The Old Master Says: Behind The Curtain

I've been wanting to do a behind the scenes write up for a while now, and I can think of no better time to showcase the reality of my day to day operation here at Morris & King than during this inevitable lull all small businesses are going through after the Holidays while we wait for Spring Summer arrivals.

So, let's start with a little back story...

Before Morris & King I worked for one of the largest retail corporations in the world for nearly a decade. I had started my first business 5 years into that job as a hobby, and the 5 years before I left I began to take note on how I could implement their strategies into my own. Customer Service, Time Management, Organization, Packaging, Presentation, Shipping, every facet of this well oiled machine was taken into consideration because, why not? It was almost funny how voluntarily they were handing you the keys to running a successful business. The one that scared me the most though was Product Development. The key ingredient I was most terrified of, why? Because I knew the business I wanted to be in was essentially the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company of clothing brand ideas (you fans of The Office will understand that reference, but essentially I was about to start a potential failure), and in Charleston, SC it was already dead (for the most part). I also didn't know where to begin with Morris & King, and those of you that have been with us since the beginning will remember that we launched with barely 25 products. A large majority were accessories at that, products I knew how to get made from previous ventures. Just like anything else, I began to do my research, and after the first year doors began to open. Word was beginning to spread, and manufacturers started reaching out, and before I knew it we were offering a full line.

I started sketching out ideas for Morris & King just after my old man passed away. He was a traditional guy, through and through. An old school lawyer here in Charleston, graduate of The Citadel (Class of 1963), and UVA Law (Class of 1966). He continued to dress as he did in college up until his passing in 2018. When I was a kid, there wasn't a week that went by we didn't swing by Max's Men Store (perhaps the last menswear store in Charleston to do it correctly). When they closed in 2005 my Father was devastated, and continued to wear his Max's suits until they literally began to fall apart. I'm pretty sure this is where I get my "brand loyalty" from. Eventually he started heading to Ben Silver for a few things, mostly Aldens, and hopped on the Brooks Brothers train before the bottom fell out.

As I began to sift through his extensive wardrobe shortly after his funeral, I realized there wasn't many places left in Charleston that still offered traditional menswear. The few that originally did had begun to move away from it, stocking more modern styles and fits to keep up with the times as well as the influx of tourists visiting our historic town looking for something 'Charleston' to take home. Ben Silver was the only one that actually moved backwards (and away from modern styles and fits) and dove deeper into it, scrapping their third party brands completely. So, I started doing my research to figure out why this void had been created in the last 10 years, and whether or not it was worth my time and energy to fill it.

Turns out, there were a lot of reasons not to pursue it. Downtown retail space prices sky rocketed when the city started heavily promoting tourism after the 2008 crash, 75% of the manufactures everyone (and I do mean almost every small menswear store on the East Coat) was using went under or was sold off (and then eventually went under), the Charleston community of lawyers, doctors, and menswear enthusiasts began opting for a more casual approach to their practice, the "not to pursue" list goes on and on. So, instead of taking immediate action, I sat on the idea for a year, and in 2019 I started sketching out a dream scenario, a game plan of sorts if this idea ever could be pulled off. I wrote out 25 products I'd launch with, and if those sold and did well enough, the next 25 to 50 I would invest in, so on and so forth, not taking a profit for myself, but simply reinvesting over and over into this idea. By March of 2020 the pandemic hit, and so for another year I sat on it. During the lock down I began helping a friend of mine start selling online since he (along with many others) was forced to close his retail location. I built him a fresh new website, started diving deeper into running ads online, and by the time the world opened back up again he was in a better spot than he had been in years. This was the push I needed. I was on such a high from saving his business, and still grieving the loss of my old man at the same time I decided to channel all my energy into finally making Morris & King a reality. 

I took out the sheet I had scribbled on in 2019, and with the help of my wife (who has a degree in illustration from SCAD), began to figure out exactly what we wanted Morris & King to become over the next 5 years. I knew we had to start slow, and again, any profits would be rolled right back into the business, over and over again, taking no paycheck what-so-ever until it was clear it could work. I thought back on why the void was created, and the never-ending list of reasons why it wouldn't (and shouldn't) work. Well, I didn't need a retail space, so rent cost wouldn't be an issue. I'd strictly keep the brand online. I had taught myself how to run ads through social media during the lockdown, so attracting a community to share our products and ideas with was actually a possibility (I wouldn't have to rely on just local customers), and lastly, with the ads working for me, I could focus on the most challenging piece of the puzzle: Finding manufactures to help me make everything on our dream scenario list. This, even to this day, continues to be the biggest struggle of all.

Now that we're all caught up...

What prompted my decision to break down the third wall here is the photo I used for our Father's Day Gift Guide last year (2024). It shows myself, reading the paper on the floor amongst all my son's toys spread out just as I found them that afternoon. Typically when I photograph in this room it's spotless, but when I walked into the library that day and saw the mess and I thought to myself "if only people knew what this room really looked like 99% of the time". The power of the internet allows us all to create a grand facade of how we want our reality to be perceived, and frankly, it's kind of a tragedy. We're constantly being fed this level of perfection (from whatever brand or influencer it is), and I'm tired of over photoshopped and overly staged scenes just to sell the idea of what you want others to think your life is really like (sorry, but if this is you, you're not fooling anyone.) Now from a business owners perspective, you of course want to showcase the product in the best way possible, for the customer to imagine themselves with the product, at the location, enjoying whatever it is your offering. I'm guilty of it. It's Marketing 101. All that said: I've always had more fun blending both the facade and actual reality, after all, this is the career I've chosen, shouldn't I be able to have a little fun with it?

"I've always had this obsession with old advertisements from the 80s and 90s. When I used to do marketing graphics for other companies I would always pitch the idea, but no one ever took me up on it. When we started Morris & King, I knew I'd finally found my outlet for them."

Now, the idea of a menswear brand being operated by just one person, offering a limited selection of quality products, and selling to a now somewhat niche community isn't the reality behind the majority of menswear brands (although I feel like Junior's is doing a pretty kick ass job of it). If anything it's quite the opposite. Your favorite brand is rarely small, though perception would sometimes dictate otherwise, and even more rarely is it family owned and operated (which is really unfortunate because they all used to be). The majority of menswear's heavy hitters have been bought and sold multiple times. They're multi-million dollar companies run by executives following trends, hiring out marketing teams, photographers, models, designers, you name it. They've got multiple retail locations (or they wholesale to thousands), fulfillment warehouses, and hundreds of employees pushing their product in one form or another. - Now, I knew when I started Morris & King that all of these employee roles would be filled by one person, me. That wasn't the problem though, I'd been playing the retail game for years before we got here. The real problem was that in the beginning I deluded myself into thinking I needed to make it seem that it wasn't, and I actually developed a habit of saying "we", when it's really "I". (I still slip up sometimes.)

Believe it or not I shoot all of our marketing photos primarily at home during our kid's nap time. That's not a joke. Nine times out of ten our library is in complete chaos from him having the time of his life, followed by me falling into it to take photos for the shop, chatting with one of our suppliers (who now all ask how the kids are doing), or on a good day knocking out a chapter of whatever book I'm reading while I actually enjoy a cup of coffee (if I'm lucky). As for a retail location? I'm occasionally asked about it (one customer in particular is heart set on it), and as much as I'd love to build one out for Morris & King, for now I'd much rather spend every minute of the day right here working between naps and amongst the chaos. I feel I've been given an incredible opportunity to watch my kids grow up instead of being trapped in an office all day like my Father was. For now, my goal is to circle back around to it one the kid's are in school for regular hours.

 "Still by far the most insane hurdle we crossed was offering our own Blazers & Sport Coats. This was insanely high on our bucket list, and something that felt so out of reach only just a few years ago."

In March of '23, our son was born. I had started this brand, inspired by my Dad, and now I was one. I couldn't have been more excited. However, I now began to worry about just how I was going to accomplish both. I couldn't just shut Morris & King down, it was finally getting to a point I had dreamed so much about. So, I adapted. Again, something the previous job had taught me well, The Ability To Adapt To Change (they had a lot of little bullet points like this), and FAST! I started off working late, packing orders and designing at night, something I had become used to, but before he arrived I was able to sleep in most mornings, this was no longer the case. Luckily, as a new born, we were getting three naps a day. The second he would fall asleep, I'd be rushing around the house snapping photos, packing, designing, answering emails, you name it. Once that phase wore off, we went down to two naps, now one, and just like before, I adapted. I structured out a different schedule, and worked around his. I was now utilizing tools for the website I once shy'd away from (auto responses, FAQs, scheduled posts, etc). I learned to keep strict office hours (not answering calls or responding to emails after 4pm), and that I can't pack up orders late in the day and expect to make it to the post office before they close. So many things I feared would heavily impact our business all seem to make more sense, and with it, another lesson from the old job came into play: Setting Expectations. Setting up the auto response to our email, a more transparent process for returns and exchanges, and including turn around time for products in the description (as a majority are made to order) has shaved off countless hours from my daily tasks. All these tools I neglected out of fear of losing business, a fear I still worry about, but the reality is I needed them in order to make it work, to focus on what's really important, my family.

I may regret putting this much transparency out into the world, but this is the reality of it. The media portfolio that is 'Morris & King' online, and the professionalism of our carefully curated online store stems from years of hard work, learning from my mistakes, and figuring out how to do all of it while making sure our son doesn't eat poison (or anything he's not supposed to). It's not like any job I've ever had, or will ever have again. It's stressful and disheartening at times (we'll get to those in future entries), and other times I can't believe I get to do this for a living. I've become obsessed with figuring out how to get products made, and even more obsessed with finding the absolute best manufacturer to help us do it. At no point in this journey have I ever sacrificed quality over quantity, and I never intend to. I truly enjoy the work, and I'm looking forward to writing more about it.

Until next time, see you in the funny papers.