In the apparel industry, strategic partnerships are crucial for growth. John LaRoy highlights the importance of balancing speed with quality, ensuring that products meet high standards before reaching consumers. They emphasize the value of having all decoration types—like embroidery and printing—under one roof to streamline production and maintain brand consistency.
The revival of US manufacturing is also a game-changer, offering faster turnaround times and superior quality control, particularly in the golf apparel sector.
Creativity and effective production management are the final pieces of the puzzle. They drive innovation and ensure that products are executed efficiently. These elements, combined with strong partnerships, are key to growing a successful apparel business.
Key Highlights
• Growing businesses through partnerships with a reliable supplier. 0:02
• Outsourcing production for small businesses to focus on sales. 4:27
• US apparel manufacturing, Patrick Keegan’s success with Field Day. 8:10
• Entrepreneurship, business growth, and the importance of people in the apparel industry. 11:28
Presentation Transcription
Curt Anderson 00:04
to Apparel Redefined. So super excited to dive in. We’ve got a great topic today. We’re here with none other CEO and president extraordinaire, John Leroy, John, how are you today, my friend,
John LaRoy 00:15
I’m great. After that intro, I mean, that was that’s legendary. Keeps getting better every week.
Curt Anderson 00:20
That is legendary, my friend. So hey, we’ve got a lot to unpack today. We got a tight schedule here. Let’s dive in. So for folks out there in a B2B space, you know, looking for wonderful suppliers, I want to partner line. You know, we’re going to talk about trust, building that company culture up a little bit, and helping me grow my business. So if I’m new to this world, or maybe I’ve been in it for the past 30 years, I’m aligning with somebody like Apparel Redefined, any tips, advice that you want to share, as far as like, How can I grow my part? How can I grow my business with a partnership with a company like yours?
John LaRoy 00:52
Yeah, great question. Curt, so there’s a multi pronged approach there, right? You know. So let’s talk about someone that’s been in the business for a while, right? And how can they grow their current business or a new vertical that they’re not currently working on? So for us, you know, what’s always been important to me is, is making sure that we’re able to control two things that are really important to industry, speed and quality, right? And that’s the thing that’s driving success for a lot of brands, a lot of other businesses out there. How can I be faster to market, and how can I deliver a quality product to market? DTG, direct to garment, has really kind of exploded. It’s had a reinvigoration, especially with the advent of DTF in the last couple months, which means direct to film. And it’s a lot of verticals that some of the companies and well established brands in the industry either dipped their toe in and said it’s too cold or too hot, and they’re going to say, I’m just staying with with screen print, embroidery. The other side of it is you see people, especially in the broker side, where they’ve been in the industry, as is ad supply specialty, PPA, I industry organizations, and they’ve worked with contract decorators like me, but they haven’t done DTG or any digital yet. So with us having all the decoration types under one roof, it really empowers us to be able to help deliver for those customers are doing corporate right, and you have an online store, and you want to maximize the amount of products that you can give to your clients, and also keep consistency of decoration and delivery. I think now in today’s world, people are accustomed you order something on Amazon, it might come in four or five different packages, which is bizarre, right? You know, like you talk about efficiency and all the environmental aspects of that, but having stuff come from us, you know, where you got the embroidered polos, you got a print on demand type shirt for a corporate event. You have screen print order for T shirts, and you got embroidered hats, like all that’s done together, what you’re getting consistency of quality, color, turn, time and accuracy, and then also the customer service aspect, right? You’re talking to one point of contact instead of four or five across different platforms. So, long story short, maximizing your business. It’s a big decision for people right now, because, as we know, the United States has lost a little bit in terms of ground of manufacturing, clout and availability of workforce, it’s hard to do what we do. There’s a lot of people focusing on the selling. It’s never been easier to sell. You have so many channels, right? Like, if you would have told me 15 years ago, I could sell T shirts on Facebook. I, I thought Facebook was just a, you know, hey, here’s a picture of what I’m doing in college, right? I didn’t know you could sell on it. Now you can now add Instagram, add Tick, tock. Add true social. You have all these different avenues and channels to sell. So you have the focus on the cell, but someone’s still got to do the do. So that’s where we come in. You know, we kind of exist in the shadows, in the background, the Dark Knight. You know, we got the Bat Cave down there and stuff, and we got all the tools to empower companies, the B to B’s, the merch creators, the Instagram Insta, famous people. Everyone wants to sell merch, but who? Who Can you do it through that’s reliable, consistent, been in the game for a long time and also committed to your success,
Curt Anderson 04:27
helped to answer the question, no, that was phenomenal. So I just alright to to come back. I’m picturing myself small entrepreneur. You know, whether you know, trying to get my business off the ground, this is my baby. It’s a side hustle, or it’s my full time gig, and what I’m hearing, what I’m thinking is, you know, I’m an old time logistics guy, you know, and I think we’ve talked about this in the past, is that just in time concept, so what you’re doing is, if I’m understanding you correctly, I think you’re allowing me, as a small business owner, to be, to have the perception I’m much, much bigger than I am. You bring the muscle and you bring. The flexibility, without me having to have this massive overhead. So you’re helping me with inventory turnover. You’re helping me with, as you mentioned, that high quality, and I, you know, I can have a really diverse product line. So, you know, in when I, when I equate all those things, I’m hearing profits, right? So, you know, I just, I get really fired up about that, but just, you know, am I going the right direction there? What are your thoughts? 100%
John LaRoy 05:24
I mean, you know the old age, old question, the chicken or the egg, what came first, right? And I feel like a lot of people in this industry try to put the cart before the horse, not to use more metaphors here, but they buy the equipment without the sales. And if you don’t have the sales, if you don’t have the pipeline, that’s going to put a lot of strain on you, right, from a profitability, from operational stress level, all the things that negatively impact the sales. So we allow people, or tell people, to focus on the sale, let us do the producing. And it’s really hard to do. Do both really well, right? You know, those are two critically essential aspects of business, and most companies that focus on both usually tend to drop one or the other, right? So we really like our clients to focus on the selling and turn the production over to us. Doesn’t have to be all the production, but especially, like you said, Curt, if you’re small and just start getting started, and you got to go against the CentOS of the world. You got to go against the Etsy and the Lands End and all the big boys, the four imprint, you can, you really can right now, because you could leverage a company like us to do the production, and you can focus on the sale. And it doesn’t have to be national to start. It could be in your local community. It could be regional, whatever it is. But we have the same tools as a four imprint, without you needing to take out, you know, 10 million in debt and go into a warehouse and employing 5060, 100 people on top of all the other equipment spend. So it really is a nice energy here between, you know, people, product and production.
Curt Anderson 07:06
Yeah, this is absolutely fantastic. And when you think about, you know, for the entrepreneur, if they have a significant other, and, you know, kind of that risk level of starting my own business, I You just hit on the head, I don’t have to have all this overhead. So it pieces my significant other, it appeases my banker, it appeases my accountant, and appeases my checking account, you know. So there’s a, you know, and how do you as an, as a small entrepreneur, how do you scale your business? You can, you know, I can keep my overhead as low as possible, and then, as I’m growing, I grow with you. I don’t have a fixed expense. I now have a variable expense, a very variable investment with you, and now you can just be shipping that product. I can do what I do best, and just be that guerrilla marketer, and just be fiercely, you know, getting my word out there, whatever that niche is how, you know, dive in, you know. And I’ve gotten to know a number of your customers, wonderful little niche, you know, and we’ve watched them grow and blossom, right? I mean, does anybody come to mind on like, how you’ve watched them, you know, come into that little niche. You know, golfing, you know, baseball T shirts, you know, you know, few folks I’m thinking of, like, what do you what are your
John LaRoy 08:09
thoughts here? Yeah, I mean, specifically Patrick Keegan and his company Field Day. I mean, he was just featured in golf magazine, as you know, the up and comer in premium golf apparel. I mean, that’s, that’s huge. And he had, like, a nice 10 page feature in the most recent golf magazine about what he’s doing in a little town called Morris, Illinois. I mean, they kind of start off like, Who would have thought the fashion and function, uh, apparel capital of the world could be Morris Illinois? And here he is, you know, he focused on building brands for other companies like Ralph Lauren and Peter Millar for years and years and years. And he always, deep down, wanted to build his own brand, but didn’t know how to do it. You know, he saw these large scale overseas manufacturing facilities that were doing the designs and patterns that he was creating for Ralph Ren. And he’s like, Well, how can we do that here for myself? And, you know, we met, and we’re helping, helping him launch, you know, and it’s more than a launch. Now he’s in his third season, and he went from, you know, one golf club, which is his dad’s and Morris, and now he’s at, I think, 48 of the top 150 golf clubs across the country and growing. And, you know, he started doing some stuff himself, and we’re like, Hey, if you want to scale, you want to get to the next level, here’s what we can do for you. Here’s what we need out of you for a commitment. And it’s working really well. I mean, he’s already booking orders for fall, 2025, spring 2026, so, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s going good and obvious. You know, it’s really, really funny his story. I mean, he, he was, he still is, a die hard Cubs fan. The Jake Arietta is good at baseball. Was his first. Earth and wore to a game, got, got caught on a camera, wearing it, and just kind of exploded from there. And he knows how to screen print. He’s very knowledgeable about it, but his superpower is the creativity. I mean, he watches a game religiously and will come up with 1020, 30, sometimes, you know, within you know, a week different designs, puts them out there. People eat them up. But then if he’s not having time for that creative process, he’s not selling, right? And so he learned pretty early, like, hey, I need to turn over the production so I could still create, because there’s only a certain amount of time in the day and focus on the creativity for him, and we handle the production.
Curt Anderson 10:41
Well, I absolutely love that, you know, obvious tease. That’s a great he has wonderful, if you’re a Cubs fan, strongly encouraging. Check out that website. He has some of the funniest, most creative, you know, one liners and what have you on his tees. You know, you mentioned earlier about, you know, the you know, US manufacturing, you know, we saw a big dip. I feel like there’s a wonderful Renaissance. You know, there’s, you know, as we saw through covid, we’ve, we discovered some unfortunate vulnerabilities with our pipeline, with different supply chain, you know, products in particular. How is it that you know our friends, you know Patrick, the company’s terror threads, obvious teas. How are they able to come to apparel, redefined, Made in USA and just crush it. Can you just walk us through, like, how are you able to do such a great job here in the States,
John LaRoy 11:27
there are people, you know? I mean, it’s a focus. I mean, we’re sitting here, we’re talking about the company, right? And it’s a living, breathing entity, but the company is made up of, right now, 60 plus team members that do all that, because I can’t remember if I was talking to you or we had a state senator here from Illinois last week, but it’s crazy to think that from the time the cotton is pulled out of you know, the fields spun on a loom goes to get sewn, by the time it leaves my facility, and I’m the wholesaler, right? There’s still other people on the retail side. If it’s going that way, there’s 60 different hands, 60 different on average, that will touch a t shirt from the time it’s pulled from the fields and spun and cut and sewn and shipped and opened over here goes through the whole process. So it’s very labor intensive what I’m getting at, and we have a lot of people that are really good at what they do, and if chosen it as a career path, that are dedicated, and it’s, it’s, one of my passions is to bring a focus on the So, so essential skills, you know, I mean, it just, It really pissed me off during that whole period of labeling what was essential what was not essential, because what’s essential is that we have to learn how to do things ourselves again, right? We can’t be reliant on everyone else and and there’s a certain pride and sense of reward that comes with actually doing stuff with your hands, getting in front of a machine or getting behind a belt and doing things and producing with your hands. So, yeah, so, long story short, we have, we have a great team here. It’s not just me, it’s not just our leadership team. It’s guys that are coming right out of high school, and girls coming out of high school, coming out of workforce programs, and making a difference, you know, and having a real impact, not only to the success of our business, but the success of many other businesses that we work with. And this is our passion. This is our this is our chosen field of endeavor. And if you’re going to choose something, be excellent at
Curt Anderson 13:41
it, yeah, track the mic right there. General Roy, that was a great, you know, be and again, it’s, you know, when I come to your facility, you know, I’ve had the privilege of meeting your team, just the dedication to, like we’re good, you know, it’s just that get her done mentality, right? We’re just going to do what it takes to get it done. Alright? So kind of winding down, we’ve talked about just in time, drop shipping, maximizing inventory turnover. How to really, you know, crush it on cash flow. You know, widening your product line. So just so many benefits by aligning with a company such as apparel redefine. Let’s start winding down. You know, for those business owners out there, best business advice that you’ve been given, anything that you want to share. So you know, whether it’s a seasoned entrepreneur, new entrepreneur, what’s some of the best business advice that you have that you’d like to pass along? Man, there’s
John LaRoy 14:26
so much, there’s so much out there. Because, like, the best business advice is the best for that time of whatever segment of business that you’re in right now. Like, the best business advice I got when I was a startup is different than the advice I’ve gotten now. I think, like for me, the one that can translate from the beginning stages the middle stages, and whenever is be comfortable being uncomfortable, it’s. You know, and that that correlates what we’re talking about. If you’re that business owner, that you’ve had your hands in everything for the entire duration of your business, and going to someone like us means up giving a little bit of control. It is uncomfortable. But if you never experience that uncomfortableness, you won’t grow. There is no growth in the comfort zone. And inherently, as humans, we seek the path of least, least resistance. We’re always trying to be comfortable. And there’s no growth there. You know, there’s no reward in being mediocre. And that, to me, is just always, you know, don’t be mediocre. Don’t get comfortable in any aspect of your life, your family life, your home life, your work life, your spiritual life, whatever it is, continue to seek being uncomfortable, because that’s how you’ll get better. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 15:46
that’s a thank you, dude. What an inspiring line, you know. And just, you know, we had a conversation not too long ago, and a person was on, she said, You know what, it’s our obligation to exhaust our God given talents. And so I think that just sums up what you what you said, right there, John, any parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you want to share as we’re kind of closing out, for folks that are considering going this direction or been in this business for a long time, what do you what are your thoughts?
John LaRoy 16:09
Yeah, I mean, give us a try, you know? I mean, it doesn’t mean you have to get in the in the pool, jump in off the high dive, you know, stick your toe in. We provide samples. We provide consultations on how it can be done, because there is a process, right? You know, you can’t just jump in 100% you know, you need communication. There’s a lot of communication in our industry. Software. We’ve developed our own software to interact with us and track your order from start to completion, pricing as well. So yeah, I mean, a solid business plan requires preparation, requires and requires execution, so and you can’t have one without the other. So give us a call, talk to us, send us an email. We’ll see if you’re a good fit. You can see if we’re a good fit, but let’s just explore it. See if it works well.
Curt Anderson 16:55
I love it. Well, John, thank you for sharing your passion, your expertise. I’m just I’m always so fired up with our conversations. So we welcome anybody to reach out to apparel redefine just all sorts of wonderful things going on. And again, it’s not about the product, not about the processes, it’s about the people. And so connect with John here in his wonderful, amazing team, and we’re going to take your business to a whole new level. So John, we’ll be back here next week. I think we have a wonderful guest that’s going to be coming on, and we’re just, we’re going to keep this party rolling, so you guys have a great rest of your day, and we’ll see you next week.
John LaRoy 17:27
Alright, thanks. Curt, you.