures. There's pride in anything and everything
we do. I like to think of his story. I don't know if
it's true, but if it's not, it's great folklore. It's told of
John Kennedy as president and being a NASA. He notices that jannitt to sweeping
the floor. He walks over to the man, introduces himself and asks the
janner what he's doing, and the man replies, mister President, I'm helping
to put a man on the moon. The little things the President's showing graciousness,
the man showing pride in his work. These little things are not so
little. On another note, we all make mistakes. Sometimes we pay for
them. But like the song the sun comes out tomorrow, I found a
cool head prevails. A former board member offered that a CEO is like an
eagle flying through a snowstorm, flat and level, determined to do what's necessary,
regardless of the struggles of the strong headwinds. I believe in consistency,
no two highs, no two lows. If you ask me for help,
you know what to expect. Calm, common sense, balance, non preferential,
open minded. The greatest lesson a man had shown me in his life
was my father in law. May he rest in peace. Our father in
law was wise and just if you saw us together. He never treated me
like a second citizen to his daughter. Right is right, wrong is wrong.
When his opinions were solicited, you received the fair, common sense rationale,
daughter or not. If I was right, he made it clear he
was totally objective, and that's one of the reasons I loved him. He
was out to do the right thing. My mother in law and his wife
not the same thing. I was always wrong, But once again, the
little things in life are noticed, and they're not so little. All the
largest in the world can make us crazy. I've found that little things can
make a difference. The right touch can make a smile. I thank you
at the right time could create an amazing experience. Greeting me in a restaurant
by my name tells me I'm appreciate the service techniques deployed by your car dealership.
The interest, the patience, the explanation, the key to get me
on my way is priceless. You could say it's their job, and it
is, but the attitude makes it special. A little thing goes so far.
In this sentence, back to a Slice of life, I needed a
plumber. My co host Jesse sink was clogged in his bathroom in my house.
After the plumber finished, he ask me what was priceless? Is there
anything else I can help you with now that I'm here? And I said
to him, thank you as you mention it. The shower head in my
bathroom is spraying in all different directions. He goes and turns on the shower.
I can fix this, he says, you don't need to replace it.
He removes the shower head and cleans it out. Who know you can
clean a shower head? And he says, you're in for a surprise.
The water pressure will be much stronger. And I'll tell you what, it's
a total different and it's amazing. The little things. I will never use
another plumber other than him. I could bring a strong case that little things
are actually the big thing. It's a little thing you don't expect in contrast
to the big things you do expect and frankly either demand or take for granted.
The little things you remember, the little things that create the experience instead
of standard the little things, you might say, are the big things.
Little things give me the most pleasure. By that, I mean podcasts little
by comparison to my corporate life, but they're giving me the most pleasure.
I've run multi billion dollar companies. Never easy. There's so much to learn,
people to lead, results demanded and expected, and that's correctly so,
however, and once you learn, you just need to apply that which you
know measured professional calm the radio, inventing content for every show, ideas that
no one has ever expressed or called out before, even if they did not
in the context that I have to deliver it. It's impossible with the little
nuances and the big ideas I find that differentiate. But this little periscope into
life is far more complex. I'm convinced, convinced that little can be bigger
than large. But that as a backdrop. Joining me tonight on a tour
of subtle, unexpected ideas and stuff, my co host, my lawyer,
and my little son, Jesse Weber. Little little, that's what you call
me. That's what you got little. I meant younger, I meant younger.
You're about to discuss what's really important in the world, and you start
off by calling me little. You have a big presence. Okay, Uh,
you better get your mind right in the right zone if you're going to
discuss, you know, the finest nuances in life. I'm should I be
insulted. Excuse me, miss the perfect. I didn't mean you're little.
You know life better than the big things. I'm not true, I'm not
I'm not perfect. Look what am I what am? I'm an attorney.
I cover trials, I analyze the wall. One thing you learn everything matters.
Details matter. I told that, by the way, to lenn and
Michael on the radio this week. I told them what the show is going
to be out this weekend, and I said, it's the little things.
Details matter, Guys. I'm I'm an attorney. I would have to know
the details or I'd get fired. So sometimes it's the littleless detail that delivers
the case. For example, when you look at any of the Supreme Court
decisions this past week, past two weeks, oh my gosh, they're decided
sometimes on the smallest of details, or they're decided on the narrowest issue every
legal case. For example, do you know how many times Donald Trump has
won legal motions on like a very discrete issue. Think about the Georgia trial.
You would think a state case happening before the election. He was able
to get it delayed and why because there was this tiny, discrete issue.
Maybe it's bigger than I'm making it, but that the DA in this case,
the district attorney was having a relationship with the lead prosecutor, and that
was allegedly using state funds to finance their relationship. Now you might have not
even been able to pick that up, but it was such a big issue
and because of that it got delayed because now it's being fought on appeal.
So as a lawyer, you got to look at the most discrete issues that
are happening. How about justin Timberlake. You know the fact that his bartender
came out and said he had only one drink, one martini? Is that
rate? One drink too drinks? You drink and drive, You drink and
drive. It's pretty clear cut. And as we know from the reporting about
on the scene when they pulled him over, he wasn't in the best of
shape. So how many times do people say, oh, I just had
one drink, I'm fine, I'm fine until you get pulled over. So
I think that one drink is You might say it's only little, but it's
bigger than it is. So how's it been this week for you? You've
been busy, right, super busy. I mean, so we have all
the Supreme Court decisions that have come out, which are really massive. By
the way, I'll tell you something, details matter. Right, let me
go off on a little rantier. You know how many people criticize the Supreme
Court because it's conservative, and they automatically say that this is a court that's
doing the bidding of Donald Trump. It's a court that's biased, it's a
court that will do anything to protect conservatives and Republicans. Do you know how
many decisions they have issued in the past two week that have gone against that
narrative. But people don't pay attention, they don't look at that, they
don't read the details of the cases. It really revenges me. And you
know when I press people on this. Whenever I talk to people, they
go, well, they got to issue those decisions to make it look like
they're not biased. Come on, so there's this grand conspiracy that they're,
well, we're gonna vote this way on these cases to make it look good.
But when it comes to the really important cases, we're gonna side and
protect Donald Trump bs. I do not believe it. I do not believe
it. And the details matter. You know how many times I cover criminal
cases. I cover the Karen Reid case, that big case in Massachusetts,
like for Johnny Dept. Bamber heard, Harvey Weinstein, all these things,
and everybody just looks at the big picture. They don't look at the details
of the case. Whether somebody could look like they're easily guilty. But if
the evidence isn't there and the arguments aren't persuasive, or there are problems with
the evidence presented by the prosecution, unless you're following the case, you're looking
at the details, you don't have a right to have an opinion about it.
I'm sorry, That's how I feel a lot of times. Well,
I think once we started questioning the Supreme Court and their honesty and integrity,
countries in a really bad place. You can disagree with their decisions. You
could say they got the law wrong. Sure, you know, there was
a decision this week. I'll give you an example, Okay, interesting decision.
It was about social media companies, and a number of conservatives were saying
that the Biden administration was actively trying to suppress speech on social media. Basically
that the Biden administration was telling social media companies to censor misinformation, particularly about
COVID nineteen. The Supreme Court came back again a conservative court, and they
said, no, there's no concrete evidence that the government was interfering with social
media companies and until you can show that there's no harm that was suffered.
So there's the people who sued, they don't have a right to sue.
Now, Justice Alito, who is a very conservative justice, he had a
very interesting and scathing descent. This is very interesting, he said, because
it's not on its face, because you can't see the government actively trying to
suppress speech. It's more dangerous. They're more subtle about it. I think
that this is more of a reason that you have to stop the government from
getting involved in your in stopping speech. And that's a good point. So
you, in other words, you could disagree with what the court decided,
but you can't say they're biased. But you could disagree with it because I
think he made a very good argument that their decision could be very dangerous for
the future of free speech. I get it. You know the details of
what's in the answers, and nobody's paying attention, and those little things are
what makes right versus wrong. And if we understand them will be in a
much better place. Well, those of you out there listening to me talk
about things that so may mundane as my home might ask me what got me
thinking about this? And to be precise, bugs, Yeah, bugs,
even more precise ants. Last week to the day, I woke up in
the morning, went to open the shades in my living room and there were
a million ants. Closer to a million than a thousand. I mean,
the whole floor by the window was covered with them. And what made matter
is even worse They had wings, half of them. I'm never so scared
in my life. I couldn't believe what I was dealing. What do I
do? I take a step back, because there's a lesson in all of
this. A few years ago I had some answer in my front porch.
I didn't know a exterminator. My daughter and law a new guy. He
came to my house today, a little bit like a mad scientist. He
was a little peculiar, but explains to me what he needs to do.
Get it done. He goes to his unmarked car, gets a spray canp
from the trunk and sprays puff. Next day the antsw are gone. Now
we fast forward a year later, my housekeeper is a lower level of my
house and she sees droppings and I say, what do you mean droppings?
She says, you have some kind of animal here down here. I think
you might have mice. Now I may be calm at most times. Now
after you tell me I have rodents, I have a dilemma. I'm not
so calm. And there is a company called Arrow Exterminas. I see them
a big office building. I've used them somewhere along the way. I know
who they are. So I made the call. They came to the house.
Over a period of ten days to two weeks. They made the problem
go away. Personally, I relaxed until this thing with the ants this week.
Now those of you worried, and I'm going to be talking about my
house all night, and relax because it's about to go into business. In
my professional life, there's always the big issues, in the smallest, the
little things, the big things. And in my professional life I was always
confronted with a decision to go big or to go home, or to pick
the little guy. No more was it more prevalent than an advertising I bet
you didn't know I was going there. Yeah, I was never in charge
of advertising until I was. And one day the head of my advertising comes
to me and says, Mark, I think we're getting a little stale.
It's time to put up our account for review. I asked, what does
that mean. It's time to find someone else to handle our account on the
outside and bring in fresh ideas and fresh perspective. And here's how I'll do
it with you. I'm going to bring in three big ad agencies and three
small agencies. You'll get to hear their ideas and perspectives, and we can
choose big versus small, the little guy or the big guy. First.
In with the big guys bb dn O three billion, OmniComm four billion,
Ogilvie three billion. Now that is their billings. So what do I mean
by billings. They're charging you, let's say, ten percent of what you
spend on advertising. So if they're three billion, they're representing thirty billion dollars
worth of customers spending. If they're four billion, they are forty billion dollars
someone's spending and advertising. Huge companies and because of that they have huge,
huge presence, They control huge advertising and therefore, whether it's TVs or magazines
or digital online, they're representing the big guys General Motors, Pfizer, maybe
Microsoft. They understand big business and they have clout with the media groups.
Very impressive. So we have our first guy come up and he says,
to us, have three teams waiting outside. Each you're going to come in
and pitch you, separately and differently the ideas for your company and the brands
you offer to us. First group comes in. There's sick people, creative
director, account executive, creative people, and they pitch the ideas, all
of which are clever, which I would have never dreamed of. We have
three more if you need them. I said, no, guys, this
is great, it's wonderful. And we did that with three big agencies,
the one I just mentioned, all more impressive than the next. And the
interesting thing, each one came with the managing director, the CEO of the
corporation because I represented a big cooperation, and they came with their number two
guy, who's generally the creative director. So the head of this three billion
dollar company came to see us and watch his teams present. A couple of
days later we saw the small boutique guys. I'll never forget the first guy
I've talked about him before on the radio. His name was David Altman of
Altman, Stoller and Weiss. Three guys put a company. David was the
founder. Showed up. I'll never forget navy blue blazer, turnbill and ass's
striped shirt. Those are those expensive British shirts. Cuffling's the size of hupcaps,
gray flannel slacks and loafers. He looked like a master of the universe,
confident, comfortable in his skin, and built a huge advertising business,
now huge in his case, call it twenty five million dollars worth of billings.
And I remember him presenting his idea the first time we got together.
One idea, one concept, This is what we believe is right for your
company. And what it was is a picture of a guy taking off his
shirt on one side of a page and the other side of the page he
was tying his tie and the caption underneath said what a changing America is changing
into And I remember it was so brilliant, so impactful and amazing. After
that we had to make a decision big or small. I think you can
tell from what I'm saying we were comfortable with the small because the big companies
we would never see that CEO again. We never see the number two again.
We only would see the count group they assigned to us if in fact
it worked, unless we were having problems. But in the small boutique firm,
David Altman would be in every meeting. He's also the one who took
me aside one day and he said, no matter what we present to you
more, we only think about one thing. Yes, of course what we
do has to make money, but we think about breaking through the clutter.
You and we and all of us in America are bombarded with ideas and advertising
all the time. It never ends. You walk through the street, they're
kiosk, they are busshelters, there's billboards, There's so many things looking to
break through and catch your attention. We need to break through the clutter,
and everything we present to you is designed to break through the clutter. So
in this case, the little guy won. Fast forward all these years later,
when I joined LVMH, I found the fascinating detail every one of the
brands at LVMH chose to pick their own advertising company. When I enjoined Donna
Karen, I met a company called Trey Laird and Partners. Trey Laird interesting
guy came from our ow. She came for our side, from the wholesale
siety. He understood what it was to put lines together and now he's marketing
it. Boutique guy had great ideas. You go back and look at the
history of Donna Karen dk Y advertising. It's all about Trey Land and partners
who put together this brilliant advertising bottom line. There's no right answer. You
have to ask yourself who you're most comfortable with and who you think will get
you the results, which means more business. It's the little things, whether
it's bugs or the future of your company at home. I picked a corporation
in media, the boutique guys back in a minute. Always in fashion.
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for
his aspirational and cutting edge approach to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit
comes to America through Carlagefeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house car Lagafeld
also offers a range of Watchers Eyes I Wear in premium fragrances. You can
explore the Carlagophil collection at carlagofilpowers dot com. But it's more than that.
I, for one, love to shop. I love going around and seeing
what's happening and what catches my attention, what would make me feel good to
wear now. I don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate
it, and they look amazing. If you want to look right, you
want to have clothes that fits you well. You want to look like you're
wearing something that's very expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can
find it at very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com. Paris, the
women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as the handbigs and the
shoes. I for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's
clothes. I'm a modern guy. I want to look current. I want
to look the way I want to feel. I go out at night,
I'm in black and Carlagofel is my buddy. Cars are great. They fit
great, and they have little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on
the sleeve or button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot
of details that go into Carl Lagafel because he's always been, he always had
been one of the world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and
on. I can't speak enough about it except to say to you, you
want to feel good about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly.
You want to clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld, Paris at
Macy's Orcarl Lagafel dot com. A favorite brand has always been Isaod. My
company at one time bought that brand. The CEO of the company handed it
to me and said, you better make it work. And I put everything
in my career to make Isaod work, and I fell in love with that
brand, and to this day it is one of the most exciting endeavors I've
ever gotten involved with. Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you
play golf, if you play tennis for that matter. They make a great
polo shirts. I mean great, They're fit perfect. The material is unique
because it's a PK fabric that waffle weave you see, and it's made of
a blend of cotton and microfiber that allows you to stretch and very often they
are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch, they're comfortable,
and they breathe well. And one thing about ISAC they always fit. They'll
never tug on you. You put it in your waist, they'll fit you
great. The colors patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell you ISOD
makes great shorts and great golf pants. You're a golfer and you want to
look good. You don't have to think about how do I look. You
want to think about how you play, not how you feel. ISOD is
the brand for you. I know I was there when it was created.
The strategy behind that brand is brilliant. It's one of my favorite brands.
While I talk about it, I should tell you about the men's sportswear.
ISOD wasn't enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just great polo
shirts with logos, without logos, incredible branded story and history. ISOD makes
salt weather programs. They have great printed woven shirts, short sleeves that look
excellent with colors, excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which
they also make this whole salt order relaxed line from Ison, whether it be
fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts and pants of a range
of colors and fabrics that are perfect for a guy wants to go casually in
the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing. Isod is
affordable. Everyone listening to me talk about this brand can afford to buy it
and know that there are a lot of other brands that also have a look
like ISOT. Although I don't believe it's fun as ISAD is, the brand
has a lot of energy in it, but at the price points no one
can compete. Find Isaaca at You're leading retails and online at isid dot com.
Talk to you later, guys. I wish you I'm very happy springing
summer, and I help you by telling you if you were isaid, you're
gonna look great. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Mark Webber. I've realized that there's so many big issues that we have to
navigate, but at the same time, there are a lot of little things
that matter much. A smile at the right time could change my attitude on
the day, could make me go from say it to happy. Making little
decisions to do the right thing could change your perspective on lifeloor business. That's
what we're talking about tonight. Sometimes it's the little things that are the big
things. And I wanted to talk to you now about the world of licensing.
Jesse Lawyer. What's licensing? Let me see how you define it.
So, licensing is when a company rents out their name. And why would
they want to rent out their name Because while they may have a speciality in,
let's say, for example, making tears, but now they want to
get into the eyewear business. They will rent out their name to an eyewear
manufacturer who will make products using their name, but they have a speciality in
making those products. So it's when you rent your name out for the purposes
of producing material or content that you don't have a specialty in. Is that
a good way of saying it? Yeah. I would add to say that
brands need to grow, and very often there are additives to the brands that
will extend their presence to all of us in America. You said it right.
You can have a footwear company that's great at choose but realizes that if
there are an athletic footwear company, athletic sunglasses might be great. Take Oakley.
I'll do it the other way. Great sunglass company. We could sell
a lot of backpacks. So you license your name, you rent your name,
you sign a contract with a company's experienced who could extend your brand and
give you a bigger brand presence the world. And you're gonna make a lot
of money by licensing brand because it's like being an owner of a building.
Each floor has a value. You rent them to different people, and that's
what you do. Now, Jess, who do you think is the biggest
licensing company in the world? And why? I would bet money that Disney
is the biggest license sore in the in the entire world. Would I be
right about it? You'd be right. Yeah. First of all, the
reason you have to think about that is there's Disney, which is itself an
incredible brand and has a number of different different shows and movies and characters.
But they own Star Wars, they own Marvel. Remember they used to Marvel
used to, I think be the biggest licensing ife. Forgot that they own
Marvel. So it's a giant, giant behemoth and they license out that name
for all their different brands constantly to make toys and amusement parks and clothing and
movies and video games that goes on and on a gun. Yeah, it's
truly amazing. I'm an expert at licensing, as you know, and in
my book I had a chapter that licensing is a two edged sword. On
the blood side of the sword, it's easy. You can't cut yourself.
There's no risk because you're renting your name to someone else who has to do
the hard work. They have to design the product, they have to buy
the inventory, they have to sell it, they have to make sure it
performs well, they have to get the quality control right, and they have
to pay you money and still survive. That's the easy side for you.
But on the sharp end, you're lending your name to strangers. You're trusting
that they'll treat your brand with integrity. You go back to Disney. Can
you imagine selling stuffed animals with Mickey to people who they don't know or they
know, but they have to trust they're going to make them in the right
countries, that they won't have lead in them, that they'll be not using
slave labor. It's a tremendous responsibility. You know what happens, and you
know why you have to police it. You want an example of that,
Mickey Mouse, the guys walking like Mickey Mouse in time, I'm square.
You think Disney licensed out that. Now you got people that don't even look
like Mickey Mouse, you know what I'm talking about. The mascots that are
walking, yeah, with the dirty uniforms and taking off the heads. Say
they're taking the mystery away. Now you're the lawyer. How come they getting
away with it? They might have actually been able to purchase the costumes and
they could do what they want with the costumes. But I remember I was
in Greece for my honeymoon and outside the Parthenon, you know, the big
Parthenon, there was two mascots that were dressed up to take pictures outside the
Parthenon. They were, I'm not kidding you, knock off versions of Mickey
and Minni. They look like Nicki Mini, but they weren't. They weren't.
They were like Greek versions of Mickey and Minni. They wanted people to
think they were them, but they weren't. So yeah, stuff like that
happens all the time. It's hard to police it. Well, my former
company LVMH had a team of FBI agents and litigators and investigators to always,
you know, try and keep counterfeit product out of the United States around the
world, and they really serious about. Speaking of which, Jesse, one
day I wake up when we find out on the internet someone's using the name
Always in fashion. What'd you do? It wasn't the first time. Sometimes
if people use that name on social media companies, I will contact the social
media companies and they will take it down, and I submit evidence that we've
been using this name since twenty six well even before that with your book twenty
fifteen, but since twenty sixteen has been the radio show. I submitted to
them, and they're very good. They're very efficient. They take down the
accounts. It happened on Apple and Spotify, right, yeah, it happens.
It happens. I'm not encouraging anybody to do it. Don't give me
more work. Yeah, well, we own the name and we practice and
we preach it. It's not licensed. And by the way, just to
go back to something, you know, why it's so important to protect against
counterfeit goods? Why you need law enforcement involved? Somebody might say, what's
the big deal? Why do you have to get law enforcement involved when somebody
has a Prada bag that's not Prada, because they are stealing from you.
They're not only stealing from you, but what happens if they're making bags with
a toxic material? Right, somebody buys the bag and it's made with some
sort of material on it in it that gets somebody sick. You know,
you don't want to be on the hook for that. It's important to protect
your brand. But when you when big companies are putting out products, they
make sure that it's safe. Well, even though it's somebody manufacturing them and
selling them no one ever heard of. Your name is on the product,
right, you're responsible. So if something goes wrong, they don't go to
Joe Schmoe and say Joe Schmo. They don't even know there's a Joe Shmoe.
And if they find Joe Schmoe, they don't care about them. They
care about you, the brand owner. Why are you giving it to Joe
Schmoe? Did you know they were using slave labor? Do you know they
were putting lead in the product that's toxic to children? So that's the backdrop
of licensing. And I want to talk to you a little bit about some
little things, some lessons here. I had a license in Korea for one
of my brands, one of my famous designer brands. They were one of
the largest media companies, industrial companies in Korea. They were huge. I
met with their president, I met with their executive VPE. We spent time
with them. They were great guys, great gals. Press of company.
They had our brand for a license to distribute product in their market in Korea.
One day, one of our guys is traveling in Korea and notices that
there's a lot of product that we've never authorized, that they didn't have the
rights to, and in certain products that they did have the rights to,
we never approved it. And he said to himself, what's going on here?
Doesn't make sense. One day, he's the president of licensing. He
comes in to see me. He says, Mark, we have a problem
in Korea. What's the problem. I don't know how to tell you this,
but you know, our Korean partners have decided to counterfeit merchandise. By
counterfeit, they don't have the rights to outwear, they don't have the rights
to other products, and they started making it on their own, selling it
on their own, profiting it on their own, not paying us so royalty.
The reason they wouldn't pay as so royalty is. They don't even have
the rights to it. And they went out. We caught them, and
they've admitted, and they want to come in and talk to you. Back
to the sword in this case, the two edged sword worked against us.
But now they want to throw themselves on the sword in front of me and
admit they did wrong and ask for forgiveness. There's a whole strategy out there
in the world. I don't know if anyone's heard it. Do what you
want and then ask for forgiveness. I kind of think this is what it
was like. Now I had a choice and how to deal with this.
What would you have done, Jess, I'm not sure good answer. I
wasn't either. I had a couple of weeks to think about it, because
they were going to come for career the week later or the week after.
They came in to see me and on down with their hat in their hand,
looking solemn and apologizing for what happened. And what I did was as
follow. I did a little thing. I told them I'm disappointed. I
told them this shouldn't happen. And I also told him I have the highest
regard for the company. I know it'll never happen again. You're going to
have to pay us what would have been the equivalent royalties if we had granted
you these items. And in the future, you should trust us, because
if you needed to do out of wear, or you needed to do products
at a lower price than you were doing them currently, you would have come
to us. We would have worked it out for you. We hold no
grudges. We'll continue working together, and we'll move forward. If you would
have seen the reaction in their faces, if you would have seen the relief
they had that they weren't going to be penalized for any of this, it
was precious. Why'd you do that? Because I wanted to continue with them.
What they did was wrong, and I felt that by being a gentleman,
even though I was slighted, would work in our favor long term.
And it did, and fifteen years later they're still with this partner, So
it was the right decision. Now, on another note, here's another example.
I was doing business with one of my brands, building a company,
huge brand. We bought it. It was bankrupt, we built it.
Major dollars were at every prestigious retailer in America, and business was going Great.
One of our licensees, Children's License wanted to sell the brand in off
price channels of distribution, including the clubs. Now, I have nothing but
the highest regard for the off price I mean today TJ Max, Ross Stores,
Burlington Costco, Sam's Club. These are some of the biggest retailers surviving
in America, selling products at fair prices, giving the consumers something they're looking
for. People are shopping those channels, But you have to ask sometimes what
is best for your brand. I would give you an example. Vtneu Ton.
You know how many sales they have a year, Jesse, I don't
know. Five billion, I don't know a billion. That's not what I'm
asking. I'm saying, if they have a living inventory leftover, did they
put it on sale? Oh no, no, they never put it on
sale. They v Tone would rather burn their product, destroy their handbags,
then give it for sale in the off price channel because they feel it will
devalue the product. If you bought a vtone handbag for four thousand dollars and
then you see it at TJ Max for twelve hundred, they won't do it
because they don't want to devalue the brand, no matter how much they respected
some brands, they'll sell into that channel. So anyway, I had this
licensee who decided they wanted to all the off price channel while I was building
this brand where the brand was going to the roof, and I told him
no. A week later, I get a call from my CEO. Come
down to the hallway, Come down to the hall and he said, listen,
I have a problem. Someone has complained about you. I said,
really who? And he told me it was the company that came to me
to sell our brands off price to the off price channel. He said,
what's this about, Mark, I said, well, you know how well
we're doing with this brand. Our strategy was to build it in the premiere
channel of distribution, namely Nordstrom, Macy's, all those great department stores.
And we fear that if we sold it off price in those channels. Number
one, we would devalue the brand at this time, and number two,
our existing customers would run away because they made it clear they want us to
be consistent with the brand throughout. He says, well, I agree with
you. He said, what do you want to do about the people that
complained? He told me the name. I said, leave it to me.
He said, Oh, I'd love to be in that room with you.
I said, yeah, you would love it, but thank you for
not so. The following day I called them up. I asked to come
see me, and they were expecting having the CEO talk to me to hear
great news that I was going to agree with them and give them that channel
of distribution. So they come up and I'm smiling and I'm happy, and
I said, look, you know, I said, the name of the
guy. The CEO came to me, told me you were unhappy, told
me you wanted a distribution different than what we were giving, and he sat
me down and asked me, and I explained it to him, and I
got great news for you. He's agreed with me, and we're not going
to expand the channel of distribution. And frankly speaking, if you had six
hundred million dollars and you wanted to buy the company, I'm sure I or
Hey would talk to you about it. I don't think we'd sell it,
but we'd listen. But the idea that you went behind my back to the
CEO of the company complaining without telling me you were going to do it,
without sitting me and trying to reason with me. I can only tell you
this that I will never have a working relationship with you again. So anything
that you want to do I have SUBORDINATESTI will continue to work with you,
but you want to never welcome in my office again. And if you need
a big decision and you can't get it for me, I suggest you go
to the CEO. But I would assure you the same thing is going to
happen. He's gonna come to me, so I said, gentlemen, you
know sometimes a little courtesy goes a long way. You seem to have either
forgotten it or didn't know that. Now you talked about the faces in the
other story. What were their faces when they when you said the shot?
No, no, no, you misunderstood. Did they do one of those
things? Oh? Yeah, I said to them. Do you ever consider
that maybe ratting me out to the CEO of the company put it my job
in question? Do you ever consider that you may create a situation where he
looks at me differently? You didn't even think about it. The problem with
you didn't know is he and I are words and music, and every decision
we make to get and the idea of selling the off price channel with any
other of our other brands, we'd gladly be eagle with these retailers are big
customers. But you asked it at the wrong time. You went behind my
back, and as I said, I have no use for you. So
if it's okay with you, I'm leaving. Oh wait a minute, it's
my office. Would you please leave? And with that as a backdrop,
tonight we're talking with little things, Matt, A little courtesy matter is back
in a minute. Always in Fashions, spent a lifetime of my career building
the van Usen brand, and I am so pleased that they're back with us
now talking about suits. Men were dressing up again and it's become cool to
wear a suit. Suits can be won on multiple ocasions in multiple ways.
You could wear a suit formally to go out at night or to an event,
to wear a suit to the office with or without a tie. If
you look closely, now fashion trends, suits are being worn with turtlenecks or
mark next. The choices are endless and every one of them looks right.
You can really really look the part. I believe that packaging yourself is as
important does the products you package, and wearing a suit is one of those
things that make men look their best. Venues In invented a new idea.
It's called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology, giving
you the most comfortable fit and mobility. Its wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool
moisture wiki. It makes it perfect for all occasions. As we discussed just
now, this new style of looking sharp while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing
and I'm so excited that the ven using company is involved in this new technology
and is embracing the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget Venues and
made it's name with dress shirts. It's only proper that the suit business follows
strongly in its way. You can find Vanues in cool Flex Men's Stretch suits
at JC penny are online jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great. You
should go look at them. K and Why Donna Karen, New York.
Donna Karen began her career as one of the finest, most successful, powerful
women in the fashion industry. She developed a collection aimed at the luxury market
for women on the go, women who were powerful in their workplace, women
who had lives that extended beyond the workplace, and her clothes went from day
and tonight. An extraordinary collection. But the interesting thing Donna Karen had a
young daughter, and she had friends and they couldn't afford to buy the Donna
Karen collection, and Donna invented DK and Y Donna Karen New York. It's
an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept a lifestyle brand.
Now we talk about lifestyle brands, what does that really mean? Simply what
they say, there are brands that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get
up in the morning, you start to get dressed Donna Karen dcan why as
intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products. You're getting dressed for
work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags, and it takes you through the
day. The remarkable thing about DK and Y clothes for work, they work
into the evening. The dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters,
the blouses, extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from day in tonight.
Part of your lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you have events,
you participate in sports. Donna Karen's casual clothes did that under the DK
and Y label a vast array of casual sportswear that make women look great as
they navigate their busy lives. Whether you're going to soccer games for your children,
or whether you're going out to the movies, whatever you want to do,
dkn Y Jeans, dc Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what
a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention DKY active Wear, which
is extraordinary. The leggings, the sports bras, the sweats. You can
wear DKY Activewear, certainly in the gym, certainly when you're working out at
home, and certainly if you want on the street because it's that well done.
The quality of DKY is nothing short of exceptional. And why shouldn't it
be Because it was born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women of
America. DKY and Why a true lifestyle brand that takes you from day and
tonight, from the week into the weekend, DCN Why you can find DCNY
and Macy's DKY dot com. Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your
host, Mark Webber. I'm talking about the little things in life right now
in business, because sometimes the little things are the big things. If you
were here for our last conversation before we went to commercial. I was talking
about distribution and how I'm reluctant on certain brands to sell in the off price
market. Now, let me make it clear, just in case I need
a qualifier. In this world of being careful, you have qualify. There
is no store that gives a better dress shirt assortment at a fair price than
Tjmax. That'll he just about every brand in the world at prices that you
wouldn't believe. Now, they may not have your size, they may not
have the color, but if you're open and you're flexible, they'll have one
of the great assortments you'll ever see. Go into Costco. Costco's only interest
is giving value to consumers. You sell Costco, You're selling them the best
products you have at prices that can't be found anywhere else. In my life
with Donna Karen Decan, why we sold certain products to Costco, huge quantities,
some of the greatest success. Calvin Klein sells underwear to Costco. So
please, I want to say to you that if you heard me last,
then you didn't hear me, right. I love that channel. I admire
that channel. I shop in that channel. But not every band belongs there
because those channels have different functions. And what you do in life is you
make sure that your brand and your distribution and mirrors each other. But I
wanted to change one more. I'm talking about little things, and the little
things I want to talk about right now are children. I've been fortunate enough
to go to a number of graduations this past week and the couple of weeks
prior. I've seen the innocence of children, and I realized that children are
just that they're innocent. They reflections of their parents. The schools I've been
in, I've seen these children learning, making presentations, doing art crafts,
singing. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I've seen young children who
couldn't read and write a year ago reading and writing. I've seen children who
three years ago, my friend's children, they didn't know how to talk,
and now they're talking. We have obligations as parents. It's just been Mother's
Day, it's been Father's Day. We have to teach children what's right and
wrong. And I'm worried where we are right now. I'm worried that with
children and parents not being able to comment on the curriculum, that we're getting
in a very dangerous place. I wanted to say that out loud, because
those little things called truthn deserve the right space. Another little concept that I
think is bigger than life is whether you should go to college or not.
The early part of the show, I was talking about plumbers, I was
talking about exterminators. I've now found the importance of tradespeople. I always knew
it. I always consider myself a man of the people. I always love
being in factories, love seeing how things have made, how things work.
Not everyone belongs in college. I have an electrician. I've worked with electricians.
They're brilliant people in their own right. If they're not brilliant, they
certainly know how to fix things and get them done. I bought a hybrid
car. My house wasn't wired for what it needed to get done, and
sure enough they had to come in and rewire my whole house, drop lines
through the ceilings from one end of the house to the other, and they
did it. When you need them, you need them, There's no question
about it. So when you're thinking about college, and if you're going to
a local school, which will be one third the price or even less than
what you'll do in an out of town school. Take a minute to think
about it. Are you going to college for the right reasons? Now?
I am a big proponent of college. If you ask me what college did
for me, I probably could say I can't point to anything where my college
education helped me at work, but as a human being, to this day,
the lessons I've learned, the things I've taught, the issues that I
know, the questions my children have come to me over the years asking that
I learned in my liberal arts education, was value behind anything. It's those
little things that really matter. Yes, it did not help me in my
work, or maybe it didn't, I just don't realize it. So again,
not everyone belongs in college. And there are great careers and great professions
and startup businesses and independent operated businesses that I am so respectful of it and
frankly so in need of. When you have a problem in your house,
with your car, with any of those things in life, and these people
think about where would we be without the phone company? Where would we be
without the water company. Now, I'm sure some of the management of those
company are college grads, but at the same time, the people doing work
who we need who make a living, who keep this country running, are
extraordinary people, and sometimes the little things have to be remembered back in a
minute. Always in fashion, then using for over one hundred and fifty years
now has been a mainstay in American fashion. This brand that was invented for
dress shirts was given to coal miners when they exited the mills dirty and dusty.
The Phillips Venues and Company Phillips families there to give them fresh new shirts
that they could wear at home and feel their best. Over the course of
time, venues and dress shirts grew and grew and grew to suit shirts and
ties for the dress up, and now sportswear has become an dominant part of
the venues and collection. You can find these products including sweaters, polos,
quarter zips, trousers, and even the best of fashion has to be preserved.
I don't know if I ever mentioned to you the advent of the men's
necktie. There's nothing better in a men's necktie business than the business lunch because
guys we go out, they'd have their lunch that have their salads or their
beef and potatoes and snow stout about it. They would always stain their die
and therefore the business grew and grew venues and today doesn't want to make money
on your hardships. They want to do it and prevent you from having to
go through that. And they invented stain Shield. It's the technology that was
invented to protect your favorite items. The stain Shield collection provides extreme defense against
water based stains by causing spills to beat up before they can be absorbed into
the fabric. This collection, by the way, in addition to regular fits,
is also often in all body sizes, including big and too. You
can find vanues and Stainshield and the great venues in style sports were at vanues
In dot com. That's Vanuesen dot com. As one of the world's most
celebrated fashion designers, Carl Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisianshit comes to America through car Lagofeld Paris.
He has women's collections, men's collections, ready to wear, accessory,
shoes and bags. The fashion house Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches,
I wear and premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagofl collection at car
Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I have, for one,
love to shop. I love going around and seeing what's happening and what
catches my attention, what would make me feel good to wear now. I
don't wear the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it, and they
look amazing. If you want to look right, you want to have clothes
that fits you well. You want to look like you're wearing something that's very
expensive, that's exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at very
affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com, Paris. The women's ready to wear
fashion is extraordinary, as well as the handbigs and the shoes. I,
for one, wear men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm
a modern guy. I want to look current. I want to look the
way I want to feel. I go out at night, I'm in black
and Carlagafel is my buddy. Carls are great. They fit great, and
they have little tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or
button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot of details that
go into Carlagafel because he's always been, he always had been one of the
world's great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on. I can't
speak enough about it except to say to you, you want to feel good
about yourself. You want to know that you're dressing properly. You want to
clothes that fits you well. Carl Lagafeld Paris at Macy's Orcarlagafel dot com.
Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
I've made a case tonight that the little things aren't so little. They may
not be bigger than the big things, but little things matter, Those little
touches, the little things that we all do, the things we see,
the things we appreciate count I also would remind you that David slew Goliath,
we shall never forget that the little guy has a chance in this world.
Little guy who has the termination, who wants to accomplish something, can do
it. Little things in life matter. That's tonight's show, and that's what
I want to leave with it, something to think about and something to improve
on. What you're doing. Good Night,