In the Loupe
In the Loupe
A Woven Vision ft. Malo Bands
We trace Malo Bands’ journey from handwoven artistry to a tech-enabled, service-first business, and how listening to retailers turned beautiful showpieces into scalable, profitable designs. Tony shares candid lessons on customization, B2B tools, tariffs, and why yellow gold is surging.
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Welcome to In the Loop. What is up, everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week I have on Tony from Malo Bands. And Malo is one of those jewelry brands that I've been taking a look at because of their unique style, and I feel like their design really stands out and is very different than a lot of the work that's on the market right now. And I think that's really exciting. They have these like woven bands, and I think that they are really pretty cool. And I speak with Tony about the history of their brand, what they're working on, and how they develop relationships with uh new retailers. It's a cool conversation. I hope you enjoy.
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SPEAKER_02:How about you? So well. I'm really excited to get a chance to speak with you. You're one of our premium vendors, and uh your work really stands out to me. I think it's really uh some beautiful work. What in my eyes, when I think of Malo, I think of uh these woven bands. And I was doing some research about you guys and trying to find out like some history and and and things like that. When you talk about uh your company, how do you sort of set the scene and introduce it in what you do?
SPEAKER_00:Um so the way we see ourselves is uh see ourselves. So obviously, we got started with the uh with the handhoven bands. That was really the uh how we got our foot in the door in terms of wedding bands, right? So that really set us up uh with success off right off the gate, and it allowed us to work with a lot of customers that uh taught us a lot in the meantime, right? Like big volume users. So we were much less uh at the time we used to be uh distributing our products mostly through uh big majors or uh distributors, so we had less of a working relationship with independent jewelry stores was through major change stores, so across North America, right? So that was that was the beginning, right? So and then the company evolved. Obviously, uh handholds on bands had a great run, like we had a good uh decade to maybe uh 15 years of those bands being super super uh uh popular. Obviously, with uh CNCs and technology coming into play, uh things evolved. And uh in the mid-90s, technology in terms of wedding my production was still at the early stage, right? Everything was done much more in a manual manner, you know. So the auto the full automated uh technology came, was available early 2000s, late 90s, and then until that becomes implemented and uh and available, right? It takes some time. So when dot technology came in, Michael, that's when like we uh started off with the first basic CNC's basic CNCs, then we uh started working with those learning how to use technology. So we went from being full craft, like what everything was done completely manually, to uh transitioning into uh machinery, and it's not like we knew much about it, to be quite honest. It was really this is where the future is. Like uh we see uh labor shortages and all those things, right? Yeah, scaling problems. So uh my father, Habib, which founded the company, uh uh like in terms of passion, uh machinery was always like his uh um his thing, you know, whether whether it meant that it's stuff that works for us or not. Like anytime we went to trade shows when I was a kid, because he brought me around uh like as basically his bag man to carry his bags and stuff too, and we would like spend more time on the machinery section than the the actual uh jewelry section, right? Yeah, so kind of like we have that uh like he transferred that to me and to my brother, obviously, always having the eye open on evolving and getting the newest technology in, right? But at that time, he was one of the first ones that really understood where the market could be. And in North America, basically jewelry manufacturing has hit uh like it's nothing close to what it was, right? So if we hadn't evolved quickly enough at that time, we wouldn't be nowhere near where we are today as a company. So we're definitely a company that believes in technology and in uh being able to adapt yourself to the trends, you know, to the market trends, and continuously uh bring to the customers, to our customers, and to the consumers, what we believe uh the latest trends should be. So it's not necessarily about uh what's available in the market, it's looking at outside the industry, what works, what do you see in the fashion industry, what colors are being used in terms of materials, you know, which materials are available in our type of production that we can like get inspired from and then apply it to wedding bands. So it's really uh definitely uh more than a full-time job, let's put it that way. So it's like it's like designing, uh, consulting, uh, a lot of research. That's and it's it's really fun. It's like it's like there's no boring moment, or there's no moment where like it there's always something to do, there's always preparation, learning, uh, trial and error, RD. So I can't complain. I've got a great job, I have a great passion for it, and uh from the customer's point of view, I think we're doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, sounds amazing. And I've definitely been really impressed by uh by the work that you guys have produced. It's really fascinating that switch from the handmade and handcrafted aspect to using machinery and and and kind of catching up because that's the one thing that I've found to be increasingly uh prominent and pre and um important for a company is like if you are you only have a limit to how fast your hands can move, and if you're doing everything by hand, suddenly it's just a matter of selling your time and and having a one-to-one value for your time, and you just have to assign the dollar amount to it. But when you start introducing machinery, it sounds like your your father Habib was uh yeah, uh is it a machinist? Yeah, really ahead of his team.
SPEAKER_00:He was far from being a machinist, he was far from being a machinist, far from it. More uh understanding opportunity, right? Understanding the value of opportunity, and that uh if you don't uh look at different ways of doing things, you're always stuck within a certain limit of what you're capable of uh of delivering. And uh it was a passion, like it's a true passion, like it's there's no other way to describe it. Like you really have to be there in those times to see uh the investments made and the way that uh uh whether you understand it or not, the belief in yourself that you'll find the right people uh that will understand it. So, like you know, there's a difference between being a visionary and being like an executionary, right? Yeah, completely two different roles, right? First, you gotta like understand that this is the direction I'm going, and then somehow you find the people that uh can help you get there. So um it's big shoes to fail, but we're trying to do our best.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and if you don't mind me asking, is is your father still involved with the company or has he uh fully stepped away?
SPEAKER_00:You can't fully step away. Fully stepping away is like uh uh what does that really mean, right? Like when you've been doing this as your whole life, right? What you want is uh number one, the moment he realized that he had given us everything he needed to give us, and that after this after this moment on we had to fly under our wings to learn and to grow as a person, he established that very early on that uh he gave us the training necessary, and after that it was upon us to take it to the next level because uh he did what he did. Yeah, you understand? I dare now he's at a point where it's more a mentorship role where we pick and choose when to go to see him on various topics to see.
SPEAKER_02:I can only imagine, you know.
SPEAKER_00:You have a uh you have the best mentor you can ever ask for, you have something somebody that people would pay big money to have access to, right? Yeah, so and even at then you might not even find somebody that has that experience. So for me and my brothers really uh doing what we think is best, and uh, but whenever you have that internal uh lack of clarity and you just want somebody to guide you in the right direction, that's what that's where he steps in and tells us great, bad, don't even think about it. Uh we've done this X amount of years ago, it didn't work because XYZ reason. So uh it's it's something that uh we're grateful to be in a position to have uh to guide us in the right direction. That's really where he is right now. And obviously, uh he loves Vegas. Vegas is like uh the only show he'll attend almost, right? Yeah, he'll definitely be there. So a lot of his friends are there, you know, on the vendor side, people that he worked with for years and years and years. So when I see them together at either our boot or their boot, just hearing the stories, you know, just hearing the stories, yeah, on how it was back in the day, and uh how our generation doesn't understand anything.
SPEAKER_02:I don't understand it all. But that's a really cool it's cool that you uh still keep that relationship open with him, but also seem to be fully in the driver's seat. But I also sounds like uh there's this decision that has to be made by every um vendor, is that you have to decide are you going to are you gonna go for take over the world? Are you gonna try to have as many retailer uh carrying your product as possible? Or is it about dominating for a couple of retailers and really deepening those connections? Is that something you've had to kind of decide amongst yourself? Because in the end, you are like you said, a two-person operation. Is it oh, we need to scale and expand and bring on more people and and uh and and have a hundred or five hundred more retailers carrying our products, or is it like okay, we're going to we have our base, we need to just expand our offerings, and then the rest will follow?
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, that's like such a good question because uh that's a question that uh kind of time, a question that you can only answer with time. Okay, so initially, uh there's a lot of figuring out at the early stages of growth, right? Where what's your value proposition? How many uh what's the best market segment that uh uh that can really can benefit from the type of product and services you offer, right? So initially it was uh we didn't really know. So I'm not gonna lie, initially it was really uh the uh ambition to go forward and that the the confidence that we'll figure it out as we uh have conversations, right? So the first few years when we really expanded in the US, I would say it was tough, really, really tough, okay, because uh we're coming with a certain attitude in terms of we're really successful in Canada. Now the question is uh how does that translate to a new market, right? Yes, we're neighbors, you're yes, everything is very similar, but I mean there's a lot more competition, and things are a little different, expectations are different, uh, like you know, like it's around the clock, answers today. There's not so there was a little uh moment where we had to reinfind ourselves, right? So the plan that we started off with uh 10 years ago is far from being where we are today. So initially I thought that going super narrow, super niche, yes, would be uh the way to go. Uh, because I felt that like a lot of the categories that uh we could do well was already done well uh with other companies in the US. So I'm like, why fight a battle where it's it's it's like you're fighting for a better price, or you can't really bring enough innovation to the to the picture, right? So yeah, that was the initial mindset. So at that moment, we led with our more unique products. That was the products that we we felt that uh our passion for creating uh spectacular pieces would translate into sales. We learned real quick that yes, we had a lot of attention given to those lines. We were relatively successful in placing products within the limitations we had in terms of uh salespeople and uh people that know us. So in the beginning, nobody knows you, so the first few years is just like showing your face and grinding, right? Until they recognize you and they give you an opportunity. But then what we realized was which is really the key, the key is what looks great doesn't necessarily translate in sales. So when you really create something beautiful and unique, the amount of people that will appreciate that piece, you really narrow down that customer, right? So so that's not what that we realize. That's on like we spent so many years developing that, pushing that, selling that to come to a realization that those are great conversation starters, but they're not what's gonna make you uh scale your business, yeah. Okay, so that took us like four or five years to realize, to be honest. Then what we realized was uh when you're when you want to scale in terms of production, all the challenges that come with scaling, right? So the way orders are processed, how many people can have the skill set necessary to create those art pieces, right? So there was kind of a whole transformation that needed to happen within our company to really understand that, like, it's not about what we can do, is what is the smartest decision to take on long-term. Uh, like if I look at it long term, how do I predict problems that I know I will have and how do I eliminate that problem before I even have it, right? So that's when we made the complete shift in uh understanding few points, which the only way to understand what we would the decisions we took was uh listening to customers. So you know when you're not when you're going to shows, when you're doing all these things, right? What happens is uh you have the opportunity to live to to face customers, yes. So even though you don't come home with sales in the early years, what you did have was rejection, which made you uh ask yourself serious questions, yes. Why I'm not doing why what I'm not succeeding in all the things, why didn't they want this?
SPEAKER_02:Why didn't they like it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so you have your notes. Then over the years, uh, when you hear the same pain points from the customers, and you realize it's not like singular to one person, it's like these is these are the majority of the problems that business owners are facing at the retail side, right? I agree. So when we had heard enough of those, it was pretty evident that uh you we had to number one offer extreme levels of customization. So customization is really lacking in the marketplace at the time. Now it evolved, it had no choice to evolve, right? Yes, but if I go back a decade, people weren't really offering that because it created a lot of manufacturing complications, right? Which for us it was more problem because we were used to working in a very uh high-paced, high-paced environment in terms so for each it was just about like how do we just make this happen? Like, we're used to chaos, how do we make organized chaos? You know, so how do we just make better work orders? So, my I have to give it my staff was very good at adapting, like they were very good at adapting on the fly, on the fly, and we had to improve quick meanings, and then it got things got implemented real quick, right? So, customization was key. Second thing was how do you create tools? So we understood the pinpoint of the retailers, which was much more service-driven than product driven. So, what we learned was yes, you need to innovate, yes, we need to come with better product and uh and basically be ahead of the curve in terms of where the trends will go, which you have do your ways of identifying those things, you know. It's not like it's not rocket science, like we're not launching satellites, yeah. So, uh, by just watching uh men's fashion, by just watching other industries, uh uh what do you see on athletes one day uh doing interviews, what type of jewelry they're wearing, you just have to have the eye, you know. You have to have the eye to identify like where things are going, right? Uh, so that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was really understanding the customer. So it was about customation, service, uh, as many tools as they can get to do their job with minimal uh waste of time. So, you know, we realize that uh if the salesperson has a problem, they have to go see the manager, the manager has to call the factory. Then the factory and customer service agent might not know the answer, so they have to go see a manager. So we look at the process of getting the right answer to the to the decision to the person that needs it, and we realize there's so many layers that basically it's impossible to scale, and there's no way that you can keep your customer happy with those methods because if you have a customer in front of you and you're working with a customer, you need the answer right now. Yeah, like 10 minutes is already too late, maybe. Because if the guy left the store, good luck calling him, good luck bringing him back. Like, you know, you gotta beat the iron when it's hot, right? So then we put all our energy in building a B2B tool where 90% of the bulk, the daily demands can just be available, automated, and a click of a button, right? And that's when everything changed. That's really when everything changed, is when we were able to uh showcase how uh what you have currently, you're not stuck with that. There's a better way, you know. There's a better way where your staff uh will be much more motivated to uh to work with the jewelry store owners to sell more when they have the tools. So and we're still figuring it out, but right now it's all about service, it's all about like just it's not very hard, Michael. We add the question we ask ourselves is the following if I was a jewelry store, what would I want as a tool? And if I was a jewelry store, what would I need as as support? So those are the questions we ask ourselves, and if you can answer that, you kind of like how do I want to be treated? What's what would I accept? How so that's our basis of coming to a decision? If I want to accept this, this as whatever it is, it can never be presented to a customer basically. So uh, and we're figuring it out right now as well. Like it's it's a not it's a continuous improvement, continuous improvement.
SPEAKER_02:It sounds really interesting to like a conundrum to kind of wrap your head around, and it's cool that you're taking a uh the approach of listening to your clients. It's something that I do user experience uh punchmark, and user experience is all about um yeah, finding out exactly all those things that you just said. What is it that the customer wants? What is it that a client would uh accept without you know being a turnoff to them or send them away? And I'm totally with you. I part of the reason why I go to jewelry shows is not because of my you know amazing skills at selling, that's not why they do have salespeople for that. What it actually is is I go and I hear what are the pain points and what is it that we're not offering? What are they asking about that we don't have an answer to yet? And when you start listening for that kind of way, it's almost like a sieve. Instead of uh catching the water, you're trying to catch what is not in the water, and suddenly it just turns the the problem on its head, and suddenly you're finding the the things you don't have the answer to. It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00:It's the only way, Michael, because look, uh when you realize that making decisions in an office with people that are not connected to reality is gonna mostly uh omit huge portions of the things that actually matter. So decisions mean in a in a boardroom is gonna be profit-driven, it's gonna be cost cutting driven, it's gonna be this driven, that driven, right? So that's what the role of those people are. But when when it comes to the point of making an impact in the in in in in jewelry stores lives or day-to-day activities, that will never work. Never work because the the intangibles that you can't think about, you can never figure it out if you're not either living in. So he might only have X amount that's available for your category, right? So, how do I serve that customer? You know, then you have the complete opposite. You have a store that has six thousand square foot. No, it's like, how do I how can I offer something to this guy that have a completely different need than this guy? The six thousand square foot jewelry store doesn't need uh uh every single skew, every single category, it might only need best sellers, right? Just best sellers, with offering. This guy might need every single thing that exists, right? So, how do you know that by being in the jewelry store? Even the shows aren't good enough for that. You gotta be at the shows, you gotta be in the jewelry stores, you gotta do your analysis at home. It's a combination of things, and uh, that's the beauty, that's the beauty of uh being hands-on.
SPEAKER_02:That's so cool that you're doing that. It's really uh I don't hear enough about vendors making those those trips, but the fact that you're you're investing in uh actually attending and like going into a uh a jewelry store is so cool. Um, I wonder I wonder if more vendors should be doing that. It sounds like hearing, you know, experiencing firsthand what we in the UX world we call them user interviews, and we also call them um in situational user interviews. Sometimes you when you do these interviews, a lot of times we were instructed in school that hey, you should try to go to their uh place of use. And so it'd be like, hey, if they're using this tool in their commute, you should go and contact someone and ask if you could ride with them on their commute and see how often are they picking it up, how often are they doing it. But hearing that you're you're seeing the differences in, for example, uh you know, a small store versus a big store versus maybe like a city store versus an uh a different one. That sounds really quite cool.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Mike, it's it's about uh broadening your under your overall understanding. It's not about like one thing or it's everything, it's being in the environment, you know, and what and the environment, like there you're always gonna come up a better person. Whether something went wrong, it's good. Whether something went well, it's good, everything is good, you know. Like whether your flat got delayed, it teaches you patience and don't uh stress over things you can't control. You understand? So when you look at it, it it's the whole everything that comes with is great, you know. It you get to uh see what the sales rep does, you know what I mean? You get to see their job.
SPEAKER_02:How are they pitching it?
SPEAKER_00:Five hours between stores, and you understand that there's a certain respect to give to that uh job as well, you know. Absolutely. So it's it's a whole package, it's a whole package, and um I'm sure a lot of successful jewelry companies do it, you know. Like I'm definitely not the only one. Uh I thought maybe the difference is I enjoy doing it, you know. Maybe I can say for sure. Yeah, if I can if I can do shows and do only shows, I'd be a very happy person. Just like that. Come yeah, the time you spend with the customers, with the vendors, it's just a great time. Great time.
SPEAKER_02:What about this, Tony? So you guys are based out of out of Canada. Um, I'm actually just right, uh, I'm about 45 minutes from the border um from Montreal. Uh what is the the difference? Do you are you doing you were mentioning how you were primarily heavily invested in doing business in in Canada and and primarily serving there? And then you opened up to uh dealing with with the US. Um, I imagine that it's hard to stay in just one of the businesses or one one of the uh the countries, because I mean Punchmark, we do we we service retailers in in Canada as well. Uh are you finding that you have to create different products that cater to you know Canada versus the US? Or is it more about the service aspect of things?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the key is the service. So the um so let's say uh the North Star, let's put it that way, is always about customer experience, customer service, customer experience, uh making the customer happy on 99% of any touch point. Okay, that's the key. Now, the difference is Canada and yours is two different markets, right? Now, yes, we're neighbors and all that stuff, right? But like we're 40 million population, you guys are 350 million population, right? So there's a humongous difference in um in business potential, right? We're very successful in Canada, we've been in business for 45 years in Canada, right? Versus about 10 years in the US. So we had no choice to expand to the US because at some point you basically plateau in Canada, right? So we plateaued, and uh personally for me was a challenge to the US because it's something that we weren't doing before, right? So it allowed me to make my own mark, for example, you know, so it gave me that opportunity to say that hey, yes, uh, you succeeded, you create a great company, but you didn't get into the US. So now this is how I'm gonna create my room and my let's say reputation and my everything that comes with uh the things that you want to prove to yourself and to the people around you almost, right? Yeah, there's a lot of that. So right now I would say that my US business represents more than 50% of my Canadian business. So it's very fast and doesn't stop, it's like it's not stopping, like, and there's no reason to stop. Like we want to take it to as far as we can while we're enjoying the process, so I will not burn myself or people around me for the sake of growing my company as long as the process is enjoyable, and we the stress that comes with the job is a stress we're willing to accept and pay, then we're gonna go, you know, and we still have a lot left in us, right? Yeah, but I mean, there's also a fine line that, like, it's Not the pursuit of money, it's more a pursuit of the opportunity we're given. And let's just see how far we can go.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And but I also, I mean, you're you're saying it's a price we're willing to pay just on the notion of price. Um, how are the changing tariffs uh impacting you, especially for Canada? Because, for example, uh my my town relies a lot on Canadian um visitors, and this year we are very much hurting. Uh, the population was or uh the the count of visitors was way down. We were seeing at some points um like a 60% uh decrease in visitors from Canada. And there's one that we have a rugby tournament uh that is called Can Am. And this year it was just Am. There was not a single Canadian uh team, and it is partially because of the raise rising costs in in visas and rising costs in uh just like not feeling as as welcome to come across. Are you feeling any of that? Because if America is representing more than 50% of your business, but you are based out of Canada, are you finding that this these in these tariffs are actually or I guess changing relationships between the US and Canada are going to impact more than 50% of your business as well?
SPEAKER_00:So uh to begin with, uh, the way this whole tariff started early in the year, right, uh was very alarming, okay, because there was no clarity to the situation. So it was very like vague, and uh nobody really knew uh what the hell was being discussed or uh what was the path forward, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So uh in our particular category, not necessarily because we're in wedding bands, but 100% of what we produce is made in Canada, right? Uh we fall within the Fuzuma Agreement, which is what replaced the NAFTA. Okay, so that agreement is is still in place until uh next year, which uh the US and Canada started the renegotiation process very like not too long ago. So they identified points that need to be uh renegotiated on both parts, whatever. But for the current moment, I was not hit with any tariffs. So my product category that uh I know that the US uh imposed tariffs on a lot of uh other countries, Canada included, right? But the difference between us and those other countries is we still have that narrow free trade agreement where certain things are fall within line, right? And those are tariff free. So that kind of saved us. It would have been a disaster. I'm not gonna lie to you. I would have definitely gave uh whether a company or your customers love you, whether they uh respect the work you do. I can never expect anybody to pay more just because I they think I'm a nice guy, you know. So you understand? Yes, everybody's there to do what's best for them as a company. Business is business, look, because if they pay more to me, the their customers paying more, they're still more expensive, and they're losing their competitor advantage, right? So not that would have missed like there's a reality that people will do what's in their best interest, and that's the reality we're in. Now it came close. Thank god. Uh nothing was really affected into in terms of my business. Now, is there stuff that we don't know about in terms of uh maybe there's certain customers that prefer to work with American companies? Perfectly fine. I can't blame anybody for making that decision if they want to support their economy, great. I know that's a sentiment that that some Canadians have, but I don't think that's something that's gonna reunite our countries because we've had a great relationship for uh very long time. Very long time, you know. A lot of Canadians uh go to the US all the time for their vacation destinations, and same as much as Americans come to Canada, right? So hopefully it's something that can be resolved in the near future where there can be common ground found where things can go back to as much of a normal as possible, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I agree. It's something that it's um I found it very troubling because, like I said, you know, about this this rugby tournament or even just in general, we are so close to the Canadian border that I find that we have like um a flavor of of Canada here all the time. And it we're so s so close that the relationship was always uh feeling like it was going both ways. And to see that they're not here definitely um very saddening. But at the same time, I guess I also wanted to ask about um, and also I always mention this whenever we would discuss tariffs, they're very much open to changing. We're recording this on October 7th, 2025. So make sure you stamp that. But the one thing I'll ask about is the other big change that's happening in the jewelry industry is the price of gold is still going up. I've I've done this uh episode so many times where I'm like, hey, the price of gold is the all-time high, and then it's like the next time I do it, oh, it's still the all-time high. How is this affecting your business? Being woven, uh woven bands primarily, and just uh you guys do um weave with different types of metals. Is the price of gold increasing interest in non-gold uh alloys, or are you finding that gold is being seen as like an investment metal and you're just people are you know getting into it regardless of the cost?
SPEAKER_00:A little bit of everything, Michael. It's there's a lot of different things going on, right? So so uh obviously for any manufacturer, any manufacturer, uh when your cost of um material goes up, it's never a positive thing, you know, never, never, never because uh you uh you you want stability, whatever the price is, as long as it's stable or as stable as it can be. So definitely what we've seen this year, like roughly 50% more expensive than last year, or in a year-to-year comparison, uh, is uh you have to be much more careful, like you gotta control your loss in terms of manufacturing. You want to get paid uh quicker to basically uh so like you don't have to rely on the financing continuously, right? Yes, and the risk, you're taking bigger risks in terms of uh an average order is more expensive and all those things, right? So it a little order costs much more for your customer, right? But the reality is this the reality, the real reality, yes, there's concerns, yes, there's things we need to do to adapt, but what are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? Like it's going up, it's going up. It's like do I it's going up for everybody, too.
SPEAKER_02:It's not like it's just going up for you.
SPEAKER_00:Do I want to go back to more reasonable pricing? Absolutely. But while we're here, we're gonna do what we have to do. So, which is like no, no, not make excuses and uh and go forward. So do we sell a lot of mixed metals, we sell a lot of products where we use less gold and more other types of materials like carbon fiber, tantalum, and so on. So the customer still is able to get that uh precious metal, and while getting the innovative, the different black, gray look, which they like a lot, right? So that's one way of looking at it. The surprising way of looking at it is since gold went up and is going up, uh, the shift to yellow gold. So since like now it's become a prestige, uh like some sort of a like it's like a statement almost when you're wanting yellow gold right now. It's not like it's it's it's gold. If you're wearing white, it could be what silver, it could be anything, it could be alternative. It's hard to identify for the on-trained eye, but like uh the yellow gold is skyrocketing, skyrocketing skyrocketing as a status symbol or like a uh I think so. I think it's a status symbol. I think uh if you look at all the fashion brands, uh yes, yeah, yellow is you're gonna see yellow, yellow, yellow. So it started this like five years ago. You can notice the big brands pushing yellow, right? And that's the time it takes to for it to kind of do the switch in other areas. Look, it's concerning, Michael, but it hasn't slowed us down in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I love that. I'm glad that you guys are still pushing on. And like I was saying, the price of gold is up for literally everybody, and what are you gonna do? But I love to hear that you guys are still finding ways to adapt.
SPEAKER_00:The moment you accept any excuse, then everything is an excuse. You understand? So like it is what it is, you just do what you have to do. Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02:Now, Tony, as we wrap this thing up, uh, I wanted to ask, I always ask vendors, can you tease anything that you guys are working on? Are you able to like a little in the loop exclusive? Are you able to people that might have your products already? Are you able to um uh you know say what you might be working on or coming out with for next year if that's how far out you're planning?
SPEAKER_00:Well, definitely right now, everything is that we do is for next year. Okay, so uh, you know, where we are in the year right now, October 7th, like you mentioned, it's not the time to uh uh to do anything short term, it's really the long term we're looking at. So obviously, uh I can see a few things. Yeah, number one, we're really looking at uh uh big uh leaps in technology on how we can assist our customers. So we believe that with with AI, with everything that's going on in the world right now, it's like we're questioning how do we incorporate more of that in serving our customers. So that's like an area of uh focus, right? And uh we definitely have a couple uh big launches coming next year for products, but that I'll keep uh in the back pocket for the moment, you know, for sure. And announce it when it's really uh when I won't put anybody in too much trouble announcing it. So, but I mean, and we never stop, we never stop with the ideas, uh and uh that's a good thing. That's a good thing, that's why we're having so much fun.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome. I love hearing that you guys are still innovating. I mean, your guys' company has been around for uh for a fair amount of time, and the fact you guys are still finding ways to uh to come out with new products is super cool. You guys do seem to be making something that is very uh very different than what's on the market, and I find that very inspiring and something that I that caught my eye, and one of the reasons why I wanted to reach out to you guys for uh for an interview. So I really appreciate your time, Tony. Um, if people are interested in in learning more about Malo Bands, uh, where should they go to learn more?
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh they can go to uh www.mallowbands.com. So that will give them a good uh overview of what we do and what we offer, right? And if uh there's anything uh else than that, obviously we do 12 shows a year, we're not hard to find. Yeah, uh, you might you can you will see us as many places as possible. We try to put ourselves uh in the right places, and uh we're if anything, we're very open to have any conversation. You know, it's not really about uh we can even if we realize that we're not a good partner, a good fit in terms of business. Uh for me, just talking to people and learning about them and their uh what's important to them. So we're easy to talk to. You can find us on our website at the shows. Easy to find.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing. And everybody, if you do that, make sure you let them know that in the loop sent you. It definitely makes us look good. And uh, I really appreciate your time, Tony. This has been super cool. I love hearing that you guys are always innovating. Uh, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Michael. All right, thanks, everybody. We'll be back next week, Tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye. All right, everybody. That's another show. Thanks so much for listening. This week, my guest was Tony from Malo Bands. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, Michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cochran. Don't forget to leave the podcast a five-star rating on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and leave us feedback on punchmark.com slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks, and we'll be back next week Tuesday with another episode. Cheers. Bye.
