Odell Beckham Jr., An Imperial Mickey Mouse, & Suit Supply's Nish de Gruiter¶
Published on Mon, 23 Sep 2019 12:45:25 +0000
Lots of watches, lots of laughter, and even a bit of controversy.
Synopsis¶
In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host Stephen Pulvirent kicks off with a deep dive into the Odell Beckham Jr. watch controversy. Joined by colleagues Kara, James, and Gray, they dissect how the Cleveland Browns wide receiver wore Richard Mille watches during NFL games, generating massive mainstream media attention. The story takes unexpected turns when OBJ wears what appears to be a fake sapphire Richard Mille, followed by the surprise revelation that he's become a brand ambassador for Daniel Wellington—leading to speculation that the entire controversy was an elaborate marketing stunt.
The main segment features an engaging conversation with Nish de Gruder, Vice President of Suit Supply, who brought the brand to the United States in 2011. De Gruder shares his journey from working at Brunello Cucinelli in Italy to opening Suit Supply's first U.S. store in Soho. He discusses his parallel passions for fine tailoring and watches, offering thoughtful perspectives on how both should complement one's personality rather than overpower it. The conversation covers everything from his first Rolex GMT Pepsi to his love of unexpected choices like wearing Swatch watches with tuxedos, emphasizing authenticity and comfort over ostentation in both style and watch collecting. Joe Thompson closes the episode with a fascinating historical tale about Emperor Hirohito's beloved Mickey Mouse watch—an inexpensive souvenir from Disneyland that he wore even to formal occasions and requested to be buried with, illustrating the deeply personal connections people form with their timepieces regardless of price or prestige.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | It's hard to explain, but it's sometimes you see for people what what works and what doesn't work. Like it's the same if one one guy comes into our store is like hey, I need a I need a powerful suit. Okay. So what does that mean in powerful suit? Is that mean does that mean a loud suit? And then they grab the heavy pinstripe. Like, is this your first suit? Yes, yes, my first suit. Like, no, you don't want to be become the guy in the pinstripe suit. Right. And that suit will wear you instead of the other way around. You want to be a powerful suit is a suit that's tailored well, that you feel comfortable in, and confident. And that's the same thing that you can relay back on on-on-on the watch game doesn't work if you if if it doesn't work for your personality. Hey everybody, this is your host Steven Pullmorant and this is Hodinky Radio. This week we've got Nishta Gruder, the Vice President of Suit Supply, who first brought the brand to the US back in 2011. The guy loves a good watch, a good suit, and a good glass of tequila. I've gotta say, I'm honestly shocked we weren't already friends. He makes for a great conversation and I really enjoy this episode. I think you're gonna love it. Then we've got our own Joe Thompson sharing a little piece of horological history about a special man and his special watch. But first, I don't know if you've been following the story, but Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has been getting a lot of attention for more than just his play on the field. There's a little bit of a horological controversy here. I was able to get Kara, James, and Gray into the studio to break down the story, and there's a lot to talk about. Let's get into it. This week's episode is presented by Grand Seiko. Stay tuned later in the show for a look at one of the four watches from the new Seasons collection, which is exclusive to the US. For more, visit GrandSako.com |
| Unknown | . So what are we talking about today, Stevie? What are we talking about? It's been a big week. Let's go. We got a lot going on. I can |
| Unknown | tell you're your weekend ready? Yeah. Yeah. James, you ready to go back to Canada? Get out of this country? Absolutely. He says with a hat pulled down over his face and a a big uh glass of coffee right there. |
| Unknown | That's one espresso and a little bit of milk. Looks pr |
| Unknown | etty good. Alright. Big week in watches. Uh first thing we gotta talk about. The thing I don't think we've stopped talking about all week is uh our good friend Mr. Odell Beckham Jr. More sports. More sports. Is this the sports cast now? Oop de oop. Oop de oop, baby. Yeah. Bringing it back. Yeah. U |
| Unknown | h have you guys both been following this story? Uh per peripherally, through the office and through like Slack and stuff. I don't know I know that football's a game of yard |
| Unknown | age. It's a game of yardage? I thought it was a game of inches. You gotta move the ball. Wait are we doing the yard season? In Canada or here? Are they different? Yeah, for the record we're talking about American football, not Canadian football. Several downs. It's you just gotta move the chain, that's the deal. |
| Unknown | All right. Let's get people up to speed here. So Odell Beckham Jr. used to play for the New York Giants. Used to love him. Now not on the New York Giants. Hate him. But uh what team is he on now? He's on the Cleveland Browns. Okay. Okay. So they're I think they're not very good. Ooh. There's some people who work for this company who are gonna be very not happy with you about that. I keep interrupting. But uh all right, so here's the basic story. So Oda Beckham Jr. gets traded from the New York Giants to the Cleveland Browns and he goes out to buy a watch to celebrate. He buys an RM eleven oh three McLaren, which is black and this crazy bright orange color. The Browns colors are brown and orange, kinda looks like the Browns colors, right? Got it. He's seen wearing it, he wears it to training camp. Everybody goes, oh, Odell got this crazy, you know, couple hundred thousand dollar watch in his new team's colors. Cool. Story seems pretty simple. Then about two weeks ago, he shows up to the first game of the season, his first game on the Cleveland Browns, and he shows up wearing the watch. Everybody's like, oh, interesting. He's got the watch on the field during during warm ups. Then he actually wears the watch during the game. Yeah. People were really upset about that. People were really upset about it. And like we've seen what? L Nadikeal does it, Serena does it. So we've seen it in tennis. It's a couple golfers, right? Who wear who wear watching. Some do, yeah. Yeah. Some don't for the balance |
| Unknown | . Yeah, right. Are you a golfer? Well, you know, as of as of as of late. |
| Unknown | Perfect. All right. We're coming back to that. But uh yeah, so we he wears he wears this watch on the field. So everybody notices it's crazy. He's wearing I think it's like a three hundred and fifty thousand dollar Richard Meal in his team colors on, the field, and it's all anybody wants to talk about. I mean, it's like ESPN's talking about it, Sports Illustrated's talking about it, you know, Yahoo Sports, every everybody in the sports world's talking about it, like ABC News, the New York Post, everybody's writing about this thing. I actually don't think I've seen so much like mainstream news chatter about watches in a long time. Have have either of you guys? No, definitely not. Uh probably not since the Newman Newman. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. That's a big splash. In what? Almost two years? Yeah. When was that, Gray? 2017? October 2017. Yeah. There we go. Burned on the brain. |
| Unknown | So story seems pretty simple, right? Like football player wears a watch on the field, everybody notices, like that's not that crazy, right? |
| Unknown | Why did so many people notice? Was it because it was a danger to the other players to be wearing the watch or like a danger to himself because I felt like there was a little bit of like, oh, this is it this is illegal and Twitter was freaking out |
| Unknown | . Right. Right. It's probably okay. Yeah, probably fine. And like the NFL that didn't stop the NFL from being mad about it. But they get upset about a lot of stuff. I don't even know that much about the sport. They like being upset. They're mad about the wrong things. Let's just be clear. Yes. True. So they're upset about this and like they threaten to fine him and he's like, I don't care, I'll pay the fines, like I'm gonna keep wearing my watches. Yeah, exactly. And like, okay, fine. So by this point it's like Tuesday after the first game of the season. This feels like the story's dead, right? It's like Odell's wearing a watch, he's gonna keep wearing a watch, fine, everybody paid attention. Then the second Sunday, uh, second game of the season, he's back in New York, he's playing the Jets, not the Giants, but he's back in New York, same stadium, out in Jersey. And uh he shows up to warm-ups wearing another Richard Mule. This time he's wearing a sapphire Richard Meal. Uh people think it was the the RM5601, uh, which is a skeletonized turbion, sapphire case, limited edition of five pieces, like pretty cool, pretty crazy watch. Uh back from like 2013, right? Like it's an old limited edition Richard Meal. Uh everyone's kind of like, wait, what? Like, okay. He ends up not wearing it during the game, just during warm-ups. Uh, and then in the postgame, some like some reporters are asking him about it, and uh his quote, I've got I've got it written down here, he says, uh I'm off of it, I don't really have any comment about it. I think Daniel Wellington might be a better watch than these. A little classier, not as flashy as this one. I'm just blessed. Huh. So here here''ss where where it gets weird, right? So he says this thing on Sunday night. Everybody's like, oh what the hell's going on? Tuesday, we're recording this on Thursday. Uh two days ago, uh our friends over at uh watch on ish post on Instagram that they think the watch is fake. And there's a whole bunch of close up photos of it, photos of the real watch. Uh this thing's fake. Like there's basically no way unless there's some huge confusion over these photos, which I don't think is true. Uh the watch isn't real. It's it's a fake re shared meal. And if you think about it, right, 2013, I looked this up, 2013, Odell Beckham is playing in his junior year at Louisiana State University, not making a professional football player's salary yet. Uh, Richard Meals tend to sell out pretty quickly. Uh, and the secondary market for like million dollar, two, two million dollar turbillons is like not huge. How how did he how would he even have gotten this watch? There were five of them and they were sold when he was in college. Well there's a well there' |
| Unknown | s a way Stevie. Okay. But I will say it looked superimposed on his wrist in the picture. Very blessed. Yeah, he's blessed to figure it out. Alright. But I will say when I saw the picture for the first time, I was like, oh, okay, he's wearing a reach on the window. Right. So it's it just gets weirder |
| Unknown | and weirder. And the first time around, when he when the NFL was like, Oh, you can't wear the watch, whatever, it's dangerous, his response was like it's plastic. Which like it's you know, if you want to get really nitty gritty, the the original. Well, the second one, yeah. The first one, presuming it's real, we don't know, but presuming it's real, uh is like composite whatever. It's like quartz and carbon TPT, |
| Unknown | like it it is a a derivative of plastic at some level, but it's yeah, it's some sort of a composite material that they create. I believe those models, the McLaren ones, are yeah, they're a mix depending on what part of the case structure you're talking about, of something called Court's TPT. And I could have this backwards, but I think the like the part that actually the wall of the case is quartz uh TPT and the the flank, the back and the top where the color is is uh carbon TPT, which allows them to get the color blend and that kind of banded wood finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So |
| Unknown | all this happens. We're now at like the end of Tuesday. So we're like nine days after this whole thing starts. And then Wednesday morning we come into the office and uh Ben has dropped into the uh company slack channel uh a post from Daniel Wellington's Instagram account announcing that Odell Beckham Jr. is their newest brand ambassador. Bo |
| Unknown | om. Boom boom boom. Boom. Just the price is right fail sound. Bum bum bum bum boom boom |
| Unknown | . Can we get you to do fully for this show? Of course, yeah. There's a day rate involved. But if you look at the Daniel Wellington Instagram account, they started posting new ambassadors back on like September tenth. Right. And the first one was a shadow of Odell. Interesting. It's not his face, it's not anything, but he's got that hair, right? And so the silhouette of his hair is there. So I don't think anyone in this community necessarily follows Daniel Wellington. Right. If you do great, no no no harm, no foul. Um and we all should be, because clearly they're marketing geniuses and have figured it out. Um, but the I think it's kind of interesting that nobody picked up on that and then all of a sudden he like is a Daniel Wellington ambassador. My question is, how much did they pay him to be a to be an ambassador? Not to get tacky, but like he's a big deal. He is he is a big deal. Uh they've also got Kendall Jenner.' Thevey got like a whole lineup of like real name name him. Is Taylor Swift an ambassador? I think so. Uh Haley uh Hilly |
| Unknown | Baldwin, Haley Bieber. They call they they list her as Hailey Bie Yeah, because she's married. Yeah. So it's her married name. Just just to get the date straight here. So it is September tenth that they posted his silhouette. The day he wore the first RM at the game was the eighth. So unless they're pulling stuff together real quick here, like unless they pulled this together in like less than 36 hours, like called him, got a contract signed, shot a thing that matches all the |
| Unknown | other campaigns. This is all a plant, right? I don't think so. I think what happened was is this has been under contract for a while because A, you can't get all those people in that and to shoot the same kind of photograph over and over and over again like that. What happened was is he probably did that to get publicity in advance. This is brilliant, right? Yeah, I think it's great. Like I can't I also think it's great for the watch community as a whole. I can't even be mad. |
| Unknown | What do you think, James? I want your take. Hot take. Come in hot. I can't I can't support anything involving Daniel Wellington. Okay. I'm I'm glad that they're gonna sell a few more million like junk watches. Um I don't know. Good for them, I guess. It's it' |
| Unknown | s a bold move, right? Like they they essentially used or it is assuming this is true. Like let's let's |
| Unknown | be abundantly clear so that uh I don't get it. Yeah, like in terms of the motives and and what we know to be true. Like what like I think the stuff that's easy to know is like they shot the original photos because they were other similar photos with other people. So you can probably date that back to find out who their first ambassador to step out was and we'd be able to know the photos existed before then. Yeah. If we cared. But we're gonna say like the photos existed before he wore the McLaren. I think that's probably a fair shoot. Yeah. So maybe he knew that he wasn't gonna be able to wear McLaren on the field anymore, and he thought it'd be fun to start his season if I if I was him and I had a cool McLaren that also matched my new jersey, but I also knew that I had a multi-million dollar contract with um the Kmart of watch brands. Um and don't get me wrong, I have no problem that he's taking money from these people. Everybody should take the money that they can get. I just don't like the watches. I don't like what they represent within the community. Um I don't think that like we I hate openly on Invicta, but I think that Invicta is an operating still standing gateway drug to actual mechanical Swiss made like nice appreciating watches. I feel like these are a turning point where somebody could be stepping into the pool that we swim and drown in. They feel the cool water just enough to just enough to change the temperature of their world and they pick up one of these sixty dollar watches and they move away thinking like, hey, look at this great watch I bought. I actually think they're three hundred dollars. Goodness |
| Unknown | sakes. Guys, the look of disappointment on James's face right now. And they probably cost twenty five cents to make. No joke. Yeah, I'm sure they're like nine bucks. Yeah |
| Unknown | . Dwell on this too much, but I wrote a story for Business Week uh back in 2015. That was a good story. Thank you. I appreciate that. Uh they didn't think so. But uh yeah, I uh I wrote a story about them back in the day, and like it's it's actually from a business standpoint, a crazy company. They went from zero to two hundred million dollars in sales in five years. They own their own factories. They're like completely vertically integrated. It's crazy. And like you said, like these watches must cost them next to nothing to make. And they're a marketing company. And like whatever we think of the product, which, you know, James, I'm inclined to come up closer to you on this. Uh the marketing here is is insane. Like they basically leveraged the most kind of like statusy out there, like buzzy watch brand you could, like hyper luxury, super cool, cult following, like everybody wants to be seen wearing an RM. And they leveraged that to sell $300 whatever quartz watches made in China, that's that's a gutsy move. Like that's that's not something to take lightly. And like again, to be totally clear and to make sure that you know I don't get calls from our you know COO upset that lawyers are calling. Uh most of this is speculation. Like we have I have reached out to uh Daniel Wellington for comment. Uh I should be hearing from them hopefully uh in the next like twenty four hours after we're recording this. Uh and there will have already been by the time you're hearing this, will have already been a story on the site, which we'll link to in the show notes with with any of that info. So you may actually at this point know more than we know when we're recording this. Um but I spoke to the folks at Rechard Meal yesterday and they uh politely declined to comment. They said that they have nothing to say on the matter. So Ye |
| Unknown | ah. Yeah. They just need people to buy the room. I mean the watch they just announced was is like a needless sliver over a million dollars. Like like you know when you see when you see those numbers where you're like this watch the watch that it's the RM uh fifty oh four with Kimi Raikkonen uh the Formula One driver and uh and the watch is one million sixty three thousand dollars and you're like you could make it one one you couldn't one flat what's the sixty three for oh man it, drives me |
| Unknown | we we won't go too far off topic, but uh pricing. Paddock does their pricing so that it's dynamic, so as currencies fluctuate, they they periodically update it and they do it as close as possible to prevent arbitrage. So like if you go to and it's all set in Swiss franc. So they're flat numbers Swiss and then they're not flat numbers everywhere else. So like if you go up to Tiffany here in New York and you want to go buy a Calatrava, that or like a Nautilus, right? Like that Nautilus could be thirty-two thousand six hundred and fifty-one dollars. That one would make me not buy the watch. Like, who the hell do you think you are charging that one dollar? |
| Unknown | Like, screw you. Come on. I I I kinda like if it was all not zeros, I think that a million dollars the million dollar sum is way more fun if it was one million one hundred sixty three thousand seven hundred and twelve dollars. This I like way more because it sounds like a price is right number. Okay. Or uh or like a number. Like like I just don't know where they come up with the sixty three. I don't know anyone prices any product. I've never tried to do this. But I feel like at a certain point, if you reach our mail, you're making 30 of something. There is a little bit of it that's just kind of like 1 million sixty-few thousand. For everyone since the magic of radio, uh you can't see James. James is just like shrugging and looking around the room. They're in a boardroom, they've made this really crazy watch. They're in a boardroom and they're and they're like, All right, well Kimmy's on board, so we're gonna launch it at the Singapore Grand Prix. There's gonna be a huge party, we're gonna make thirty of these things. Um so what do you want to charge for the other twenty nine? And they're like, Well it's gotta be a million dollars, right? And they're like, Yeah, a million dollars is fine. We got other million dollar watches though. Have we done a million sixty three? And they're like, I don't think so. And they're like, all right, well, there's our number. Put it in the press release. And there's my other my lap my final point on Reshard mill before we move on to whatever. They put their prices in the email they send us. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. If you're listening to this and you work for a watch company, just give us the price in S. Every single press email I have to I don't sometimes you don't even read 'em. You just go like control F, dollar sign. It's not there. Reply. Could I have the price in USD? Thanks. Bye. Yeah. Yeah. If no dollar sign or no use of CHF in text. This isn't this |
| Unknown | is another reason I'm gonna I'm gonna give Reshard Meal some props. Not just because they give us the price, but because ReShard Meal does not generally, do price upon request despite the fact that their watches are hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Per my personal take, if you're not willing to publicly say the price of your product, that tells me you're embarrassed at how much you're charging for the case. Or you're not |
| Unknown | going to or you haven't made the decision for the 63,000. Price upon request they just throw a dart at a board when you're coming. Ye |
| Unknown | ah. All right. Since by this point the readers probably know more than we do, uh let's call it story and development. Yeah, story on development. We're gonna call the OBJ chat. Before we move on, I have one question for the three of you. All right. If you're playing a professional sport, so if if car is playing golf, Stevie's playing hockey, James is curling. |
| Unknown | What what watch are you wearing? Ooh. I want to switch my sport to tennis though. Okay. Go ahead. Tennis is a pretty cool sport. I would take the Rafa RM because I also need to be lightweight to get my own but I would make it sapphire. Am I allowed to pick the same watch? Ple |
| Unknown | ase no. Okay. But mine's sapphire, it's non it's made up watch. I don |
| Unknown | 't want to add any weight to my graphical choice. Yes |
| Unknown | . I don't want to add any weight to my Formula One car. Yeah. You don't need it with those cars, they're so heavy. Yeah. Plus I eat so many like hamburgers, you gotta you gotta you gotta take the weight off where you can't get I was gonna say James, the deal is you order one double double animal style and I have to wear eight watches from if I just cut back on In and Out. Who's the one who uh talks about that in auto racing? Is it the guy who works at Porsche? Uh Andreas Breuniger, he runs R S for Porsche, he's like, these the clients are so crazy about shaving ounces off of a car. He's like, just go on a diet. Like at a certain point at a certain point it's so much work to cut, say, 20 pounds out of a car, especially like an RS, like a car they've already like doesn't have door handles, has a little piece of nylon to close the door. Like it's like you can lose 20 pounds. The car will go a little bit faster if you're that worried about it. I mean these are the guys that like they'll check the box to not have air conditioning in the car. Oh. Because it weighs X number of pounds for the air conditioning system. It's just crazy. Alright, you can leave a watch in the pit. Yeah, solid gold, royal oak. It's the same answer for anything I'm ever gonna do. I wanna I wanna an uh a really early solid gold, yellow gold, royal oak with the gray dial. Should we should we crowdfund this? No, it's not a wild thing to crowdfund. Leave us a leave us a comment on the post if you would contribute towards James's uh solid gold or if you would take the amount of money in your mind and give it to a charity. I do not need said watch. I won't I want it badly. I |
| Unknown | don't need it. Uh all right, I'm gonna go with an RM two. Uh I'm gonna go with the sixty seven oh two, which is the uh the sprinting watch. Yeah. Uh oh yeah, that's cool. So they they do it in the Johan Blake colors, they do it in um a blue red for a French dude. They do it in the blue, red, and that's the one I would take. It's pretty cool. I'm a diehard uh everybody everybody listening to the show probably knows this by now. I'm a diehard New York Rangers fan. Uh season's about to start. Really excited. Uh so I'd have to go with the blue, blue, red, and white one for that. But uh it's slim, it would fit under a glove nicely, it'd be easy. Alright, so the OBJ story is still developing, watches in sports, RM seems like the overwhelming favorite. Mm-hmm. Uh we'll check back in on this. I think I think there's gonna be more to this story. We've been talking a lot about watches and sports lately. Yeah. You're a sports lady now. I guess. Sorry. Uh we like sports, we don't care, who knows. Yeah. Fine. Oop de oops. James is moving chains, you're doing oop de oops. We got we got everybody. I think Odell did the biggest oop de oob of all. We |
| Unknown | gotta get we gotta make that like an official slip. We gotta like trademark that for you. Oop toop. It's a real thing. Okay. Uh |
| Unknown | Giffy said so. Oh, that's true. It did. All right. Uh sweet. Thanks for doing this, guys. This was fun. And uh yeah, everybody will leave the uh links to any relevant stories down in the show notes and uh yeah I have a funny feeling this isn't over. Carl looks so upset about that. Bum bum bum bum Next up, my conversation with suit supplies Nish de Gruder. Thanks so much for joining us. Good to have you here. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. We've uh we got connected actually through Mark Cho, right? From uh from the armory. Yes. It's uh I feel like it's funny. I feel like I've I've known about you and and suit supply for a long time. And it's kind of crazy that we haven't met until now. Kind of running in the same orbit. But uh a lot of guys that that that's been on your podcast, like I know him. Like, hey, this guy. And it's a good it's a good community in that one. Absolutely. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. It's actually the the fun part is that um when we just started out here in 2011, I had um you know when the when there was the internet was still, you know, up and coming. Well still it's but then you had I met this group of guys who called themselves the internet, the hashtag menswear guys. Oh man hashtag menswear days. Exactly. Those guys. And and and I'm like, okay, you the and then I start to dive in more a bit, and then that's the moment I start to know Sean Hodgkins and Jeremy. I met him and like all these all the guys who were Gian and remember that those days? Like it was fun. Like they're all like roaming around so oh writing about Stell and Yeah. I remember when that when that all started, I was I'm gonna date myself here, but I was still in college and I I had a menswear blog at the time. I was super into it. I knew that that's what I what I wanted to do, but I wasn't in New York. I was in the Midwest. I was in St. Louis and then Chicago. And I remember just like you see these photos of these guys roaming around Soho, all with like, you know, the Mismo backpacks. And like it was it was like a very particular look at that time. Uh and I was just like, man, someday, like someday I'm gonna get there. And yeah, that was a really interesting time kind of in the the evolution of of menswear on the internet. Absolutely, because in in we just started here on the corner in Soho with a second floor space and we were like what is how do we get our name out there? And what's the what do people follow and who are the insta who who do people read? Yeah. And those were the days, the early days when the Instagrams were up and coming. And when when when you had three thousand followers, you were like, Oh, you're a big guy. Yeah, that was I mean that was huge thing., yeah So and and but we had people coming in into the store with those Instagram handles or tumblers, like hey, I want to look like this. Do you have something like this? So instead of the magazines or instead of the people uh you know brought in their their moms and their mom like your dad wearing a suit like this so you've got to wear it like that as well like no ma I wanna wear it like this yeah and then you saw the pictures from Pete and from all these all these big bloggers, or you saw, you know, uh Tommy Tan, like all the you know Those are the days where like the coolest thing you could possibly do was get photographed by Scott Schumann, Tommy Tan, or Justin Chunk. Absolutely. If one of those three guys took your picture and put it on the internet, you were done. Yeah. That was the holy grill. It was like, what? Yeah. Yeah. It was incredible. Exactly. It's also funny because like you said, at that time it was Tumblr. Like it wasn't this is pre-Instagram. Everybody had Tumblers. Tumblers. And then there was we I think we've talked about this on the show before, but and then there was there was fuck yeah, menswear. Yeah, which was a whole huge thing. Yes. You're right about that. And everybody wondered who it was, and then found out it was Lawrence. The whole thing Lawrence. Yeah. Yeah. What a guy. Exactly. He's he's amazing. I mean he's still he's running uh Grailed right now, I think. Yeah, which is pretty incredible. But still the the whole that group like uh people are still like they they they do pretty decent and pretty good for themselves right they yeah everybody is still doing cool stuff and uh yeah it's cool that this whole generation of young guys who were all really into clothes and style and craftsmanship were all able to kind of like hit it at the right time as the internet was was becoming super mainstream and as you know, fashion on the internet was becoming mainstream. And they all found way And and we didn't know in the beginning that we thought about who who would buy a suit on the internet. Right. And I heard from a lot of corners in the industry, like, yeah, focus on your online business. It's it's gonna be a thing. And the and people are very confident in buying something online. I'm like, but who will buy a suit online? You'll be surprised. And and and you know truth be told it's it's that's the it's one of our biggest uh growing businesses we have that's wild it's thirty five percent of our business is online thirty five percent wow that's actually really that is surprising to me. I mean I buy everything online, but I don't trying to think, I don't think I bought a suit online. I know, but it's also convenient. I see a lot of guys buying two or three suits in different sizes. It's free returns. Like it that's uh it's okay. But it's also fun to track, and that's a whole different discussion. To see the bloggers or the influencers who are uh buying our product and then uh shooting and then return it. Oh really? Yeah. And some of the biggest out there, and they don't tag you and it but you see, oh, these guys. I you can see the name, like we have we run on full Salesforce. So everything that you can you can see, you have some insight there. That's really funny. Wow. Oh, there you wouldn't be surprised if that a lot of people do that. They just buy it, shoot content and then return it. That's super funny. I would never have guessed. Yeah. You mentioned that that you guys came to New York for the first time in 2011, right? Yes. So I'm like I used to uh actually I I used to intern at Cuccinelli in Italy. And I was working in Solomeo for a while. And then one day I met the president from Cuccinelli in Solomeo. And he's like, What the hell are you doing here? In like a thick American accent. He's like, Yeah, I work, I do it internship. I'm trying to learn some Italian. He's like, You gotta come with me to to New York because that suits you better than than than Solomeo. I was moving from Solomeo, where there's a couple of thousand people living, to New York City. A little bit different. There was like, what there was like a moment for myself that that it was so crazy. Like you came into the city. And then working for Cuccinelli was you know, was it was an amazing experience and traveled around the United States opening shops and built-up menswear brand. And I remember one day I had a wedding from a friend that I met, and I lost my suitcase on the west coast. So I asked the guys, Hey, where can I find a decent suit that wouldn't break the bank? Because you know, Cuccinelli stuff was always yeah out there. Yeah, it's not something you go like impulse by when your suitcase gets lost. Yeah, exactly. And then I went to J. Crew and I went to a bunch of other different brands, and I couldn't find something that was fit fit properly, that was, that had the right aesthetics, that that did tailoring on the spot, and it wasn't there. And that that day I was like, hey, the guy who started food supply in Holland, uh it like he should come to we should bring this to the United States. And I met him on the PT, o.kay And um and he's like well known, of course, in Holland for what he built by back then. And well, you know, we started to talk, and we you know it's it's it's when you start a business together and you you know, you start dating a little bit, and we you know, he came to New York a couple of times and he saw the business with Cuccinelli rebuilt. And then one day uh we we found the right spot here in Soho on Broom Street. It was a second-floor store. Th wereere apartments and there was a grocery store downstairs. I don't know if you remember Goumet Garage. Yeah. And uh and with a stairs, steep staircase. And you know, we'll start and then we opened our first door and uh it was quite interesting like that that you you know in the industry when you were at the coach at the beautiful hill and then they're like oh why you go to suit supply it's crazy like trust me it is so nice it is a nice product. It is and I f and and I I I have I believe in it. And I felt it that there was an opportunity for something that was not there yet. And um at that time though, suit supply was already successful. It was always successful I was gonna say because I think the first time I encountered suit supply was maybe 2009 in London. Yeah, the bug was right off. Yeah. Right off Savile Row. And I I remember I think I bought something there and then came back here and was like, oh, I'll I want to go get another jacket and couldn't. It wasn't here. And I I was like, oh, wait. Like I I had no idea that it wasn't already global. It kind of felt like something that should be. So it's it's not that surprising to hear that like you got here and were like, Oh yeah, like this should exist here, obviously. So it's so crazy. Or think about that back in the day. And it was um we started with one store. Right. And now how many do you have in the US? Uh in North America, so Canada we have forty five stores. Okay, wow. So it's coast to coast, all the major cities. We have uh Toronto, Kel of Montreal, we have uh Mexico City. Okay. So all the from Vegas, LA, St. Louis. Okay. Man, St. Louis, I could have used that like So you started in 2011, you opened the door, and kind of what what was was the reception like? Like again, it was this was like the heyday of online menswear. Like did people kind of welcome you with open arms or in the beginning the the beauty uh we were lucky that the Wall Street Journal did a blind testing on suits and we had to submit a suit, take the labels out, and there are a few there were two FIT professors who were just cutting it up and look at that quality. And it was uh Hugo Boss, Armani, Jacob, like a bunch of people submitted a suit, and then one day, like a week later, or two weeks later, I think, there was it it became front page news on the Wall Street Journal that suit supply got voted number one next to an Armani three and a half thousand dollar suit. Not bad. On the off duty section, like a full pager. Not bad at all. And then and then and then we had a lines in front of the door. Like really yeah, it was it was crazy. And that got us an instant stamp of recognition. And people just came from all over New York to to come visit us and um from Chicago, DC people came in and they they just hey what's that suit supply all about? What the the word got out, and um and the the first guy who actually supported our business hard was Jim Moore. Like, and I knew him from the Cuccinelli days. Well, all the other editors were like, they didn't mess around with Sutsupa. And Jim Moore was the first guy who was like, you can't. And for people who may not know J,im Moore was the creative director of GQ for like decades. Decades. He's absolutely legend. And and um I can't thank him enough for for supporting us that well. And then we had Mark Anthony Green, who was working voor Wil Wells who was all the whole GQ team came in and gave us love and they know. Then Matt shot a portrait van Zoet Supply.. Oh yeah, yeah You know, he was on the podcast as well as well. Yeah. And he came in and so it was, it became such a thing, and slowly, it, you know, we were we were in in the zone. We just succeeded and we and we could just made nice products and people were supporting us and yeah I'm very we are very lucky that uh that you know that that we got adapted in the in the mensor industry and and especially not because of of course we had good relationships and whatnot, but it all comes down to product and and doing something different, being a disruptive. Um, you know, we don't we don't take ourselves too serious and we have fun doing it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's that's one of the things that I've always really liked about suit supply is it's it's fun, it doesn't take itself too seriously. It feels young. But the like you said, the the craftsmanship is there. Like the objective quality of the product is there. And they're really at those price points, most of what you get is to be honest, it's it's crap. Like it's it's just it's glued together. You're getting, you know, everything's machine stitched. It's really not even the stuff where, you know I think a lot of brands have have I say smartened up but like you know they put the like faux functioning buttonholes and it's like it's all these things that make it look like it's quality but like you then look at the buttonhole and it was like sewed on and punched out with a stamp. And like how how do you guys try to balance those things and make sure that the that you can offer that kind of quality without the prices getting crazy? Our product, and if you think about a traditional retail model, like the big boxes, there is a manufacturer or a brand, then the brand has an agent, then the agent goes to another agent overseas, and then there is a department store or specialty store. So for the before the product hits the store, there are four people who are making a cut. And when it hits the store, the store has uh buys uh full-page ad spreads. They have a very uh uh large executive board that needs to fly uh first class all over the world and attend trade shows and whatnot. And so at the end, the prices for all that is going back into the product, and the consumer pays for it. Yeah, and then they have very expensive big stores that they pay fifth avenue rent, or so all these prices are getting amortized back into the product, and the final consumer pays for it. So in our model, which is vertically integrated, we design manufacture, we do everything in-house and then we s and we buy our fabrics in Italy at the big mills, the Bia, the Barberes, Ferla, Lo Piana, Zegna. And then we'll ship it to our factory and from our factory straight to the store. And if you see our stores, they're always a bit more off the beaten path. So we're not on Broadway, but we are just right off broom on the second floor. So that saves us a bunch of rent. And while instead of spending the money on ads and all that stuff, we just spend money on developing a very nice product. And our value proposition, like it's you get a very high quality product at an attainable price point because there's all these other things are not being you know calculated back into the to to the we don't have those expenses. Yeah. And we can create a bigger floorprint for a nicer experience. And think about a suit is never an impulse buy. Right. You're not roaming the street like, oh, let's buy a suit today. So you have a very designated customer. I know some people who might do that. Surprised with the service and and the guys like you can sell a suit from any range price, but if the guy who sells you the suit and who doesn't put the pins on the right spot, who doesn't tailor it well, it still looks like crap. So what we do is we train all our guys who are working with us in an in our internal internal suit school, which is based in Dallas. It's um so it's a two-week uh training on how to pin, but also how to style, what to wear, what not to wear, how to polish. En all that together makes it into a very fun experience. En we do the tailoring on site for the basic alterations while you wait, because it shouldn't take that long. And guys are also not uh guys who are plan ahead, like oh I have a wedding in a few days, like I need something. Like he he just told me, like I got a I got a wedding coming up next week. Yep. And and uh so it's women plan it months in advance. Guys don't do that. So yeah, because full full disclosure, I uh I guess it was two years ago the day we flew out our, team flew out to SIHH in January. I realized I had packed one few too many pairs of pants. And I literally walked around the corner, bought a pair of pants, had them hemmed, and put them in my suitcase and went to the airport. There you go. Yeah. Well, and that's happens every day. Because you'd think with the amount I pack, I would know how to pack, but turns out I have no idea. But that's that's all guys uh uh uh uh struggle with that, and that's you know to do that and to offer that service is just something new. People start talking about it. And uh you know, that's how we we we we capture the market and slowly uh became a bigger thing. What what would you say are the sort of like technical and construction things that for you are the are the most important things that set your jackets or or a quality suit uh apart from so we always w the lesser stuff. With 100% natural fabrics, fibers in this case. So we work nice uh meals, and then everything in the interior is a floating canvas. So a canvas is something it's like the The heartbeat of the suit. So if you if you don't have something that's canvass, it doesn't give it shape. So it's made from it's made from camel and horse hair. So think about a hair shaped back in its original shape. So it gives it suit its fit. And if something is glued, you cannot pull in the side seams and make sure it fits, then you get a boxy look. That's where the word boxy comes from. It's also over time when you dry clean it, it holds the shape better. You know it it''ss something that's made with soul and I think um if you look if you look closer to our product you see that there is there's uh yeah people people looked at it. it It's not like it's made. Th'eres the buttonholes, the density of the of the yarn, the the boat-shaped breast pocket, uh, the molten, like the after dinner spit on the pants. I can keep I can talk about for hours about that stuff, but that makes it nice and that sets us apart and uh it's funny because hearing you talk about a suit I mean I got like I said I got my start in in the menswear world and so when I'm looking at watches I'm always I still always have that in the back of my mind. And it's funny hearing you talk about the construction of a suit, it doesn't surprise me at all that you're a watch guy. Like it just it feels natural. It's that same sort of attention to detail, but like not just for its own sake. Like it has to kinda like give you something too. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And did you were you in interested in clothes first and watches first? Did they kinda come together? Came together. Okay. It came absolutely together. Like um I got excited about watches when I was working in a restaurant in in Holland and the manager there who who's who's like my mentor in the early days in life said he got me excited about watch. And he's like, You know what, Nies? If you see a guy with a certain watch, you know, you can already envision what they're gonna order in drinking. And you can also see what kind of car they drive. And then and then he every time when he walked in, oh, there's a guy with um with a vintage Rolex, he was driving a Defender and then he was ordering a Kraftbeer. So, you know, and then you had the guys with the golden Rolex came in for Bacardi and Coke, and they drove uh drove a Mercedes-Benz, you know. So and in Hollywood, you you had that you can really put everything together, and then over time it became just a hobby and just to you know find out what he's gonna drink. And now we'll look at this week's sponsor. By the time you're hearing this, I'm sorry to say, summer's gonna be officially over. Monday, September 23rd is the autumnal equinox, marking the transition to fall. If you're feeling a little nostalgic though, you're in luck. As part of its U.S. exclusive seasons collection, Grand Seiko is offering the SBGH 271, a watch representing the summer season to keep the warm weather vibes flowing. 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So did you did you have a moment then where you were like okay I got I gotta get a watch now like this is this what was what was that watch for you he was where he was like he was wearing the Pepsi dial and and I like I needed to have that watch, you know, and then and it was so cool. And um, but it was you know back then kind of work, and and he said, You know, for your birthday, you you get I will give you your first watch, and that was uh uh I remember that was a technomarine. Okay. Yeah. Like a cool like that you can change those bands, but it was really it worked in the environment and it worked for my style back then. Cool. And and then slowly I was saving money for one day. I would get that Pepsi dial. And did it happen? Oh, yeah, it happened. Yeah. No, it took a few years. That's amazing. That's great though. It happened. What was it like when you got that and you got to like put it on for the first time? You have no idea. Yeah. I had I tried all my outfits to see whether it worked. And then I and then I start, you know, the internet became bigger and bigger. So you gotta start researching the reference numbers. And then you want you're gonna dive a bit deeper in it. Yeah. Then and then you and then you get into a rabbit hole about movement. Oh yeah. And then and then you start collecting books and you you you ordering your own kid to open it up and he's like, do never open your own watch up, do never but And what year when when would that have been? That was twenty-four? Twenty-three? Twenty yeah, twenty-four. I had my first twenty-third, like right before I moved to Italy. Okay. Because the Italians and watches is not a like the vintage watch in Italy is yeah it's um yeah so fun. I remember that. I still have the watch. Yeah? Yeah do you wear it all the time? Yeah, so every once in a while. That's awesome. I break it out. Yeah. Yeah. How uh how did your watch collecting kind of evolve from there? Oh, but like it becomes obsessive. Of course. Because you're gonna sc you're gonna roam the internet, and I think the pleasure of researching is almost better than owning it. It's funny, you're not the only person I've heard say that, and probably even on this show, if I think about it, is like the hunt is a part of what makes it special. Exactly. Because you've always you ha and then you have to worry. I remember when I had that the Pepsi the GMT and a week later I was looking at what's the next watch? Yeah. What's the next watch gonna be? And then what's the uh what what what what's the thing I'm gonna do? And like researching and then for me back then was like the holy grill was was the AP, the offshore. Because I saw a guy in a restaurant back then who had it on the Keflor strap. It was the coolest guy in Holland. And um AP was the thing. Yeah. And still, yeah, still. I mean, yeah. And then you know uh got that eventually like uh saved up some money for the for the AP and then I swapped it into rose gold one and then you know you just started to it gets big like the more like even like you always look at things you can't afford. Yeah. And then and then you can, and then you're like, fuck, you know, up the next one is the pattern. The next one is the proteck at 5980. Like that's uh and then I remember very well like I saw that for the for the first time on a guy in Greenwich had the 5980 on a nice brown strap, like whoa, and then you start opening the patek into the pathek world and the books, and the and there's so much to read about it, and the history made me even want to have it more. And that was before the patek, like the Nautilus hype. It was still like back then you could buy a 59.80 for 30. Like it was it's a lot a lot of money I don't get it, but it's it was still decent, it was a fair price. And you and you could get one. You could get one. And the thing is now, even if you have the cash in hand, you probably can't get it. Forget it. Yeah. Forget it. It's uh it's uh I trust me. I I and then and then think and and I think about back in the day like and and it's not it's like six seven years ago. Not that long ago. No. Where you were it was all reasonable and uh but you know, you buy something, you sell something, and then then I really wanted I wanted to tr to mess around with like uh got excited about Richard Millet. Yeah. Like, oh you got that Melee, you know, that's a whole different league you're entering. That's a that is a whole other ballgame. Yeah. Exactly. And then I got my hands on the RM11. And then I had it, and I and I hated it so much. Really? Yeah. Why? I I think I at the end I'm like I just wanted to like accomplish that I could afford a melee, but it was and and of course it's But the joy that I had with with with the with the Pepsi dial or with the with the nice AP, I didn't got that when I had the RM11. Interesting. So you got rid of it? Yeah. Yeah. I I couldn't tell my wife. Like she doesn't like it that's the one. That's one you have to keep secret. Yeah. That's one you don't talk about. Exactly. But it was uh it was it was it was fun, but I I had it like I think not even a month. Do you cycle your watches a lot? Do you find like you buy something, sell something, or is it yeah? Uh uh some like I have a few pieces that I really keep um The A-piece I have like I keep this this the really statement pieces. Okay. But then it's you got excited about. Like I have a I have a beautiful duometric which I which I love but and I find out I never I never wear it and then you're like but I looked at it I think hundred times before I bought it and in the shop I like wow and then at the end like I never wear it. So what are you you g gonnaonna do? Like,'re sell it? And I'm like, right now, I I'm I was I'm still looking at a uh not still I'm I'm looking at a 5170 Patek. Okay. And like it's it's uh then you think like you're gonna escape money together and you like you see uh you start doing the game like okay what do I have to sell to buy this? Is this gonna go up? It's like you you're constantly playing this like game in your own head. Exactly. Yeah. And which I think we all at the office here know very well. It's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. It sounds like your watch tastes also skew more towards sport watches, which is funny because you're usually wearing a suit and tie. Yes. Do you like where something about wearing sport watches with a suit? Yes. 100%. Like what I like to wear with a suit is the um the the unexpected. Okay. Like and I will go into a little deeper why I choose this watch because I think a lot of my friends, guys, like it's a Rolex is just like you're gonna save money for it, and you when you have it, you have it, but what are you gonna wear in between, like and and I think the the more dressed up you are, the I think it's nicer to just mess around with with different watches that fit your personality. And I think a watch should never be louder than your personality, and if you wear it in the right way, I'm like, oh, that's cool. Like, I like to wear a gold royal oak with a t-shirt and jeans and a pair of sneakers. That works. But if you wear a blue suit all dressed up and you have another gold watch, like then you take yourself, I've personally think a little bit too serious. And I made that mistake too. Like you look you look at me. It becomes more of a thing that uh like a lot of guys ask meed like Nice, what what do you what are you what kind of watch do you recommend um and then like I think this this Volstock is a hidden gem yeah that's a real that's a watch nerd watch like that's something like you walked in with that and I was like oh okay this guy this guy is this guy's deep yes yeah exactly about that watch so uh this this is a Russian diver and it's it's actually it's uh the fun part like it's made it I think in the in in in in the second world war for for like uh divers. I I I read the story on on ho actually you guys okay were the first guys that I read about this okay back in eleven or twelve. You did you guys did a whole article about this watch. We'll see if we can find I'm I'm wondering if we can link that up. We'll try to dig it up. We'll see if we can find that story. And I read it and at the end, sixty-nine dollars. Like I need to get this watch. So I scouted out the internet and I found it on it it comes out of Russia on eBay. And I'm walking around with this watch and literally everybody that I chat with. And oh no, the guy in in in in Sydney, remember that? The guy, yeah, the guy in Sydney. He's like, wow, what kind of watches that look so good? And it has weight to it, the dial is good, it has the plexiglass. Do you put it on the native strap because the original, the original strap doesn't look good? Okay. So you have to take the strap off and throw like a good NATO on it. But even the crown, like the whole it's just it's a warz warts. Yeah. How does your collection sort of shake out between vintage and modern? Do you do you do both? I have two vintage watches, two Rolexes. And um other than that, it's it's modern. I I I wear when I do a tuxedo, I wear this twenty-five dollar swatch. I have a lot of swatch, like old swatches. Okay. Like the colorful ones. And I brought actually my favorite one with me. Oh perfect. You guys because it's always easy to talk about the tech and APs and all the expensive stuff, but like like this one. This is cool. We'll have a photo of this. If you uh if you want to see this watch, you should go look at the story that goes with this podcast on Hodinky. This is awesome. And I wear this with a tuxedo. Really? And that's cool. Literally, everybody asked me, like, what kind of watch is that? And it's it's it's it's it's a good conversation piece. Yeah. And I got this from an artist uh in Holland that that it that you know gave it as a gift, and um, and you know, I have a bunch of them from my father-in-law, and um my my dad gave me a first swatch, like the flick vlak. Yeah, yeah. And so those are like they're monumental pieces. And I think if you can pull this off in the right way, like it n like that that's that's the cool factor. Yeah, I mean this is this is with a tuxedo, this is a blue swatch with a white dial that has uh yellow and blue and red and green on it, and the strap is white with like spaceships and Saturn and stars all over. Like this is not a quiet uh quiet watch. But if you wear it in a very serious look works, and then of course, if you want to wear like a vintage patek or whatever, it's then that's expected. That's true, yeah. But to do this is like everybody will start a conversation about that. Yeah, it's true. So um that that's what I like. And then with with cotton with cotton um suits I like to wear NATO straps, uh we're with with with um more wool suits. I like to wear leather. Like it depends on the on the weather as well outside if it's too sweaty out you don't want to wear a leather watch strap yeah agree so um yeah how do how do you think watches factor into to kind of dressing more broadly like how how should guys think about the way that watches factor into how they get dressed? Um good question. Like I think it it's it's a big misconception that um a watch makes the outfit. Because it's it's it's like if if it doesn't work for your personality again and it doesn't work for your style, it doesn't look good. It's the same like a woman who wears who wears high heels but can't walk on it. It doesn't look good. You know? Doesn't matter how expensive the shoes are, it's the same with the watch, and that's how I felt with the Richard Millet. Like it did didnn''tt work for me. Yeah. And that's that that's a big misconception. And of course a watch can make a whole outfit, but it needs to work for the person and the style. You know, it's uh and so whet wherhether it's watches or the suit you're wearing or the other clothing you're wearing or your shoes, you think it's it's really about kind of finding what works for you? Correct. Okay. And also because o of course it works it needs to work for your budget as well, but it also needs to work like, it's not that. Um, the same thing with that what I told earlier about the guy with the AP offshore with the with the Keflar strap worked for that guy, yeah. And when I had it on my wrist, it looked completely ridiculous. Yeah, I could not pull off an offshore on a Kevlar strap. I would look I would look like an idiot. Exactly. But you know what I mean? Like and if you look at the whole the Schwarzenegger and and the and the the it works for it works for these guys. Yeah. Or the end of days. Like it works for like if it's it needs to work for if you see like oh you're a vintage kind of guy, you will drink a gin tonic. You know, like it's you know, here you uh it it works. And um yeah it's it's hard to explain, but it's sometimes you see for people what what works and what doesn't work. Like it's the same if one one guy comes into our store, it's like, hey, I need the powerful suit. Okay. So what does that mean a powerful suit? Is that mean does that mean a loud suit? He's like, I don't know. And then they grab the heavy pinstripe. Like, is this your first suit? Yes, yeah, it's my first suit. Like, no, you don't want to be become the guy in the pinstripe suit, right? And that suit will wear you instead of the other way around. Like, you want to be a powerful suit, is a suit that's tailored well, that you feel comfortable in and confident and then it and it's the same thing that you can relay back on on the watch game like if if you wear a a gold Rolex or whatever 162 twenty doesn't work if you if if it doesn't work for your personality. 'Cause then you know it's yeah, it's funny. Yeah, it's funny because talk talking about the loud like you don't want to be the guy in the pinstripe suit, right? It makes me it makes me think of what we were talking about earlier with the the kind of you know heyday of hashtag menswear where like everybody wanted the loudest plaid and the widest tie and it was about like the the kind of brashest, most like in your face thing that you could possibly do to get your photo taken at Pity. Uh peacocking. Yeah, exactly. It was like it was peacocking in the truest sense. And it feels like now, you know, if we set aside the the streetwear stuff that's going on, like the guys who are still interested in tailoring and kind of more classic menswear, it's kind of gone the opposite now, right? It's like you see what the guys at like Salmon Amil are doing and like it's it's so understated it's almost it's almost all detail. Like there's no No loud screaming. It's nothing loud. It's it's all about details. It's all about construction. It's all about cut. Everything's like a beige or brown or navy. It's it's totally the opposite. Good quality, beautiful fabrics, well tailored, great buttons, like it just works. Like the armory guys know they know it as nobody else. Yeah and the tie is like shit that's good yeah you know you don't need to wear all of the accessorizing like it doesn't and you can see if somebody wears a suit every day or he does it only for PT and he's like getting all spiffy and stuff. Like that doesn't work. And I think that's the same in the watch game. Yeah. Like your first watch is never. Uh maybe some cases, but it's never a full gold watch. It's not your first watch. If you're you know you go into it, and like you said, like if it is your first watch, people can tell. Yeah, like people can tell that you seem kind of uncomfortable. It's like like you said, when you see a guy who doesn't wear suits or sport coats often wearing one, you can see they're kind of like uncomfortable and they're shifting and it's but nobody, I mean it doesn't matter how beautiful this suit is, like nobody looks good when you look uncomfortable. Right. So it's gotta kinda it's gotta work. Yeah. Say what the words. Do you think the kind of trend toward focusing on more kind of like details and craftsmanship and being comfortable and kind of like exploring yourself in maybe a a more low-key kind of way is is just a trend or do you think that's sort of the the evolution of of where we kind of came from? I think everybody goes to the period that they think they know it all and you get very confident and you and and you read about it and you think you want to show off and you do well in life and that's the moment you want to like oh bring it I wanna you know I'm gonna have a gold watch. Like and then once you grow up, you know, you get married, you get kids. Like other things in life matter more than than you know. So I think some cases or people are always cons I also know guys who are consistently always luxe and never have to scream louder or whatever. They always say consistently good in their style and their watch game and whatnot. And you know, guys go to these phases and and I'm definitely I made so many mistakes I'm still making mistakes but I I I know exactly what I did wrong and what I w if I could change a few things in the past I know exactly what I've changed. What's the uh because I have plenty of these too. I could talk about these for hours. Uh clothing mistakes. I bought some truly stupid pieces of clothing over the years. Uh, and ones that I paid a lot of money for and put a lot of time into. But uh, what's the piece of clothing that looking back, you're just like, what the hell was I thinking? Like, why did I buy that? Oh shit, I have a couple of suits. Scarves, like wild scarves, like plaids, like I have a grey oversized uh camel checker from Fair that that was so loud. That I'm like, why? And that's again that comes with like you wanna get comfortable and confident in a loud suit. Yeah. But when you see that picture, like I'm not comfortable in that suit. No. So uh, or then I try to squeeze myself. I keep telling me, Oh, I'm still a 38, so I'm trying to squeeze myself into the size 38, but I'm actually a 40. You know, and that's that's bad. Yeah, it doesn't look good. Doesn't look good. I think if people take one thing away from this episode, it should be don't buy your suit a size too small. No and it's terrible. I heard it all the time. I will buy it because I'm gonna lose weight. Don't do it. You you w weish should not. Yeah. Maybe you do, but then you come back and don't buy anything. So don't buy anything that's too small. Yeah. And sometimes so they like I like to push it with my short pants, but sometimes I'm like, oh, you look ridiculous, man, with these short pants. Like, yeah. I do the I mean you can tell we're both doing the same thing here. Yeah. It's uh yeah. It happens occasionally. I I'll I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and I'm just like, oh these are too short. I look like an idiot. But yeah, it's all right. But no, it's cool. I you know, you you learn as you go. And I think if you have people around you who can who can give you feedback and like hey, yeah, it's good. Like curating a good group around you. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's one of the things that I I think when I kind of moved from the the menswear world into the kind of adjacent watch world, uh made me feel kind of at home immediately. Was it's very much the same sort of culture of like everybody's talking to each other, everybody's kind of bouncing ideas off of each other, experimenting, sharing experiences kind of like, oh yeah, like I found this one cool thing, like you should check that out. Oh, I don't think that's right for you. Like everybody's kind of sharing all the time which makes makes it much easier to learn. Yeah. Wow. But but the same with with the excitement you get about watches. That's what I get too with with like I remember like I heard um not too long ago. Like uh Jack's podcast. Oh yeah. And he talked about the watch that he brought to life. Yeah. The excitement in his voice, like I brought that back from from 100, what 120 years ago. He brought that back to life. Yeah. And then I'm like that's the same thing if if you and not nothing not bring anything back to life, but to see a wool from a sheep in Australia and that cat goes into a wash, and then you see people making a piece of article out of raw products, and then the whole process in becoming a suit that's super one fifty or super two hundred, and the craftsmanship that goes into and becomes something that you can wear that is that's so beautiful. Yeah. That is spectacular. And then you guys get the experience also then of watching somebody walk out the door in it. Like somebody, it's it makes somebody's day. Like somebody is so excited to then walk out the door. I think the most excited thing when when we we start opened Suit Supply and all that, and then I was traveling and then you see the blue garment bags on the airport. Dus see a guy wearing on this trolley the soed supply garment bag. En I always walk. If I see these guys, I always walk to them like, hey, uh, and they're like, Hey, your how's food supply? And they all nine out of ten times like, Yeah, there's a great store. They start advocating for it. So that's awesome. And they're like, Yes, here's a gift card. So I always travel with gift cards and and when I see people wearing product I always go up to like here's fifty bucks or twenty five bucks. Like thank you for it. Yeah. That's cool. It's cool that you can build a a community around that. I love it. So you travel a lot, so I gotta I gotta ask what do you recommend uh guys think about when they pack? Basic. I think that's basic? Keep it basic. So there's one article of clothing that you bring that's that brings the basic outfit outfit into your night outfit. So I always wear I always bring a navy crew neck merino sweater, fine gauge. I bring a white t-shirt, two white t-shirts, a white button down, a navy tie, uh a pair of sneakers and a pair of dress shoes. And then every every time I go on the road I throw a different article that can make or break that outfit. That can completely change that outfit. So either a short sleeve or long sleeve, and then I have a yellow cardigan. Okay. Or like then you wear your navy pants with a white shirt and net and then you do your navy cardigan. Or I just bring a nice hat, like a Nick Fouquet's I love Nick Fouquet hat. So I wear those hats, you do t-shirt, neckerchief, and then just pants and a sneaker and you can make it into a whole completely different outfit. Yeah. That guy's an artist. Okay. He's amazing. I look like a dummy in hats. I can't, I've tried, I just I can't do it. But uh that guy's stuff is amazing. Yeah. I love it. But that's that's the stuff like if you can if you have your packing, like I made it into an art form. Yeah, so I I never uh check in bags, I do overnight like I do carry on only and I try to squeeze about five six days. I can I can do it in a carry on and without looking the same every day. Nice. And I also every time I post uh when I when I have to check in I always post what I what's in my basket so I store my watch. I store my watch and and like the stuff that I that I carry that I travel with and then you know, different sneaker or different item that little spice up the outfit. Do you have a a watch or two or three different watches that tend to be your like go-to travel watches? I have a uh a Rolex Pro Hunter um all blacked out with uh but then with uh a gold bezel and it's um and it it comes with a with a NATO yellow strap okay and it's like and I and I bring the both straps because when you wear a t-shirt and jeans you do it with the yellow and then otherwise you just do it with the black strap. Nice. And I and it's a very safe watch. And it's um I like to wear that a lot. And uh I I I actually always like truffle with that. And then I got a rubber clad uh offshore. Nice. And I saw like I remember the first time when I saw that watch was in the Kenya West video. Oh yeah. And he's like looked like very briefly and I and I googled like what's the what's the what was the watch and I liked it so much and I'm like what I couldn't believe that it like the pricing and and and I I really've worked, I saved for a couple of years, like monthly, I made it like for that watch. That's awesome. Yeah. And I drove and then and there was um and it was where it got yeah, a watch dealer in Long Island in Manhasset. I drove out there and I saw it. Okay. Like, can you hold it for me? Like, yes, and like I really come in next week. I'm next week and then and I got it. And I and I rem and I had it a weekend and I banged it against the wall, like I banged it against the elevator and it was the first scratch and I and and I was devastated. The first one's always the hardest devastated. You have no idea I could have cried. I still I I I still get a f like I when I think about it. But the first one's the hardest. Now it's all good though. Now it's all good. Yeah. The best the best thing with those is you scratch it once, it's terrible. And then when it has a hundred scratches on it, it's awesome. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's how the that's how the Pepsi doll looks. Yeah, yeah. So before we wrap things up, we always do a uh the little hodinky questionnaire. Yeah. So I've got a couple uh quick questions for you. Is that all right? Of course. Sure. All right. So uh first one is what's what's a watch that's caught your eye recently? Um I like that new Desert Storm IWC. Yeah, that watch is awesome. I like that a lot. Oh, you know what? I would love to have the old Santos uh uh uh Santos 100 oh yeah in gold. That's a cool watch, yeah. And it's still reasonable with a brown strap because I saw a picture of Tom Ford in a safari shirt rocking that watch. So good that I'm like, wow. It's good enough for Tom Ford. Yeah, it.'s yeah Sometimes when you see somebody wearing it with an outfit, like, well, yeah. Cool. Awesome. Yeah. What's uh what's the best place you've traveled in the last year? Oh, Sydney was phenomenal. Sydney was like the first time I went. We opened the store in Sydney, Australia. Oh, cool. And it was like it was people are so cool, like generally cool. And then they start talking with the accent, and like wow, you're cool. And then they they can just there's something about Australians and their style. I love Pete Johnson, like the this the like he's a menswear guy out of out of Australia. He kneels it with his style and how he wears the product, how all his guys around him are having the Kool-Aid. Like and I like and I walk from Bronte to Bandai Beach as like a walk, Tamarama. And I walked around. I saw the kids getting swimming lessons in this ocean, guys surfing, people just being cool all day long. I'm like, wow. Patrick Johnson's kind of like the uh he's kind of turned himself into like the Australian Cuccinelli. Exactly. Where like everybody around him has a certain look and he's got like the views of the game. It's great. Yeah, yeah. I know. And then that it he inspires me a lot actually when I look at outfits and when I see things, he wears it he liked the tailored the beach tailored look on a lockdown. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it a lot. That was a great uh like Sydney was actually a very good experience. But we're opening a store in Bogota in two weeks. Oh, that could be a great experience too. That's amazing. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who gave it to you? One of my mentors um who helps me out a lot in the business um is Carrie Friedman, CEO for Master Facing Hardware. And every time when I'm sitting with him, he's like me focus on one thing and become lasersharp at it. And if that's don't the foes to focus on one thing is the most difficult thing a person can do. Like, if you if you do something well, you think you can do it all, but like if you're in a menswear and you're in in the suit game, just kill in the suit game because that's where you're good at. Like, don't start try to mess around and reinvent shoes or reinvent uh women'swear whatever like it it's like you have if you have something do it well and amp it up and and just stay focused try it it's it's it's so hard to stay focused on one thing and do it really well and and and like I get so much energy and I get excited about things and like I'm all over the place but to I can relate to that right you can see like if it focuses on one thing and at a time just become the best at it. That's that's great advice. That's always sticks to me. And if I think about it, like write a time frame, like wrote a timeline for what you want to accomplish and stick to it. You have a very clear path. What's uh what's your guilty pleasure? Um as far as food? No, anything. Tequila. Tequila. I love tequila. That's a good one. Nineteen forty two. Oh, okay. So you like good tequila? Like good tequila. Okay. I I drink all tequila, but that's like I I I I think nineteen forty-two is our is is a fuel, it's it's good stuff. I'm I'm I'm crazy about food and like but but my my my focus here is that I have to stick in my size forty suits. That's because if I gain too much weight that will there will be a big loss. Yeah, that's a problem. That's the best reason to buy good clothes, is because then you you have to stay the same time. Yeah. Um cool. Well we we always wrap things up with a cultural recommendation. Uh but since you said you're a food guy, I'm gonna make it more specific for you. What's a restaurant that you recommend people go check out? One of my favorite places where I feel that I'm in the south of France is Chiconis in Dumbo. Like if you sit outside with this weather and you look at the bridges and the people strolling past, like I I have a feeling I'm on holiday. Also, good food, Italian food, yeah. Great, great drinks, frozen Negronies. Perfect. Like it's just you had me at Frozen Negroni. I'm. there Th youere go, yeah. Well we'll keep it to we'll stick to Negroni. Perfect. You ever had a Frozen Negroni? I've not had a Frozen Negroni. It's spectacular. I've not. I've had uh Quality Eats does a nitro Negroni.. Oh yeah That's really good. Yeah. Oh but there's uh there's one over in the West Village, Upper East Side, Flatiron. There's a couple of them now. Oh cool. Uh but yeah, nitro negronis. Nice. Oh well that's uh like that'll be that'll be my recommendation. Go uh go to Quality Eats and check out the Nitro Negroni in New York. It's great. Cool. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks so much for doing this, man. This is great. And uh yeah, glad to have you on the show. Cool. Thanks for for having me. I'm uh I've I want to talk more about And to bring us home, we have Joe Thompson doing what he does best, telling one hell of a story. Take it away, Joe. |
| Unknown | Hello again. Stephen and Gray have kindly invited me back for another segment on Hidinky Radio, and I'm happy to be here. In the previous one, I talked about current events, the impact of the political upheaval in Hong Kong on the Swiss watch industry. This time, I'd like to just tell a story. It's one I came across years ago and stashed in a bulging file of watch history and trivia that I keep. It's sort of a hobby of mine. Some of what's in there has to do with great moments in watch history. This isn't that. This is just a true story about a man and his watch and the strange power that watches can have over us. Something that you certainly know a lot about. This guy fell in love with a watch late in life. He loved it so much that even though it was an informal watch, he wore it even on formal occasions. One day, when the watch stopped working, he was so upset that the story actually made the newspapers. Indeed, so great was his love for this watch that he requested that it be buried with him. Some of you may know the story. The man was Emperor Hirohito of Japan, and the watch was a Mickey Mouse watch. Here's their story. In nineteen seventy five, when Hirohito was seventy four years old, he and Empress Nagako made their first official visit to the United States. By then, Hirohito had been on the Japanese throne for forty nine years. He was, of course, the Emperor during World War II. The trip was intended to celebrate the strong relations between the U.S. and Japan in the 30 years since the end of the war. It was a whirlwind tour. They visited nine cities in fourteen days. One of the cities was Los Angeles. And in advance, Hirohito was asked if there was anything special he wanted to do in LA. Well, there was. He had two requests. One was to meet John Wayne. The other was to go to Disneyland. So LA Mayor Tom Bradley made it happen. He threw a luncheon for Hirohito with five hundred guests. Among them was John Wayne. There, to his delight, the Emperor met the Duke. After lunch, the royal couple was whisked off to Disneyland. There they met Mickey Mouse, and the Emperor was presented with a gift, a Mickey Mouse watch. In those days, Disney character watches were produced by the Bradley Time Division of Elgian National Industries under contract with Disney. The watches ranged in price from seven to one hundred dollars. Horologically the Emperor's watch was nothing special, other than it was quartz, which was all the rage in 1975. Nevertheless, something magical happened. Hirohito loved it. When he returned to Japan, he wore it frequently. Imperial palace officials were surprised to see that even on the most formal occasions, the Mickey Mouse watch was on his wrist. Then, in September 1978, catastrophe struck. The watch stopped. The Emperor was distraught. What happened next is chronicled in the September 18th edition of Time magazine, quoting now from the article. There was dismay in the royal household when the trusty watch stopped ticking. Concerned palace chamberlains rushed it to Tokyo experts specializing in American timepieces. The diagnosis? A new battery was needed. Last week, his hands moving again, Mickey was reunited with Hirohito. Just as an aside, we mustn't be too hard on the emperor and his staff for not realizing the problem was just a dead battery. I was covering the industry in nineteen seventy eight. Unalog quartz watches were just beginning to surpass digitals, and there were a lot of mistakes like that back then, and for many years after. Hirohito lived for another 11 years and wore the watch so much that it actually became associated with him. His international image was that of a quiet, reclusive man who studied marine biology and wore a Mickey Mouse watch. One example is that in France, some anti-American intellectuals pointed to Hirohito's watch as a disturbing sign of the post-war dominance of bourgeois American culture. Ultimately, the watch became part of Hirohito lore. His funeral in 1989 only reinforced that. The emperor asked to be buried with three prize possessions. One was a microscope he used for his marine biology studies. He was considered an expert in the field. Another was a list of Japan's greatest sumo wrestlers. Sumo was his favorite sport. And, of course, his Mickey Watch What are we to make of this? What explains an emperor's deep affection for an inexpensive souvenir of a trip to Disneyland? Was it a fascination with Mickey Mouse and the Disney legend? Was it a piece of Americana? Or of the prosperous Pax Americana that followed the nightmare of the war? Or was it something more personal, a made in the USA connection to the country that spared his life, chose not to try him as a war criminal, allowed him to stay on the chrysanthemum throne, and helped rebuild his country after conquering it. Was it stuff like that? Or was it the sheer fun of wearing and watching a funny watch, one that tells the time not only with two hands, but two arms, Mickey Mouse's arms. How nuts is that, right? You don't see that every day in the Imperial Palace, do you now? No, sir. Precisely what Hirohito loved about that watch, we'll never know. What we do know is how much he loved it, for whatever reasons. The funeral alone tells us that. And that, as all of you know, is the power of a watch. The amazing power to amuse, absorb, fascinate, even thrill, to not only do something, but to capture something, to mean something. For me, that's the lesson of the Hirohito story, and why I like it so much. Be it a Jorn, a Jaeger, a Bulva, or an Elgin Mickey, there's just something magical between a guy or a gal and a favorite watch. Thanks for tuning in and hanging in till the end. Talk to you later |
| Unknown | . This week's episode was recorded at Hodinky HQ in New York City and was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show. It really does make a difference for us. Thank you, and we'll see you next week. |