Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Tidal New York's Gibb Brothers Make Flip-Flops in USA (Audio)

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Tidal New York's Gibb Brothers Make Flip-Flops in USA (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Message. Message also includes infrastructure spending and the public education
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today here on taking Stock.
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  Speaker 1: forty four. Hillary Clinton just wrapping up her speech on
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  Speaker 1: happen again. Recapping stock surging SMP five hundred index up
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  Speaker 1: more than that. It has to be making it real.
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg taking stocks on Bloomberg Radio. Oh, we've just been
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  Speaker 1: listening to a Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, speaking in Warren, Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: One of her themes is reiterating support for strengthening labor
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  Speaker 1: unions and also manufacturing products in the United States. Here
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  Speaker 1: to tell us a little bit more about making products
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  Speaker 1: here in the US is Tim and Tommy Gibb. They
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  Speaker 1: are the co founders and the co chief executives of
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  Speaker 1: Title New York, and they join us in the studio.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks gentlemen for being here. Tim, let's begin with you
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  Speaker 1: tell us what is Title. It's a flip flop company,
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  Speaker 1: I know, but what is it? How did you start it?
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  Speaker 1: And give us the whole story? Well, Title game about
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  Speaker 1: from a simple notion that Tim and I grew up
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  Speaker 1: around the footwear business all our lives. Our parents were
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  Speaker 1: both in it, and um for the past ten years plus,
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  Speaker 1: we've both been traveling around the world producing shoes, and
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  Speaker 1: we thought that there was an opportunity to bring that
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  Speaker 1: production back here to the States, and in order to
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  Speaker 1: do so, we really needed to come up with an
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  Speaker 1: innovative production process and look at the way things are.
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  Speaker 1: These flip flops have traditionally been produced and really changed
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  Speaker 1: the game with how we make them. Well, Tommy, give
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  Speaker 1: us so great to have you in studio with your
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  Speaker 1: brother Tim. I just followed you guys on at Title
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  Speaker 1: New York, and I want to make sure we understand
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  Speaker 1: it's T I D A L so uh Timmy or
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  Speaker 1: t M I should say, what what inspired you? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you're in the shoewer industry, but you don't just make shoes,
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  Speaker 1: you also hire veterans. Yeah, I mean for us, that
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  Speaker 1: was something that was critical from the start, was to
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  Speaker 1: put that labor force to work. They made We made
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  Speaker 1: promises to them when they went overseas, and we need
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  Speaker 1: to make good on those. Um. Basically, Tommy and I
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  Speaker 1: have believed in that from the start, and that was
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  Speaker 1: something that that that we were not going to go
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  Speaker 1: back on. UM and it's been the most rewarding thing
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  Speaker 1: that we that we've done in that someone in your
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  Speaker 1: family in the military, or both our grandfathers were Um,
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  Speaker 1: we're in Nebraska, guys. That's that's where we were born.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's in our blood. And more than that, though,
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  Speaker 1: if you look at the numbers, it doesn't matter. It's
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  Speaker 1: up near whether you agree with war or not. In
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  Speaker 1: what wars were in a huge number of Americans believe
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  Speaker 1: that we should do right by the veterans. That's what
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  Speaker 1: we that's what we both believe into. Gentlemen, Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about where the products actually come from. Because taking a
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  Speaker 1: look at the details in New York, you do the
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  Speaker 1: molding in the final assembly in Missouri, you develop the
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  Speaker 1: wave of foam packagings from New Jersey. You source proprietary
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  Speaker 1: strap material from Massachusetts. How did you decide on those
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  Speaker 1: specific locations? So coming back, you know, we were well
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  Speaker 1: versed in producing shoes around the globe, but here in
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  Speaker 1: America we had to source out the right partners and
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  Speaker 1: UM it was critical to us to maintain a percent
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  Speaker 1: American made product through all componentry and materials. And it's
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  Speaker 1: been an evolution as we built out the factory and
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  Speaker 1: found those core partners. UM. Each one of them has
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  Speaker 1: been the right partner for the right reasons, and we
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  Speaker 1: look to them to be long term partners for us
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  Speaker 1: for the future. So uh, it's interesting, Uh the number
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  Speaker 1: of places that you have around the country. It's not
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  Speaker 1: just New York, it's Massachusetts and a couple of other locations.
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  Speaker 1: And you've come up with some innovative materials that's right. UM,
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  Speaker 1: So through through what we've needed to do that the
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  Speaker 1: footwear industry and the US is typically driven towards the
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  Speaker 1: department offense. UM that's through subsidies and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: They've been able to compete over with overseas. For us,
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  Speaker 1: what we wanted to do and why we focus on
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  Speaker 1: flip flops was because we could we could figure out
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  Speaker 1: a way to automate something that's done through heavy labor
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  Speaker 1: overseas and win that way because we weren't going to
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  Speaker 1: do it on labor rates here. Um. So via finding
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  Speaker 1: these partners that that to Tommy touched on, we've worked
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  Speaker 1: with them and they've been amazing in terms of working
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  Speaker 1: with us to really develop the product in such a
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  Speaker 1: way that makes it better than it's been in the past.
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  Speaker 1: And that's just through R and D and working hand
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  Speaker 1: in hand. How did you select the artists whose work
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  Speaker 1: you would license in order to decorate the flip flops?
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  Speaker 1: And I understand, what about twenty eight dollars or so
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  Speaker 1: forth for a pair of them? I know that Keith
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  Speaker 1: Herring is one of the artists whose work you use. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: so when we set out to do this, um, the
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  Speaker 1: way we print the product allows for us to really showcase,
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  Speaker 1: um the imagery and art seems like a natural um
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  Speaker 1: it the flip flop serves as a canvas or a
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  Speaker 1: T shirt for your feet, as we like to say.
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  Speaker 1: And um, you know we we liked New York and
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  Speaker 1: iconic you know American figures, and and there aren't many
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  Speaker 1: more iconic you know American artists than John Michelle Buscia
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  Speaker 1: and Keith Herring. And we also worked with Peter Tuney,
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  Speaker 1: who's been a friend for a long time and is
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  Speaker 1: um still active just south the Canal Street. So what
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  Speaker 1: did it take to him to get this off the ground?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, did you beat strapped? Did you borrow money
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  Speaker 1: from friends and family? Uh? You know everything you can
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  Speaker 1: think of? We did. Um, you know, it was there
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  Speaker 1: was a lot. There's plenty that there were shipments that
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  Speaker 1: were going out where we had fathers in law helping
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  Speaker 1: out to pack the shoes at three am. Um. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we bootstrapped it. We did a ton on our own,
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  Speaker 1: but we had a lot of help from the people
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  Speaker 1: that we love and from the people that believed in
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  Speaker 1: what we were doing. Um. But in terms of what
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  Speaker 1: it took, it took a lot of work. But when
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  Speaker 1: you believe in something that is in your blood and
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  Speaker 1: you believe you're doing it for the right reasons, it
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  Speaker 1: makes it easy to get it done. Um. That doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mean it's easy to get it done, but it keeps
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  Speaker 1: you going and it and it and it really motivates
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  Speaker 1: you every day. So making here, you know, is possible UM,
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  Speaker 1: and it's it's something that if you put your mind
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  Speaker 1: to it, it absolutely can be done. And we did
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  Speaker 1: take UM. We had spa government support with funding and
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  Speaker 1: we did a friends and family UM investment round to
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  Speaker 1: begin with. So we uh, we we did have you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's how we financed the business to get started. That
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  Speaker 1: you're in a variety of department stores. You're in Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom,
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  Speaker 1: Lord and Taylor, and also the Broad Museum in Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know whether you heard about the news of
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  Speaker 1: Macy's today, they're closing over a hundred stores, cutting that
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  Speaker 1: of their base. Do you foresee the time when you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna have your own retail outlets? So right now we're
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  Speaker 1: really folk gussed on direct the consumer and how we
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  Speaker 1: can evolve that experience with the consumer. And when we
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  Speaker 1: started the factory, we focused on UH and the brand.
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  Speaker 1: We really wanted to focus on emerging in the marketplace
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  Speaker 1: and getting as much you know as we can out
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  Speaker 1: there invisibility. And now we are taking that a step
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  Speaker 1: further with some really awesome customer experiences where and coming
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  Speaker 1: up on holiday, we'll have customizable platforms where you can
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  Speaker 1: design your own flip flops on our sites. And we're
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  Speaker 1: really you know, Tim and I have always focused on
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  Speaker 1: progression and and progressing. You know a product that hasn't
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  Speaker 1: been progressive? All right? Tim? Really quick? Where your website?
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  Speaker 1: If I want to order www dot title New York
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  Speaker 1: dot com Title New York. They are the founders, brothers,
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  Speaker 1: Tim and Tommy gab. It's made in America, the employer,
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  Speaker 1: military veterans. We thank you so much for joining us
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