Twisted X Boots
Bob Frazier, who designed the popular “Fat Baby” boots for Ariat Boot Co., is bringing his cutting edge design and technology to Decatur, TX.
After 25 years with Justin Boots and five years with Ariat, Frazier has started his own company, Twisted X Boots. He and one of his two partners announced the opening of a distribution center in Decatur at a reception Wednesday at the Decatur Civic Center. The Decatur Economic Development Corp., which provided a $200,000 incentive package to get the company to locate here, hosted the reception.
Mayor Joe Lambert welcomed the company to town.
Frazier’s wife, Jenna, who is in charge of marketing for the company, joined Twisted X partner Jeroen Noordermeer in announcing the company’s plans. They hope to have $1.5 million in inventory in a Decatur warehouse by November, 2006. Wise Electric Cooperative hopes to be the successful bidder on construction of the warehouse on property adjacent to the cooperative off North Trinity.
The company expects to employ 10 people at the warehouse, doubling the workforce by 2010. Connie McCrary, president of Heritage Transportation in Decatur, which will handle the warehousing and transportation for Twisted X, was on hand, along with her staff, David Leleux, warehouse manager and Bobbie Schultz, who is in charge of inventory control.
“Connie will begin receiving (merchandise) in three weeks,” Frazier announced.
The company is using temporary warehouse space in Decatur until a permanent structure is built.
Twisted X is a company driven by relationships, Frazier said in describing his business philosophy.
“I do all the design and development,” said Frazier. “Jenna does everything ... she’s holding this all together. Jeroen handles transportation. He has 14 years’ experience in footwear. Our third partner, Mike (Wu), has 25 years in manufacturing. We have a well-rounded management team.”
Frazier said his nationwide sales team, along with management, has more than 400 years’ experience in the footwear industry.
“Our average salesman is 59 years old, with an average tenure of 29 years,” said Frazier. “They all worked for me in the past and each one left a really good job to do this. Our initial sales have been way beyond what we expected.”
In introducing his product, Frazier said the boots are “built around the way people used to build boots. We try to have an extremely authentic boot with technical aspects.”
He described the lightweight boots having a work boot construction but being about 40 percent lighter than the standard work boot. Simplifying the construction of the boots, he said “it’s basically an athletic shoe with a boot wrapped around it.”He displayed several styles, including a traditional cowboy boot with tall shaft. Several casual styles were also on display, including a bright turquoise mule, a bright pink punchy ostrich-style similar to the Fat Baby and a brown rounded toe style similar to the Birkenstock shoes. He uses a wide variety of colors in his design, as evidenced by an eye-catching copper athletic-style boot. The boots are manufactured overseas.
Frazier explained his reason for settling on Decatur for his distribution center and thanked those responsible for the move.
“It’s a little bit western out here and that fits our philosophy – at least mine,” he said. “We look forward to making this our home and melding into the community.” The Fraziers made an offer on a home in Decatur earlier in the day.
“Thom Lambert is the man who made this happen,” said Frazier, pointing to the director of the Decatur EDC.
He also thanked Andrew Rottner, president of North Texas Bank.
“Andrew is the money man. He helped us out a lot,” said Frazier. “The Decatur Chamber of Commerce has been wonderful to us.”Twisted X Boots has temporary offices in the chamber building.
posted by Administrator @ 8:21 AM
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