This week, we're diving deep into the news that Johnny Big is closing its U.S. website. What does this mean for the big & tall fashion industry? Bruce and Jody discuss this and more!

• Read Bruce's Article at Chubstr: https://chubstr.com/industry/johnny-bigg-us-shutdown/
• Johnny Bigg's Going Out of Business Sale: https://johnnybigg.com

Beer of the Week:

• Bruce: Patagonia x Deschutes Kernza Lager: https://bit.ly/kernza-lager
• Jody: Begyle Blonde Ale: https://bit.ly/begyle-blonde-ale

This is Heavy Conversation with Bruce and Jody, a podcast where we talk about being a big guy in today's world.

I'm Bruce.

And I'm Jody.

Here we go.

All right.

Here we go.

All right.

Hey, Jody.

What's up, Bruce?

Oh, man, it's.

It's been an interesting week for the big and tall industry.

I mean, also, just to take a step back, it's been an interesting morning for me.

You know, I normally record in the.

In the garage.

Yeah.

Here at my house.

And I went out to get set up, and there's a smell that drove me out.

Oh.

Now I have no idea what the smell is.

I.

I've narrowed it down.

It does not smell like.

You know, I use my.

I use my garage a lot.

I work out there.

I.

I play drums.

I've got my.

My bass.

You know, I'm out there regularly.

I was out there last night.

There was no smell.

You know, it's.

I keep it relatively clean, so it's not like, you know, there's not trash hanging around.

Whatever.

Something crawled in and died in there.

It doesn't smell like death.

It doesn't smell like trash.

It's like.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of like.

Yeah.

You know, like.

Yeah, it was like maybe a little bit like a.

I don't know, kind of like a fart was closest I could get.

But even that, it just.

There's something off.

So after we're done here, you know, safety first.

I'm going to go out and make sure that, you know, see if the smell's coming from outside, try to track down what's happening.

The rest of the house.

Let it out.

Totally.

Rest of the house is fine.

So.

All right, so here we are.

I'm recording in the dining room.

So good, too.

Yes.

So, yeah, it's been an interesting week for the big and tall industry.

We got confirmation that Australian retailer Johnny Big is ending their US Website, so they won't be selling directly to the US Customer anymore.

That's crazy.

And it kind of came as a surprise, so we thought we'd talk a little about that.

I've worked with Johnny Big through Chubster multiple times, and, you know, this is kind of a thing that you and I have talked about for years and years, kind of the industry where.

Where it's going, how new brands show up, how they disappear, what we think they should be doing, and maybe what we're not seeing out there.

I will say there's.

There's an article on chubster.com that that I wrote that kind of covers the general, hey, Johnny Big's closing their US site.

Why are they doing this?

They haven't come out and said specifically these are the reasons that we're closing down.

Okay, but if you, you know, in my, my job as a non journalist, I went through and, you know, did a little research, kind of looked at the, the big things that could be causing, you know, issues and sort of where Johnny Big as a business is at.

And you know, so, so we've got a few ideas.

You know, we can kind of go through some of that stuff until they come out and say, hey, this is the reason.

Right?

We're kind of just.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, that could be all the crazy tariff things, you know, I mean, who knows?

But that, I mean, that's really unfortunate.

They've got some really cool things.

Yeah, so just a kind of a little background on, on Johnny Big.

They are an Australian retailer.

They are kind of like a DXL for Australia.

You know, they have stores around the country.

They, you know, they do, they do very well with, with the product that they offer there.

And they, you know, wanted to expand that into the US which makes a lot of sense because there's real opportunity here and we need more options.

And so they saw that they have, they built out the process and kind of went from there.

The cool thing about Johnny Big is that they are legitimately a big and tall brand and they offer sizes large to 8x.

So they run the spectrum.

They've got clothes that.

How would you, how, how would you describe kind of the, the style or quality, quality or any of that, if you're looking at it?

I mean, they, I mean, I think they have kind of a.

Runs the spectrum because, I mean, they've got like casual clothing.

They've got some like suiting and blazers, but you know, it's kind of.

They run the spectrum, but it's really trendy stuff.

You know, they've got some nice prints and patterns and styles and all that kind of stuff.

So I was, I've been excited.

I've ordered a number of times from them.

And even one of my roommates, he's a big fan, he gets stuff from them all the time.

I'm a little jealous.

He gets stuff all the time from them.

So actually I don't even know if he knows that they're closing down.

So I might have to.

Oh, yeah, right.

Let them know and be like, hey, you better go stock up for whatever for a while.

But yeah, they've got a Lot of good.

A good.

A lot of good options and I'm, I'm sad to see that they're.

They're going away.

Yeah.

You know, as far as styles go, they were definitely a little more fashion forward.

Stylish, you know, and thoughtful and kind of what they put together, it reminds me a little bit of, you know, there's definitely a, A At least when I look at some of the stuff, it's like a non US vibe.

So almost like a.

I mean, I guess Australian but you know, almost like a European feel to slightly Some of this stuff.

Yeah.

And a little closer to like as far as style goes.

It reminded me a little of kind of fast fashion sort of stuff with the trends where, where it's kind of interesting stuff that isn't exactly the trends that you're seeing in kind of the mainstream, but it's like diff.

Cool different kind of product.

I will say that their, their prices and the quality that I experienced was not like fast, fast fashion level.

It was higher than that.

So it just kind of gave me those vibes.

And you know, there, there's.

There has definitely been a place for that in the industry.

So that's kind of where they're at.

I know that initially when they launched they were offering sizes to 9x and I think they brought it down to 8.

So yeah, that's kind of where they were at.

And they moved.

Well, I mean they definitely, I mean you can't some.

You can't obviously predict any of that stuff, but they have some really great stuff and they were using, you know, more.

I wouldn't say real big and tall, but they would had bigger than normal models on their websites and their ads and stuff like that.

So that was definitely nice to see.

They had some diversity on their website, which is good to see.

But as my.

One of my always.

One of my comments is that they need to show much bigger bodies to show that they actually are doing those big and tall because that's.

We want to see what it looks like on an actual guy with a belly like I have.

So.

But that's, you know, something that I say for every brand.

But.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I would agree.

I think one of the things That I really liked about them is that they, they, like you said, they're using models that are bigger, but they kind of went a little more.

They weren't really as willing to dip their toe into the shorter, rounder guys as much as they were kind of the more proportionate the guys that they.

The models they used on their sites were a little more traditional model.

Yeah.

If that makes sense.

Yeah.

And.

Yeah, and.

And I think that is something that I would have loved to see them kind of try to, you know, change and incorporate.

It wasn't something that they did.

I think that.

I will say that Johnny Big did.

They did a lot of outreach to influencers.

I know there were a lot of influencers and a lot of people on social media and all that that were doing, you know, would get their product.

I know they were doing sponsorships and they were involved in, you know, lots of different events and they, they did really put that effort in.

I think that, I think that whenever you are dealing with a bigger company, you know, and I mean, make no mistake, this is corporate.

Like, if you would look at a dxl, I know that when I started Chubster, DXL was a very different kind of business catering to guys in their 50s and 60s, very, you know, ex football player models, a very different kind of thing.

And over time, they realized that, you know, changing who they were trying to.

Not changing, but expanding who they were trying to reach who their target customer was made a big difference.

And that also meant changing the model.

You know, and I, I think Johnny Big, you know, they've got good models and there are a couple guys that are models for them that I, That I follow that, you know, are doing that, do other, that work with other brands and do other things.

I just feel like there's something there that.

That connection didn't really click, at least for me as a customer, like it does for other.

Like it does with other brands.

Yep.

So for sure.

Yeah.

So like I said, I wrote an article this past week about, you know, they're shutting down and kind of what, you know, what we thought the reasons for that were.

And, you know, we can kind of talk about some of these things.

A big one is the, the obvious that the market is tough.

It's.

They entered the market and it's very competitive with.

Just like, if you're coming in and you're trying to, you know, and you're trying to be the biggest in the, in the market, you have to contend with.

Dxl, which is well established, has stores across the country really has it down.

I think that is a difficult place to be.

And it's hard to imagine that in the near future anybody is going to come around and, you know, really try to, you know, that we're going to get anything new that's going to try and, you know, push back, take some of that dominance away.

So, you know, it's, it's hard.

I mean, they, they just didn't get the kind of attention that I think some of these brands need.

And again, we always talk about it, but it's like, it's hard, it's hard to, it's hard to get the word out about a new Big and Tall brand.

If you're not, if you, if everything isn't perfect, you know, it's, it's difficult.

I mean, you've got to be able to market, you've got to be able to get the, the community, you've got to have the, the right branding, the right look.

The product, obviously, first and foremost needs to be there.

All of those things need to come together.

And I, I think if you can't do that and you don't have a real, like, specific niche, that it's going to be difficult.

Yeah, I mean, like you said, they had a lot of competition in the market and yeah, they, I don't know that they could, that they were really getting their name out there enough.

Right.

Like, when you don't, when you just have kind of those normal, what I air quote normal size guys, it doesn't show that you're anything really that different.

And didn't they have, weren't they working with one like a more major retailer like a Bloomingdale's or somebody like that or something like that?

Yeah.

So they were, they, they had actually started a partnership earlier this year, which is what makes this even more surprising is that they started a partnership with Belk Department Stores where they actually had a retail presence in Belk stores.

So that was just, that was something that just started earlier this year.

So that was, even, that made this even more of a surprise.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not super familiar with that door, but sure.

Yeah.

Right.

I, I, it does make me wonder, would, you know, something like a Nordstrom have been different?

I mean, maybe, maybe not.

It's so hard to tell because we've seen this in the past where Big and Tall will be in retail stores, but these companies don't do a good job of getting the word out about that.

Nobody goes to the stores.

Yeah.

You know, when you're, you don't get.

They don't order the bigger sizes either.

They just order kind of their traditional sizing that they.

The store would carry.

So.

Right.

And you really have to strategize and plan the thing out if you want to have a store presence and get people there because they just don't know.

You know, you don't expect to be able to go into a store and find a 4X or something.

And so it's.

If you're not getting the word out about that and really hitting it consistently, not a one off, hey, we've got this stuff.

Good luck.

That doesn't help.

You have to, you have to be on it and it has to be a regular thing.

So I.

It's that whole strategy around getting the word out and if they're not doing that, then, you know, what are you going to do?

That said, this had only been going for.

This Belk partnership had only been going for a couple months, it sounds like.

So it's hard to imagine that that was, you know, the, the deciding factor.

Yeah, no, another, another thing that I bring up in the article is that retail in general is really tough right now.

It's kind of along the lines of what we were just talking about is Johnny Big's parent company in Australia.

They had been dealing with, you know, slowing sales, store closures, some issues that a lot of companies are dealing with right now.

And you know, with, with tariffs, with the kind of where the world's at, it is easier, it's an easier sell for a company to focus on what they know will work as opposed to expanding into something that they're unsure about.

So I can see that.

I guess the last thing, and one issue that kind of plays into yet another thing that we constantly talk about is the fact that the customer experience has to really be there if you want to do this right.

The product has to be great.

The customer experience, the customer service, it really has to be there and you have to have it down.

And as I was researching this and putting together this latest article, I did see that there were some places where customers were.

They were disappointed about the whole thing, but they were also commenting about inconsistent sizing, customer service issues.

And I can say, and if you look back at some of the Johnny Big articles on Chubster, I specifically call out that you need to know your size because they're 1x to 8x or 9x is not equivalent to maybe what you would be wearing at a, from a DXL or from, you know, another place where you have your size Established.

So I know that those kind of things were issues.

And that can also, that can always be a problem.

If somebody thinks, hey, I'm a, I'm a 3x and they order something in a 3x and it's not and it doesn't fit, then there you go.

You know, it's not going to work.

It's going to hurt the brand.

And I think that is definitely something that, that can be a problem.

Yeah.

I mean they're not even.

Johnny Big's not even that old of a company.

Wow.

So they're not.

But it says they have 325 stores.

That seems like a lot.

Yeah, definitely.

But they also, the parent company also has another brand, Axl and Coal, and they also do big sizes.

They go XL to 7X.

So.

Oh, wow.

Maybe that's, I'm not sure.

I haven't heard of that one at all.

So I don't know that that's even.

It's probably not a available here or, you know, I don't know how that works when you have a Australian company.

They probably do ship here, but.

Right.

That doesn't.

It seems like that's weird to have two different companies kind of doing.

I mean they're.

That Axl and company is little different style wise, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.

That's interesting.

I'm, I'm looking at it now and I see.

Yeah, it's, it definitely looks as though it's just Australia based and.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

You know, it's another thing that's a similar issue to what Destination XL had back in the day when it was Casual Mail and Rochester and you know, all of those different brands that they realized, okay, we've got all these Big and Tall stores that we've purchased.

We need to make one thing.

And yeah, maybe that's, maybe that's where they're headed, but I don't know.

I did reach out to Johnny Big.

I reached out to my contacts there to see if they wanted to give me a quote, give any additional information and I have not heard back.

There's a line in the article, obviously if they respond, I will update the article, but as of now, I've not heard anything.

So that's kind of where it stands.

It is a bummer to lose another Big and Tall brand when we don't have a lot of options.

But, you know, I'm glad that we got them for the five or so years that we got them.

And if you are, if you need some new clothes, go to johnnybig.com before they shut down because right now they're doing a closing down sale.

Nothing is over $40.

Right.

Yeah, I'm like, add to basket, add to cart.

Totally.

Yeah, exactly.

Because it says they are final sale, no returns, but.

Right.

I think I have myself fine now.

So.

So yes, as, as I said, make sure that if you're gonna, if you're gonna go there and you're gonna buy things and I would recommend that you do go to this, go to the site.

Look at their size guide.

They've got it up at the top of the, the site.

There's a link to it.

So you can click that.

You can see, you know, it's got, it's got everything there.

Breaks down different product types.

Look at all that.

Make sure you know your sizes and then order because, yeah, final sale.

So if you buy something it doesn't fit, you're stuck with it.

So, yeah, make sure like 15 also.

Right.

I know, right?

I mean, my budget's pretty tight on spending for new clothes, but I definitely the.

The one or I have like three pairs of shorts.

One of them I just ripped the other day in the crotch.

So that was going away.

So I'm like, All right, it's 80 and humid.

I need shorts.

So.

Yep, absolutely.

So, yeah, take a look.

Johnnybig.com we will miss you.

And hopefully, maybe, maybe someday in the future though, they will try it again.

Yeah, I mean, it'll probably be a little while before someone else, like you said, does anything.

But.

Yeah, yeah, I, I think we are seeing there are smaller brands that are out there that are doing extended sizes.

One of the things that I'm loving about Instagram right now is all of my ads are for these like independent brands that offer like 4x5x6x that I have never heard of.

And I'm always looking for this stuff.

So, you know, it's doing a good job of getting those things in front of me and it's cool to see that that kind of stuff is out there.

It's cool that they're running campaigns.

So I'm going to be writing more about those kinds of brands as we move forward.

So hopefully we'll have some more resources because we definitely need them.

Yeah.

Let us know if you're seeing a new brand out there and send it to us on Instagram or for, you know, put it in our dms.

Let us know.

Right.

Check them out.

Maybe we can do some reviews on some of these new brands and let you know what we think.

You know, we're the, the experts in it all, you know.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'd love to hear what your, what are your favorite brands right now?

What are you seeing out there that's not getting enough love?

So on and so forth.

So.

Yeah, yeah, I'd love to know.

I need something.

All right.

Yes.

So it is beer time for our latest adult beverage.

And I have one that I've been saving for a couple weeks specifically for the show because it was a special edition beer.

Yeah.

So this beer is from Deschutes Brewery, but it is a partnership, a collaboration with Patagonia Provisions.

Oh, yeah.

So Patagonia and Deschutes partnered on a beer called Kernza Lager.

Says bright, crisp, wildly drinkable.

And it is, let's see here.

They.

It says the climate could use a beer.

Industrial agriculture hasn't exactly been easy on our climate.

So why give it a break?

So why not give it a break?

So I give it a break.

That's right.

We brew this lager with regenerate, regenerative organic, certified rye, organic hops, barley and Kernza, a soil saving, carbon capturing perennial grain.

Here's to the future.

So, okay.

Yeah, let's see what it tastes like.

Got some decent reviews on Untapped.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, it's like, it is like a very drinkable summer beer.

Like if you were camping or hiking or somewhere, you know, out, out in the middle of nowhere and you broke this beer out, you know, as you were taking a break, this is the kind of beer that you would drink.

It's, it's really good.

Very drinkable.

Very, very easy to drink.

Flavorful.

Actually, I'm surprised.

I didn't, didn't expect it to be as, as drinkable as it is.

Nice.

So yeah, that is, that's a pretty good one.

Kernza Lager.

It's K, E, R, N, Z a lager.

But you know, obviously if you look for Patagonia shoots, that kind of thing, you will find the beer and kind of go from there.

So, yeah, it's Deschutes.

And Deschutes is based here in Oregon.

So I'm a big Deschutes fan.

I love them.

You can get those.

I mean, Deschutes is pretty sure it's nationally available because it's out here too.

So.

I don't know all of them are.

But yeah, so I have a local Chicago beer from Bagayo Brewing.

It's called Beguile Blonde.

You know, it's real Fancy American blonde ale brewed with honey.

Brewed with locally sourced Midwestern honey.

Our blonde ale is clean and balanced with subtle fruity notes in the fermentation profile and a dry finish.

Pure, drinkable goodness.

Nice.

Very nice.

You know, light summery ale for sure on this warm summer day.

Finally.

Finally.

Yes, yes.

So, yeah, I, I will actually drink this.

I'm feeling this.

I'm gonna hang out on the, on the deck, which I have been cleaning like a madman.

Now that it's warm and the rain has stopped.

I've gotten out there and I'm, you know, I'm doing all that kind of stuff around the house, like all the, the yard, the landscaping, the yard work, cleaning up the deck, all that kind of stuff.

And like this is a beer that I will kick back in the hammock.

You know, I just realized I could actually work on my laptop from the hammock.

You could?

That's wonderful.

I mean, or you could just be.

In the hammock, I guess, I guess.

I, it's, it, it's kind of that busy season, you know, it's like I, I'm.

There's so much to do right now and I'm like, how can I, how can I relax and enjoy myself while also being productive?

Right.

Okay.

Yeah, that's good.

Gotta change up the work environment a little bit.

From the unsure smelling office garage to the hammock outside on a beautiful day, I think.

Yes.

For real.

I'll tell you what, I'm definitely not working in the garage today.

I'm gonna have to go and figure out what is happening out there.

At first I was thinking, so my, My youngest turns 6 this weekend and.

Really?

Yes.

And he, he's of course made a list of things that he would like for his birthday.

And one of the things on the list that has been, he's been asking for it for months and we've been like, no, we're not going to do this.

We're not going to do this.

No, because it's going to be worse for us than it is for you.

You know, there's a lot of those, a lot of those gifts where it like.

Loud things.

Right, right.

So, you know, it's like, I want a dog, I want a kitten.

I'm like, we've already got a cat, you know, so.

So he took a step down from kitten, which was still and is still on his list as of this morning.

He was like, my aunt's gonna get me a kitten.

We're like, no, no, she's not kitten.

Has one.

Yeah.

He's a toy cat.

Right, right.

Yeah, that.

If only that would work.

So he's also been asking for fart spray.

Oh, did he find something?

Yeah, you know, thanks to YouTube Kids, I'm sure he came across it.

And so he's been asking about it, and we've been like, no, because that's just a horrible idea for a thousand reasons.

And then my oldest child reminded me that he had some when he was younger that we got for him at some point.

So.

Yeah, so he got an early, early birthday present over the past weekend, and.

Good Lord.

Like, it's had to stay outside.

It has to be stored outside.

It's like a.

It's a nightmare.

That's not the smell in the garage.

That is not the smell in the garage, which, I mean, I'm happy about that because the smell in the garage is bad, but it's not that bad.

It's not a fart spray bad.

Okay.

So experienced.

And I don't know that I want to.

No, you don't.

Believe me, you don't.

He waited until I was eating dinner and then ran up to me with it.

Didn't spray me.

Just, like, waved it around near me, and we were done with the fart spray for the night.

Anyway.

There we go.

That's basically all I've got.

If anything changes next week, I'll come back with an update on the Johnny Big Saga and where that stands and.

Where whatever that smell is.

And whatever that smell is, hopefully I will track it down.

Best of luck.

Maybe go outside and.

Or just open the garage and let it air out for a little while first.

All right, sounds good.

Thanks, Jody.

Talk to you later.

Bye, everybody.

Bye.

Thanks for listening to Heavy Conversation.

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