Adam Torres and Taylor Morton discuss Justin Brands, Inc. and Texas FFA.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify / Stitcher / RSS
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Justin Brands, Inc. was the title sponsor of the 95th Annual Texas FFA Convention in Dallas, Texas. In this episode, Adam Torres and Taylor Morton, Public Relations Manager at Justin Brands, Inc., explore Justin Brands, Inc. and why they are active supporters of the Texas FFA and it’s members.
Watch Full Interview:
About Justin Brands, Inc.
Their roots go back more than 130 years. Justin® Boot Company has been handcrafting western footwear in the U.S. since 1879 when founder H.J. Justin mastered the craft of boot-making and established their industry-leading western footwear brand. Justin Boots are an icon in western culture and their heritage will always have a presence in the western character that lives and breathes today. Justin Boots are handcrafted by skilled boot-makers using only the finest leathers and quality materials. They take great pride in the character of our superior craftsmanship and the comfort of their product, from the leather to each individual stitch. Industry leading technology is incorporated into our boots such as J-Flex® Flexible Comfort System®, which provides all-day comfort, and Grip-on-Demand™, which provides riders with enhanced control in the stirrup. They offer durable, comfortable, authentic western footwear for men, women, and kids for every occasion: from working on the ranch, to riding, to Saturday night on the square. When you’re wearing Justin Boots you’re always culturally in tune with western fashion, deep in the heart of the western lifestyle. Justin Boots remains committed to providing dependable footwear at a value. With products including Justin Bent Rail™, the George Strait Collection™, and the Justin AQHA Lifestyle Collection™ – along with a prominent focus on handcrafting boots in the U.S. – Justin Boots will forever be the Standard of the West since 1879.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and I’m so happy and thrilled to be at the 95th Annual Convention for the Texas F F A and my guest. Today, Taylor Morton, who’s a public relations manager over at Justin Boots. Hey Taylor, just wanna say welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Alright, so everybody knows Justin Boots, so I, I, the brand needs no introduction, but I’m excited to hear more about, you know, why come to this convention, why it’s important. Why is just. And boots here. Absolutely. So Justin has been a sponsor of the Texas F F A, I’m not exactly sure how many years, but a while.
We guessed about 40. I’m not exactly sure that that’s right, but somewhere kind of in that, you know, between 10 and 40 years, somewhere there. And we just love Texas f f a, you know, we’re the title sponsor of this event. It’s so exciting for us to be able to come to an event like the Texas F F F A State convention and honestly kind of put our mouth where our sponsorship dollars are.
Yeah. And get to interact with all the kids and all the teachers and yeah. So we love it here. So you personally, like where, what did you learn about Texas F F A? What did I learn about Texas f When, when, when? Mm-hmm. So I learned about Texas f f a when I was in high school. Mm-hmm. I actually was born and raised in Fort Worth, just a few miles down the road.
And last year’s convention I was there. Fort Worth. Yeah. And my high school didn’t have Texas F F a. Oh. We didn’t have an f f A chapter, so me and a few of my friends actually tried to start a chapter when we were sophomores in high school. And we didn’t have the advisor support, so we didn’t get it done.
So really my intro to to F F A was working at Justin, which I’ve been with the company for seven years and I’ve gotten to attend a lot of F F A state conventions. But really, I mean, that was my intro to F f A. What’s one of your favorite parts about coming to convention? The kids. No doubt.
I mean, getting, I’m sure that’s, that’s the answer from everybody, right? That’s the theme. I’m just saying. It’s, it’s the kids and the energy. I mean, my very first Texas f f a state convention that I got to attend with Justin, the kids are just beyond spectacular. Mm-hmm. I mean, the, the energy that they have, they’re intelligent, they’re polite, they’re well spoken.
I mean, you just can’t get better kids than than Texas F f A students. Yeah. At all. I, I’m seeing it and I see it in, I don’t know if it’s the like, level of maturity, the leadership mm-hmm. The professionalism, like, so Justin’s is, as you mentioned, title sponsor, obviously putting the, the, the dollars behind the brand and everything else.
Mm-hmm. Like for maybe some other individuals and talking to, let’s say the corporate leaders out there, a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, executives that watch this show. Why should other brands be thinking about, you know, representation and being at a conference like this? Absolutely. Well, I think, you know, one thing that’s important to us is that , Texas F F a students are the future leaders, right?
Yeah. And one thing that we kind of joke about, but it’s not really a joke in our office, is, you know, Hey, you guys go ahead and come graduate and then come work for us. Yeah. Come work with us. Because like I mentioned, I mean, these kids, they’re so well-spoken, they’re leaders. They just excel in everything that they do.
And those are the kind of people that you want working for you and with you, right? Mm-hmm. I was, you know, say in our office I would rather hire attitude and character than skill. Any day I can teach you how to do a job, but I can’t teach you those. You know, a work ethic and, and character, like I said.
And F F A has all of that. So, Let’s spend a little bit of time. I wanna pivot a little bit here and, and learn more about Justin Boots. Mm-hmm. Like what’s on the horizon for it? I mean, many know the brand, but it’s not every day I have the, the, the PR manager on the line. Absolutely. But tell us a little bit more about the brand and maybe the vision going forward.
Yeah, so a little bit of history. We’ve been around since 1879. We started in Spanish Fork, Texas. So yeah, we are a heritage company. We’re a legacy company. We also own Tony Lama, boots, N Boots, and Chippewa boots. So we have. Four big legacy brands under our umbrella, which is a lot of fun to work on. Something really big that a lot of people don’t know about Justin, is that we’re actually about to launch an apparel line.
Oh, but you heard it on Mission Matters. That’s right. So if you go by our booth at Texas f f A, you get to see a little sampling of. The denim and the apparel. Mm-hmm. And bomber jackets and women’s dresses and jewelry. Wow. That we’re adding into our brand portfolio because, you know, we treat ourselves like a lifestyle brand, not just a boot brand.
And so we’re trying to expand the product offering that we have as well. Oh, that’s so interesting to me. Yeah. Because to see the evolution of as you mentioned, legacy brand Yeah. Now to lifestyle brand, which it always was, if you think about it. Yeah. ’cause it was always functional. Yep. Like in, in the past shoots, right?
Mm-hmm. But now you’re also in the, in the clothing. Yep. Oh, that makes, we’re really excited. That makes so much sense. How important is online and digital gonna be for that? Oh, it’s huge. It’s huge Online and e-comm, I mean, it’s, it’s a portion of our business and it’s gonna keep growing and growing into, you know, a bigger portion of our business.
So I feel like it’s, especially looking at opportunities when we think about the about the Texas f f a members. Mm-hmm. And the, as you mentioned, always recruiting, always doing things like that, like recruiting that I’ll say it, that young blood into, yeah. Into into digital and into this like, yeah.
Everything’s becoming a tech job. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, digital matters. I think, you know, anyone who’s under, I don’t wanna put a certain age on that, but under a certain age or in a certain demographic, they know e-comm, then they want e-comm, and that’s how they shop. So you know, part of being a legacy brand means that you have to honor your history and heritage, but also find a way to move forward into the future.
And so that’s something with a bigger importance on e-comm. I mean, that’s, That’s really big press. How does a brand like that, like move into that lifestyle for apparel? I’m just trying to even wrap my head around this. Mm-hmm. Like that’s a big deal. It’s huge. Yeah. So we are, we did a lot of focus groups early on, right?
About what do people want? And especially with denim, I mean, there’s a lot of big competitors in that field already. There’s a lot of big players. And so we had to be sure that the look was right, the fit was right, the feel was right. Mm-hmm. The material was right. I mean, the price was right. I mean, all of the above, right?
Mm-hmm. So we did a lot of, a lot, a lot of research and focus groups and spent a lot of time doing that before even developing. And then now that it’s developed, and I will say, I mean, the genes are only gonna be about 50 bucks. Wow. A pair. So the price is definitely right. Yeah. You know, our distribution is right and yeah.
So we’re excited. Yeah, we’re really excited. No, that’s awesome. I’m gonna have to go down there and check out. Yeah. Come on. Re I haven’t, I haven’t been able to get out yet, but I come on. But I will like, I, I gotta go see, and then I’ll say from there, I mean denim’s kind of first and we have some outerwear and apparel and then, Slowly adding more and more.
I know that women’s jeans is on the horizon very, very, very soon. Oh, wow. Ladies dresses were just introduced and I know we have more coming soon. So we’re excited. Oh, that’s awesome. That’s exciting. Yeah. Well, well really appreciate you coming on the show today and, and taking some time out. I know it’s busy.
Busy. Absolutely. And I’m also also happy to break some news and get to see about this Appar. Absolutely. And everything else coming on. So thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate you coming on the show. Absolutely.