April 26, 2011
A lot of good stuff has happened since the last blog. 

Let’s start with my father receiving the Ben Rosenthal Award for lifetime achievement at The Headwear Association’s annual dinner.  I was proud and privileged to be able to introduce him to the crowd of nearly 150 industry folks gathered at The Boathouse in Central Park last month.  And he “rocked the mike” as they say.  The room was silent for his 5 minute speech and in the end everybody stood.  Retired nearly 2 years, he still has the “pulse” - of the industry, supply channel, and good business sense.  A lot of my skills I learned by watching him.  You can go to www.theheadwearassociation.org or their Facebook page and see a summary and pictures from the event.

Our spring 2012 buying trip was a success.  (Believe it or not, someone in China told me he likes reading my blogs!)  Our process for designing and developing a new line each season goes something like this:

A “sneak peek” at the highlights for next spring includes more UPF 50 rated fabrics for sun protection - and colors and themes will touch on tropical paradise, summer picnics, and desert passages.  Our line will officially debut in August.

Our fall early booking period closed earlier this month and the results are strong.  More stores, more orders, and more dollars.  I’m proud to say that over 400 retailers have booked Broner for fall.  So there will be a good distribution of Broner hats and gloves around the country.  And that’s the way we plan to grow this Broner brand, one retailer at a time. 

Dealing with inflation.
That’s something new we have had to deal with the past year or so.  Actually, I blogged about this over a year ago and it touches on world politics so I’m staying away from that one in this blog.  The fact is, it is taking longer and costing more money getting goods out of China and other parts of Asia.  I heard the chief economist of a major bank speak at the beginning of the year saying that inflation was not going to be a factor and I almost laughed out loud.  It’s not only clothing.  What did you pay at the pump last time?  How much is coffee selling for?  How about other basic groceries?  Airline travel?  In any event, we raised prices in season on some of the cotton hats made in China for the first time ever.  And the interesting thing is that our customers accepted them.  So, we as a country are dealing with inflation.  It is not fun to raise prices, or pay higher prices.  Let’s just see how the laws of supply and demand come into play.  Maybe my next blog will be about world politics. 

Anyways, cheers.  Cheers to springtime in Michigan (a little late), Cheers to the Redwings and Tigers.  Cheers to the end of the school year.  Cheers to summer vacations.    Cheers to the summer concert schedule.  And cheers to you for reading these blogs. 

Till next time –
BB

Old School

Hat Trick

Dinner In Shanghai

Stars in Hats