Brian Smith

And...

In fact, it was the best of worlds and the worst of worlds.

You know, the best was that I'd created a black and charcoal, two new colors for the line, which all the sales reps had.

And that was right before Neil died.

So they were out in the field and black and charcoal were just kicking butt with all of their orders.

And we were getting 2,000 or 3,000 pairs of orders a week, and I was bundling them and sending them down to the manufacturer going, hey, George, get ready.

It's going to be a killer season.

I'm working on the financing.

And it got to be April, May, and I started thinking, who would benefit from me being in business?

Yeah.

I thought initially I thought, oh, the retailers.

But when I called my best retailers, they just laughed at me.

So, you know, you're one brand in 100 brands we have in this store, Brian.

Forget it, you know.

And then I hit upon, well, how about the tanneries?

You know, their business is selling sheepskin and I'm a huge user of sheepskin.

You were trying to get them to finance sheepskin.

Yeah.

So I sent a business plan down to several of them.

And one guy, Gordon Jackson, who owned a big tannery in Melbourne, he called me up and said, Brian, this looks fantastic.