Berkshire Beyond Buffett(38)

In 1972, it introduced the Garanimals label, a children’s clothing line that soon became a best-seller for the company and remains so today. The Garanimals line offers a unique way to mix and match outfits using color and style coding that is easy for children to master. The concept reflects the connection between how children are dressed and self-esteem. Self-confidence arises from an accomplished sense of creativity and independence. Garan retained the noted psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers as a consultant, who attested that the Garanimals brand “helps the preschooler to handle his or her own wardrobe. That sense of ‘I can’ fosters the child’s growing sense of independence.”36 Parents valued this concept, which boosted Garan’s market share and resulting business value.

During the 1980s, Garan joined other textile manufacturers in moving production abroad to sustain growth and expansion, though continued some domestic manufacturing. When Walmart emerged as a force in retailing, it became one of Garan’s largest customers. Garan also obtained licensing deals to decorate its garments with collegiate logos and Disney characters. The early 1990s were prosperous, but rising costs, intense competition, and continued domestic manufacturing impaired performance in the latter part of the decade. Increasing reliance on Walmart proved a mixed blessing; it was a valuable account to have but stoked worries in the financial community about dependence on Walmart’s fortunes.

Lichenstein and his colleagues coped by operating on strict budgets, broadening the Garanimals line, and increasing its manufacturing abroad. Garan used little debt and had paid a dividend every year since 1962. Although publicly held, 40 percent of Garan’s stock was concentrated: 12 percent owned by Lichenstein, 12 percent by Dorsky’s heirs, and a further 16 percent by other managers. In 2002, recognizing a need for additional capital to sustain its position, but without compromising its continuation, management contacted Buffett. A deal was soon made, and another team of entrepreneurial managers joined Berkshire.




Justin cowboy boots are as well known as kindred western brands Colt 45 guns, Levi’s jeans, and Stetson hats.37 H. J. Justin founded a boot repair service in 1879; following his death in 1908, H. J.’s three sons took over and began making cowboy boots. In the 1930s and 1940s, as the cowboy lifestyle faded with the storied Wild West, the brothers worried about the future of the cowboy boot business. So they redirected toward a more general boot and shoe clientele.

The founder’s grandson, John Justin Jr., born in 1917, was a hard-driving entrepreneur from a young age. Justin Jr. sought control of the family business and eventually won it. He did not like how his elders had run the business by committee and wanted to be the sole leader. Once in control, he demanded dedication from employees. For example, he required nightly reports from his sales force to assure himself that they worked as hard as they could and met every possible account each day.38

Justin Jr. had a passion for his product, its Texas heritage, and his family’s name. He had great respect for the cowboys whose boots his family had made for so long. Even as he sought to expand the target market beyond cowboys, for the longest time he did not even own a pair of cowboy boots. Only after his wife chided him, at age thirty-six, did he start wearing his products. Thanks to her, the man became a walking advertisement for the brand.39

Another oddity: Justin Jr. had never ridden a horse until 1954, at age thirty-seven. He took a crash course in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that year when visiting an annual rodeo event. Justin explained the reason he rode: “I knew it would be good for business.”40 He grew to love riding and ended up participating in rodeo events for the next thirty-five years. The Wyoming trip inspired another tradition that would last decades: the Justins hosted an annual supper party in honor of the Fort Worth stock rodeo show.41 The tradition fostered deep relationships with rodeo stars and their fans, a valuable customer base.

In 1954, much in the way that Jim Clayton built affordable mobile homes and Richard Santulli offered fractional interests in aircraft at NetJets, Justin Jr. identified a need in the marketplace that would prove lucrative: the rodeo.42 Rodeo riders sought a boot more suitable to calf-roping, which requires a flatter heel than typical cowboy boots. Justin experimented but kept meeting difficulties combining the traditional upper of a cowboy boot with a shoe-like heel. The designs didn’t look or feel right. Inspiration struck when Justin Jr. recalled a military boot used by the ROTC at Texas A&M University. He adapted the military design for rodeo use and named it the Roper. It took a great deal of trial and error, but the Justin team finally got it right. The Roper was a hit with the rodeo set and beyond, becoming one of the company’s best sellers.