Young Entrepreneur's On The Rise
I caught up with the new entrepreneur's (Terry and Sherry
Braley) this January at a Biker Rally. After talking to some
fellow riders they were telling me about Terry and Sherry's new
website (Road Rash Apparel) and how low their prices were on
their Leather Apparel. So after digging through the crowd I
finally met up with them. I introduced myself and we sat down
and must have talked for over 2 hours about their new business.
Well, they talked. I asked Terry and Sherry why they started
their business and WHY! Do you sell your apparel so cheap?
Terry - "Well, we were on the Internet one night looking for
some leather jackets and chaps to purchase. We must have
searched for three hours looking at what seemed to be every site
there was to look at and I couldn't believe the prices of some
of them. I know you get what you pay for, but damn? I don't want
to pay for the whole cow! "
Sherry -"It seems that all the cheep leather was that "patched
leather" or some call it "Diamond Cut leather". We weren't
interested in that. Not to say there's anything wrong with it.
If that's what you like, then buy it. To each its own."
Terry- "Yeah. I had asked around about what kind of jacket to
buy. The majority of the riders I had asked, told me to get one
that was made for riding. You know, just in case you lay your
bike down. And patched leather wasn't the best way to go.
Anyway, I made the comment that someone needs to start selling
this stuff that caters to us poor bikers."
Sherry - "I looked over at Terry and said, "We can do it""
Terry - "A week later I quit my job and started building the
website. I did A LOT of research on Leather. Types, thickness of
it and where it comes from. I was almost sick of leather after
about 3 days. Anyway, we decided we wanted to purchase our
leather from an American made manufacturer and I ended up
finding a company in Spokane WA that had what we were looking
for. They manufacture leather apparel made for bike riders. And
its damn good leather. And I'll tell you. What I pay for the
jackets and what I sell them for, we don't make a big profit on
them".
Now that we've covered those aspects of Biker Shirts, Leather
Jackets, Motorcycle Apparel, Boots, Chaps, Vests, Leather
Lingerie, let's turn to some of the other factors that need to
be considered.
Sherry - "Yea, we're not in it to get rich. Just make a little
money and help out our fellow bikers".
Terry - "Since we've went live on the Internet we have sold more
T-Shirts than jackets. That's okay. I think when people see our
price's they think its cheep leather and stray away from it. But
it's Top Quality Leather! You can't find our type jackets on the
internet for a better price I think"
Well without going into the whole 2-hour conversation we had. We
continued to talk and they told me more about what they sold on
their site. T-Shirts, Leather Lingerie, Boots, Chaps, Vests and
the list went on. Terry said "right now we sale over 700 types
of t-shirts and plan on adding more. By the time we get done, we
will have well over 1500. That's a lot of damn shirts"
These were two of the friendliest people I have ever met. Both
Terry and Sherry are from Georgia and reside in Douglasville Ga.
And you could tell that these were just two people really trying
to look out for fellow bikers and our shallow pockets.