Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
Speaker 1: show is sponsored by G three Aparol. The views expressed
Speaker 1: in the following program are those at the sponsor and
Speaker 1: not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia. Who
Speaker 1: is Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here
Speaker 1: to help you find your success, from the New York
Speaker 1: City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His global
Speaker 1: success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational.
Speaker 1: He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark is classic
Speaker 1: proof that the American dream is alive. And well, here's
Speaker 1: your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 2: Mark Weber very interesting. I absolutely have nothing to do,
Speaker 2: but I don't have enough time to do it. And
Speaker 2: yet this week was a week of reflection. The weather
Speaker 2: turned nice for a minute. I sat up back, I
Speaker 2: looked at the trees. I looked at the sky. I
Speaker 2: looked out at the water. What a wonderful life. How
Speaker 2: great it is to finally have spring and summer these times. Generally,
Speaker 2: when I'm reflecting, I think about how often I think
Speaker 2: about how those cartoons that you see in the newspapers
Speaker 2: where they have the little clouds over the person's head
Speaker 2: in the cartoon, and it's telling you what they're thinking. Well,
Speaker 2: my cloud is empty right now. I got nothing to
Speaker 2: think about, nothing to do, But I can't help but
Speaker 2: reflect on things that caught my attention this week and
Speaker 2: things that were impactful for me. I thought about second chances.
Speaker 2: I think about, in fact, if you don't succeed, how
Speaker 2: you have to never give up and keep trying. I
Speaker 2: came across a quote this week. It's a Japanese proverb
Speaker 2: fall seven times and stand up eight. For me, I
Speaker 2: means think about doing those things that make the most sense,
Speaker 2: never giving up, working towards the future, because that's where
Speaker 2: I'll be spending my life, my time. Those of you
Speaker 2: looking for lessons in life, maybe you'll find some here
Speaker 2: on this show. Those of you striving for some common
Speaker 2: sense and practical answers, maybe you'll find some here as well.
Speaker 2: Those of you have nothing to do and just want
Speaker 2: to be occupied. I might just be able to entertain you,
Speaker 2: but I could ssure you this week was an interesting
Speaker 2: week for me because you got me thinking. I have
Speaker 2: some stories I want to tell, some funny, some er smart,
Speaker 2: interesting stuff and just maybe, just maybe tonight this week,
Speaker 2: Fall seven times, stand up eight just might be something
Speaker 2: that you find helpful. Now, first up, I want to
Speaker 2: talk about the subject of perseverance, keep going, never give up.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about working through the tough times.
Speaker 2: It is so easy to enjoy life, in this instance, particular,
Speaker 2: to enjoy your job when everything's going well. It's fun
Speaker 2: when nothing's in the way. You're getting the accolades, you're
Speaker 2: doing well, you're getting the raises, you have power your position,
Speaker 2: you're getting money, lucky, smart. It's easy to enjoy life
Speaker 2: when everything going your way. But if you ask me
Speaker 2: why have I had any measure of success? I would
Speaker 2: tell you I didn't have a simple career from the
Speaker 2: bottom to the top. It wasn't only about doing well
Speaker 2: and being happy. I didn't have a straight line to winning,
Speaker 2: no way. I had zigzags along the way. The boss
Speaker 2: that I worked with, he had a straight line right
Speaker 2: from the bottom to the top. When I think back
Speaker 2: and look at where I am today and why I
Speaker 2: had a measure of success, I often thought about the
Speaker 2: American Dream speech that I would give to my people
Speaker 2: that were listening. I often spoke to three hundred, five
Speaker 2: hundred people on business and success, and of course America
Speaker 2: is the land of opportunity. Of course you can do
Speaker 2: well here if you put your mind to it. But
Speaker 2: I always ended up focusing on talking through the tough times. Yes,
Speaker 2: work smart, be curious, that's the plan. But what about
Speaker 2: the bad times? As I said, I didn't have it easy.
Speaker 2: I had so many disappointments. And it was at those
Speaker 2: times when I reached the bottom where things were at
Speaker 2: the worst and Pointswood just didn't work out. I came
Speaker 2: across a quote that became important to me. It was
Speaker 2: from General George Patten, where he said, it isn't how
Speaker 2: far you fall, it's how high you bounce back. And
Speaker 2: here I am in the radio talking to you. It's
Speaker 2: not because I was smart or not because I was
Speaker 2: more talented. It really came down to how I behaved
Speaker 2: when I was not doing well and I was disappointed.
Speaker 2: We all have disappointments. Nobody has a life without disappointments.
Speaker 2: I had so many, but each and every time I
Speaker 2: had a problem, I had the wherewithal to sit down
Speaker 2: and think about what went wrong. I might tell you
Speaker 2: that many of my issues were self inflicted, opening my
Speaker 2: big mouth at the wrong time, maybe not being prepared,
Speaker 2: maybe being a wise guy, maybe not thinking about the
Speaker 2: big picture, maybe not understanding that the company came first,
Speaker 2: not me. But for whatever the reason, it could have
Speaker 2: been the girl or guy sitting next to me. They
Speaker 2: got the promotion I wanted. I did get the raise
Speaker 2: I thought I was entitled to or I deserve. Nothing matters.
Speaker 2: What matters is what you do with your setback. Do
Speaker 2: you get angry withdraw behave poorly or do you pick
Speaker 2: yourself up and say, what could I have done better?
Speaker 2: It's important to remember to apply yourself. You could do
Speaker 2: much anything you want. But I will tell you I'm
Speaker 2: not one of those guys to tell you to find
Speaker 2: something you're passionate about and chase it. No passion, that's
Speaker 2: just something else, and that's another story for another time.
Speaker 2: You have to find something that you're good at, perhaps
Speaker 2: be great at, get behind it, and do everything you
Speaker 2: can to be successful. For me, back to disappointments, I
Speaker 2: had so many. Do you wear them on your sleep
Speaker 2: or do you sit down and think about where you
Speaker 2: went wrong? I would think about what I could have
Speaker 2: done better. I would think about how to improve myself.
Speaker 2: I would let this disappointment build into ugly character. In
Speaker 2: no way, I was improved. I would improve and improve.
Speaker 2: How you present yourself at tough times matters. When your
Speaker 2: boss those you're let down, that could be the defining moment.
Speaker 2: That's when I raised up to my highest level. I
Speaker 2: thought about George Patton bounced back, and I pushed back successfully.
Speaker 2: At times I was respectful. I didn't get a raise,
Speaker 2: asked why, but I always declared my loyalty. I always
Speaker 2: promised to perform better. I never wore my disappointment on
Speaker 2: my sleeves. Not me. I'm the motivated guy. I understand
Speaker 2: everything I'm gonna do well. But I have a great
Speaker 2: story to tell you. Back in the day, when I
Speaker 2: first started out, maybe I was two years in. I
Speaker 2: used to work for a guy who was terrible. But
Speaker 2: before I go there, I had a mentor of mine.
Speaker 2: His name was Robert J. Solomon, senior vice president of merchandising.
Speaker 2: It turned out to be a great guy, and I'll
Speaker 2: never forget meeting him in his office for the first time.
Speaker 2: He had a tapestry behind his desk hanging on the wall,
Speaker 2: and the tapestry said yeay. Though I walked through the
Speaker 2: valley of the shadow of Death. I shall fear no
Speaker 2: evil because I'm the meanest son of the bitch in
Speaker 2: the valley. And I never forgot it. And the story
Speaker 2: goes on. I was working at van Usen. I remembered
Speaker 2: that sign behind him. But unlike him, I met the
Speaker 2: meanest son of bitch in the valley. I was working
Speaker 2: for him. Should I mention his name, you know what,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you his last name. I won't tell you
Speaker 2: his first name. His name was Bitna. And this guy,
Speaker 2: Bittana was a jerk. He was just impossible. He didn't
Speaker 2: like anyone. No one liked him. He was just mean.
Speaker 2: I'm pleasant guy. He didn't like anyone who work for him,
Speaker 2: and he certainly didn't like anyone ahead of him. Oh
Speaker 2: he showed them respect, but all he was thinking about
Speaker 2: is getting them out. He was smart, he was capable.
Speaker 2: He came out of sales and he was really really
Speaker 2: a tough, driven seller and he could sell. But mean.
Speaker 2: He didn't care about people's time. He didn't care about
Speaker 2: making them wait. He didn't care about working nights or
Speaker 2: on the weekends. And he expected you all to do
Speaker 2: the same. And by the way, that wasn't the company's culture.
Speaker 2: I can't explain it. Really. He was just unpleasant and
Speaker 2: I was his direct report. I was his senior guy,
Speaker 2: and I was there to do his bidding. Now, the
Speaker 2: good news is it was good at what I did,
Speaker 2: so it wasn't questioning me. He respected me. He didn't
Speaker 2: necessarily like me or anyone, but when you spoke to me,
Speaker 2: he no question. He respected me. There were things to
Speaker 2: learn from him. I would tell you that because he
Speaker 2: came from sales, I wanted a seller. But I was
Speaker 2: able to put up with him because as I did,
Speaker 2: I could take the pain. It wasn't okay that nobody
Speaker 2: liked him. I mean, everybody respected what it was capable of,
Speaker 2: but he knew everybody disliked him. I was lucky enough,
Speaker 2: and I'll say lucky with it grain of salt. When
Speaker 2: I go back in the day. He had a sales
Speaker 2: convention at the time, and I remember getting up in
Speaker 2: front of the entire sales division, one hundred salesmen, all
Speaker 2: the merchants, all the designers, all the executives in the company,
Speaker 2: and I would present my lines and I would do
Speaker 2: a pretty good job of presenting, and I felt great
Speaker 2: about it. And this particular salesman. He was in Washington, DC.
Speaker 2: I don't ever forget the course of the events. There
Speaker 2: were so many exciting things. I always loved these meetings.
Speaker 2: I always liked to present. I got my ideas for
Speaker 2: the next collection, and I would do it. One day,
Speaker 2: I presented my ideas, and right after my presentation was done,
Speaker 2: a vice president of operations came over to me and said, Hey, Mark,
Speaker 2: would you like to have a drink with me later?
Speaker 2: And when he said it, I said, well, okay, sure
Speaker 2: tell me when you like to do it. And he said,
Speaker 2: how about right now. I said okay, and I went
Speaker 2: with him to booth in the coffee shop and I
Speaker 2: sat right across from his name was Bud Gilbert, and
Speaker 2: Bud was a very intellectual guy. He was very respected.
Speaker 2: Everybody knew he made the trains run in time. And
Speaker 2: Bud Gilbert sat down and the first question he asked
Speaker 2: me was, Hi, Mark, how you doing? And I said
Speaker 2: to myself, you know I'm going to give him the
Speaker 2: standard answer. I'm really happy. I love the company. And
Speaker 2: I know that's the right answer. Of course, because you're
Speaker 2: talking to an office in the company. You don't want
Speaker 2: to hear about your problems. So he looked at me
Speaker 2: again and said, Mark, if it's okay with you, I'm
Speaker 2: going to ask you the same question. How are you doing? Mark?
Speaker 2: And now I know this is not an ordinary conversation.
Speaker 2: And as the story went on, he looked at me.
Speaker 2: I said, mister Gilbert, you know, as I said, it
Speaker 2: is a great company. I'm learning every day. I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: And he got quiet and he said, let me try
Speaker 2: this another way. He said, Mark, I know you're working Forbidden.
Speaker 2: How's it working for him? Now I'm quiet, and I
Speaker 2: realize this is not an ordinary conversation. Where is this going.
Speaker 2: I'm a young guy. I don't know where it's going.
Speaker 2: And I said, well, he's a very smart guy. He's
Speaker 2: a tough guy. He's demanding. But I'm doing fine. I
Speaker 2: could deal with this. And then he looked at me
Speaker 2: and he said, look, Mark, you said the right word.
Speaker 2: They'd deal with it. Everyone in this company knows how
Speaker 2: difficult Bittner is to work for. Everybody knows how difficult
Speaker 2: it is for you to work for Bittner. Everybody knows
Speaker 2: you're struggling to be genuine and to get through it.
Speaker 2: And everybody knows how impressive you are for being able
Speaker 2: to do that. And he said to me, Mark, not
Speaker 2: every course is easy. Not everyone you'll work for will
Speaker 2: be like guys like me, or guys like Robert Solomon,
Speaker 2: or guys like Stangellette, or honest to goodness geniuses, people
Speaker 2: that care about people. Not everyone's like that. What separates
Speaker 2: the men from the let's see, I want to say
Speaker 2: that it separates the winners from the sorry people are
Speaker 2: the ones that can put up with the difficulty and
Speaker 2: work through the tough times. You're having a tough time,
Speaker 2: whether you say it or not. And I looked at him.
Speaker 2: I didn't correct him. He said, we respect you for that,
Speaker 2: We appreciate you for that, and it isn't going unnoticed
Speaker 2: now here. I am two years in, not more than
Speaker 2: a clerk being called out by the senior vice president
Speaker 2: and telling me that they understand that hard work and
Speaker 2: perseverance and working through the tough times is important. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 2: I ended up doing something that most people don't realize.
Speaker 2: I left van Usen. If you look at my track record,
Speaker 2: there's no mention that I left van Usen after three
Speaker 2: years to go work at the Capitol Marker shirt company.
Speaker 2: It wasn't because of Bittnes. As they pointed out, he
Speaker 2: was long gone. He moved on to somewhere else in
Speaker 2: the coming to make someone else miserable until such time.
Speaker 2: A couple of years later, he burnt himself out and
Speaker 2: he was no longer part of the company. And Bud
Speaker 2: Gilbert was right. I worked through him, and I did well.
Speaker 2: But I was reflecting on I'd just gotten the mail
Speaker 2: and noticed that one of my favorite authors a new
Speaker 2: book came out, or I want to buy the book.
Speaker 2: I read all the time. There is never a time
Speaker 2: that I'm not reading something, either books, magazines, something to
Speaker 2: make myself better. But I also read for escapism, and
Speaker 2: I have been following an author called Stuart Woods. There's
Speaker 2: a collection of books about a guy named Well, before
Speaker 2: I tell you his name, i'll tell you the story. Anyway.
Speaker 2: My friend, my closest friend at the time, whose name
Speaker 2: was Bill Montooth. Whenever we go out to dinner, we'll
Speaker 2: never make reservations for golf, whatever you do. He would
Speaker 2: put his name in his Stone Barrington. I'd say to him,
Speaker 2: where'd you come up with that? He says, Hey, it's
Speaker 2: my alter ego. I'm Stone Barrington. I said, okay, you
Speaker 2: want me to call your Stone no So I would
Speaker 2: go out and everywhere I go Stone Barrington. One day,
Speaker 2: I'm traveling, I'm at the airport, I don't have a
Speaker 2: book to read, and I start looking for the books.
Speaker 2: And I'm currently current on all the new espionage, knowledge
Speaker 2: and mystery novels. I have them all, and I'm looking
Speaker 2: and I see Stuart Woods and the title intrigued me.
Speaker 2: I don't remember it was, and I pick it up
Speaker 2: and I read the headline. Another Stone Barrington level, another
Speaker 2: Stone Barrington novel right then and there I called my
Speaker 2: friend Bill. I said, Stone Barrington, Stuart Woods, and he
Speaker 2: starts to lift. Yeah. It turns out the Stone Barrington
Speaker 2: character someone I like. I've read sixty six of the books,
Speaker 2: and I'm reflecting now. I went out to dinner the
Speaker 2: other day and Stone Barrington and his Paladino Barchetti was
Speaker 2: in the book The Commission of the Police in New York,
Speaker 2: eating Elaine's restaurant. And it turns out Elaine died and
Speaker 2: the restaurant either closed or it's not the same. And
Speaker 2: Stone and his friend moved to Patroon, and it got
Speaker 2: me thinking about my days a Capitol Marker's Shirt Company.
Speaker 2: See what happened was is I had a friend in
Speaker 2: the button business who's the president of a large button company,
Speaker 2: and he came to me one day, it's in the market.
Speaker 2: You have to leave the company. So what do you
Speaker 2: mean I have to leave the company? He says, you're
Speaker 2: not making enough money and you can't expect to work
Speaker 2: for the same company your whole life. I said, I'm
Speaker 2: working for van Us and they're treating me well. I
Speaker 2: love it here. I'm not leaving. He says, yes you are,
Speaker 2: and if you don't leave, you're at least going to
Speaker 2: take this interview. And he explained to me that Capitol
Speaker 2: Marker's Shirt Company was a one hundred and fifty million
Speaker 2: dollars shirt company, a big company by private stands, and
Speaker 2: not compared to PVH. It was a few hundred million
Speaker 2: in a publicly traded company, say had five hundred million.
Speaker 2: But it's a great company. Mark They're looking for someone
Speaker 2: just like you. And what is just like you mean?
Speaker 2: He said, you come from the big brands, you have
Speaker 2: a vision, your greater product development. They in the private
Speaker 2: label business and anytime they'll walk into Macy's Macy's won't
Speaker 2: treat them with the same degree of respects they'll treat
Speaker 2: van Usen because van Usen is known for innovations and
Speaker 2: new ideas. So if they could bring in designers who
Speaker 2: could bring innovation and new ideas and talk about what
Speaker 2: the brands would be doing, they would get a higher
Speaker 2: degree of respect and they would pay you a lot
Speaker 2: more money than you're making. Mark, can I ask you
Speaker 2: what you're making? I said, you could ask, I'm not
Speaker 2: telling you, Well, this company's going to pay you fifty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars. That put a silence in me. Why
Speaker 2: Because I was making eighteen thousand dollars and I just
Speaker 2: got a large raise to go from eighteen to fifty
Speaker 2: five thousand overnight. I had no choice but to go
Speaker 2: and listen. And I looked at him. I said, that's
Speaker 2: more money than I'm making. He says, I know it is.
Speaker 2: That's enough money that'll change the course and tenure of
Speaker 2: your career, because if you get that much money now,
Speaker 2: everything you do after that will be layered on top
Speaker 2: of the fifty five thousand. You'll be ahead of all
Speaker 2: your peers. You won't even have to think about money.
Speaker 2: You'll think about doing your job. I went, I met
Speaker 2: with them, I decided to join the company. I left.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. Going to my best friend at the time, BJK,
Speaker 2: who was my boss thirty years, I told him I'm
Speaker 2: leave and he said, you're crazy. I said, listen, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of money, an opportunity to learn new things,
Speaker 2: an opportunity for work for another company, and when I
Speaker 2: come back here, I'll be better for it is. What
Speaker 2: do you mean come back? He said, I'm not leaving
Speaker 2: to leave. I'm going for the money. I'm going to
Speaker 2: leave there however long I stay, I'm coming back. What
Speaker 2: makes you think you're going to come back in more?
Speaker 2: Because you're going to get me back in how do
Speaker 2: you know? And I was quiet. He said, never mind,
Speaker 2: you can come back. Let's leave in the right way.
Speaker 2: I ended up resigning from my actual boss at the time,
Speaker 2: a guy named John, and I told him I was leaving.
Speaker 2: He begged me to say. I said, look, I'm leaving.
Speaker 2: I've made up my mind. I love it here. I'll
Speaker 2: come back, John, I'll come back and work for you.
Speaker 2: It's just got to give me some time. I am
Speaker 2: never going to be leaving van Usen, but I have
Speaker 2: to do it now, and I left and I made
Speaker 2: fifty five. Thus and then, by the way, at the time,
Speaker 2: my friend Bruce, who was making thirty couldn't believe I
Speaker 2: was making fifty five and he was a VP and
Speaker 2: I wasn't. And sure enough I went and it was
Speaker 2: true after that, money was never a thing for me
Speaker 2: because I was always ahead of the game. So I
Speaker 2: get there and the reality was it was more like
Speaker 2: off Broadway than Broadway. Great company, proud people. They did
Speaker 2: a great job. But I never felt I was in
Speaker 2: the big leagues. I always felt I was a step down,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to be in the big leagues. And
Speaker 2: after three months I decided I learned a lot. I
Speaker 2: had two bosses, one who I admired, one who I didn't.
Speaker 2: And I ended up wanting to come back. And sure
Speaker 2: enough I went and asked my friend to meet me.
Speaker 2: I want to come back to the company. See, so
Speaker 2: let's have dinner, you, me and his wife, who I
Speaker 2: knew very well. We'll have dinner and let's go to Patroon. Now,
Speaker 2: why am I telling you all?
Speaker 3: This?
Speaker 2: Was the new STUDT Woods book just came back. I
Speaker 2: thought about Patroon looking out of the backyard, thinking about
Speaker 2: the past, thinking about the future. Here I am a patroon,
Speaker 2: and I thought about this story. So I went in
Speaker 2: at the time, and I think I've told this to
Speaker 2: some of you before, but it's a great lesson. I
Speaker 2: resigned from a gentleman named Don Cooper. Donald Cooper one
Speaker 2: of the founders of Capital Mercury. He was a prestigious guy,
Speaker 2: walked around a suit, jacket and tie. When he was
Speaker 2: in his office, he hung the jacket on the back
Speaker 2: of his chair. Always elegant, A gentleman, a real man
Speaker 2: of class. And I walked in and I had asked
Speaker 2: the secretary and I have a meeting, and they set
Speaker 2: me up and I went to see sat down. I
Speaker 2: walked in and he said, sit down, walk what's up? Said,
Speaker 2: you know, I have to tell you how much I
Speaker 2: love working here, how much I respect you and the team,
Speaker 2: but I am sorry to say that I'm leaving the company.
Speaker 2: And he looked at me and he got up from
Speaker 2: behind his desk walked to me. I stood up. He
Speaker 2: shook my hand. He took my hand in both his hands.
Speaker 2: He shook my hand, looked at me and said, I
Speaker 2: can't tell you how happy. I am for you. If
Speaker 2: you're leaving, I know it's for a good reason. We
Speaker 2: really like you. Here he went, shook my hand, went
Speaker 2: back to his desk and sat down, and then he
Speaker 2: looked at me and he said, and I quote, what
Speaker 2: will it take to keep you? And I never forgot that,
Speaker 2: in fact, the entirety of my career, when anyone resigned
Speaker 2: from a company that I was working for, if they
Speaker 2: wanted to resign and I wanted them to stay, I
Speaker 2: did exactly what Donald Cooper did. I got up, shook
Speaker 2: the hand, wished him luck, sat down behind the desk,
Speaker 2: and told them I'd love you to say what can
Speaker 2: I do? Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. So
Speaker 2: the point of this is on reflection. This week, I
Speaker 2: thought about how you're supposed to behave. I thought about
Speaker 2: my career. I thought about how I dealt with the
Speaker 2: difficult times. By the way, I met my friend at
Speaker 2: Patroon's and there we negotiated my comeback to the company
Speaker 2: for more money than I was making. Go figure. But
Speaker 2: that is a backdrop. I'm reflecting this week and reminding
Speaker 2: you that you fall seven times, you get up eight
Speaker 2: back in a moment, always in fashion than a lifetime
Speaker 2: of my career building the van Usen brand, and I
Speaker 2: am so pleased that they're back with us now talking
Speaker 2: about suits, men were dressing up again and it's become
Speaker 2: cool to wear a suit. Suits can be won on
Speaker 2: multipleccasions in multiple ways. You could wear a suit formally
Speaker 2: to go out at night or to an event, to
Speaker 2: wear a suit to the office with or without a tie.
Speaker 2: If you look closely, now fashion trends, suits are being
Speaker 2: worn with turtlenecks or mark next. The choices are endless
Speaker 2: and every one of them looks right. You could really
Speaker 2: really look the part. I believe that in packaging yourself
Speaker 2: is as important does the products you package, and wearing
Speaker 2: a suit is one of those things that make men
Speaker 2: look their best. Then Using invented a new idea. It's
Speaker 2: called the cool Flex suit. It's been engineered with stretch technology,
Speaker 2: giving you the most comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle
Speaker 2: resistant fabric, it's cool moisture wiki. It makes it perfect
Speaker 2: for all occasions. As we discussed just now, this new
Speaker 2: style of looking shop while feeling cool and comfortable is
Speaker 2: amazing and I am so excited that the van Using
Speaker 2: company is involved in this new technology and is embracing
Speaker 2: the whole idea of dressing up. Let's not forget van
Speaker 2: Using made its name with dress shirts. It's only proper
Speaker 2: that the soup business follows strongly in its way. You
Speaker 2: can find van Using cool flex men's stretch suits at
Speaker 2: jcpenny are online at jcpenny dot com. Guys, they're great.
Speaker 2: You should go look at them. My favorite brand has
Speaker 2: always been Izod. My company at one time bought that brand.
Speaker 2: The CEO of the company handed it to me and said,
Speaker 2: you better make it work. And I put everything in
Speaker 2: my career to make Eyesod work and I fell in
Speaker 2: love with that brand, and to this day it is
Speaker 2: one of the most exciting endeavors I've ever gotten involved with.
Speaker 2: Isod is an incredibly strong golf brand. If you play golf,
Speaker 2: if you play tennis for that matter. They make a
Speaker 2: great polo shirts. I mean great. They're fit perfect. The
Speaker 2: material is unique because it's a PK fabric that waffle leave,
Speaker 2: you see, and it's made of a blend of cotton
Speaker 2: and microfiber that allows you to stretch. And very often
Speaker 2: they are treated with solar protection as well, so they stretch.
Speaker 2: They're comfortable and they breathe well. And one thing about
Speaker 2: ISOD they always fit. They'll never tug on you. You
Speaker 2: put it in your waist that they'll fit you great.
Speaker 2: The colors, patterns are sensational. Now I will also tell
Speaker 2: you ISOT makes great shorts and great golf bands. You're
Speaker 2: a golf friend. You want to look good. You don't
Speaker 2: have to think about how do I look. You want
Speaker 2: to think about how you play, not how you ISZOD
Speaker 2: is the brand for you. I know I was there
Speaker 2: when it was created. The strategy behind that brand is brilliant.
Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite brands. While I talk about it,
Speaker 2: I should tell you about the men's sportswear. ISOD wasn't
Speaker 2: enough being a golf brand. It wasn't enough being just
Speaker 2: great polo shirts with logos, without logos. Incredible brand and
Speaker 2: story and history. ISOD makes salt weather programs. They have
Speaker 2: great printed woven shirts, short sleeves. They look excellent with colors,
Speaker 2: excellent with shorts, excellent with cotton pants, of which they
Speaker 2: also make. This whole salt order relaxed line from ISAD,
Speaker 2: whether it be fleece, cotton sweaters, knit polos, woven shirts,
Speaker 2: and pants of a range of colors and fabrics that
Speaker 2: are perfect for a guy wants to go casually in
Speaker 2: the spring and summer of this year. And here's the thing,
Speaker 2: isod is affordable. Every One listening to me talk about
Speaker 2: this brand can afford to buy it and know that
Speaker 2: there are a lot of other brands that also have
Speaker 2: a look like ISID. Although I don't believe it's fun
Speaker 2: as Eyaada is, the brand has a lot of energy
Speaker 2: in it, but at the price points no one can compete.
Speaker 2: You can find eyaa at You're leading retails and online
Speaker 2: at ion dot com. Talk to you, lady guys. I
Speaker 2: wish you are very happy springing summer, and I help
Speaker 2: you by telling you if you were eya on, You're
Speaker 2: gonna look great.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to it always in fashion.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Mark Webber. I'm in a reflecting mood tonight.
Speaker 2: I've been in a reflecting mood this week. Finally June,
Speaker 2: after losing April and May and having almost no sunshine
Speaker 2: in New York, this has been terrible. June has started
Speaker 2: out pretty and I've been reflecting sitting out the back
Speaker 2: of my house looking at the sky, the grass, whatever,
Speaker 2: I'm happy these beautiful sundays having me think about my
Speaker 2: life experiences. I'm looking to the future. I'm enthusiastic, and
Speaker 2: yet I'm sad at the same time. I loved working.
Speaker 2: I miss it, but I tell you I love not
Speaker 2: working even more now. Yes, I'm on the radio and podcast,
Speaker 2: and somebody could say that's work, But I'm not in
Speaker 2: it for the money. I'm in it for the joy
Speaker 2: of talking and telling my stories and hopefully making everyone
Speaker 2: a little happier and perhaps a little smarter by the
Speaker 2: benefit of learning from my experiences. And at the moment,
Speaker 2: I'm guilty, I'm a co conspirator. I'm no better. I
Speaker 2: should have known better. I should have asked you sure
Speaker 2: we should be doing this. Let's hold that thought. For
Speaker 2: those of you who want to hear this, you're going
Speaker 2: to be excited. Those of you don't, you won't be.
Speaker 2: But the truth is the truth. Trump is right. We
Speaker 2: need change tariffs. Tariffs are offering us a different angle,
Speaker 2: and they're important. I grew up in a great manufacturing company.
Speaker 2: I spend as much time in factories walking factory floors
Speaker 2: as I spent time in my favorite restaurants. I was
Speaker 2: a manufacturer. I knew manufacturing, and because of that, I
Speaker 2: grew up in an environment obsessed with quality. You know,
Speaker 2: it's one thing to buy products overseas and hand them
Speaker 2: a sample and say make this for me. It's another
Speaker 2: thing to hand them a product that you made in
Speaker 2: your own factory and said, I want to start importing.
Speaker 2: Here's a shirt. This is the linings I want you
Speaker 2: to use. This is the level of heat and pressure
Speaker 2: I want you to put on the collar when you're
Speaker 2: top fusing it. This is the number of stitches per inch.
Speaker 2: I want you to sew on my side seams and
Speaker 2: on my pockets in front of the shirt. These are
Speaker 2: the buttons you must use. I will accept no other
Speaker 2: find them. This is the packaging I need you to use.
Speaker 2: And why because I came from a company and an
Speaker 2: environment that was obsessed with quality. I was at the
Speaker 2: van Us and Shirt Company, the second largest shirt company
Speaker 2: in the United States, perhaps the world. It's also perhaps
Speaker 2: not the case because who knew who makes a billion
Speaker 2: shirts for a billion people in China every year, So
Speaker 2: they may have had bigger shirt companies, but in the
Speaker 2: branded world and the world of the West, were the
Speaker 2: second largest shirt company in the world. On the subject
Speaker 2: of China, Let's hold that for a second. When I
Speaker 2: joined van Usen, we had ten factories making our shirts,
Speaker 2: ten factories making millions of dozens of shirts. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was pretty incredible. They're all in the South. I
Speaker 2: remember names like Brinkley, Arkansas, Fort Payne, Alabama, Oazark, Alabama.
Speaker 2: We had a warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we did
Speaker 2: have an exception. The key factory, the operations center for
Speaker 2: the company was Potsville, Pennsylvania. Why potsvill Pennsylvania because Moses Phillips,
Speaker 2: who started the Venues and Shirt company back in the
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds, lived in Potsville, Pennsylvania, and he started a
Speaker 2: shirt factory. And his initial business in the shirt business
Speaker 2: was when miners came out of the coal mines in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: He came there with shirts and sold them clean shirts
Speaker 2: that they could wear after they took their showers when
Speaker 2: they got at home. And he began this business. He
Speaker 2: spent a ton of money on advertising at the time.
Speaker 2: His son Seymour in the fifties increased the level of
Speaker 2: advertising in may Ven Neusland a national off not a
Speaker 2: global brand. We also had a warehouse in School, cool Haven, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: and I traveled to all these locations and I learned
Speaker 2: about manufacturing. We were manufacturing, we knew product, we knew costs,
Speaker 2: we understood efficiency. We weren't importers yet, but there was
Speaker 2: a time where companies had to decide where they can
Speaker 2: continue to be manufacturers or are they going to outsource
Speaker 2: and give up all the manufacturing, which is where we
Speaker 2: are as a country today. And I want to talk
Speaker 2: about that a bit, you know. The first tip off
Speaker 2: was see in the Obama administration. President Obama almost said
Speaker 2: the right thing. If he listened, he would have known
Speaker 2: there was something else afoot, that the situation we would
Speaker 2: find ourselves in would be a sorry situation. He was
Speaker 2: meeting with the then president of China. It wasn't she,
Speaker 2: I don't remember. His name, could have been Ping. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I don't remember his name, Xiaoujing Ping. Maybe I don't remember.
Speaker 2: But they were having a conversation and it was in
Speaker 2: front of the world. I don't remember if it was
Speaker 2: live or I read it. And the President of China
Speaker 2: asked President Obama what kept him awake at night, and
Speaker 2: at the time, Obama said the proliferation of nuclear weapons
Speaker 2: North Korea, you know whatever he was going on with,
Speaker 2: he was worried about war and said and then President
Speaker 2: Obama asked the Premier of China, what keeps you awake
Speaker 2: at night? And he said, every year, I have to
Speaker 2: find twenty million more new jobs for my people. Now,
Speaker 2: it's interesting to note because China was backward. They're behind
Speaker 2: the eight ball. They weren't the country you know today.
Speaker 2: They weren't westernized, they weren't industrialized, not to the point
Speaker 2: they are today. And the Premier of China recognized that
Speaker 2: the future of China was developing jobs and developing industry.
Speaker 2: Hold that thought. Let's go back to my days as
Speaker 2: manufacturing in venues, and I was a vice president of shirts.
Speaker 2: I worked for the president of the company. His name
Speaker 2: was BJK my buddy for life and business. And we
Speaker 2: worked for Larry Phillips, the grandson of Seymour Phillips, who
Speaker 2: was the CEO of the company. And we knew that
Speaker 2: imports were coming into play. We knew that our competitors
Speaker 2: were importing. We knew that the price of our shirts
Speaker 2: might be questionable in the long run, and we knew
Speaker 2: we had to start importing to some degree or another.
Speaker 2: Even if we didn't want to, we would be forced
Speaker 2: to if our competitors did. Even if we didn't want to.
Speaker 2: We knew that retailers like Macy's and bird Eyes and
Speaker 2: all these retails in the country were starting to import.
Speaker 2: They already began, but now they're accelerating. We had ten factories.
Speaker 2: What to do. The history of the company was that
Speaker 2: we would have the amount of manufacturing necessary in the
Speaker 2: United States to survive the company during wartime, so if
Speaker 2: there was war with the outside world, it wouldn't matter
Speaker 2: to us. But the level is what is comfortable. So
Speaker 2: Larry Phillips engaged KSA Kurt Salmon Associates. I don't even
Speaker 2: know if they exist anymore, but they were one of
Speaker 2: the premier consulting companies in the world. He engaged them
Speaker 2: in a preliminary meeting to talk about how should we
Speaker 2: determine comfort for the amount of manufacturing and the degree
Speaker 2: of ownership of our own supply to live a comfortable
Speaker 2: life to sustain the company in times of war. I
Speaker 2: remember he called the CEO of KSA. I think his
Speaker 2: name was David Cole. I'm only calling it out because
Speaker 2: I'm at marvel my ability to recollect names and events
Speaker 2: and places. There's a history in here of these companies
Speaker 2: that I retained. So David Coley called them up and
Speaker 2: we had a meeting in our boardroom and Larry articulated,
Speaker 2: who I just said to you. We've been a manufacturing
Speaker 2: our whole company, our whole lives. We know we have
Speaker 2: to start importing. We believe there's opportunities outside the world.
Speaker 2: We respect our manufacturing and made us who we are.
Speaker 2: When we do what we do, we do it with
Speaker 2: a level of expertise that no one else has, and
Speaker 2: it's a core differentiator between our competition. When we talk
Speaker 2: to retailers, we have the details on how to make
Speaker 2: the finest quality from every element of it. And he
Speaker 2: looked at David Bone and said, can you help me
Speaker 2: determine a degree of comfort? Let's hold that thought for
Speaker 2: a while. Okay, you live in New York City. Are
Speaker 2: you comfortable walking down Sixth Avenue at five o'clock? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I would say, how about seven o'clock? Sure, now it's
Speaker 2: winter at eight o'clock. Do you feel safe in New
Speaker 2: York at eight o'clock at night in the dark in
Speaker 2: New York City on Sixth Avenue? I wonder. I often
Speaker 2: wonder about how safe the city is or isn't. I
Speaker 2: sometimes wonder if the city is filled with only victims
Speaker 2: and predators. But that's a whole other story. Hey mayor
Speaker 2: whoever you are, make the city safe again. But back
Speaker 2: to Cole, back to Ksa, back to Larry Phillips in
Speaker 2: the boardroom. I'm one of three people from PVH Phillips
Speaker 2: Venues and City in the meeting. David Cole KSA, how
Speaker 2: do we determine what is comfortable? We're ready to do
Speaker 2: his survey and the credit of David Cole at the
Speaker 2: opportunity to make I don't know at the time one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in consultting fees and determining what would
Speaker 2: be comfortable for PVH. He looked at us and he said,
Speaker 2: I can't help you. Only you can determine what you're
Speaker 2: comfortable with. I can't do that for you. Only you can.
Speaker 2: And that was something that I thought about this week
Speaker 2: watching the news, hearing about tariffs, knowing that the fashion,
Speaker 2: luxury and retail industry sent an emissary to Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: To meet with the government about eliminating tariffs or putting
Speaker 2: a check on the tariffs because it's severely affecting our industry.
Speaker 2: It's creating discomfort. That's why this story of comfort, This
Speaker 2: whole industry is in a state of flux. No one
Speaker 2: knows what to do. You look at the stock market
Speaker 2: our country. There's an appetite to buy. We're buyers, also
Speaker 2: a problem. But hold that thought. But discomfort and not
Speaker 2: knowing you are as affecting the stock market as playing havoc.
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to take another step further. I'm on Instagram.
Speaker 2: I find Instagram fascinating. It has some strange stuff. All
Speaker 2: you do is flip go to the stuff that is restraints.
Speaker 2: I find it. You know, there's a lot of made
Speaker 2: up stuff and you ought to be able to sort
Speaker 2: through that. But on general, in general, I find it fascinating,
Speaker 2: It educates, it entertains me. I love Instagram. And I
Speaker 2: came across a guy I don't know his name. He's
Speaker 2: a China influencer, and he's talking about tariffs and where
Speaker 2: China is versus the USA. Now, once again, before I
Speaker 2: played for you what he had to say, I want
Speaker 2: to remind you that we made a decision to import
Speaker 2: from China. My company made a decision after importing from
Speaker 2: the rest of the world, which we started to do,
Speaker 2: end up closing our acories. We had a few left.
Speaker 2: We went to China. I was part of a team
Speaker 2: and I was told when I went, you're going to
Speaker 2: offer them the know how. You're going to teach them
Speaker 2: to how to manufacture shirts. I said, what are you
Speaker 2: talking about. They have a billion people. You know how
Speaker 2: many shirts they must make if they're not importing. They said,
Speaker 2: they make all their own shirts. You're right, but they
Speaker 2: can't make the shirts they need to sell in the
Speaker 2: Western hemisphere and the rest of the world. The standards
Speaker 2: in China might be right for China, but we wouldn't
Speaker 2: accept them. They don't make the collars they way we
Speaker 2: need them. We fuse our collars. For example. Fusing is
Speaker 2: a process where collar linings have glue in them. I'll
Speaker 2: make it simple. Glue and when you apply heat and
Speaker 2: pressure to the collar, they had stay together and the
Speaker 2: collars never bubble. You have shirts that bubble in your
Speaker 2: collar they weren't fused. They don't have to do that.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is simple. You know, you ever see something
Speaker 2: you buy in red, you sit down on a white couch.
Speaker 2: It comes off because they and have the right dye
Speaker 2: stuffs to make sure that the color was fast. It's
Speaker 2: called color fast. It stays, it will never come out
Speaker 2: once it apply the dye in the fabric. You know.
Speaker 2: I had a period in time where I was the
Speaker 2: head of the shirt company and every week we would
Speaker 2: get a box of letters from consumers. And every week,
Speaker 2: being the head of the shirt company, the president of
Speaker 2: the company would hand me a bunch of letters, and finally,
Speaker 2: at one point he said, I'm sick of this mark
Speaker 2: fix it said, fix what. You know what read these letters?
Speaker 2: So I read the letters and people are complaining about
Speaker 2: buttons broken on their dress shirt, either the collar, the
Speaker 2: front buttons. They're all breaking all the time. Now, the
Speaker 2: most expensive buttons in the world are mother of pearl.
Speaker 2: They're actually made I think of oysters. If I ought
Speaker 2: to get shirts made of mother of pearl, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to import them. You can't import them in the
Speaker 2: country till food and wed life go in and examine
Speaker 2: and understand where these pearls were or oysters were forested
Speaker 2: or farmed. I mean, it's a big deal. But the
Speaker 2: most expensive ones in the world are the ones that
Speaker 2: break the quickest. The ones that break the least are plastic.
Speaker 2: But it also depends on the shape of the plastic,
Speaker 2: so a lot goes into it. Every week we're getting
Speaker 2: lettuce from consumers or shirts or broken buttons. I guess
Speaker 2: when you look at shirts or sweaters for that matter,
Speaker 2: and you see extra buttons or thread they attached to
Speaker 2: expensive sweater. If the sweater have buttons, so you lose
Speaker 2: a button, they don't want you to have to replace
Speaker 2: them all. They don't want you have to give up
Speaker 2: on the sweater. They give you an extra button, case
Speaker 2: of nit where it pulls. Sometimes you get a hole.
Speaker 2: They give you extra thread so you could sew that
Speaker 2: fred on there and eliminate the whole. And dress shirts,
Speaker 2: in particular men's sports shirt, they started doing extra buttons
Speaker 2: in the tail or the front of the shirt where
Speaker 2: it's hidden in the waist, to give you buttons if
Speaker 2: you have to change in because they break. Maybe that's
Speaker 2: where it began. Anyway, I get all these letters. Buttons
Speaker 2: are breaking. I mentioned earlier in the show. I had
Speaker 2: a friend and the button business. His name is bud Winstream.
Speaker 2: He was in the president of a company called Copper's
Speaker 2: button again, Koppers. I don't even know if they exists anymore.
Speaker 2: I should look it up, call them in. I said,
Speaker 2: I have a problem, but it's what's your problem? Said,
Speaker 2: all my buttons are breaking, And the problem is is
Speaker 2: all my buttons on buy from you? He said, you
Speaker 2: can't lay that on me. You're buying all these fancy buttons,
Speaker 2: thin shapes. They're not right. He said that they're gonna happen.
Speaker 2: I said, why are they happening? He says, you tell
Speaker 2: me Mark, I said, you changed the wave shirts are pressed.
Speaker 2: Used to be, shirts were pressed by hand. Everything was
Speaker 2: done by hand, simple, nice, elegant. But they invented what's
Speaker 2: called cabinet presses for speed and efficiency. They look like
Speaker 2: the body of a man. If you will, you wrap
Speaker 2: the shirt right on it. You press a button, some
Speaker 2: h three hundred and sixty degree iron comes on that
Speaker 2: shirt in a matter of seconds. The whole shirt is pressed.
Speaker 2: When you use it, though, and it hits the buttons,
Speaker 2: it breaks it because you're not ironing a wrap. He says,
Speaker 2: I have one button here, then I guarantee you will
Speaker 2: not break against any cabin pressing or anything else. Show
Speaker 2: it to me. I looked at it was boring. I
Speaker 2: didn't like it. He said to me, you don't want
Speaker 2: broken buttons, use this button. So I called in my
Speaker 2: head of engineering, Burt Blackman from Warving the Jersey, and
Speaker 2: I said to him, look at this. What do you
Speaker 2: think He says, it makes sense. Get me a couple
Speaker 2: dozen of these buttons. I will take them to the lab.
Speaker 2: I'll come back. Burt Blagman comes back to me, tells
Speaker 2: me the buttons are great. He says, they will not break,
Speaker 2: they will stand up to the force of cabinet pressing.
Speaker 2: And I made a decision that every one of our
Speaker 2: shirts would have those buttons, particularly the basic shirts, the
Speaker 2: simple shirts that people buy day in, day out. They
Speaker 2: use them for replenishment. You stain your shirt, you rip
Speaker 2: your shirt, whatever, make case. You will use these shirts
Speaker 2: and they'll all have those buttons. I made a decision.
Speaker 2: Went to the president of the company. I said, I
Speaker 2: solved that this is a button might not be as
Speaker 2: nice as our other buttons. He looked. They said it
Speaker 2: won't break, won't break the lab test, and the lab
Speaker 2: testin all right, let's start. I started doing that, and
Speaker 2: sure enough, buttons didn't break. But that's back to manufacturing
Speaker 2: being obsessed with quality. So now what happens we make
Speaker 2: a decision to import, we started importing, we use the
Speaker 2: same buttons. We don't longer have that problem, but we're
Speaker 2: losing our ability to manufacture in the United States. And
Speaker 2: the last bastion is China. We go to China. Back
Speaker 2: to China, they make builliings of shirts. They can't make
Speaker 2: the shirts that we need in America because they're not,
Speaker 2: if not the quality. They don't think it's the way
Speaker 2: we need it. They don't understand we need And I'm
Speaker 2: going to China with a team of people. We're going
Speaker 2: to teach them how to make shirts for us and
Speaker 2: how to make shirts for the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: And I remember sitting there because it was awkward. The
Speaker 2: first meetings you have over the government office at the
Speaker 2: time was Beijing Peeking Head Office. You walk in, you
Speaker 2: meet with the heads of government. They come into military
Speaker 2: uniforms and they tell you where you're going to manufact
Speaker 2: You don't get a choice. You don't go and look
Speaker 2: around and choose the fact you're going to manufacture. Yeap.
Speaker 2: Our first factory was called Beijing Number one. From there
Speaker 2: we went to Beijing number one. We met with the
Speaker 2: factory people and we took a tour of the factory.
Speaker 2: I had my head of engineering at Downheim from Hong Kong.
Speaker 2: When we walked through the sewing floor and they were
Speaker 2: making shirts like anyone else would, and I noticed a
Speaker 2: few things. I noticed. First of all, there were no
Speaker 2: overhead fans. Now why are overhead fans important? Not just fans,
Speaker 2: more of importantly, vacuum cleaners, because in factories, particularly if
Speaker 2: there's dust, which there was plenty of in China, particularly
Speaker 2: if you're making white shirts, the dust can accumulate on
Speaker 2: the shirts and be a problem. They didn't have that,
Speaker 2: So the first thing we talked we put on checknote
Speaker 2: there they need to have vacuums. From there, we watched
Speaker 2: the entire operations, and while they didn't have our stitch count,
Speaker 2: which at the time was twelve SPUs twelve stitches burge,
Speaker 2: they had less, which allowed them to sew fast. They
Speaker 2: get so slower and do what we needed. But we
Speaker 2: got to the end of operations, there was a table
Speaker 2: as long as the city block, with two sides of
Speaker 2: the table and a conveyor belt, and everyone sitting at
Speaker 2: the conveyor belt had in front of a little silver bowl,
Speaker 2: a toothbrush, and a bar of soap. And I'm with
Speaker 2: my head of engineering and said, what is that all about?
Speaker 2: So we walk over and we watch and as shirts
Speaker 2: come off a conveyor belt, mostly white. These people are
Speaker 2: sitting there, hundreds of them, with their toothbrush, their bowl
Speaker 2: and the soap and brushing the shirts where they have
Speaker 2: little marks and stains from the dust in the air.
Speaker 2: My head of engineering as and what it's back and
Speaker 2: he looks at them and they tell him blah blah
Speaker 2: blah and amandarin Chinese, and he explains to them what
Speaker 2: I just explained to you. They're making sure that the
Speaker 2: shirts are spotless and the clean. And we started to talk.
Speaker 2: He said, could you imagine how great their quality is
Speaker 2: if they can throw this many people at the operations
Speaker 2: because everything there was a people. Afterwards, we had a meeting.
Speaker 2: We said to them, we presented them a list of
Speaker 2: things that we would do differently. They said they'll do it.
Speaker 2: They thanked us for talking. We asked them, why do
Speaker 2: you have all those people? And they said, we have
Speaker 2: to keep people working. So we knew right then and
Speaker 2: there a lot of things were going afoot that were
Speaker 2: helping China keep their people working. That we could have
Speaker 2: excellent quality in China because they were willing to work
Speaker 2: with us, and we get these incredible prices. As I
Speaker 2: told you the last time, we were making shirts and
Speaker 2: they cost one hundred and twenty five dollars a dozen
Speaker 2: in the United States, we could do them in China
Speaker 2: for thirty five dollars a dozen. It was really crazy,
Speaker 2: and we decided to give our know how and our
Speaker 2: technology to China in favor of lower prices. China did
Speaker 2: nothing wrong. They accepted us, they treated us gratefully, they
Speaker 2: appreciated what we were going to teach them, and we
Speaker 2: moved on from there. But that is a backdrop. I'm
Speaker 2: reflecting week and reminding you that you fall seven times,
Speaker 2: you get up eight back in a moment. Always in fashion,
Speaker 2: Donna Karen began her career as one of the finest,
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: I want to play this video from a Chinese influencer
Speaker 2: that's gone viral over the course of the last few weeks.
Speaker 4: They Robbie blind and you thank them for it. That's
Speaker 4: the tragedy, that's a scan.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm saying this right now, Americans, you don't
Speaker 3: need a turn, You need a revolution. For decades, your
Speaker 3: Guman and Odigarch's will ship your job to China, not
Speaker 3: for the promise, not for peace, but to explore cheap labors,
Speaker 3: and in the process they hollowed out your middle class,
Speaker 3: crashed your working class, and told you to be proud
Speaker 3: while they sold your future for profit. And yes, China
Speaker 3: made money, but we used it to build roads, leave
Speaker 3: millions out of property, fund healthcare, raised living standard. We
Speaker 3: reinvested in our people. My family also benefited from it.
Speaker 3: What did your audigarchs do? They bought yacks, private jets
Speaker 3: and mansions with golf course rightways. They manipulate market, dodge attacks,
Speaker 3: and poured billions into endless walls. And you you get
Speaker 3: stagnate wages, crippling healthcare costs, cheap dopeming debt, and flagged
Speaker 3: wave probably made in China while they picked your pocket
Speaker 3: for forty years. Both China and the United States benefit
Speaker 3: from the trade, the manufacturing, but only one of us
Speaker 3: use that else to build. This in China's fault, This
Speaker 3: is yours. You let this happen. You let autogos fit
Speaker 3: your lice.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 4: They made you fat, pooh and addicted. Now they blame
Speaker 4: China for mass they made. I don't think so. I
Speaker 4: don't think you need another tariff. You need to wake up.
Speaker 4: You needed to take your country back. I think you
Speaker 4: need a revolution.
Speaker 2: I couldn't help but listening and playing it for you
Speaker 2: because I thought it was brilliant. Now let me make
Speaker 2: it clear. I'm not supporting communists China here as a
Speaker 2: propaganda I am only saying that. I think what they
Speaker 2: said was very telling. I think what they said about
Speaker 2: their country and our country was very telling. I think
Speaker 2: I said to you up front, we're the greatest country
Speaker 2: in the world. We've done things, But where was our government?
Speaker 2: Where were the people who were leading us? I said
Speaker 2: I'd get back to it later, And here I am.
Speaker 2: I'm back to it later. I said, I was a
Speaker 2: co conspirator. I did this with my eyes open. I
Speaker 2: was part of the problem. I was no better. I
Speaker 2: should have known better. I remember when we were doing this,
Speaker 2: I had a feeling something didn't feel right. That the
Speaker 2: proprietary technology that we owned and cherished, this manufacturer we
Speaker 2: were giving away, if not for free, but for low
Speaker 2: price manufacturing. And here we are finding ourselves there. So
Speaker 2: I'm not paying for China right now, just the opposite.
Speaker 2: I'm played for you a Chinese citizen reaching out perhaps
Speaker 2: to help America be great again and get back on track.
Speaker 2: We're a great country. We led the industrialized world. We
Speaker 2: invented everything, airplanes, air conditioning, telephone, the smartphone. Were brilliant.
Speaker 2: Everyone copied us. The Japanese, who were even more brilliant,
Speaker 2: copied our ideas and miniaturized them. But we developed everyone.
Speaker 2: Everyone else just followed. We were and we are amazing.
Speaker 2: We had the most innovation, that best economy. We were
Speaker 2: the world's darling. We were envied, we were miird. We
Speaker 2: made everything from railroads to bridges, to office tours to
Speaker 2: planes and cars. We cured disease, We mass produced, We
Speaker 2: clothed the world until we stopped. We were manufacturers, and
Speaker 2: then we stopped manufacturing. We gave up manufacturing for consuming.
Speaker 2: Who are we?
Speaker 1: What are we?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what we are. We buy stuff. That's
Speaker 2: who we are now. We're consumers and government and business
Speaker 2: and as people, we buy stuff.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: There are certain exceptions, not completely. We still grow crops
Speaker 2: and make food, We make automobiles. We even continue to
Speaker 2: make some pharmaceuticals. But we found out we don't make penicillins,
Speaker 2: we don't make antibiotics. What's going on? We made everything
Speaker 2: until we didn't what we did. We gave up making
Speaker 2: things for making money. We have dollars and we have
Speaker 2: nothing to spend it on. We have dollars, we spent
Speaker 2: it on the wrong stuff. We are no longer the
Speaker 2: leader the way we once were. We're almost becoming obsolete,
Speaker 2: and our leaders are to blame. We voted for them.
Speaker 2: So is it them or is it us our executives
Speaker 2: to blame. We gave them free reign to do whatever
Speaker 2: they want. I'm thankful for it. I did whatever I wanted.
Speaker 2: We like things, but it seems that we forgot how
Speaker 2: to like ourselves. I ask you Republicans Democrats consider as
Speaker 2: Trump getting our dignity back? Are we applying common sense
Speaker 2: to the future of America and the world? I say
Speaker 2: it to as a co conspirator. I gave away technology.
Speaker 2: I remember in my guts something felt off. I was
Speaker 2: a kid. What did I know? We protected our technology
Speaker 2: and now we don't. We're proud of our expert Matisa's manufacture.
Speaker 2: We were a differentiator this whole country. We exchanged our
Speaker 2: knowledge for low priced goods. We made more money, our
Speaker 2: stock prices rose. Where is and was the American system?
Speaker 2: Where are our leaders? Where are visionaries? Where are protectors?
Speaker 2: Our protectors? We handed China our knowledge and now we're
Speaker 2: manned at them for taking it. They did nothing wrong
Speaker 2: we did. You want to talk about stealing, That's a
Speaker 2: different subject. I'm not equipped to talk with any authority
Speaker 2: on that. You want to talk a copyright infringement again,
Speaker 2: goes on, I'm not a proficient to talk about that.
Speaker 2: We talk about espionage. I'm sure it goes both ways,
Speaker 2: but I'm not able to talk about that. All I
Speaker 2: could talk about is what is America? Where are we going?
Speaker 2: We should eliminate tariffs, and let's make American decisions for
Speaker 2: Americans and remember fall seven times, Stand up eight, Good Night,