Join us for "The Boot Retailer’s Playbook", a live interview with Jeremiah Craig, the western boots influencer and country singer. Whether you're a buyer, store owner, or marketer, Jeremiah will share invaluable strategies for boosting boot sales, creating engaging in-store displays, and effectively marketing your products. Discover how to choose the right styles, educate customers on fit, and leverage storytelling to enhance your brand. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain expert tips and elevate your retail game!

WESA Retail Roundup December 16, 2024:

• Host: Glenn the Geek, Host of Horses in the Morning
• Facebook: Retail Roundup Facebook group
• Guest: Jeremiah Craig | Website | Facebook | YouTube
• Presented By: Western English Sales Association

Time Stamps:

02:24 - The Journey into Cowboy Boots

14:05 - Sizing Challenges in Cowboy Boots

20:02 - Exploring Video Content Strategies for Boot Retailers

27:54 - Understanding Boot Fit and Sizing

32:15 - Building Relationships in the Boot Industry

Foreign.

You are listening to the Horse Radio Network, part of the Equine Network family.

Well, hi, everybody.

We're back here with the Retail Roundup.

And I'm so excited for today because we're going to be talking about boots and I think it's a fun topic to talk about.

We all own them.

We all look at them every time we go to the store.

We all pine over the ones that they just didn't fit quite right or, okay, they were too expensive, you, you know, or whatever.

The reason is I love boots.

You guys love selling boots, but there are some challenges as a retailer to boots.

So we're gonna talk to the guy who knows a little bit about representing boots and talking about boots and.

But first, this is Glenn the Geek, founder of the Horse Radio Network and host of Horses in the Morning podcast for the last 14 years.

Welcome to the WESA Retail Roundup.

The Retail Roundup is your go to virtual hub for all things retail.

Join panel discussions, learn from webinars, share your thoughts.

We do These Q&As every once in a while where I get to have some fun, too.

Plus, we host a virtual event or shared educational content every Monday via the Retail Roundup Facebook page.

If you're not a member there yet, just search for Retail Roundup on Facebook and join today's session.

We're going to talk to Jeremiah Craig and he is the guy.

He's a storyteller.

He's a musician.

I wish I could play some of his music today, but we have to talk about boots.

Maybe we'll play some of your music on our other show.

And then, you know, he has retail expertise and really he has more retail expertise on the social media side because he is a YouTuber that has done very well with his YouTube channel.

I just looked over 13 million views between boots and music and all the other content that he does over there.

Very well done.

He's a western boot expert, a content creator, a country singer.

He's done it all.

And I want to welcome you to the show today.

I'm looking forward to today.

This will be fun.

Thank you so much.

I'm really looking forward to this too.

It's always fun to have to talk to fellow content creators.

You know, we are all in this together.

We all do the same kinds of things, right?

But you know, when I talk at podcast conferences, I always say that the money's in the niches.

You know, that's where the money is, is in the niches.

Well, you chose a niche of a niche of a Niche, Right.

You have a sub niche in boots.

How did you ever become interested in cowboy boots?

Well, you know, it's kind of funny.

I grew up in the country, in the farm and doing lots of farm work and just sort of messing around the woods like country kids do.

And I would run through shoes and different kinds of footwear so quickly.

And I remember my brother got a pair of cowboy boots when I was around, I don't know, 16 or 17.

And I was like, you know, those look like they would hold up a little bit more.

So I went to my local trailer store, Davis Trailer World, where I got my first pair of boots.

Boots.

And it was something that just changed my perspective on footwear in general.

They're so durable.

They're so tough, they could be repaired.

And I still have my first pair today.

They're cracked and nasty, just worn so much.

And they actually just received their seventh resole and I put that video up on my YouTube channel.

I watched that video this morning, actually.

They.

Yeah, they look like they've been around a little while.

They've been around for a little bit.

They got some stories, they got soul is what I like to say.

S O U L well, so then what.

What led you to starting to do content, starting to do videos, and to actually talk about and become kind of this pseudo expert on cowboy boots?

Yeah, well, it was sort of connected to my music.

You know, I was.

I play banjo, guitar, and harmonica, and I write a lot of songs, folk music and country style.

I have five albums out.

And, you know, they always tell you, if you want to get known for music, you got to play as much as possible, do as much as you can live and in person.

And I found that if you do that all in the same town, you.

You saturate the market really quickly.

So you have to tour more.

And then touring costs a lot of money, and I couldn't make any money doing, or enough money, I should say, doing all of the touring and all the playing of the traditional way that they tell you you should do music.

So what I did was I went back to the drawing board and I worked for marketing agencies and things like that in Arizona and Seattle, the places where we lived at the time.

And I sort of started doing what is called keyword research.

And if you're a boot retailer, I would highly recommend that you look into what keyword research is.

It's basically searching for things online and to see how many people search for those things online.

So I You know, included my interests about those.

Those things.

And I basically did keyword research on my interests.

So things like, you know, I like beer, there's a lot of beer.

Content creators, you know, I like folk music and, you know, some other random like hunting and things like that.

But there's a lot of content creators in those space.

They already seemed like they had a lot of people.

So I never thought people would be interested in what kinds of shoes that I decided to wear.

But I had four or five pairs of cowboy boots and I saw them over by the door while I was doing keyword research and I said, screw it, let's see what happens.

And it turned out that there was lots of opportunity in the space cowboy boots without very many content creators in the space.

So I was like, let's see what happens.

Well, that's interesting that, that's.

It's interesting that the two correlate, right?

That the two work hand in hand.

How long were you doing this before.

And bear with me, the retailers that are listening to this, we're going to get into the nitty gritty of boots here, but how long were you doing this before the boot manufacturers started taking you seriously?

About a year before, I caught the eye of a retailer, an online retailer at the time, who was no longer in business, unfortunately.

Yeehaw.

Cowboy.com and they were the first to start to work with me.

And then shortly after that, Dan Post and Ariat took notice.

I did notice the couple of my watch were sponsored by Ariat, so I did notice that.

So, you know, retailers struggle.

It's so hard when you go to WESA and you've been there, there's a hundred boot manufacturers, There must be 10,000 boots at WESA, right?

All sitting around.

And when you're a retailer, you have a certain amount of shelf space, you only have a certain amount of.

Right.

You can only carry a certain number of skus, and then booths tend to be in depth and SKUs, right, because you'll have sizes, you'll have widths and all of the other things that you have to deal with.

So there's a lot of options there.

You know, how do you pick?

What do you think?

So that your eye.

What you have to do is pick what resonates with your particular audience.

That's what you have to look for.

But that's difficult to do too, you know, so what, what would you say to that?

If you were out there, you know, buying boots for your store?

How would you do that?

Yeah, that's a really good question.

And I don't have a store, but the way that I think about, you know, what videos to do boots on is sort of similar to, you know, what maybe somebody would want to put in their store because you, you wanna, you wanna put brands and styles in your store, and I wanna do videos on those types of brands and styles that actually create interest, you know, that get the views.

So I would, I would like to answer this question by starting out.

You know, everybody's market, from what I've learned, is completely different.

I've been to boot stores all over the country, from Arizona to Montana, and people look for different things in those markets.

You know, maybe rough outs don't work as well in Texas as they do in Montana, or vice versa, you know, something like that.

So it's all about knowing what I think the region enjoys the most for, for me, I've noticed that quite a bit in the comments section.

Sometimes the customers in Texas don't like the same things that the customers like in Montana.

And cowboy boots are a very personal and almost like it's, It's a very.

It's a very.

Something that people get very opinionated about.

Right.

Sometimes it's about, you know, who taught them about what good cowboy boots are.

Like, was it their grandpa?

Right.

Was it the owner of the boot store in town?

And then those sort of things develop their own opinions while they put those boots to work on the ranch or, or out on the town or what, wherever you're wearing the boots.

So I like.

I would like to say that maybe it's just knowing your customer base because, you know, out in California, when I go to events and things like that, Ariat is huge.

Right?

But if you ask other people about what Ariat's quality is, like, maybe they aren't such a big fan, you know, so it's all about knowing your customer and knowing the region and the styles that they like.

I hope that answers your question.

Okay, well, yeah, and I think it's.

It's hard, you know, it's hard when you're a retailer to.

Because everybody likes something different Right.

So even in your region, Right.

They, you know, you still have people like green and red and blue and, you know, all the different colors.

So it's.

And you can't carry them all.

You have to, you have to.

You, you do have to pick and choose.

But you brought up a good point.

You said, you know, you talked about quality.

How does a retailer know a good quality boot?

So I'm walking around Wesa in January and I'm on all these big boot companies.

What do I look for on the boot to tell whether it's a good quality?

Is there a magic sauce?

Again, I would, I would say that quality depends on what you're looking for in the price point that you.

This is something that people ask me all the time on in comments and.

I'm sure direct messages.

What is the best cowboy boot?

Well, it depends.

What is your budget?

Right.

Is your budget 200 or is your budget $2,000?

Because that can change what a good cowboy boot is like.

But in general, I would say that a traditionally made cowboy boot is the best, in my opinion, and that's what I try to push the most.

What does that mean to you?

Traditionally made?

What does that mean?

Means it's got a good year.

Well, it's all leather everywhere.

It's got a steel shank in there.

It's got a leather heel counter.

So the piece above the heel and I can.

Maybe I can show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.

That'd be great.

So this is a Hondo boot right here.

And so this is this.

They actually named this boot after me.

And it has a Goodyear welt right here, which means that the boot can be resold on the inside behind this bull hide.

This is the heel counter here.

So above the heel, for people who are just listening, above the heel stack, there's.

There's a piece that is called the heel counter.

And on the inside of this, a lot of brands will have something that's called celastic, which is a cloth.

And when a brand or a factory wets that cloth, it becomes hard when it dries, but it's not as hard as leather.

Leather is going to be the best material in here.

And it's what a lot of cowboys and people who work on the ranch will need, because a scholastic heel counter is not going to be able to hold up to spurs when you put them on there and actual hard work when you use spurs.

So it needs to be a leather heel counter, in my opinion.

So that's also A hard leather insole is traditional, but, you know, a lot of folks are preferring the foam insoles nowadays.

I'm still trying to get them, still trying to get people to enjoy traditionally made cowboy boots.

You know, like Tony Llama was back in the day.

Like, no, Kona was back in the day.

With a hard surface in there, everything's leather.

Yeah.

But when you get old feet like mine, I want some softness in there.

I hear you.

I hear you.

You know, I just made cowboy boots.

I went to cowboy boot custom cowboy boot course in Montana.

Schwartz custom boots makers, they also own Atomic 79.

They're.

They're custom boot makers as well.

And it's incredible when you get the right fit on a pair of cowboy boots, whether it's custom or maybe it's just the right width, that hard surface is actually all the support that you need.

And they will become more and more and more comfortable over the years and months that you wear them.

I was in, I was in South Dakota last year or the year before and I was talking to Travis of Travis Outfitters and he has a really good saying for that.

He tells his customers, the, the modern made boots with the cushions and stuff on the, and the insoles, they are going to be the most comfortable from day one, but slowly lose their comfort over the years and months that you wear them.

That is true of any shoe, right.

Of any shoe that has memory foam in them.

Right, exactly.

But a traditionally made boot is going to get more and more and more comfortable over the months and years that you wear them.

So that brings up a good question on sizing.

You know, sizing is an issue too, you know, because they all fit different.

I guess the question is, when you're a retailer, how can you educate customers in proper sizing?

And I'm sure you've gotten this question before too.

You know, and obviously when you're a retailer, you're looking at, to reduce returns, that's the biggest thing.

Right.

And obviously increase satisfaction.

But you're trying to reduce returns because return costs money no matter what you do, whatever's returned.

So is there a sizing, is there something you can say about sizing on boots?

Yes, and a lot of it isn't the retailer's fault.

I'm going to be, I'm going to say that right now.

A lot of the, a lot of the fault of the sizing issues are actually with the brands themselves.

Brands used to offer everything from, you know, quadruple a width to quadruple E width.

Now it's not so Much the case.

You get two width options if you're lucky.

D and double E, average width size and wide width size.

I am a B width technically, so A Benny, I'm a narrow width and.

I'm the double E.

So there you go.

Yeah.

You understand it's tough to find wide widths and it's tough to find narrow widths and the industry as a whole has tried to save money by cutting down the width sizes that they have available.

Now I've noticed that a lot of brands are starting to notice that Gen Z in particular has a lot of narrow feet.

Young folks do just in general.

Interesting.

The people who I've been measuring with a Brannock device, who I work with and try to collab with just locally who are under the age of 30 have narrow width sizes.

The, the men who I've been, you know, had on my Brannock device are Cs and B widths.

So I am confident to say that these narrow width sizes are more common than what the industry would have us believe.

So it's, it's tough to be able to do to, to be able to do that.

But I was thinking about this and how retailers could, you know, make it better for the customer.

There are drop shipping options options that a lot of brands have right now.

And I know one of my brand partners, Carters boots.com they have both options.

They have boots in store and they also have drop shipping options.

So they might have a Horsepower is a great example of a brand that is offering narrow width sizes.

Maybe all you need is just to have a, a be width, a narrow width boot in your store and have that available for somebody to try and then be able to order it for them directly from the brand and have it show up at their house, you know, at the customer's house directly from, from the, from the retailer, from you themselves.

Because a lot of these folks I've noticed in comments, they'll just go to retailers, just go to stores and try on boots and then go home and order them online anyway.

Yeah, it's a big problem with retailers right now.

Yeah.

So I mean how can, how can we get around that?

And it's maybe just about having try on boots in the store.

That's something that custom boot makers do too.

I see on Jim Brainard's Instagram all the time he makes two custom boots.

When he makes boots, he makes a try on boot to make sure the fit is right.

And then when he knows the fit is right, he makes another boot for the customer.

Now that's a lot of work for a custom boot maker, but to have an extra pair of B width boots around or, you know, triple E boots or C width boots, just one pair, just to see if that fits from that brand.

Maybe that's worth considering along with having several Brannock devices in the store.

Because I know if I go into a retail store and they don't have a Brannock device, then it's tough to think about whether or not they can actually get a customer the correct fit.

So you obviously are a storyteller.

You're a musician.

Musicians are storytellers.

Right.

And especially when they write their own songs.

Songs.

And you're obviously a storyteller when it comes to the boots.

And we've been talking a lot on this show about how retailers have to start incorporating Instagram and YouTube and short videos, and not necessarily YouTube videos like you do, but short videos into their marketing.

Do you have advice for them as far as when it comes to boots?

What's.

What could be a short video type of thing that they do that's effective and gets people's attention?

Yeah.

So there's a couple of different things that you could do.

You can.

You can think about what are videos that.

Or just content in general.

Videos.

I'm gonna say this before I.

I talk about how to make or what to make a video about.

Yeah.

I'm asking them to be your competition, by the way.

So that's fine.

The more people making videos about boots, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

People ask me if they can start their own channel.

They'll message me and say, hey, can.

What do you think about this?

I'm like, yeah, go for it.

The more people talking about boots, the more people who will be interested in boots worldwide.

So more boot content, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Make your own YouTube channel.

But making videos is.

Is kind of.

It's a lot to think about.

You know, you.

You get your.

You.

You might be able to be like, all right, let's get the phone out.

Let's talk on camera for a little bit.

But then once you do it, you might even, like, freeze up a little bit.

Right?

So I would say maybe work up to it.

You know, put out some pictures first.

You know, make a.

Make a.

Make a blog post.

Make a.

Make a video that's actually just a bunch of pictures.

So work yourself up to it.

You do.

You know, I was.

It's also like, you know, when the first time you went swimming, Right.

You didn't start in the Deep end.

Right away, you started at the, you know, on the, on the shore of the pond or whatever, right?

And you, you, you, you could, that way you could get back up to dry land really quick.

You're not in the middle of the pond, right?

So it's like you can start slow.

And then once you start slow and you're starting to get comfortable with the kinds of content and videos that you can make online, think about what people will search for forever, like how a cowboy boot should fit and what people search for right now, like cowboy boot trends.

So when you're in, when you're at WESA or wisa, depending on how you say it, you know, notice what they're, what they are pushing at the moment and maybe jump on those trends, because those trends are going to happen whether you have them in store or not.

And it's like, do you want to make money on it or not?

Big example that I remember from the last one that I was at was the Barbie trend.

Everything was pink, everything was bright color.

And this was seven months before the movie even came out.

So these things are planned.

So you can put them into your plan to make content about it once it becomes, once it starts to get closer to the actual movie time.

Right.

And then pink boots were nuts.

I remember I had a sponsor from Ariat to do a video about pink boots.

And then I had an extra pair and I was able to, to gift them to my cousin.

And she's much younger.

She's like in, I don't know, 10th grade or whatever.

And it was so cool.

She, it like blew her mind that she got these pink boots in the same year that the Barbie movie came out.

It was nuts.

So think about the trends and the things that, you know, people will search for forever.

They call it evergreen content.

If you're, if you're interested in that.

Yeah.

When we do our health segments and horses, that's all evergreen.

Right?

Because, you know, abscesses are abscesses today or 10 years from now.

So you know what, we've also talked about working with influencers like yourself as a retailer.

And so what tips do you have for retailers looking to work with influencers?

You know, how do they do it?

How do they do it effectively?

Because that's been hit or miss over the years, you know, retailers for 30 years, when I was doing retail, you, you still had your professional riders.

We didn't call them influencers back then, but you had, you had, you know, you had your sponsored riders, we called them and, you know, their professional Riders would, would occasionally talk about, you know, the boots they were using or the saddle they were using.

Things are different now because of social media.

So what tips do you have for retailers when they're looking to do it?

Yes, that's a great question.

I would say it depends on how you're selling boots.

Are you selling boots only in store?

Like somebody has to come into the store and buy the boots or buy the products or else are you also selling online?

So if you.

I've worked with retailers who do both and I've noticed that since my audience is nationwide, the retailers who only sore sell boots in store and don't have online sale options, those don't work out as well for me because, you know, I'm.

I'm a day and a half away by, by car.

Right.

So I would say that if you are selling boots online, that you could work with pretty much anybody, anywhere.

And if you're working only in store, think about the people who are known a little bit more in your local community, in your region.

Where, where does your radius of customers start and end and work with folks who are in those areas?

You know, it's not always about working with the influencer.

I hate that word, by the way.

Me too.

I do too, by the way.

I agree with you.

It's not always about working with the person who has a million subscribers or 50, 000 subscribers.

It's about working with the person who makes the most sense towards your goals, I would say.

And that could be, you know, the captain of the high school football team.

You know, it could be the athlete in the rodeo that gets, you know, it could be the barrel racer.

You know, it could be somebody just like it could be the coffee shop across the road from across the road from your shop on Main Street.

You know, think about the collaborations that you can do online in social media, whether it's in your local community or nationally, and how that can help get people into your store or onto your website.

So it used to be in the old days and it's changed now, but that when we worked with professional writers, it was a product exchange, right.

We gave them product.

They.

There was no cash that changed hands.

So do you, Is it.

Obviously it's different now.

Do you have.

Are still there only product exchanges available to certain people or do you.

Is there always a cash deal now?

Oh, it goes both ways.

I mean, sometimes it's, it's product and extra product.

Like it could be, it could be anything.

Some people are more than happy to get a pair of Boots in exchange for a couple of posts on Instagram.

Some people might need a little bit more than that.

You know, it was.

I'm, I'm totally fine with getting a pair of boots from somebody and then especially if they're a smaller spot.

Until recently, since the economy has changed so much, I'm having to charge more than I used to or just charge, period.

And it depends on what the person is looking for that you are working with.

Like I said, it's not always about working with a rider or a professional rider.

It could be collaborating on a piece of content or an event with the.

The store next door to you or this, the.

The store across the street from you.

How do you get people together?

And then, you know, what's the term?

High tide raises all ships.

Right.

So if you can figure out those opportunities, network in your community.

I've been networking quite a bit in my community.

I found lots of collaborative opportunities that, that help me create more content much more easily for YouTube, you know, become involved with your local chamber of commerce.

And sometimes those partnerships don't always have to be with, you know, your store and an individual.

Sometimes they can be with a couple of stores.

So obviously, staff training, when you're talking to stores that, you know, that do a lot of boots, right, Staff training is important.

What you've been in a lot of stores, what do you see as the mistake people make when they're trying to.

When they have a, you know, a large section of boots in dealing with the customers?

What, what are you seeing out there?

That's the thing that jumps out at you that you went, I wish they had done that differently.

Yeah, I actually, most of the stores that I go to are mom and pop stores with one location.

And most of those places, if not all of them, I can't think of an experience of a, of a time when they haven't been helpful and known their stuff.

Most of these places know how to fit people.

So the small retailers, the people who are listening to this episode, most likely you already know how to fit a boot because you've been doing it for years or you know, your boss has been doing it for years and, and they've been teaching you how to do it.

I noticed most of the time that the big box stores that have more than one location, they have the most trouble, you know, with fit.

They don't have Brannock devices.

The people who are working there really don't know about cowboy boot fit, nor do they care about how a boot should fit.

So most of the time the retailers are great at fit, but the Brannock device, like I said, the Brannock device is the most important thing.

And if they don't, it's the, the biggest thing that I notice is that if the size of the person who is.

When.

Excuse me, when a person is measured on the Brannock device and the store doesn't have their size because they are wider or more narrow.

The biggest mistake that I've noticed that some of the big Brock stores have especially is that they try to fit them anyways.

This will fit into this one.

We'll smash it in.

This size will work.

When you hear that, that is not a good sign.

And that's because they're, they're not going to wear those boots after one week.

No.

Yeah.

That's where most of your returns are going to come from is by saying this size will work.

And that's not, that's not a good place to go for somebody.

Because cowboy boots are the most comfortable pair of hard, durable footwear that you can get.

But the size and the width matter so much.

Yeah, because they are, they aren't right.

I mean they either fit really well or you hate them size wise.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's where so much of the hate comes from for Kawah boots.

If you search and how are our cowboy boots supposed to hurt?

Is something that a lot of people search for on Google and know they are not supposed to hurt from the get go.

Sure, there's a break in period, but they're not supposed to hurt.

And that's where so much of the hate comes from.

And people will say I have a pair of cowboy boots, but they just don't, they just hurt me, you know, I can't, I don't want to ever wear them.

And it's because they have the wrong size, you know, and somebody said this size will work for you.

And of course that person, since it's their first pair of cowboy boots, they don't know any better.

They're going to listen to who they thought was the expert.

And when somebody tells you that a size will work, it most often won't.

It has to be the exact size that you are on the Brannock device in order for it to be comfortable forever.

We had our store, I, it was an English store, so I was in charge of the English tall boots.

You think cowboy boots have problem sizing?

Tall boots have calf sizes and length and the whole, I mean we have multiple sizing on one pair of boots.

There was more than one time we got the boot on And I had to cut it off.

We could not get the boot off.

That was before they had the zippers in them and everything.

You just had to pull them on.

And of course they always say, well, I'm this size.

And they always underestimate their calf size especially.

And that's where we'd get into trouble is the calf.

The calf and the boot.

Yeah, I had to cut them off a few times.

Wow.

Everybody that sized English boots has had to do that one time or another.

That's not good.

That's not good.

So it's even more complicated on the English side because now you got the foot, you got the width, you've got the toe, you've got the calf size, you've got the, the length because it has to be, you know, he's not whacking you in the back of your leg and you're around your knee and, and those are.

Do have a break in period.

And people suffer in the break in period.

A lot of those.

That's no good.

Yeah.

What other things would you.

We have to close up soon.

We had a question here.

I'm not sure we can answer it.

It's.

Can you share the best way to find a manufacturer?

We are based overseas and need very specific boots.

Just because of the weather, I'm struggling to find a manufacturer without feel like I'm being taken for a ride.

That's where, boy, if you can afford to come to Wessa, I mean, or go to one of the trade shows over in Europe, that's where you develop.

It is truly where you develop relationships in person.

You know, we, we talk about.

And maybe it's not possible for you to do that, but, you know, I've been to almost 40 trade shows now between Wesley and Ada, between the two, the English and the Western.

I've been almost 40 and almost all the relationships I have in the industry were made in person.

It's still, you know, as much social media as we have, you and I sitting and talking for 20 minutes before the show started is probably going to mean more than if we had ever communicated by email.

Right.

We got to know each other.

You know, we might collaborate on other stuff that would have never happened without that conversation.

And that's true of going to see the boots in person and meeting people and developing relationships.

Exactly.

I couldn't agree more.

And that's something that, you know, I have, you know, on my notes heading, heading into this that I want to talk about.

So I'm so glad that you brought that up.

Is building relationships is the biggest thing when you're going to Wesa or even trying to make collaborations.

We were talking about, you know, how do you make content together?

Building those relationships in person is huge.

So it is tough to think about trying to find a manufacturer, especially because that is such a difficult space to navigate right now.

From what I hear from a lot of boot brands, specifically in Mexico.

Right.

So if you're looking to get a, a Mexican manufacturer to keep the price of your boots a little bit lower, then that is something that you know, you might want to be in person for at Wesa.

Building those relationships in person is huge.

I will also say that a lot of the people who are trying to get more customers for their factory, some more brand and manufacturer relationships, a lot of those folks are on LinkedIn.

So if, if you can't get to WESA or you aren't planning to go this year, I would highly recommend it just to be able to build those relationships.

But if you can't make it this year or in January, I should say maybe start looking for those folks on LinkedIn because they are there for sure.

And all of the people that you want to talk to from the company are identified because you know, these people have layers of management.

A lot of the companies, the bigger companies have layers of management and you want to talk to a specific person.

So in marketing or sales, where do people find you?

If they want to collaborate with you, what do they do?

You know, you can reach out to me in my email.

So you can email me@bookingeremiahcraig.com I'm on YouTube, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook.

Search me on Google.

The last time I checked, I had the whole first page.

If you search Jeremiah Craig.

So I've done a lot of work and at least I know there are other Jeremiah Craig's out there.

But I'm trying to compete with them to own that whole first page.

And if you have employees that aren't too sure about boots or you yourself own the store, you need to go to his.

You need to go to his YouTube.

It's Jeremiah Craig on YouTube.

Just search it, you'll find it.

Yes.

It's not enough.

It's not enough.

But I like how you have it separated.

You do have playlists.

If you go to his page and you go to playlist, you're going to see the cowboy boot section is completely separated out.

So if all you're interested in is Cowboy boots and not his music or the many other things you do videos about.

It's very easy.

You have it structured very well.

And I know that takes time to put together, too, you know.

So good.

Good job there.

Not all YouTubers are good at that, so.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, I want to make sure people find what they're.

What they're most interested in.

I will say that if you do find yourself on my YouTube channel enjoying the cowboy boot videos, then give my music a try, too.

I mean, you have everything.

You do have reviews up there.

You just have everything up there.

It's all different kinds of things from how they're made to watching them resol.

Your.

Your.

Your oldest boot pair of boots, which do kind of look like they're up there in age now.

I will say they're 17 years old now.

They're getting up there.

17 years old.

Yeah.

It's.

It's.

Every time I think about how old they are, I think about how old I am.

So I try not to think about it too much.

All right, thank you, sir.

Appreciate you joining us.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time and good luck, everybody.

If you missed part of this, you can catch the rest of it on the podcast, It's Wisdom by Wesa.

It'll be out there by tomorrow morning.

Of course, you can find the rest of this video either on the website@wesatradeshow.com or you can visit the YouTube channel.

WESA already also has a YouTube channel.

You can find it there.

And we also want you to go to Facebook and search for Retail Roundup.

Everybody should join that because there's lots of good content on there.

You know, you go to WESA every twice a year, a lot of you for a reason, and that's because they help you find manufacturers, they help you improve your business, and they also do it there on the Retail Roundup Facebook page.

The next Retail Roundup will be Posted on Monday, December 23rd.

Stay tuned also for future.

We're going to be resuming these little videos back in February after the trade show is over.

We'll be having a lot more content for you, but check out the Facebook page in the meantime, because there's a lot of stuff still going up there.

Jeremiah, it's been a pleasure.

Talk to you soon.

And Merry Christmas, everybody.

Happy New Year.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

You know, retailers, Jeremiah, the day after Christmas is when they can breathe again.

So happy day after Christmas, everybody.

Yes.

That's the real holiday for everybody, huh?