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World Famous | Outdoor Journal Radio ep. 128
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Apr 15, 2025
This week on Outdoor Journal Radio, Ang and Pete are joined by the man behind most of your favourite outdoor gear, Ian Mucher! First, however, a bit of housekeeping was in order. Topics discussed included: Vova's new job; Eating Wild's one-year anniversary; William Shatner's take on salmon farming; and trusting your leader knot. With those matters out of the way, Ian Mucher of World Famous Sales joins the show! Topics discussed included: the origin stories of some of your favourite brands; Misty Mountain; the original graphite rod; the modern outdoor gear industry; the power of repurposing; the Wingman; and much more! To never miss an episode of Outdoor Journal Radio, be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a review on your favourite podcast app! More from Angelo and Pete: ► WEBSITE ► FACEBOOK ► INSTAGRAM ► YOUTUBE
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music] and now another exciting episode in The Adventures of Outdoor Journal
0:07
radio we're back we're back from a long it seemed like a long extended trip uh
0:14
we just uh got in from the Northwest Territories and what an adventure it was
0:20
oh my God we'll we'll get into that one maybe in a future podcast you're very upand cominging close one but uh yeah
0:28
such a great such a great TR we've been a couple of Road Warriors here the whole team actually a bunch of Road Warriors
0:33
to be honest with you that Northwest Ontario run and then Northwest Territories run oh my God we've been putting in some uh some miles Bud yeah
0:41
boy I can hardly wait for my paycheck Friday yes sir G to the beer store yes sir e Bobby
0:50
I've already got it committed to that and I remember that when I worked for hydro that was it we got our paycheck and it was right to the beer store first
0:57
stop after the bank was to The Beer Store every time the good old days and yeah boy oh yeah
1:05
uh what a wonderful guest we have for you today or well okay let me maybe reel
1:12
that back in again what a wonderful guest we have for me today and I mean that sincerely I think
1:19
everybody's going to get something out of this guest though he's a you know a learned man for sure he sure is uh his
1:25
name is Ian mure he'll be joining us uh momentarily uh president or vice president he's the
1:33
co-owner him and uh his brother Mike mure uh
1:38
own probably the largest although he might not admit to it uh largest
1:45
contributor in terms of soft goods to the outdoor industry in Canada uh if you
1:51
look at uh products that are sitting on the shelf of your favorite retail store in the camping Department in the
1:56
Footwear Department in the outerware department in pretty much all departments you flip it over and you
2:02
look at it you'll see a little world famous tag there somewhere uh they're responsible for just about everything
2:09
other than the big Brands right why did you choose Ian over Miker did they make that choice or how did that come about
2:15
okay so you want to know the truth yeah I do so I've been asking Ian Ian uh by
2:22
the way we'll get into this when he comes on but he's an old friend of mine I did business business with him and his
2:28
brother for for 100 years years uh but he was a big fan of the original radio
2:33
show on uh on sportset gotcha and so what would happen he would uh he would
2:40
listen to the show and then he'd always after the show make a comment about how crappy it was or how this guest was
2:48
terrible or that guest like something disparaging right and so I'd ask him
2:53
well if you think why don't you come on the show and Mike would never have any this is saying Mike would never say
2:59
anything about the show didn't listen to it or every what mik say hey hey good show like the I listen to it you know
3:06
okay so anyways so for years I asked him to come on the radio show and he kept
3:12
refusing and refusing refusing and then of course we moved it to podcast and the same thing well about a month and a half
3:20
two months ago I was uh at their office and I invited him on the show but
3:27
knowing full well he was going to refuse but I said I just that was just a courtesy because I'm having your brother
3:34
Mike come on the show but I do okay what well I've been asking you
3:42
for I don't know how many years so I decided enough of that I'm going to ask
3:48
your brother Mike come on show well when you when do you like how does I'll come on the show so that was
3:57
wow okay see I'm glad I asked that question question good finally Mike I want to have on the show too cuz I think
4:03
he'd be a blast oh my God he's a character they're both such characters he would be a blasto but today uh you'll
4:09
get the um one half of the muture brothers uh on the show and you're going
4:15
to enjoy it tremendously I know I'm going to but uh before we get to the
4:20
world famous story Let's uh figure out what's going on here big boy yeah man how about shop. fishing canada.com uhhuh
4:28
you know what we can I mean I don't know what's so if there's anything brand new I me we got we got a lot of product on
4:33
there now I'll tell you what's been a shock to me selling like crazy to me
4:39
personally is the um reinterpreted and how how appropriate is that because the
4:46
king of reinterpretation is going to come on the show in a few moments but the reinterpreted fishing Canada logo
4:51
with the with the fish with the Walley the W and large yeah doing well eh hey
4:58
you know what old school sometimes you got to tap out buddy sometimes you got to you know you got to tap a little bit submit and then say okay yeah let's try
5:04
something new why why not right they're great hoodies they're great they mean is it just the hoodies or is it anything
5:10
else with that yet right now it's just the hoodies t-shirt will be a great that would be a great move on a t-shirt too
5:15
right so that's coming up next but uh yeah I know doing very well it's fishing
5:21
Canada uh shop. fishing canada.com is the store address but you can also
5:27
access it through the front door like I do and that is go to fishing
5:33
canada.com get in there say hello you know touch feel look at the news maybe
5:39
uh howtos the check take the poll there I mean you can do all kinds of stuff and
5:44
then click on the store how about enter the contest before you do any of that of course that's why you know one of the
5:50
good reasons to be there right might not enter the contest that's uh you do that and then and then you go into the store
5:56
and then you you surround yourself the contest is one of many because they're ongoing all the time just to let you know so I just saw a Garmin watch
6:03
contest again on there the other day there's this like there's all kinds of stuff you wear Garmin watch yeah I used
6:08
to I used to and I loved it but I stopped wearing it for some reason you know what it was I found a little
6:15
redundancy I've got my my um phone on my
6:21
on my back pocket yeah but you have to pull your phone out this pulling the phone it's just boom you do it like that
6:26
and you get the time this this watch does everything and I use it for telling time that's about it I turn off the
6:33
notifications all my texts but this thing was buzzing 14 hours a day I'm thinking I can't you know do you know
6:38
one of the reasons why I did stop wearing it is cuz I must have pushed something on it some kind of measuring
6:44
something or other because it would just vibrate like yeah every I don't
6:50
notifications and stuff com through and the next thing I know like also with your uh your step monitor will give you
6:56
a goal has say 10,000 steps or something it'll it'll do that I like the heart rate monitor on it too though I do like
7:01
that when you get on the treadmill or when you're working out at the gym stuff like that that's kind of there's even a fishing uh app I guess you'd call it on
7:08
This fishing app yeah you can even have a like it's even down to a fish counter if you want to count your fish that day
7:14
you know they talk about all the time just every time you hit that watch and you can't do that can you it's very
7:22
very technical sound uh I love the sound of it though I do love the sound of it thank um anyways yeah contest you can
7:31
even win one of those right there beautiful Garmin watches yes sir and
7:37
um what do we got oh listener feedback listener feedback Bob Gro from Michigan
7:43
us OFA oh by the way love can I just interrupt you for Michigan kind remind you I want to let folks know that our
7:51
very own our lovely our talented Dean Taylor um producer of this very program
7:57
is a little under the weather today and so he had to phone in sick which is very
8:03
unusual for him uh but filling in for him is the
8:09
equally talented and wonderful V oh my V
8:15
babushkin the normal did I say that right the cameraman blir babushkin not bad he's double tagging us today he's
8:23
working on the board multitasker and he's working at the camera cameras everything
8:30
better than him I mean he is a onean show without a doubt if you don't believe him ask him and he set this up so quick this we said okay we run the
8:37
podcast Dean can't come in boom boom boom bo he had it done like which kind of makes me wonder you know that half
8:42
day that Dean spends setting this thing up K9 forication going on there well
8:48
there could be some of that happening I don't want to say cuz he's a little under the weather and I don't want to
8:53
kick anybody when they're not feeling good so we'll discuss it when he gets back anyways uh wish you all the best my
9:00
friend get better soon okay let's from Michigan sorry love your podcast I used
9:06
to go to onario with my uncle's fishing once a year I grew up watching your TV show and dreaming of being able to go to
9:12
Canada fish again so obviously uh he watched it through either wfn or maybe
9:18
satellite or we spill over the Border oo like a bad infection buddy
9:26
honestly God you you remember those oh God don't REM me like a bad infection
9:32
every little um uh border town south of of the 49th of course they're all
9:40
familiar uh I'm able to go up this year again to Missi dog Lake which we are familiar with great great area in the
9:47
Aloma region where I haven't been in 23 years your TV show got me through many
9:53
years I wasn't able to get up there thank you that's nice Bob Gro from Michigan thanks Bob that's a wonderful note uh just a little feedback and we uh
10:01
we do appreciate that buddy and thanks for watching and good luck at Miss happi and dog Lake this year yeah have fun
10:06
that's going to be a great trip um yeah if you're out there listening to that and saying well that's kind of nice I I kind of did I was I was watching these
10:13
guys when I was a kid and they did this and well you know what send us a little note yeah little love baby hell yeah we
10:20
love hearing that stuff you get to say it back on the podcast then that's love and return right there and how does that
10:26
work by the way so everybody who sends in a message like that that we'll be on the listener feedback sure if you want
10:32
everybody answer you just got to say everybody how we don't make it we don't do enough podcasts for that there's got
10:37
to be a way how did Bob Grove from Michigan get on the show today just like
10:43
like a feather dropped in a Dean's lap and he's got the 45 gallon Dr he doesn't
10:48
have that drum he does so 25 gallons it's not 45 thank you not thank you what's the
10:57
drum made of it's steel it's metal it's like yeah it's a metal drum it's kind of rusty but he's PT he sanded it and he
11:04
painted it one those Kettle drums I like those sure like a
11:12
Caribbean yeah there you go look at you uh podcast Network highlights which
11:17
you'll see on the fishing Canada uh website uh this week today I don't even know what
11:25
period of time uh we are uh honoring the first year anniversary of the eating
11:33
wild podcast on the Outdoor Journal Radio podcast Network episode 52 yeah
11:40
yeah baby good for them good for them one year and the and they did a we're
11:46
127 by the way today we're episode 127 wow wow um and we um where was I oh and
11:54
and they did a podcast for the anniversary show and it is wonderful I had a chance to to get some uh previews
12:01
of it it is outstanding they talk about the difficulties uh the
12:07
surprises that uh podcasting brought into their lives uh as well as their
12:12
plans for future podcasts so you you if you're a follower of eating wild which I
12:18
am and you are we are you should be it's a great podcast but these guys are great they're characters man it's not just
12:24
about eating by the way it's not just about food prep it's not just about healthy no it's just about everything
12:31
it's about life about outdoors and yeah these guys are great fishing hun and all that good stuff yeah uh check it out
12:37
it's episode 52 uh Happy one-year anniversary episode of eating wild the
12:43
podcast on the Outdoor Journal Radio podcast well done boys congrats nice now
12:50
in the news yes on said fishing canada.com yes yes yes is a a story that
12:57
I saw this before we even put it up on the news somebody sent it to me I thought it was a spoof or some kind of a
13:05
joke why did you say that well because it was you'll you'll see it I mean if you haven't seen it just read it over
13:11
here you haven't seen the video you haven't seen the video no I haven't oh that's what ah I gotta I have to see
13:18
this uh it's William Shatner I love Billy Shatner I love him I love William
13:23
Shatner I'm just going to tell you that right now the guy is there's something about him he's so funny he's so uh how
13:31
do you call it nonchalant doesn't even try to be fun he just is or he seems like that he's probably got just great
13:36
acting but but I love him something else he's something else for anyways he speaks out um on
13:42
open uh pen salmon farming okay um it's
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a a piece that was uh collaborated between William Shatner and Ryan
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Reynolds production company and it's a little bit uh
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uh Lang it might be some offside language used okay but I think most of
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it been bleeped uh but it is uh out there and if you are a
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proponent of salmon farming or if you don't give a [ __ ] one way or the other this may change your mind after these
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guys finish with it because it is pretty so they were supposed to be phased out in 20125 but it's now been extended to
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2029 I'm assuming that's why the boys are freaking out right that extra I've been I've been uh this this phasing out
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thing has been going on since I first I first ran it well we had interviews with both sides of this debate uh back in the
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early 2000s for God's sakes uh it's all about the money isn't it it's obviously
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about the D so if you're not familiar with the problem uh open ocean pens
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where they raise uh 97% of the salmon that you buy yeah uh
15:00
in stores um is raised in open pens in the ocean and the byproduct of that is
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just horrific on I looked up some of the stats Andrew's currently 57 salmon farms
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in BC um in 2023 there was
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527,000 metric tons of salmon caught or raised not farmed the US European Union
15:29
and Japan are the largest consumers of this of the salmon salmon industry in 2022 that's as far as I can get the
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sales were $974,900 million almost a billion dollars in back then like that the when
15:44
they close it down the only problem is it employs like at least 500 BC people so that down your downside of and
15:51
arguably the uh blowback from that too it's not just those people but you know
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argu it emplo it employs people in processing
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plants it pro packaging plants in the grocery stores I mean sales everything there's no doubt about it it's it's uh
16:13
it's a slippery slippery slope but the damage that it does is uh is worth look
16:20
spre disease like like these pen sammon will like sea lies for instance they will spread that to the wild salmon that
16:27
are out you know in the real world sort of thing like that so it's not all you know it's not good in that sense for
16:33
sure so and there are solutions that have been brought to the table U unfortunately most of them are
16:40
relatively expensive but you know when you look at what the listen to the numbers you just spewed there on the on
16:47
the dollars that are generated from this thing well can't you can't you put a couple hundred thousand into it you know
16:52
qu Mill into it maybe it's more than not but but it doesn't matter it doesn't matter but the only way that's going to
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happen is is if we stop doing this extending you know from 25 to 29 you
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know right cuz now it's just going to go as is why why put money into a safer way to do it when we're just going to extend
17:09
it and by the way these are all uh non-canadian companies just so that we have it straight there is not a Canadian
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owned the biggest one is called Maui m o w they're all most of them are Norwegian
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and and all sorts of places like that so but they're just using their water and the government is is okaying it because
17:31
obviously there's Kickbacks there's some money there for sure for the government as usual right have a look at the video
17:38
let us uh know what you think say yay say nay whatever you like I think there' be a lot of get rid of it I think
17:44
there's G to be a lot of see you see you fan question this week is by Keith golin
17:52
from Manitoba another Manitoba boy wow we're getting a lot of Manitoba folks
17:57
love them um you too can be submitting questions
18:03
here for uh the weekly fan question portion of the show all you have to do is contact us at info@ fishing
18:10
canada.com and ask away and this is a perfect example of what type of question
18:16
you will get through to the show because this question from Keith says fluorocarbon leader to braided line what
18:24
is your preferred knot for casting through guides that's a great question because it's it's uh used every day by a
18:33
high number of Anglers nowadays you know what I mean so uh I'm not going to say every angle angler runs braid to flor
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carbon but a lot of them do I would think it's got to be like 75 I'm I hope
18:47
because it's a great idea you know what I mean I hope that I hope that it actually the problem with it is that you've got two totally opposite um
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materials that you're trying to tie together and conventional n will not allow the two to marry and not
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slip yeah so over the years since since the Advent of really of braided line
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everybody's been scrambling to find the perfect knot that will allow you to um
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put fluorocarbon on the business end of that line correct
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and in my opinion I don't think there is a knot
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that is perfect I don't think there is a knot that that has absolutely no
19:30
friction on the guides the line guides as you're casting out I think regardless
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of the profile of the knot how small and and and cylindrical and and whatever it
19:42
is it's still going to make contact correct with the guide so yeah that's it's physics right I think I think it
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comes down to what are you most comfortable with tying right right there's a bunch of things there's
19:54
strength there's comfort and and that and there there's size and there's time time tying it and
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that's a big one and tying under adverse conditions wind braided [ __ ] I hate
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braided line when the winds blow all over the place and all that did you see that mess I made last week I picked out
20:14
one of your backl remember that I got that one shocked me so last week we're in the Northwest Territories and um
20:20
windy as hell as it has been every shoot this year and um I was playing around
20:28
with a reel that was not functioning properly I was trying to make make it
20:33
function properly but it was not working so I desperately said all right all right let's back everything off of this
20:39
baby we'll get her going and made a cast and and I it blew up I mean my reel just
20:46
blew up I've never seen a bird's nest
20:52
this bad and I've been a creator of many of those so as Pete knows I'm very patient
20:59
I'll I'll pull those babies out and carefully back forth get it all out finally I had to give up on this one and
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I put okay that's it we're retiring number eight is now off the field
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retiring it tapped and about I don't know a half hour later obviously he was
21:16
in the middle of doing something else no no we were right we were driving from spot to spot so I had time right so I had some time so he picks it up and I
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swear to God this is not made up he just goes
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there you go buddy it's not is you [ __ ] me how the hell is that even possible
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and it was braid too right it was straight braid so which is really a lot of times the braid before we get back to
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the question a lot of times a braid will just kind of stick in deep into the spool of irine if sometimes when you get
21:49
desperate you just pull it you crack it oh what there's nothing else I'm going to cut it out so you pull as hard as you can or whatever and then all of a sudden
21:54
it pops and then comes then sometimes other times when you do that yeah wrapped around under you need a cutting
22:00
torch yeah to get a grinder anyways um not you you like the uh forign Bob
22:08
forign B for knot to me and the reason I like it it's not the smallest profile
22:14
knot by any means correct it's um not the easiest knot it's close for me
22:23
it is right and but what I like about it is that you can you can perform it under
22:28
under adverse conditions either wind low light uh you can do this thing in a
22:34
closet that's how easy it three turns is that three turns three turn which nobody really not many people do I know when
22:40
you learned it off piser or whoever it was he is a five turn or whatever you got it down to three turns and when you
22:46
learn that knot you'll see what ends what we mean by the three turns on that knot and and he can tell you that thing
22:51
really quick my favorite on the opposite end of that Spectrum I I tie the FG knot
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but it is such a pain like out in the field I I I tie them all the day before
23:02
the at home off the water whatever because it is when you look it up you're going to see that it is a bit of a
23:08
process it's not real real hard you can get it down to minute a minute and a half or whatever doing a pretty good job
23:14
but but you got to have every wrap perfect on it and and the tension on both lines on your line from your the
23:20
braid from your rod and reel to your fluorocarbon leader you got to but but
23:26
it is as Ang was talking about the the minuses to that are the time spand and blah blah blah the plus to that it is
23:32
the thinnest of all of them very very small profile and that's and the idea to that is that when you have two knot two
23:40
uh ropes strings whatever you want to talking you're talking of knots they usually wrap around each other right so
23:46
it's double the size as as like a foreign knot like a Double Uni all these things they kind of double on themselves
23:53
the thing about an FG knot is that the braid wraps around the fluorocarbon and
23:58
and it doesn't sound like it would hold but it does it just wraps around the fluorocarbon so you've just got this thin one wrap and then it cinches
24:05
there's a way of cinching it into the fluorocarbon it kind of digs in a little bit that's the beauty of it it's thin it's long and thin but I'll tell you
24:12
what it's a it's a pain you were going to say long and thin goes right in is that what you're going to say n it works but boom there thank you there you go
24:20
thank you versus short and thick does the trick that is correct right so anyways that FG knot is there's another
24:26
one out there that's even there's a bobbin knot you can use a bobbin to tie it up I haven't got that one's T Knot's
24:33
T there's a ton of them but the the whole key is that there are many times where you you should be using a
24:39
fluorocarbon leader versus straight braid you know I mean we use the yui
24:44
U yellow braid for instance we'll use the the color braid well you don't want to tie that direct to your lure so we'll
24:51
run a 10 foot you know plus liter on a Flor carbon liter so and that alleviates
24:57
a lot of that visual aspect of the fish will not see your your Lin during your
25:02
presentation so it's a it's a great um Arsenal great trick to put in your bag
25:07
tricks for sure when you're out there at the end of the day a knot is a knot is a knot find one that you're comfortable
25:13
with uh test it test it sometimes you do a slack line hook set you're going to
25:18
break knots stuff like that you're going to break I'm so test it and and do your then find one you like the best and and
25:24
go with that for sure so hopefully that's uh hope that's answered the question [Music]
25:37
we interrupt this program to bring you the much anticipated bonus code for the latest fishing candada giveaways this
25:43
week's code is life jacket that's life jacket l i f e j a c k e t just type
25:52
that in the bonus code section of the contest and receive 100 free entries towards all our current giveaways for
25:59
those who haven't entered yet what the heck are you waiting for head on over to fishing canada.com while you listen to
26:06
the rest of this episode click contest and sign up for all the latest fishing canidate giveaways and now back to the
26:15
show all right enough about the knots I need to get into the Dos that's
26:21
interesting though I like that KN that's good stuff um our guest today is uh very
26:28
very close friend of mine but also a business associate of mine that I've
26:33
been fortunate enough to be dealing with for the last four decades mhm um most
26:40
days some days not so much but anyways we'll talk about that his name is I met
26:45
just a be for the audience I met our Our Guest through Angelo and Reno at the
26:50
time and let me just tell you they have a very unique relationship okay for somebody that can not only put up with
26:58
but has more comebacks than anybody I've ever heard in my life of [ __ ] right there he he can play the game with as
27:04
good as anybody if not better so there you go uh without further Ado my good friend uh he is the vice president of
27:11
world famous sales I said he's a friend but also a business associate and I I'm going to go out in the limb right now
27:17
and say that if you're listening to this podcast chances are really good that you
27:22
have a connection with the in as well we'll explain that in a moment he is the vice president of world famous sales of
27:29
Canada finally you agreed to come on the show finally uh listen you know what
27:37
I've always had known I've had a good radio face so I figure now is the time but from what I can see you can actually
27:44
see me which is scary yes it is you're a beautiful man buddy don't worry you're wonderful Welcome to The Outdoor Journal
27:51
buddy you've been uh I know you've been listening to it for a number of years when we were on uh the sportset was he
27:57
ever on the radio show no he refused every time I invited I thought he was on no no way I invited him on I'm going to
28:03
say a 100 times he is never accepted it wow this is I don't trust
28:11
myself I always told you there's no delays if you can't I to do it this is
28:16
editable Buddy say whatever you want we can get rid of or keep whatever we feel necessary so there you go so just sort
28:22
of to bring everybody up to speed uh I mentioned that um Ian and by the way brother uh Mike Michael mure as well um
28:30
what's Mike's position there if you're vice president what's Mike's position I think he's he'd be president he's the older he's the older son no we're
28:37
actually both vice presidents there you go all right I I
28:42
was just throwing that out there I originally met you and your brother through your father um God Rest Soul Big
28:51
Al years ago I'm going to say I'm going to say 79 80ish
28:58
you guys you and your brother were running around the warehouse and diapers I think I mean um when we had the retail store
29:06
Barkley's uh we used to do business with the muts with uh with world famous and that's how I got to meet the boys and uh
29:14
so you did all your starting business with Al you you got into the company yeah and if we could I don't know
29:20
whether you know you object or not but I'm going to say the hell with you I don't care I'd like to start by talking
29:26
about Dad a little bit um um how he started the maybe you can you know walk
29:31
us through it how did this whole world famous by the way I think I may
29:36
reinforce what I said earlier I know that if you're listening to this show world famous has come into your life oh
29:43
a doubt you're walking through Canadian Tire you're walking through any of these retail stores you have SE Walmart you have seen world famous and used it anded
29:51
how did this whole thing start because it wasn't an outdoor company to start with it was an outdoors company well the
29:58
long story which I'll try to keep short is you know my dad came from uh Europe
30:03
after the war um and came you know with 10 cents in his pocket couldn't speak
30:09
the language very uh high education grade four grade five and uh you know
30:16
just came to try and build a life and uh one day he walks into a an army surplus
30:24
store down King Street and uh he said says I need a
30:29
job and the guy looks at him it was the owner's son and he says well my father's not here and uh you have to come back
30:37
tomorrow he goes no no no I need a job where's your broom so he go it's over
30:44
there and he goes so my dad goes he grabs the broom and starts sweeping and he's sweeping and he's
30:51
sweeping till they Clos the next day the father comes in with the son and say
30:58
who's that guy over there goes I don't know he's been sweeping since yesterday he needs a job so so uh the people were
31:08
very nice they gave him a job and uh you know after uh what my dad had been
31:14
through as a as a young lad nothing really scared him and stuff like that so
31:20
he he started working for these people and he was very Street Smart obviously
31:25
and he helped build this reta store into a very very prosperous good business and
31:31
they treated him like gold they treated him like one of the family and whatever and uh he um after 10 years he
31:40
wanted to be a partner in the business but they didn't want to do that and that's that's fine they didn't have to as a family business so he decided he
31:48
wanted to go open his own business and he went out and he uh put
31:53
on an offer on a store one block down oh yeah and
31:59
uh so it came uh to the day it was a few weeks later it came to the day that he was supposed to pick up the keys give
32:06
them the deposit the rent deposit whatever it's 10: in the morning he's in his car he says I can't do this says
32:14
these people were good to me he says I'm going to put them out of business if I do this so he sat in his car had a drink
32:22
passed out at about 7 8:00 everybody's looking for him what happened right and uh comes
32:29
home and finally and he says I I couldn't do it he said uh I'm not going to I can't do these to these nice people
32:35
so he decided to go into the wholesale business and uh instead so and what you
32:41
got to understand is back then there was no such thing as the camping business
32:46
anybody who wanted to go camping or or whatever would go to their local Surplus Store they'd buy a use tent or a use
32:52
sleeping bag or whatever and uh they would go so any body who's in the
32:58
camping was in the camping business back then had their roots from army surplus so uh he uh he started selling
33:07
Surplus and this and that and there was an actual world famous in the states they were a massive company um and they
33:14
were one of the first to ever do packaged camping Goods like Coleman and
33:20
and guys like that and my dad knew the guy from the Surplus business and said
33:25
hey you know I'd like to do what you're doing I want to do that for Canada and
33:30
you know in American fashion you know they thought we lived in Igloo so he says yeah sure no
33:36
problem you go to Canada okay yeah good luck and uh so he set him up and uh my
33:43
dad actually built the business out of this and then the Americans eventually
33:49
went broke um which is unfortunate because it would have been nice to have big daddy us but um and then built it
33:58
from that my brother came into the business when he was very young and he helped build it to a pretty good level
34:04
and then I came in after uh after I finished University after I did my business degree and I came in and that's
34:12
how the three M got together wow well great story it's a it's a fascinating uh
34:19
piece of history in the outdoors industry in this country without question and people people have no idea
34:25
you know what I mean they say a real famous name it's nice to hear these the backstories just a lot of these you know family or businesses you know to say
34:32
that it's an Empire today um has grown it's it's iconic it's it is to the
34:39
outdoors Community uh what I think skadoo is to
34:45
snowmobiling yeah it's Kleenex Kleenex is the tissues I think you guys don't
34:51
realize just how uh important the world famous brand has has
34:57
become throughout the years now now a lot of people are thinking well you said I I was connected with it I've used it well underworld famous uh there's a
35:05
series of brands that you guys have uh have Unleashed on the public throughout
35:11
the last three or four decades um Misty Mountain would be maybe the biggest am I
35:16
correct most most highest profile yeah the clothing outer wear clothing
35:22
accessories that would be one of the biggest yeah Underwear by by them as well I remember selling that by the tons
35:30
uh sleeping bags tents every single accessory that you can imagine for uh
35:37
people who camp and otherwise enjoy the outdoors uh you'll find it under the
35:42
world bu line is that that's all the camping gear yeah then there's wet skins which
35:48
is our rainwear and uh rock water designs what's the difference between wetskins and Misty Mountain is there a
35:55
difference in the two or wet skins wet skin is mostly rainwear okay um and
36:01
Missy mountain is mostly winter outerwear and okay winter summer outerwear so little different looks yep
36:08
but you know it's all it was all built for each brand was built for different purpose um depending on the time and who
36:16
it was for because you know listen we we only deal with Canada and that's not an
36:23
easy trick right right I want to talk about that too um as you know we've had
36:31
tons of philosophical discussions about that how I feel about the fact that you
36:36
have ignored going South of the Border but uh that's a whole other whole other issue I want to get back to Al for just
36:42
a moment because I I what Ian described now think about
36:47
this here's a a guy um who I'm sure didn't have a whole lot of D who finally
36:53
put together a couple of pennies and was able to make a commitment for a lease
36:59
and and and probably had some Goods already purchased to open a store but the last minute his heart wouldn't let
37:05
him do that the reason I bring that back up is because that's the way Al worked that's the way he worked he on
37:13
the outside he was a rough and tough and you know difficult businessman uh to deal with but I'm you
37:21
know when you got to know him as as as I did through the number of years I worked with him he was the nicest person that
37:27
you ever want to shake hands with uh I only met him a couple times I remember seeing him in that office his office
37:33
when the boys were now they're running the business and he's got that little weed black and white TV in there and I think he was smoking a cigar or a
37:39
cigarette or something like that I laughed he was such a character man day I met him he gave everybody a break and
37:45
that's the important thing I remember from the early days of world famous is that you guys were the um independent
37:52
retailers salvation uh because there weren't many Distributors back then that were were on
37:59
the side of the independence you always were which obviously allowed you to build that part of the business but the
38:06
same token you own the mass Merchants as well so you you and I and and I
38:12
attribute that to to the way Al ran the business and the way you two uh ran it
38:17
after he was gone is that you're able to to kind of serve both Masters very well
38:24
extremely well and that's you had no choice well well in Canada you have no choice it's h either you're selling to
38:31
them both or or you're not going to be around the big guys can get rid of you tomorrow the little the smaller guys are
38:38
there to support you um and they'll be there tomorrow you know they're they're the big guys can direct import they can
38:45
do their own thing the smaller guys really can't and we were their Bank to be quite honest yeah you were for sure
38:51
for sure you interesting there's no question about that at all you were my bank you know that mean for I sure do I
38:58
remember how long it took to get paid but boy I'll tell you I'll tell you at that at that interest the interest was
39:05
like woohoo yeah yeah you got real interest payments there yeah yeah these these
39:11
Brands like Misty Mountain wetskins Etc they are world famous Brands right are they do you own those Brands yeah we own
39:17
the brands how do you how do you be come up with that do you find something that you like and you buy it or do you guys invent something or how does that work
39:24
hang on Ian before answer he I haven't filled him in on the benefits and virtues of reinterpretation so maybe maybe this
39:31
would be a good time to to teach him that ah re no we're reinterpretation
39:37
that's with product the brands was a different story right the brands were
39:42
just to give you an example how Missy Mountain came about right so um we were
39:48
in our old building um and we were trying to come up with a name for clothing for outerwear we just started
39:54
we had one jacket and uh I was in the washroom my brother was in the room next
40:00
door and so he goes uh how about Magic Mountain I go no no we can't use that
40:08
Wonderland has that they're probably registered I said what about Misty river goes that sounds kind of sucky so I said
40:16
I screamed out from the toilet I said I got it Misty Mountain and he goes I like
40:22
that that's good okay Missy Mountain let's register it done see
40:28
they had a whole yeah they had a whole room full of experts branding
40:34
people he through the [ __ ] that's the best that's the way good things always
40:41
happen um one quick story because you guys really didn't um dive into the
40:48
fishing world that's you kind of left you dabbled with it but you never really dove in you own the camping sector but
40:55
but fishing you kind of left alone except one time I remember I got a call from Al uh this would have been the
41:02
early 80s sometime and he say Angelo uh fishing rods what do you think
41:09
of them well they fishing rods I use them all the time they use them to catch
41:14
no no I know I know um graphite and at that time we had just been reading about
41:20
graphite in magazines right right about I remember back then remember like graphite was going to be oh
41:28
it was graphite and Boron it was two different Boron anyways he he graphite
41:33
um can you sell them I said well yeah it depends on the price well and I can't remember the price he says well I got
41:39
graphite rods for like $12 or something and uh I said yeah uh yeah
41:46
that's yeah we could sell those absolutely Graphite Rods like yeah yeah here I was reading stuff on so anyways
41:55
he says the only problem is I got to buy four th000 of them or something ridiculous I don't remember the number
42:00
2,000 5,000 4,000 whatever it was and uh
42:05
and he says and and and and I'm going to need your help if I'm going to buy him I'm going to need your help so I jumped
42:12
in that was I think a month before the Sportsman show that year in Toronto the big Sportsman Show and we went to the
42:18
Sportsman Show with this world famous graphite rod and we put was was the
42:24
World Famous Brand on the rod remember the only the only thing was on there was TS I don't know whether you remember
42:31
this Ian or not but they I don't remember that they had TS stamped on it so I have no idea what
42:38
that was but anyways there were thousands of these rods we committed to
42:43
them went to the Sportsman Show and we sold every single
42:48
one every single one they were in the barrel weren't they were they the ones in the barrel or no no that was barel
42:54
this is when Boba Mel we had boba boba and what we used to do we used to we we
42:59
we'd bring out a box of them and in a box there was like a hundred right we' bring out a box out in the aisle this is
43:04
when you could have fun at the Sportsman Show by the way yeah it was fun it was a blast and we go out in the middle of the
43:10
aisle and cut open a box of 100 rods and the show would start and and and so
43:18
basically we we said that there's going to be 100 lucky people that are going to end up with these hundred rods once
43:23
they're gone we're gone she's all over and that kind of a thing and remember he
43:29
came up with that put put the rod up on my Adam apple and the guy would be holding the rod in his you feel that the
43:34
GU yeah yes that's it that's graphite that's what anyways and we just had a
43:41
blast but I bring that up because and I'm sure that there are a million
43:46
stories like that from other retailers small retailers none of that would have happened without Al and world famous and
43:54
your company and and so another great story is the guy uh you know s yeah you
44:02
know they were they originally were an army surplus the original guy was an
44:08
Army Surplus guy and I remember the day he comes into our place got to be 40
44:14
years ago comes dirty coveralls big guy he's a
44:20
sweet man um and a beat up old truck and he comes in and he says I'd like to see
44:27
Mr mure I hear he's the Surplus King and whatever so my dad takes a look at him
44:33
and he says I'm opening a store I want to I want to get some Surplus from you
44:38
he goes okay go in the back pick what you want and uh we'll settle up later so
44:45
he goes he spent the entire day digging through all this crap okay and he's he's pulling out this and pulling out that
44:51
and the end of the day the guy was filthy okay I mean and he l loed his
44:57
truck and he gives my dad a list of what he has so my dad says okay it's like
45:04
$11,000 the guy says oh I don't have no money he says can I pay you later didn't
45:10
even know who he was and uh my dad looked at him and he
45:16
goes okay he said he figured you know if this guy's going to work that hard right
45:22
to do this says he's got to be okay and this guy turned out to be
45:27
the biggest one of the biggest Surplus dealers in Canada he was and then he started the
45:33
stores from that and uh that's where it all started and uh amazing guy wow great
45:41
story he uh he had a way of uh of figuring people out huh he had a way of
45:48
figuring people out he could he could judge by just having a conversation um and he was destined to
45:54
be a businessman from from going in there sweeping floors you know without having a contract without having a job
46:00
and then just you know 10 years later says I got to do this you know the guy's got Gump and he's got will and and then
46:06
not screwing over that little store that that's yeah good man for sure he's a
46:11
good man he was one of the most difficult things I know with my father it was the same it's sometimes it's
46:18
difficult to walk in the footsteps of um a parent who has a really
46:25
high-profile personality a real real strong personality and high-profile within his community sometimes it's
46:30
difficult to just jump on board and and and walk in those footsteps you guys did
46:36
it probably as smoothly as I've ever seen in the business world it was
46:41
seamless or at least that's the way it appeared to all of us tell us a little
46:46
bit about that period of time where you guys finally realize holy
46:52
[ __ ] well you know what look you know look no family bus business is easy okay
46:58
I mean I've been working with my brother for man 45 years almost you tell me how many people have
47:05
been able to do that it's not very easy but listen my dad taught us really well I mean uh he was always there for us he
47:12
let us make mistakes he trusted us and uh you know he always said he
47:19
said you guys are are building it this is all yours he says it's up to you to make it work and uh he always gave us
47:27
the latitude to do that and sure we fight like cats and dogs I mean if I don't fight with my brother once a day
47:34
it's it's not a good day but at the end of the day you say good night and in the
47:39
morning you say good morning I mean and and if you can't figure that out you're never going to survive so um we were
47:46
taught very very very well and listen we were also taught you can screw people once right that's it don't screw people
47:53
have a good name because that's all you have in life at the end of the day when you kick the bucket the only thing that
47:59
you got left is your name yeah and uh that's important that's really important
48:05
you guys would be a great reality show you know that right oh my God the mutes just call the mutes buddy that would be
48:11
and just in there in that building oh my how good would that be cuz the cuz what
48:16
he's saying what Ian just said there with him and Mike having one fight a day it'd be a good day these two when they
48:21
get going back and forth it is it is the best you will ever hear or see in your life it's so good at least at least once
48:30
a day you know it it would be oh God it would be great you know the business partners are one thing but
48:38
um siblings as business partners that's a whole different level of um oh yeah
48:46
you got you know that well of complexities isn't it I mean I did it with my brother obviously Reno and I work together for 25 years so it's it's
48:55
another level that most people just have no he's got 20 more years on you imagine
49:01
another 20 years with Reno you and Reno together oh my God somebody would have been [Music]
49:07
dead somebody would no that's not true we some great memories um Ian what goes
49:13
on in the day of Ian mure a world famous at this point in your life now it's 40 plus years or whatever you know in the
49:19
in the business what what do you what's your day like well don't lie don't lie because
49:25
because you know I know the truth so go ahead well um listen it's a lot tougher today
49:32
than it was 10 years ago I mean things have changed this world has really
49:38
changed since especially since covid and probably a few years before that the
49:43
business has changed the the way things are done has changed the customer
49:48
changed so will I say it's not as it's not as much fun as it used to be um there it's
49:56
much more challenging it doesn't matter what business you're in whether it's our business the retailers everybody it's so
50:01
much more challenging um but you know what we've been doing it for so long we still have
50:08
good relations with a lot of people we still enjoy doing what we do and we still do okay so but it's become
50:16
extremely extremely difficult to do what we were doing for the past 30 40 years
50:23
um but it is what it is you know I mean uh luckily we uh we're a very solid
50:31
company um so we can get through whatever it is um
50:37
but my day my day involves coming in looking at my
50:43
brother getting probably pissed off by about 9 10 something like that try to
50:49
stay away from him till 3 or 4 and um and go home at 56 you know it's it's
50:55
it's pretty pretty easy beautiful simple simp G sound tough at all great gig no it's
51:02
pretty easy actually you know how because you guys are both very very
51:08
handson you have a ton of good people working for you but but you're very much
51:15
um to say micromanagers that would be uh understated you guys like to make sure
51:21
that you're involved in every facet of your business now some business people
51:26
people in today's world might say well that that'll never work you can't you can't micromanage people you can't you
51:34
can't do that you have to give them some latitude you have to let them grow you have to let them fall and pick
51:41
themselves up and start all over again but that's not the case at world famous
51:47
and I'm saying this in a positive way by the way I'm not because you know how I feel about this just talk to us about
51:53
your business philosophy if you would well look first of all we've have most of our people from the warehouse to the
52:00
office to whatever have been there a minimum of 25 years MH wow um Lord knows
52:05
why they don't leave but um but they kind of like it there and uh and they're
52:11
all wonderful people they all know what they're doing they you know they've been doing it long enough so that makes
52:17
things a lot easier um when you have good people in terms of micromanaging
52:23
you know it's uh we always knew what was going on always I mean from buying the
52:30
goods designing the goods selling the goods you know who owed us money who
52:35
didn't owe us money we always did we eat we ate slept and drank our business and
52:41
that's probably what made us successful we didn't have other people that were um you know here today gone tomorrow today
52:48
the the timeline of people working for you is two years um you know you train a guy he's gone in in two years he's gone
52:56
so we always uh looked after what we were doing we were very CL when you you
53:01
know when you used to call me if you had a question I didn't get back to you you got an answer right right away and that
53:08
was important it was a very personalized business you know that um you know and
53:13
our whole bread and butter was you know let's say the 50 or 100 guys good stores
53:20
across Canada that supported us and we supported them so that's how we did
53:25
things and you know maybe maybe it wasn't the right thing maybe we could have been a much bigger brand had we you
53:33
know had more people giving out more uh Authority did more advertising did more
53:39
that but you know what our formula worked we did okay
53:45
we're still around 65 years later so I don't I don't have any regrets I have
53:50
none whatsoever I'm I'm happy with what we've done I'm proud of what we've done and uh whatever happen happens tomorrow
53:57
happens tomorrow but I don't have to answer anybody so that's a great thing it's funny you said that because I was
54:02
going to go down that road as well you guys have done it Against All Odds if if
54:08
I can go down that road because traditional businesses of your size
54:16
um especially in your field uh don't operate that way like
54:21
what what you guys do it it just defies defies the business World I'll
54:28
give you a good example you might think that because these guys have more camping products on
54:37
the market and in people's hands today than any other single company out there
54:42
that they are camping experts right the company is founded on a strong uh
54:49
fundamental understanding of camping in the outdoors nothing could be further from the truth you guys understand
54:56
quality product you guys understand relationship between product consumer
55:02
you guys understand all that but but you guys neither one of you guys I mean for
55:07
you camping is is is having to go to the Best Western for the weekend that's rough that's that's roughing it right so
55:14
we know that I I don't I hope you don't mind me sharing this but that's not what episode on the reality show Ian and Mike
55:21
on a camping trip oh my boom there we go having to use all of
55:28
their world famous little Gadget oh my God hey don't laugh when I
55:33
was a kid I I mean not a kid when I was my kids were young we took them camping on a dad's and kids camping trip no nice
55:42
oh yeah that must have been traumatic three years no and the funny one was is one day we're uh we're setting up all
55:49
our tents and uh there's a somebody in the campsite next to me who's having a problem setting up their tent
55:57
not not a not a world famous tent I trust no right and I said I go over and
56:02
I said do you need some help and so I go and I start said you go over there you
56:09
go over there and he goes who are you Omar the Tent Maker and I said well as a matter of fact I
56:16
am that's awesome oh my God great story fantastic but but but you know I I I'm
56:23
not saying that in a negative way it's reality you guys know your stuff but not from the inside out from the outside in
56:29
if you will of course and it's the same with all your lines clothing I mean you know you think you guys were designers
56:35
in Paris or wherever the hell they design this [ __ ] but you're not but
56:41
yet he's Omar come on but yet but yet you know every year you keep coming out
56:47
with outstanding outerwear that people just love they love it because it's
56:55
quality weal priced yeah it it it does the job it's supposed to do nothing
57:01
outlandish nothing crazy but it works and that's probably the bottom line to
57:06
your success is that pretty much every product you put up there's been a couple of exceptions we can discuss those in a
57:11
moment but most of the products you put on the marketplace work and and you would think well that's got to be
57:17
because they've got a warehouse full of people that that's all they do all day long they they construct and destruct
57:22
and and figure out what's good for for this and and it's not the way it is it's you you know it's you and Mike sitting
57:30
in that office coming up with this stuff and it's fantastic it's not rocket science okay I mean listen a product is
57:36
I mean there's fabric there's accessories there's sewing there's welding whatever it is once you learn how to do it it doesn't really matter
57:43
the product okay and and that was the whole basis of what world famous was about it was you know you have basically
57:50
three types of Brands you have your a brand your B brand and your C Brands okay the a brands are the big
57:56
you know multinationals you know all the names Adidas Nike weea whoever it is right Coleman these are all huge huge
58:04
Brands then you have your B Brands which is where we would sort of put ourselves is is that we don't do heavy
58:11
marketing um but our our products our price okay zero thank
58:18
you but but we also don't charge for it right so you know it's it's it's about
58:25
we always took the Middle Road where we're going to provide value okay what you're going to get what you pay for
58:30
you're not buying a label you're not buying whatever you're buying a decent quality product for a decent price and
58:37
that's what we were about um and you know I learned this really early on um I
58:43
remember I had a friend who was in the clothing business and I used to go to him every year to get um stuff from him
58:49
because God forbid I should pay retail and uh I remember he had uh
58:56
he he had uh like uh golf shirts right so he shows me the golf shirts he had
59:03
them under his brand he had them under another brand which is like a work type
59:09
of store and then he had another brand which was um a high-end men's
59:15
Workshop so his were tiet it at 1999 retail the workw store was ticketed at
59:24
$29.99 and the high-end clothing uh clothing store was at $89.99 the same
59:29
garment the exactly all the same wow um exactly the same like no difference
59:35
whatsoever each one had a wholesale cost of 10 bucks so you know this is where we
59:41
learned about you know when I was young you know I learned about value I learned about you know this type of thing um you
59:49
know there's a lot of [ __ ] out there let's put it that way and you know hey good on people who can get away with it
59:54
that are selling a label and and or whatever you know fantastic I mean they've they spend a lot of money on
59:59
marketing to tell you whatever it's better or whatever um and if you can get
1:00:05
it great but that wasn't our philosophy we couldn't do that so you can
1:00:11
imagine how difficult a relationship must be between a guy who thinks like
1:00:17
that right and a guy who thinks like me right cuz you're totally opposite you got to advertise everything marketing
1:00:25
advertising I mean that's my life so you can imagine some of the discussions that I and
1:00:30
I I cannot imagine because in all the years that we've known each other um and
1:00:37
there have been many times where I have gone to him and uh said you know like we
1:00:44
really should be advertising this thing like really like it's a great brand I think we could do some wonderful things
1:00:49
for you does it cost money yeah no I don't do that and then on the other side
1:00:55
of that on the other side of that I'll get a phone call which happened
1:01:01
recently hey hey I got a I got a product I want you to to take out and shoot for
1:01:07
me yeah on the show well yeah okay so you want to buy advertising no I don't
1:01:13
want to buy advertising I want you to use it on your show well well why why is
1:01:18
that well because people will see using it and then I'll sell it that's called advertising that's called Brilliance
1:01:25
right there I Ian's behalf right there that's a brilliant man right there but but you did take it so I did
1:01:32
I by the way let's talk about that for just a moment I bet you're talking about the dragonfly aren the dragonfly so so
1:01:38
Ian called me up uh I don't know 6 months ago Ian maybe yeah something like that hey what do you think of that
1:01:44
there's what do you think of a giant dragonfly on a wire it's called the wingman it's called the
1:01:50
wingman um you think it' work so I well I've seen it I don't know I'm not really
1:01:56
crazy about it it's kind of goofy looking well I know but you know anyways he well you know you should use on show
1:02:03
Well yeah if you want to buy some advertising we'll we'll do that anyways we dropped it about a month after that
1:02:10
we end up uh we get a call from Northwest Territories as saying that
1:02:15
they want to buy a couple of episodes and would we go and shoot there this year and so we asked them uh some some
1:02:22
of send us some details Etc so they sent us some details along with
1:02:27
and one of the video pieces they sent was this poor guy out the water trying to fish and honest a guardian the bugs
1:02:34
were like I thought they were hummingbirds like what do I know I thought they were hummingbirds flying around remember that that piece and we
1:02:41
said oh my God like do we really want to go there and I said wait a minute wait a minute I got a product that might help
1:02:48
us that that's what I called you back and I say it's your lucky day uh as it
1:02:53
turned out though we just got back by the way uh it was so cold there wasn't a
1:02:58
bug within a thousand miles of us up there we didn't even eat them we didn't even eat them uh but we will use it
1:03:04
later on in the year and I will be sending you a check a check a a there
1:03:10
you go we we heard it writing a bill of some sort for my services we did play
1:03:16
around one day they come out a little bit and we had them on the boat and we uh we played around a little bit with
1:03:22
them the black flies didn't seem to be affected by it but I'll tell you what we did have some horse flies these giant
1:03:27
horse flies come in one day and they would be nowhere to be seen once that dragonfly was put around you know either
1:03:34
off your hat I just started moving it around a little bit in the boat like that those big guys were gone those big
1:03:39
bad biters they were gone so that was a quick experiment but it did work so I I
1:03:45
understand he could uh be bought fairly cheaply what probably your best uh source of advertising for this is our
1:03:52
cameraman um vula who has got this relationship with bugs I've never seen
1:03:58
before totally totally uh from another planet but uh I when I first told him
1:04:05
about this thing he he was just all oh my God he this is great and so on this shoot it's singled digigit weather so
1:04:12
we're talking 8 n degrees there isn't a bug the closest bug would have been in Edmonton okay that's how far away they
1:04:18
were he's got three of these dragons hanging off them underneath your bug
1:04:23
suit with mus all sprayed on top of that he didn't get bit baa does not like
1:04:31
bugs that's for sure I can't blame them they're not fun to have around but but uh yeah by the way if you you need to
1:04:38
invent a vula rain gear because what vaa does is
1:04:44
at the end of every year it doesn't matter what he's wearing there's so much musk all on his rain gear he's got to throw it in the garbage because it's get to go away you got to get a new rain
1:04:50
jacket every time so he's a beast are you guys still doing muscal or no that's
1:04:57
no entire about that they own it now they own it yeah I haven't seen it around at all there's only it's only act
1:05:03
Canadian Tire it's still sold is it I haven't even seen it I haven't seen it either we were in Canadian Tire on
1:05:09
before this trip and I walked around I didn't see a damn thing oh really no they should have I think it's in a
1:05:14
different section than the Sporting Goods that's why there's a case there's a case where advertising made a huge
1:05:21
product hadn't changed the same thing for for the better part of 20 years 15
1:05:28
20 years they did a ton of marketing I mean musol
1:05:34
became known as if you were going to the outdoors and you didn't have muscal what are you an idiot That's How Strong their
1:05:40
messaging was off did their competition did they not have advertising before Moscow with that uh arm in the yeah but
1:05:47
it was it wasn't the same like muscal and I don't want to toot our horn but I
1:05:53
will just in case you're interested uh musol decided to buy us the people
1:06:00
who use the product in the field as opposed to off off went the other way they want this the lab the scientist and
1:06:08
all of this stuff right and they went from zero to a kabillion
1:06:13
miles per hour in that two decade period and then they sold the company uh
1:06:19
shuring plow I think bought it first time and then bear and then um now can
1:06:24
tire but it's gone downhill ever since as soon as they pulled it out of sight out of mind area they just dropped right
1:06:31
off the market that's what advertising does right musil and they still don't get the name right people still don't
1:06:38
get it right musil you got any of that musil stuff um and it's all and it's all the same every every bug spray is
1:06:44
exactly the same tell people why tell people why it's all well it's it's legislated I mean you're only allowed to
1:06:51
have X amount of deep nit and this is the formula and it's all the same doesn't matter who's who's you buy it's
1:06:57
all marketing it's all made one of two places is making it so it's it's all the
1:07:02
same same stuff just brand and that's marketing see there you go you that came out of your own mouth it's all marketing
1:07:08
yeah I I I understand I I may have not have been too bright with my marketing strategy but hey we did okay the other
1:07:15
thing is internet um and and I know the answer to this but I want to just run
1:07:21
this by you see me I'm a simple kind of guy right it's supply and demand and you
1:07:26
guys have got the supply like nobody else has on the planet when it comes to outdoor goods so to me simple how big is
1:07:34
your Warehouse by the way 140,000 Square ft that's a pretty good size Warehouse from from ceiling to
1:07:42
floor of inventory and it doesn't matter whether you go there in June whether you go
1:07:48
there in January whether you go there it doesn't matter there I always think to myself well how in the hell is it
1:07:55
possible that every month I come in here it's all the same but yet you guys sell millions
1:08:02
and millions and millions of pieces every month like how do you how do you but anyways they do they manage but what
1:08:09
I was going to say now that you got me completely off uh off topic what where was I internet internet web see to me
1:08:16
it's simple there's nobody that could do internet better than you because you've got everything already in place and yet
1:08:24
you're not doing it and that's because of the philosophy of the company that that hey they do they
1:08:30
start selling a product out of their warehouse what happens to the poor mom P
1:08:35
little customer in Pembrook Ontario that spends that buys maybe $12,000 a year
1:08:42
from you right but but you but that's important to you okay so let's let's
1:08:48
let's talk about that so here you have all these big Brands right that all the
1:08:54
shops have been supporting for years and years they come to you N9 months in advance they want your booking order and
1:09:01
you know if you don't book you don't get it this and that whatever okay great but you got to have the Big Brand or you
1:09:06
can't be in business but all the big Brands today they have their own website selling directly to the public they have
1:09:13
their own stores whether it's in uh discount malls or wherever um and
1:09:21
they're now your competition how is that fair to the poor
1:09:26
guy who's been supporting them for 20 30 years that all of a sudden the guys that
1:09:31
are your you know the brands you supported are your competitor your biggest competitor in fact and you take
1:09:37
for example a year like this which has been a really tough tough year and these
1:09:42
guys you know the brands you know anybody who's online has lots of inventory and their you know sales
1:09:47
aren't great and they're going in discounting the product who's that hurting it's hurting their customer so I
1:09:55
don't want to play that game I I just don't want to play that game but I I find it a no- win situation you know to
1:10:02
sit and compete against my customers who've been good to me yeah yeah and that's the philosophy that you just
1:10:08
don't get now you don't hear that anywhere no everyone thinks I'm nuts he could literally in in in a a 30-day
1:10:17
period change the retail industry in this country oh God by going online it
1:10:22
wouldn't take more than a month yeah but true but he doesn't do it and that's why I love the man because he's got he's got
1:10:29
beliefs and he stands by them and uh and it drives me crazy but hey what do I
1:10:34
know what do I know I don't know much either um I don't want to go to the dark
1:10:40
side but um I I kind of need to a little bit there was some no no no no uh some
1:10:48
concerns with you healthwise the last couple of years and seven a couple I I
1:10:55
see I know you're but I was going to say but who's counting obviously you are uh
1:11:01
can you walk us through that a little bit you really want to hear that story I do I do I do because I the beginning of
1:11:08
it especially is mind-blowing but yeah the fact that you're healthy today is
1:11:13
obviously very important not only to people that know you but uh but people
1:11:18
who are touched by your Brands so uh that's a good thing wow well it was um
1:11:25
yeah was seven years ago I was uh waking up in the morning with a black
1:11:30
eye and uh strange stay for about 3 four five days and go
1:11:36
away come back a week later really odd and I you know had to check with my wife if she was beating
1:11:43
the [ __ ] out of me in the middle of the night or something I didn't know wouldn't have been shocking but you know
1:11:49
I would understand I accept that you know an accidental elbow or something like that yeah yeah you know but once a
1:11:55
week type of thing but no it wasn't her and uh one of my uh one of my kids was like
1:12:04
she real pain in the neck she kept dad you got to see a doctor you got I have
1:12:10
like 18 friends that are doctors I've shown them all and they all don't they think it's nothing right they think you
1:12:15
got a broken blood vessel or you got hit or whatever anyway she was relentless
1:12:20
thank God she was um and uh finally one day and the problem was is that I'd get
1:12:27
this black eye and it would go away and I it was hard to show my my real doctor so finally one day I had it I was there
1:12:34
and I said okay Doctor what the hell is this he says it doesn't make any sense and he took a look and he goes I don't
1:12:40
know it doesn't doesn't make any sense he says you know what I'm going to send you to a
1:12:45
dermatologist and uh let him take a look and I said why I don't have zits he says I got a black eye so he goes don't be an
1:12:53
idiot and he goes you know these guys see a lot more with the skin than I would ever see so just go check it out
1:13:00
all right fine so I go to the guy takes a look never seen anything like that
1:13:06
before it's a great just what I need so uh he says you know what we're going to
1:13:13
do a biopsy on your skin and uh I'll do it in a couple weeks that's when I do biopsies and we'll see what's going on
1:13:20
in there I okay great and uh so's I'm we're getting ready to leave this is one
1:13:27
of those moments in your life that you don't forget he stops me and he says you
1:13:32
know what hold on I'm going to sit down something's bothering me and he went he
1:13:37
checked and he comes back about a half hour later and says okay listen I need you to do a certain kind of test I won't
1:13:43
get into all this but he said I need you to do a certain kind of test I need to rule something out make sure blah blah
1:13:48
blah anyways turns out uh he calls me four or five days later and he says hey
1:13:55
Ian uh going to cancel that biopsy we said we're going to do I said okay great he goes uh no not exactly he says I need
1:14:02
you to go see a hematologist right away hematologist and uh why she says
1:14:09
there's something that's not right and uh I'm not qualified to talk about it so
1:14:15
sh so I said uh is this serious he goes I'm not qualified he says just do me a
1:14:21
favor and see someone like tomorrow make a long story short it turned out I
1:14:27
had this uh very rare blood disorder that
1:14:32
uh uh they give you about a year and um you're screwed get your
1:14:39
Affairs in order and so uh I went through
1:14:44
uh about 130 rounds of chemo I've been through a stem cell transplant I've been
1:14:50
through all this kind of stuff and the thing is is though that this
1:14:56
dermatologist he caught it before any damage was done wow and and uh I was so
1:15:03
lucky I'll thank this guy till I'm blew in the face and all the people that have
1:15:09
looked after me I I was very fortunate so as it stands right now I'm good um
1:15:16
and uh you know it's under control let's put it that way so and thank you to your
1:15:21
concerned daughter cuz that all started my daughter she she doesn't go a day
1:15:27
without reminding me oh I could imagine oh wow what a story uh how much
1:15:34
uh maintenance is involved in on a uh I have to go every four weeks for a treatment ah and uh no big deal you know
1:15:42
what none of that means anything that's yeah after all the crap I've done and
1:15:47
been through yeah I'm happy to do it no medication every day for it or anything like that or is oh yeah there's still
1:15:54
crap got to take and whatever but it's fine I mean yeah when you know what the
1:16:00
alternative is um I'm okay with it good for you wow what a story wow just dawned
1:16:07
on me by the way Dean Dean by the way our producer you've talked to him on the phone um in fact I think he was he came
1:16:14
he met yeah he really wanted to be here for this uh episode but he felt ill
1:16:20
today so he wrote a bunch of notes that he wanted and just just Dawn d me we Haven haven't even opened his notes yet
1:16:27
so knock yourself out yeah exactly uh I probably covered everything yeah we did
1:16:33
we covered pretty much everything in there bud uh what's new and exciting what's coming up in this tell us about
1:16:40
this industry the outdoors what's your prognostication on where it's going to be 12 months from now who the hell knows
1:16:47
I have no clue the uh it's uh remember we went through the pandemic and outdoor
1:16:54
stuff was King right I mean everybody stayed at home everyone had money to spend and you know whatever once we came
1:17:01
out of Co no way people were going back to restaurants people were traveling people
1:17:08
whatever no money anymore for for this kind of stuff so it's it's a real
1:17:13
challenge right now for the retailers for the wholesalers for whoever uh
1:17:19
because there's a lot of goods in the system and um it's going to take some time to things to normal wi and uh so
1:17:27
it's it's going to be tough for the next year or so I think are people still camping are there is there a very oh
1:17:32
yeah a lot of people still camping yeah yeah good yeah it's still it's still uh
1:17:38
big and whatever but people have have you know they a lot of people bought during the pandemic you know so they
1:17:44
have their gear they have their goods yeah yeah which is understandable of course of course aside from the dragon
1:17:51
by the way how did you get involved with this drag or Dragon the the the the flying dragon wingman the wingman well I
1:17:59
was watching Dragons Den one night okay and uh all of a sudden this guy walks
1:18:06
out with a baseball hat and two dragon flies coming off his uh cap and God this
1:18:12
guy looks really strange and I thought this is going to be a joke right and the five dragons also thought this is a joke
1:18:19
right and he went and he did his his routine and whatever
1:18:25
and everybody including myself went H kind of makes sense and he ended up
1:18:32
getting a deal with all five of them and which was a shock right and uh
1:18:38
anyways after the show as you know I do a lot of bug products and this and that so I thought hey you know what be a good
1:18:44
item to uh just put in that I can service to small stores with whatever
1:18:49
and no big deal he's in local whatever so I called the guy up I talked to him
1:18:55
and remember it was probably six months after the show had aired so uh and he
1:19:00
said well yeah I know who you are he says yeah maybe I'll come and see you fine so he comes in and he uh looked
1:19:08
exactly like he did on the show and uh turns out just a super nice guy sweet
1:19:15
guy honest um whatever and he we talked for an hour or two hours him and his wife
1:19:21
and he says you know what I like you guys you seem like you're straight he says how about you do the distribution
1:19:27
for the whole thing screw the Dragons I'm going to just do it with you I say if you want sure said so we we made a
1:19:34
deal and uh he's doing phenomenal I mean it's unbelievable how how many of these
1:19:40
things like he does it he does Amazon I do the uh I do the stores and uh he's
1:19:46
had like seven million views on Tik Tok he's said like it's unbelievable and
1:19:51
product's doing really well so go that's a great story another one similar to that was I got a call one day from
1:19:59
Ian you remember this we we had been negotiating with a company out of uh I want to say la maybe New York can't
1:20:06
remember where they were based but an American company that was doing Copper clothing copper infused clothing right
1:20:13
Tommy Tommy Copper Tommy Copper and we were negotiating uh with them for about
1:20:18
a year we finally had a deal pretty much done lawyers had V Ed you know everybody
1:20:25
was happy with the whole thing and um so you talk to me not yet not yet but um I
1:20:33
got cold feet at the end there was some some money issues that didn't feel right
1:20:38
for me yeah cuz we were set up to go do a photo shoot a video shoot the whole
1:20:44
n Martin and Jimmy Houston all those guys and then last
1:20:51
minute uh there was some money issues that I wasn't real not that that's a
1:20:57
problem but it didn't feel right you know what I mean Ian something was not right so anyways I said listen I can't
1:21:03
do it I can't do it I there's a lot of it's not just me I got all these other big people the celebrities and stuff in
1:21:09
the business and I just I just can't can't do it so sorry I get a call about
1:21:14
a month later from Mr mure and he says what do you know about uh copper and
1:21:20
clothing and stuff you're wondering how did CL does crazy what do you mean what do I
1:21:28
know I said you obviously know that I've been working with Tommy coer said
1:21:33
Who Tommy Copper no no no this guy came in and he's got that tell the story from
1:21:39
that point on about what you did with that line oh yeah that was uh well this
1:21:45
guy was different um but I mean he he he's a
1:21:52
fabric specialist actually and they had done this and he didn't really know how to take it to Market or whatever
1:21:59
so I decided to take it on it's called copper 88 and uh it's uh basically it's
1:22:07
legit uh most if not all of the Copper products you see out there um that say
1:22:14
copper whatever it is they don't have any copper in it like zero it's not
1:22:20
legislated nobody look regulated nobody looks at that and says hey put copper on your packaging why is it not in there
1:22:27
well in fact most of them don't even if you look in the contents they don't even say that there's copper in it um a lot
1:22:34
of them what they'll do is they'll just take a regular acrylic or polyester whatever they'll spray it with a little
1:22:40
compound but it's useless it'll just wash out and or come off in in a like
1:22:45
just like that so what what this guy that came to me developed was it's actually embedded into the Yarns of the
1:22:53
fabric so and it's a heavy content of copper so it will not wash
1:22:58
out um it's actually uh it's antimicrobial I mean that's the one
1:23:04
thing about copper that is legit it's it is antimicrobial um and it will help in
1:23:11
certain cases on infections and stuff like that to prevent or whatever like if you notice I mean there's a lot of
1:23:17
people that are going to Copper now for tabletops for um door accessories any
1:23:24
place that gets a lot of touching because copper is is excellent against
1:23:29
uh bacteria so so anyway so we started this line uh copper 88 and it's it's done
1:23:36
extremely well here in in Canada we have it in in some of the major chains like Shoppers Walmart marksworth Warehouse so
1:23:45
they've all uh come into this and uh it's done very well um and it is legit
1:23:51
like I mean when we say it's copper it is actually Copp offer so um and by the
1:23:57
way I wouldn't say this publicly but just between us girls I use it I use it
1:24:03
a lot I have a problem no it's good for old people that's why so that's exact I was just going to say that instead of
1:24:09
you being ignorant about it I was going to come out of the closet he wasn't being ignorant he was just stay hey what
1:24:16
about when we when we had the when we were working with Tommy Copper yes one
1:24:21
of the things they said about it was that uh um it masks or takes away or or
1:24:28
like body odor like underarm odor does it do that copper will do that if you do
1:24:35
have a copper content yeah it will um it it is anti- odor as well because the
1:24:40
reason I say that is because in in a a shirt like let's say an undershirt undergarment like Ian's talking about
1:24:46
you go on these multi-day trips into the hunting camp into a fishing camp or
1:24:51
whatever there's no washing facilities at all and you want to wear shirt you can wear that two or three days in a row you're smiling you're smirking why are
1:24:58
you smirking I'm thinking of something that I don't want to I'm not you can do that put your deodorant on but you know
1:25:04
you know you'll stink up the whole place oh now I know what you're talking about I know what you're thinking about for
1:25:10
those anti- deodorant users maybe is that what you're thinking yeah yeah yeah they those guys shouldn't be in a camp
1:25:15
with us anyway should they really stop it anyways uh butth no it does work I
1:25:22
have some issues with uh arthritis arthritis and I'll tell you I swear by those gloves I absolutely swear by them
1:25:29
I never told you that because you won't pay me to tell you that so just did
1:25:34
we're gonna no we're gonna edit did I charge you for the gloves here's the five bucks don't hurt don't hurt
1:25:40
yourself he's always he's the best guy in comebacks for you ever I loveur brother you're the
1:25:46
best you know what you can do a favor for your friend every now and then you know you're such a high profile
1:25:52
personality done for the last 30 years is favors for a friend so 20 more years took fishing I
1:26:00
even took you fishing once that was fun actually I remember that that was a great day yeah uh they're hard I've been
1:26:08
asking them forever to go out but it's hard to get them out of the office right so but one day one day we did it and it
1:26:13
was a it was a memorable day absolutely bet and I was cleaning up some stuff when we moved into the new building I
1:26:20
was cleaning up some stuff uh about a year ago I guess and and I come across this great picture of him holding the
1:26:27
fish of the trip nice I sent it out to him anyways um there's a million other
1:26:33
things that we could go through but if I if we did it all now we couldn't do a
1:26:39
part two and a part three and a part four to this show you mean I got to do this again say it took a while to get
1:26:45
him on this one it's about like 20 30 years so you might want to you know not cross your fingers there well now that
1:26:51
he knows we don't bite right um let's see if your viewers are want me to come
1:26:56
back you know I mean uh well do you want to ask them shall we ask them you know what they could they could decide right
1:27:03
right yeah that's not a bad idea at all so what Ian is saying if I understand correctly you're throwing Ian under the
1:27:08
don't yeah don't not a good idea not a good idea I
1:27:13
have behaved for the last hour he has people have no idea how well Ian's behaved in this you don't know how tense
1:27:20
I am right now like when we go off when this show's over you're going to go in the corner there in your books and scream I know you are
1:27:27
yeah you've done a great job buddy um appreciate it uh we will get you back on
1:27:33
the program again we'll we'll talk about the dragonfly thing in the next a little bit we're going give a good test for
1:27:38
because I think there's a lot of products uh I don't know whether you're aware of it or not but Peter and I spend
1:27:47
probably as much time in the outdoors is anybody else that you know there's a lot of great ideas in these heads that you
1:27:54
might want to try and mine out some of that gold sure yeah but I don't I can't
1:27:59
afford it from you guys okay it's it always comes down to that well hey I
1:28:04
love it the best my friend uh thank you so much for this interview and uh it um
1:28:11
it's muchly appreciated for sure thanks for having me it was a pleasure and best of health we'll talk to you soon and uh
1:28:18
say hi to Mike and the rest of the family and we will uh do this again very
1:28:24
enough all right thanks see you buddy thanks that's long overdue oh yeah
1:28:29
obviously I was surprised when you said he was never on the radio show I always thought he was did too bad too bad he's
1:28:36
gone but what he used to do he was famous for um about an hour after the
1:28:41
radio show would go off the air I'd get a little text from him saying who the [ __ ] was that guy or what's that [ __ ]
1:28:49
you're spewing about that or that's so him right there and then say well why
1:28:54
don't you come on the show that's awesome you never did that is awesome but you know we just
1:29:01
basically we didn't even scratch the surface of this this company and this
1:29:06
family and this name uh the Murs um incredible people I I just uh I dread
1:29:15
thinking of where this industry in Canada would have been and would be
1:29:20
today were it not for yeah yeah them yeah for sure it you got to wonder for
1:29:26
sure right yeah would anybody had the wherewithal would anybody had the gumption the drive and desire yeah
1:29:33
that's the next time you're in your favorite uh retail shop uh Mass Merchant especially start looking in the camping
1:29:40
Department start looking underneath uh where the labels are and look
1:29:46
forine look for a world famous uh brand there with it it'll blow your mind as to
1:29:52
how big these guys are are but as you just witnessed by one of the principal
1:29:58
owners of the company um they're just regular people they are they are so regular dudes 9 to five every day in the
1:30:05
office you know what I mean totally unassuming totally unassuming people that's why I love them anyways uh hope
1:30:11
you enjoyed that totally different type of program for us but we uh we thought we've been talking about this for some
1:30:17
time hey we're The Outdoor Journal that's Outdoors brother you got to do outdoors too right not just fishing no
1:30:23
uh we didn't get a chance to talk about our latest trip we'll do that well we did it on the road trip version of this
1:30:30
already but but now that we're back in the comfy confines of OJ Studios next we
1:30:37
should talk about for sure because it was one thing that came up when it was all said and done I'll quickly do this
1:30:43
before we sign off so as you know I'm responsible for all of the paperwork and
1:30:49
you know any bills any expenses while I'm on the road I have to submit them to the account accounting office and the
1:30:55
people there especially the CFO of the company Combs through every single receipt and every single expense H etc
1:31:03
etc yes yes so yesterday uh I got a call from the
1:31:10
accounting department saying that there was a bit of a discrepancy between what I submitted and what actually took place
1:31:16
oh my which is totally unusual for me oh yes it is but anyway so and I go I was
1:31:24
like going to the principal's office and um there was a bunch of paper on on the
1:31:31
desk with marks on him and I was up against the wall being interrogated and
1:31:39
the to the tone the tonality was not very
1:31:45
friendly and she says the CFO say she the she
1:31:50
CFO fale officer Countess of s stash yes said how the hell is it possible that
1:32:00
you go from Toronto to Yellow knife from Yellow knife to hey River hey River and
1:32:08
hey River to re bant Lodge
1:32:14
with a total weight luggage weight of
1:32:20
762 LBS or whatever it is it's a lot of luggage okay that's we
1:32:25
carry a lot that's exactly what I said we carry a lot of stuff you have you have you ever been out in the field carrying the stuff that we carry on
1:32:32
these shoots he says no what I want to know is how in the hell do you go out with 700
1:32:38
and change but you come back with
1:32:43
more I know you guys bring I know you guys I know you guys bring booze in so I
1:32:49
would have thought that you left a couple of empty empties there so that would have been a few pounds off your
1:32:54
weight yep but I never thought for one moment that you could increase the
1:33:00
freight coming out and now when I first got I was like I was shocked Jesus what
1:33:06
did I do now you know I didn't know I didn't know what the answer because normally we'll just Shuffle things
1:33:12
around and make each bag 50 lbs or less than 50 lbs and you might Shuffle things here to there but get rid it with a
1:33:18
considerable amount more weight than you went in yeah yeah yeah so I I was I was like uh I I don't know
1:33:27
but yeah cuz you know I was I I was on the I was on The Wire right okay you had
1:33:33
a gun to your head and a knife to your throat right and then it dawned on me the
1:33:39
Rocks Stevie's Rock Steve D Wiki what a farmer he is Steve D Wiki
1:33:47
found some rocks while we were up in uh Northwest Territories on the mouth of
1:33:54
the McKenzie river while we were shooting he was with the camera crew Rock hunting Rock
1:34:00
hunting and he decided to bring rocks back in the luggage and in the
1:34:06
suitcases and she picked it up the CFO picked it up how much extra weight was
1:34:11
it I'm going to say 30 some odd pounds come on oh I'm not kidding you yeah I saw that one big beehive
1:34:19
looking Rock he had that he must have had more than that too then any hilarious
1:34:25
just thank you Stevie I appreciate make it hurt like Stevie right there that's perfect on that note I want to remind
1:34:31
everybody no you won't find rocks there but you'll find all kinds of goodies at fishing canada.com and rock stars
1:34:40
W ni uh Dean who was not with us today
1:34:46
hopefully you're feeling better buddy by the time you watch I I talked to him this today he said his temperature he
1:34:53
can't get it under a 100 so far wow that's so he's up there yeah on behalf
1:34:59
of the entire uh crew AA who's got a new position now he's normally over there
1:35:05
but now we know that over there doesn't require him to be over there well he's doing both now come on don't dude the
1:35:11
guy is a multitasker come on let's let's give him props when we can okay he's doing a bunch of [ __ ] thank you and
1:35:18
he did that to himself just to let you know uh V was behind the board today
1:35:23
Nikki V was uh I guess the the runner he was monitoring he was monitoring the rest of us on behalf of them and the
1:35:30
entire crew at odj uh Peter Bowman I'm man B thanks for joining us talk to you soon
1:35:37
[Music]
1:35:47
[Applause] [Music]
1:35:53
oh
#Fishing