By every account I’ve heard, MIR was the smash hit everyone wanted it to be. I know the pressure these guys were under….the whole world expecting the best and ready to pounce on anything less. It lived up!! More importantly, the message is clear……if you didn’t go, you missed something special. You’ll be there next year to make it even bigger…I have no doubt. Rubbermen from all over the US owe the organizers a debt. Without all the hard work they put in we’d still be lagging behind the world as rubbermen. I don’t see how anyone can complain about the price of a package either. This money is nothing compared to the opportunity you have to participate with the best rubber guys in the US and beyond.
From the biz perspective, DDR had another good outing. I confess it wasn’t our best effort. It was the best it could be given the obstacles that came up and that’s good enough. Each event and each passing month brings us another step forward toward our goals. This is the first event we got to showcase our custom work. Nick you made that baseball suit look sooooo good. It looked that good in my dreams, so it’s no wonder I couldn’t take my eyes off you ;-) Two of the Bio-hazard suits, the Carrara Designs suit, and the two sailor suits came out of our shop also.
We did have one nagging failure. Mule was so kind to us and provided the monogram M&Ms for the event. How many times over the preceding three weeks I opened the fridge to see them, taunting me. I resisted, “These are for our customers and friends, I mustn’t eat them.” Alas, with an inventory of 5lbs you only ate half. Forced, we brought the leftovers home with us to NC. So it’s with great sorrow I must inform you, they won’t make it to MAL in January. With such limited demand for a freebie, we must now devour them so as not to incur any inventory taxes. Perhaps our whole marketing plan is in jeopardy now…..I thought the chocolate high was why you bought our gear?
Live and learn? The week before and thru the weekend we managed to learn some valuable lessons. From a spectator view they may seem trivial, but we live this everyday so it’s a big deal. By MAL the behind the scenes stuff will be completely overhauled to put what we now know to use. It was a stressful weekend for me, personally and professionally. There’s no road map for a venture like this, maybe a few iconic role models but nothing at Barnes&Noble in the “How to” department. We certainly make mistakes from time to time, but the thing I’m most proud of is the way we can work thru conflict.
It is important to me to say “Thank You.” To the organizers, friends, customers, and all the special people that allow us to continue on this path. Community is important. Rubberworld is one I love living in.
Bodisama
J
