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Why is supplying the uniform industry different than manufacturing for the retail trade and why is this business attractive to me? Manufacturing uniforms for the US Army during the Korean Conflict is how my present day company was founded by my father who had been an inspector for the Quartermaster as the Defense Logistics Agency was then known. He knew how to successfully bid contracts and produce profitably for the military. When that war ended and government uniform contracts dried up he made the transition to ‘civilian’ clothing. That put us in the realm as a contractor for manufacturers selling to retail. Read More

“It’s not about shoes, it’s about customer service.” Says Zappos founder, Tony Hsieh. In a recent television interview about this dynamic mail order shoe company, sold recently to Amazon for $1.5 billion, we learn one lesson of success. Zappos customer service representatives are given the power to do whatever is necessary to make customers happy. One scene showed a rep speaking to a customer and going onto the Internet with her to locate a pair of shoes she had seen somewhere. We were told that the record for time spent on a customer service call was five and one half hours. While initially this seems to be an unbelievable amount of time think about the cost benefit relationship. Read More