Our guest this week is Matthew Ego, CEO & Founder of the forward-thinking Guild and Facet, a renowned white label jewelry manufacturing company. He delves into the world of jewelry customization where Guild and Facet is making a mark, not necessarily through brand name, but through their commitment to exceptional customer service, incredible design, and commitment to leaning into burgeoning technologies.
Matthew also recounts some of the most unforgettable custom jewelry projects that Guild and Facet has undertaken, including a breathtaking 14.5 carat lab-grown heart-shaped diamond that was worked with recently. We round up the discussion by exploring the growing trend of customization in the manufacturing industry, providing a glimpse of how this trend impacts our everyday lives.
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Our guest this week is Matthew Ego, CEO & Founder of the forward-thinking Guild and Facet, a renowned white label jewelry manufacturing company. He delves into the world of jewelry customization where Guild and Facet is making a mark, not necessarily through brand name, but through their commitment to exceptional customer service, incredible design, and commitment to leaning into burgeoning technologies.
Matthew also recounts some of the most unforgettable custom jewelry projects that Guild and Facet has undertaken, including a breathtaking 14.5 carat lab-grown heart-shaped diamond that was worked with recently. We round up the discussion by exploring the growing trend of customization in the manufacturing industry, providing a glimpse of how this trend impacts our everyday lives.
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop this week. I'm joined by Matthew Ego and he's with Gilden Fassett, and for a lot of you, gilden Fassett are the unsung heroes that are kind of the man behind the curtain for your customization options at your store. Gilden Fassett does a lot of customization design for jewelry stores and they provide everything USA based and all under one warehouse, which allows them a lot of control and production quality when it comes to shipping things on time and also making sure that they get it right. They've provided like 60,000 different designs at this point over, I think, seven years, and it's really interesting hearing Matthew's views on where the future of jewelry and customization and bespoke design is going, as well as some of the cooler and more unique design options that he's seen come through his warehouse. It's a fun talk. We talk all about the future of jewelry and customization, so I think you'll really get a kick out of it. Thanks everybody and enjoy the episode.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales. Punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business with a user friendly point of sale integrated website platform designed for growth and results. Sign up for your free demo today at punchmarkcom.
Speaker 1:While enjoying this week's episode, take a moment and leave us a star rating on the Spotify mobile app or, if you're on Apple Podcast, leave us a star rating and a review. It's the best way to help us grow into. Show that you really enjoy the show. Thanks, and now back to the show. Welcome everybody. I'm joined by Matthew Ego with Gildan Fassett. How are you doing today, matthew? Good? How are you, michael? I'm doing very well. I'm super excited to get a chance to speak with you. I've heard really great things about Gildan Fassett. For a lot of people, it's like a silent backbone for their own company. Can you kind of set up for the listeners what it is that you guys do?
Speaker 2:Well, we're a young manufacturing company white label. What that means is that we're a non-branded company. We believe that the most important brand is actually the retailer, the brand on the door. Retailers and clients are coming into your store for the reputation that you guys have built and we want to support that reputation. A lot of times I like to use the analogy that people laugh at me If you shop at Costco, we're like the Kirkland brand it's a great product that you can get, but it's a Costco brand compared to a designer brand. So we deliver core value for a really, really good quality piece. That's really our core initiative to supporting retailers.
Speaker 1:I guess just to stay on that for a second, I wonder when you were setting up Gildan Fassett, was there any kind of? It's got to be a little bit humbling to be willing to go the white label route Because I mean, I know it's kind of almost not unique but it's not as popular in other industries as you'd expect. A lot of places they want to put their logo everywhere and they want to be known. But doing the white label route and very much kind of drifting off into the background of a business and allowing the business to take the credit of it, that must be kind of sure that you don't have a ton of ego in your life.
Speaker 2:Well, although my last name is Ego, I do believe that I do come from humble beginnings. Although Gildan Fassett is about 17 years old right now, I've been doing this myself since the age of 18. So just under 25 years of total experience. I'm actually a third generation jewelry manufacturer and, starting from the back, from manufacturing on the bench, working my way all the way up to the executive level of managing a business. Through this 24 plus years of my experience, I saw many brands come and go and some examples I like to use. You know there's many brands that come into the bridal space. What happens is usually they start off doing exceptionally well, they grow a brand, but I believe brands get greedy over time and they want more and they want more and they want more.
Speaker 2:So what happens is brands typically push to retailers to buying more. Inventory opening purchase orders get larger, they want to see a higher sell through rates and eventually, when they don't get enough of that, they go direct to consumer in some sort of fashion which usually upsets retailers across the board. And then what happens? After they go direct to consumer, they lose that solid business foundation. I believe right that the business becomes more vile to when they're going direct to consumer.
Speaker 2:I believe business on relationships with store owner and business owner of a manufacturing facility are some of the greatest relationships I have in my life, where business is built on the relationship, not just on brand value, and what that relationship means is that I am committed to delivering a good quality piece on time to meet my customer's expectations and if something goes wrong, that we will always be there to make it right with that relationship. So I really made a commitment that I don't want to be a brand. I'd rather be a white label brand. I'd rather build a legacy of people knowing that this is a factor that produces a high quality product that's very easy to work with, that's friendly, has a best interest of the retailers and that's really what's catapulted our success really leveraging that. So, while others are trying to play in that huge branded space, we're OK playing in the back of the white label space, making our clients happy and continuing to scale our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what, when you say it like that, it just makes so much sense Just coming from like a front of house kind of experience and having branded companies before. It's all about helping them tell their story. But in the end, yeah, what you guys are doing is playing the support role and that's very admirable. In that I do, like I said at the very beginning of the episode, a lot of businesses have Gildon Fassett as a core pillar of their business, whether that's doing the made to order system or just providing stock for them. Can you talk about the core services that Gildon Fassett provides?
Speaker 2:So here are some of the great initiatives about Gildon Fassett. Number one is everything is made here in the US, and I think that's a huge advantage. When retailers give us an order, they know that order is here state side. There's no overseas, there's no customs to deal with a shorter lead time, so there's a comfort level. So the business really consists of leveraging that what I call made to order the shorter lead time and having everything here domesticated in the States.
Speaker 2:Currently we produce anywhere between 3,000 to 5,000 units of jewelry a month, and that's a wide range heavily bridal, but obviously we're producing bangles, rings, pendants for special orders as well, whatever the customer really needs. The core products that they're usually selling really fall into custom. These days, according to what the knot says, 78% to 80% of all brides want to customize a personalized ring. So they're coming in and they may have a branded picture, but they're coming in with an item or a picture that they want to customize according to their needs, and that's really the business that we leverage the most. So we look at that and we say, okay, so what are consumers coming in with? They're coming in, they want to be able to customize something. They want to be able to take a ring and add it and make sure it looks like the ring that they want on their finger.
Speaker 2:And that's the business that we really take in consideration and we analyze and try to map it out for independent retailers. So out of these 3,000 to 5,000 units we collect the data in, with 5,000 units coming in majority bridal we get to see what are customers actually demanding what color metal, what size center stones, what shape center stones, what looks or trending. We take that data and then we build our stock bridal line based on that data. So we have good performing data that's driving our stock product. And all this product has the same concept of a very minimal inventory. So it's either prototype base of prototypes in stores using our digital assets on our website and selling off that, or a custom ring. So it's really a proven business model. There's no inventory needed and you're getting a made to order item in less than 10 business days. So for retailers, they don't have to stock it, they don't have age inventory and typically they're getting a 66% gross margin on any custom piece. So the margins are super healthy as well for independent retailers.
Speaker 1:So if you don't mind me diving into that a little bit more. When it comes to, for example, say, someone brings you a screenshot of an engagement ring that they saw online and you know where it came from or you recognize it because it's a very popular, popular model. How, where's the line about? Like, we can customize or we can do something similar to that, and we don't want to do exactly that because that's already been made? We sometimes have that issue. Or we sometimes have to confront that line with our designs for websites, because someone will come to us and just bring us Tiffany and they'll be like hey, we want exactly Tiffany's homepage. And we have to sometimes walk them back just a little bit with either telling them hey, just so, you know, that entails kind of a lot more than you're expecting or we have to tell them well, you know, we do do design here and we don't want to just do exactly what has already been made by a different company. How do you kind of balance that guilt and facet?
Speaker 2:So that's a great question, michael. Right, so we have a certain part of their business in a department that's really crucial on analyzing what's actually a copyrighted piece and non copyrighted piece. So we're constantly keeping an eye in all the news articles of what's an item that's copyrighted that we can't infringe on. We're not in the business of infringing on other people's hard work. But when a custom piece comes in, if we see that it's too close to an exact infringing style, we typically reach out and say tell us what your customer liked about this. Yeah, typically I don't think it's.
Speaker 2:I like this specific looking David Ehrman twist that I know there was a copyright issue the other few weeks ago in the news saying I need this exact cable twist. So tell us what you like about the piece or what the customer likes about the piece, and we collect all this information, say okay, if the customer really likes this twist or this Milgrain or this vintage look, how can we deliver something that's not infringing and still satisfying your customer's needs? And that's what the design team is really focused on. When that happens, there's a few steps in the custom process. It's not like we go and create a live ring in three days and then we deliver it to the customer and we're infringing on sales. There's a design process involved. So let's say this is a real complicated piece and the customer is not sure exactly what they like. There may be an infringing issue. We actually have five sketch artists on staff that can actually draw and sketch a few concepts, so it's going to be the coolest job.
Speaker 2:It's a great job, but sometimes, instead of going straight into CAD, we'll sit there and we'll sketch a few concepts and say, hey, we can deliver this piece. We can deliver a piece looking like this and they'll have three to five rings or three to five pendants where they're looking at and when the customer gets his hand done, sketch, it was sketched specifically for them, meaning that this is a piece of jewelry that only they will wear or own. It gives us really special feeling. They feel attached to this. It's kind of like a recipe.
Speaker 2:I always say I talk about cooking all the time. You may get a recipe versus someone, but you may switch one ingredient in one ingredient out because you want it to taste a certain way or you want it to have a certain amount of spice. So design is similar to that. There's design attributes that can be added and removed, and that's what this design process is like. So we'll go in there and we'll sketch it out of the five. They say, hey, we really like these two, or we've narrowed it down to this one, and then we'll take that piece and we'll go into the CAD designing software and we'll design it in CAD and then we'll produce these amazing renderings and lifelike videos. So now they can see it. And once they see it and they've been involved in the process I think the biggest thing is, once the customer has been involved in the process of creating custom rings knowing that they picked the type of diamond they want, they picked the type of ring they want, they picked the design details they want there's no way that they won't be happy with the end product unless everyone did their job wrong.
Speaker 2:So we're really involved in the process of designing and providing these 3D animation tools and renderings to provide them with a lifelike image. So when they get the final piece, they're like wow, this is even better than what I thought it would look like or what the pictures look like. So we're really careful about that infringement part of the business. We don't want to be in the business of infringing on anyone's hard work and we're really adamant that there's specific designs in the marketplace that we know that there have been lawsuits and legal issues that will just stay away and say tell us what you like about this, We'll work on creating something that fits that but doesn't infringe on that.
Speaker 1:Related to that. It sounds like you guys use CAD quite a bit. It sounds like it's one of the key parts of your design process. The other thing I was curious is I feel like design as a whole becomes the iteration process, or even just the process of building and designing and bringing something to life Changes every one to two to three years, or even as quickly as the next Adobe product launch. For us, we've had to rebuild our own design process when it comes to building websites seemingly every year. How has the change in technology affected how you guys are building in the last seven years of business?
Speaker 2:Well, technology, I think, has taken some huge leaps in our jewelry industry for the past 10 years. For sure, there's been laser welders that have come into the market, there's been 3D printers that have come to the market, there's been new CAD software and then there's a lot of industrial tools that are being developed in the actual manufacturing process. But I think some of these tools have made such an impact and if you're not committed to learning on the next best type of technology or implementing, say, the art manufacturing equipment, you're slowly going to be left behind, because CAD has had such a huge impact in allowing the customer to see what a piece would look like before you even created that. In my three generations of being involved in jewelry in our family, I've seen it all to someone sit there carving a piece of wax to look like an angel, all the way down to someone now catting it and printing a 3D printer. So we have seen the whole gamut from A to Z, and I think technology has really improved our industry. It's giving us lifelike renderings to be able to see rings in different shapes, center stones, different size center stones and different metals that you can see before. It's allowing us to create and render a piece prior to the customer actually giving us an approval. We're using 3D scanners. Now, if you have a piece that you need to duplicate, that can be scanned and duplicated one for one.
Speaker 2:Lasers have evolved from laser engraving to laser cutting to laser polishing. So I'm a big fan of technology and I think one of the things that's really different about us is that we're so young. You know where other manufacturing companies probably run by an individual in his late 60s wanting to retire, not wanting to spend money on new equipment, not wanting to learn about the newest piece of equipment coming out you know we're 42 years old and I think you know there's this always yearning desire to learn more or find a better way to do something, or learn about the latest state of the art technology, of how something's being done, or looking at other industries like Tesla and Apple and how they do things and say, well, if a phone can be created better or a car can be created, created better, what can we do in our jewelry industry? So I think that's something that we're really adamant about learning, and you know that's something that I'm really passionate about as well too.
Speaker 1:I totally agree. I mean, I think that technology is one of the true constants. It is always pushing forward, there's always changes, and you can either choose to embrace it or you're going to choose to run from it. And we're the same way with Punchmark we are young at heart and, as a result, we are trying to find new ways to embrace it, whether that means leveraging AI to help us with our workflows or help us with automation, when it comes to taking away having to be the guy that just pulls the lever over and over again.
Speaker 1:But also, I'm excited to see where technology is going to take us because, just like how certain things weren't even possible or plausible as recently as 10 years ago, now, with new designs or even just new materials, things are becoming increasingly unique. Just like I heard somewhere that the like certain ring styles, it's not that they weren't popular back in the day. Back in the day, meaning in the 1700s, 1800s it's that the advancement of jewelry design was not such that they were able to create these such intricate designs, to make it so that they were even plausible. But now, as our ability to mill certain shanks down to a 32nd of an inch, now we're able to have an entire host of new designs. Or, now that we're able to mill certain materials that weren't even available back then, such as these heavier metals or harder metals, we're able to have a whole host of unique creative opportunities that weren't available to us as recently as five, 10, 20 years ago. So I'm very encouraged by it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you hit on some really interesting points. One is AI and AI. I mean we're just testing the surface of what AI is really going to do in our future lives. I was actually in the car this morning and said that only 30% of Americans have even had a second experience with AI or been on chat, gbt and kind of seen what it can do. So there's this huge, huge, huge future of AI even in our industry.
Speaker 2:There's AI image generation now happening where you can type in like oval engaging antique and you can have a dozen images popped up based on an AI image generator. And we're actually looking at how we can implement AI into our company and our technology for independent retailers. I think we've created close to 60,000 custom pieces in the last seven years or so and now we're going back and working with AI tools to rename them and tag them so you can actually type in keywords that a customer is looking for and go through a catalog of previous created items so you can kind of generate or go through a gallery of AI generated images based on that to help you sell a customer custom range. So I think this is only going to increase. I think eventually, ai is going to grade diamonds right. We won't have real diamond graders in labs. They're going to go in. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, they're ready plotting stones and they're already looking at how to cut stones.
Speaker 2:So I think AI is going to continue to change our industry quite a bit, give us tools that help us deliver better experiences to the customer, and I think it's in our control to learn this technology but make it feel like the customer is still getting a lovable, amazing emotional experience when purchasing a piece of jewelry. Just because we're adding all this technology doesn't mean we need to dummy down the process of buying a piece of jewelry or take the emotion out of creating a piece of jewelry or purchasing. You've got to remember we're an emotional consumer market, right? Jewelry typically is bought on emotions or for an emotional moment in someone's life, whether they're getting married, an anniversary, a push gift or whatnot. So it's really important that, whatever we do with technology and AI, that we still keep the emotional part of jewelry alive. Right, that's a selling factor. So I think, as technology comes, we have a part in the industry to continue to revive the emotional part, and we have a part to implement the best parts of technology into the process as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see it as an opportunity and less of like, ah man, things are changing and it's like, yes, they are changing, but I do believe that it is also an opportunity for creative expression.
Speaker 1:I sometimes think about, for example, have you ever seen?
Speaker 1:It sounds like you've done some poking around when it comes to AI. They are trying to reinvent the build or hull of a of crap airplanes, and I've found it very interesting how they're able to, using, you know, super iterative processes. Run through an AI, they're able to find unique ways that no human could ever have created, you know, within our lifetimes, to make it so that the whole of these airplanes use, you know, 20 or 30 percent less material, but are also able to provide a much more structurally sound experience, and it's that kind of stuff. If you just kind of extrapolate the idea a little bit further and think of it towards, for example, engagement rings or bracelets or something like that, you're able to think of all the unique ways that, for example, nature produces. You know, nature is creating these experiences, you know, far beyond our imaginations, and using something that is able to think iteratively through thousands and thousands of generations is something I'm hoping we'll be able to create the next great beautiful designs. You know that we haven't even had the opportunity to come up with yet.
Speaker 2:Oh great, I read. I think it's going to be exciting future, so we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsors.
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Speaker 1:So there you have it. Whether you're looking for website services or digital marketing solution, now is the perfect time to jump in. Don't miss out on these incredible offers and visit punchmarkcom. Slash cyber. That's C-Y-B-E-R, and let them know in the loops that you Makes me look good. Thanks, back to the show and we're back. So I guess that kind of brings me down to the idea of, like, some of these customized projects that you guys have worked on. It sounds like you guys have had the whole gambit of projects come through your door. You know, I think you mentioned these, say, 60,000 different projects at one point. Wow, that's incredible. Have you seen any, you know, like any memorable ones? Have you seen anything come through with a, you know, a custom ring that was just totally eye catching or something that you wanted, or anything that maybe you definitely would not have wanted, anything like that?
Speaker 2:Well, working at jewelry factories is really, really something special. You can walk her through the floor of the jewelers and setters and just pick up a piece and be astonished three to four times a day, I think. Two days ago, right after we spoke, I was on the floor and I picked up a 14 and a half carat lab grown heart shaped diamond right, and I mean those are going to hold your hand and just seeing how you know the evolution of lab grown diamonds have grown. You know, a few months prior to that we had a 19 carat Emerald lab diamond come in. So lab has definitely pushed and I started to see some stones that I've probably never seen my life. I saw a 12 carat fancy yellow natural the other day.
Speaker 2:But our projects are really, really unique and I think that's what's amazing about that. You know, creating custom ring, they all have a story and you know there's amazing stories that we were involved in and one of the best things that we do are these custom design events and you know I've been on some of these custom divined design events where we go into specific independent retailer for two or three days and they're booking appointments with their clients and elderly woman will come through and she'll open her purse and she's got bags of jewelry that she received from her late husband and will learn stories about her husband, what they, what he did or serving in the army and what his job was, and how she wants to create some jewelry for her, her grandchildren or, like you know that this, this diamond, was carried down for my great grandmother or my great aunt, and you really start to hear these sentimental moments of why we're really in this business. I mean, it's really awkward, but the last month alone we there was this job on the floor that I was looking at and it was a dangling earring with a chain that attached to like a web, and the web had to be liked the size of a small racquet ball, so three or four inches. And I'm like you know, I'm looking at this and like what is this? And you know, and I just looked at the job and I was just, and I went to the salesperson like you're working on here, and they're like, oh, this is an interesting one. This woman has a mass like an extra piece of skin attached your ear lobe and she wanted to decorate the large mass that's hanging off her ear lobe with a cage, a gold cage, wow.
Speaker 2:And I'm just sitting here and like, how do you even start a design like this? You know, we're like, we're so cool, you know. So you start to hear all these stories and, yeah, we do beautiful engagement rings and we'll get, you know, we'll get some nature inspired rings that have this like bark finish and this real floral and nature inspired thing. We'll get things that are completely, you know, out of the park too at the same time. And you know, we see it all and it's really exciting to be able to to live and work in a factory where you can see all this going on at every time. And you know what. It just shows that people are willing to spend a little bit more money and go through the design process to really get what they want.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's I'm thankful for that because at the end of the day, you know, keeps our factory busy. We have over 100 employees here that are busy working on these creations of jewelry and what's other. What the other thing is really cool is the fact that the factory is completely vertically integrated and for those know what vertically integration means is that from start to finish, everything's done under one roof. So other factories, may you know, have a separate design company. They may not be casting in house or they send it out to cast and then they may just be doing one part of it and the other part they're sending out. We actually get to see the piece from creation from start to finish, so that's really one of the exciting things as well is that we really get to map out the journey of these pieces as they come in, from design to completion, and sometimes it's an amazing story. We're really honored to be part of all this.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that I think of this bespoke experience.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's becoming increasingly just so that people are willing to spend the dollars on.
Speaker 1:I think that we're all kind of searching for just a little bit of joy, a little bit of memorableness, and it's not always just about the, the end, the end item, but it's sometimes like about the, the chase, or about the process of the build.
Speaker 1:And, like you hear all these stories about you know, bespoke or super expensive luxury, you know bags, for example, and about how they don't just let you buy it, they have to let you know how. You have to go in, you have to see what they have and then they're going to offer you you know two options and it's like this one or that one and you can't just say, oh, I'd like a slightly different. But the fact that you have to, you know, go through the chase is almost like part of the experience and as a result, you love it even more. But like it sounds also like people being able to customize just a little bit more and put a little bit of themselves into it. It just makes it so much more of an experience and that's kind of, you know, I'm kind of heartened to know that, that the experience is still such a pillar of of the luxury kind of idea. So it's great that you guys are part of that.
Speaker 2:That sounds great and that's that's evolved in all of our societies, from, from ordering a burrito or rice bowl all the way to, you know, ordering toppings on the pizza. Or you know shopping for your car at Tesla you're picking finishes, you're picking colors, you're picking your tires, you're picking the levels technology on the car. So I think you know, as a society, this is only going to grow and people are going to want to be able to customize and make something special just for them. And it's a form of expression, you know, and it's an outlet, in a way you could say, for humanity to kind of create things that are unique to them. And you know it's. It's crazy, Like, like you said, even in the sneaker business, right, Like I'm sure some people know, you can go on Nike and customize a sneaker.
Speaker 1:Big sneakerhead man, you're speaking my language, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have a son that's eight years old and he's a sneakerhead already and he'll actually spend time on his iPad on Nike, like just for fun, designing sneakers Like Dad. What do you think of this is cool? What do you think of this is cool so awesome. I really think it's amazing and I came across something the other day that I was actually working with my tech team on is look, you know the Gatorade squish bottles, like the typical green sports Gatorade bottle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know Gatorade has taken like a 999 water bottle now and allows you to customize it and put your name on it and change the graphics. And my kids went through this experience and I had to buy like a $35 water bottle. You only cost $9. But I was looking at the technology of customization and like, here we are and they're selling a squeeze water bottle that, like my age, through high school, you know, we had on the side of a football field. They were squeezing and it was this ugly, green and orange and now have made it this like awesome process where each one of my kids has their own unique Gatorade water bottle and I'm sure, like every other kid in their school has done the same thing right. So I think the next generation will only year for this customization factor more and more like it's inevitable. Buying stock product at a Julie showcase would probably be dummy down to the basics, right Like diamond stud, a diamond tennis bracelet that everything else is gonna have to go through this customization factor Eventually and I think it's only gonna increase.
Speaker 1:So no, I think you're spot on.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing story about the water ball I did something very similar with I'm still cringing about it but Converse they I think I was on there I was doing research for our engagement ring designer that comes with our punch mark websites and I was doing like a little bit of process and I was kind of like comparing it to the, the converse designer, also Converse home by Nike.
Speaker 1:So I was going and I was flipping through and I was doing a punch mark branded pair of a converse high tops and as I was swiping through I was looking at, I screen shot and I sent it around to the company. Everyone's like oh Mike, these are sick, you should get them, you should get them. And and my gosh, I was that I believed them and I actually bought like a hundred and twenty dollar pair of converses and when I got them I was like man, I am not that good of a sneaker designer, so you know I wear my location, but not as often as I thought I was going to, but the experience was the cool part, yeah, it's all.
Speaker 2:And look you, here's two, two people, two individuals, you and I and two different spectrums of the industry running Manufacturing, one in the tech side, and we're having conversation and we're still still living in the same kind of gray space of customization, right? So, yeah, I think that's that's the awesome part of this, and you know, I've made a few custom suits and then there's a lot of these suit companies out there we can customize and you pick the inside of it, and you know what I think. At the end of the day, you can't you can't control that. Humans have a desire in the outlet to be somewhat creatively freedom, and you know.
Speaker 2:If you have it to express themselves and if they didn't, this great ground she probably wouldn't have been created. You know that people left Great Britain to come here for Something that they wanted to create and they wanted to build and they had an idea what that was. And you know they build roads and cities and schools and churches and you know that's how the world world evolves, with this creative thought process, and I think it's important to continue to put it in our business. You know man, matthew.
Speaker 1:What a great way to end that one, I think. Is there anything else that we should say before before we wrap it up? I think that was a pretty, a pretty fantastic kind of ending, though I love that. I definitely hope that we all kind of you know yearn to express ourselves and to create something bigger than ourselves.
Speaker 2:Well, I just wanted to say thank you to all our existing clients. They've been partners of ours, really appreciate your support and your orders and trusting us. And for anyone that hasn't had any experience of working with us, you know we belong to all the great buying groups of RJO, ijo and CBG and leading and Centurion. And if you're not at a trade show and you'd like to email us, you can email us at info at gildenfacet. Just mention the podcast and I can reach out to you personally or I'll have one of the executives reach out to you personally Tell you a little bit more about what we do and how we can help you grow your brand.
Speaker 1:That'd be fantastic. It makes us look good. I appreciate your time, matthew. I think that this is fan. It's like a really, really interesting kind of peak behind the curtain, especially for something that is so important for the industry to be able to get the customization Of pieces done, especially as we see it kind of increasing in popularity. I really appreciate your time. Everybody will be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Thanks Bye. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This week's episode was brought to you by punch mark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. My guest this week was Matthew ego with guild and facet. Make sure you look them up online or reach out to the email address, which isn't going to be into the show notes below. Don't forget to leave us a review on Spotify and Apple podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom Loop. That's L O U P? E. Don't forget to rate the podcast and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye.