Justin Baer is an entrepreneur passionate about redefining comfort and style through innovative apparel. His journey began by combining the look of a dress shirt with the comfort of a polo, creating a hero product that revolutionized professional wear.
Inspired by life in New York and milestones like marriage and fatherhood, he’s expanded his line into a full menswear collection known for performance utility and timeless luxury, featured on Shark Tank, The Wall Street Journal and Men’s Health.
His brand goes beyond clothing, fostering a community centered on excellence, integrity and creativity. Seeing his designs in action, hearing how they boost confidence is the most rewarding part of his journey. He loves sharing insights on e-commerce, Shark Tank, and the future of fashion with professionals who value innovation and style.
Questions
- Now, we always like to ask our guests if you could share in your own words a little bit about your journey. How you got from where you were to where you are today.
- What has your experience been like as an entrepreneur in creating quality customer experiences, both for your external customers and your internal team?
- Can you tell our listeners maybe three skills gained or even sharpened since starting this journey?
- Could you also share with us, what’s the one online resource, tool, website, or application that you absolutely can’t live without in your business?
- Can you also share with our listeners maybe one or two books that you’ve read, it could be a book that you read recently or even one that you read a very long time ago, but it has had a great impact on you, whether personally or professionally.
- As a customer when you shop with another organization, if you could tell us maybe one to three things that are most important to you as a customer, what do you look for in an organization, whether they are selling you a product or they’re giving you a service.
- Your product is only for males?
- Could you also share with our listeners what’s the one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about? Either something you’re working on to develop yourself or your people.
- Where can listeners find you online?
- We’d like for you to share with us, during times of adversity or challenge, if for any reason you got derailed or you got off track, do you have a quote or a saying that helps to kind of get you back on track or get you back in focus?
Highlights
Justin’s Journey
Me: Now, we always like to ask our guests if you could share in your own words a little bit about your journey. How you got from where you were to where you are today?
Justin shared that he’s always been an entrepreneur as a kid, people ask him, “Hey, were you in fashion? Did you work in one of the big fashion houses?” Not at all. Always been in software and technology and coming up with new ideas. But as a kid, just always coming up with stuff, he was always interested in entrepreneurship and coming up with a business and was raised in a family that he joke, some kids got Sports Illustrated, they got The Wall Street Journal. They were thinking about, “Okay, where are we going to put our birthday money?” They bought one share of Toys R Us stock.
So, always been intrigued by business and coming up with ideas and have had numerous ideas, and this is probably, he doesn’t even know what number it is, but he had a business in college. He had a software business before this, actually that he still owns, and this was really just a side hustle concept. So, like every year he’d come up with a new idea just for fun and this one was, well, he wore a sweater over a dress shirt every day in New York City, it’s kind of like the midtown uniform, and he hated wearing it because he thought it was uncomfortable and scratchy and hot, and he was like, I think I’m going to put this on my website, like this is crazy, like not another idea. He’s like, you know what? I have nothing else to do, it’s during COVID, he’ll see what he can find.
So, he really dug in and researched everything he could about factories and cutting and sewing and what is involved and basically came up with this thing called The Dress Collar Polo. There’s a polo shirt but it’s got a firm collar on it, so it looks like you’re wearing a dress shirt, and he made white and then learned everything he could and then this is a funny story but he really had his daughter who was 7 at the time, take pictures of him on a white wall to try and get model shots and then created this Shopify site, put these shirts up there, and then his daughter, who was into dance, she’s like, “Dad, you got to do a TikTok video.”
So he’s like, “Okay.” So, she held the phone up in his closet and he’s like, “Guys, don’t you hate wear dress shirts, they’re hot, they suck. Check out one of these dress collar polos.” And that night, sat down to watch Netflix with his wife and you know on Shopify you get like a little ka-ching when a sale comes through and they were sitting there and the phone started ringing and people started buying these shirts.
Me: That is awesome. Collars & Co.
Me: So, you’re in this retail business, this is your full-time job now, correct?
Justin said yes, they took it really from just a polo company, with one polo. Now they’ve got 300 SKUs, they’re in a 20,000 square foot warehouse, they’ve got 20 employees. He wishes it was full time, that would mean it’s probably like 40 to 60 hours, this is more like 100 hours.
So, he’s really working on this all the time, thinking about it. One of the things, he doesn’t want to say one of the reasons it’s been kind of successful so far is he’s obsessed about it. So, this is an idea that he’s completely obsessed with and think about it all time and trying to think of whether it’s product ideas, marketing, anything. He doesn’t know if it’s good or bad, but, it’s definitely obsessed about making sure this thing works, and they’re grinding, they’re getting some traction.
Me: I think so, too. I think so, too. I had no idea. I read your profile when the information came through to have you as a guest on our podcast and what sparked my interest was Shark Tank, it’s a show that I watch from time to time and I find that you do have a lot of great persons who come on with innovative ideas. Sometimes the ideas are taken on and they do get the investment you’re looking for to take the business to the next level, and sometimes for whatever reason, the hosts just don’t see the value in the business. But I don’t think at any point in the email was it mentioned that it was Collars & Co.
So, it was actually in your background, now, I’m looking up there and I’m like, “I know that logo. I get that email like every day.” So, I just found it so strange when I asked you and you said it’s your company. I was like, wow, that is crazy. I literally was told about the company early March when I was in the States and I bought a couple of the shirts and I haven’t seen them as yet but I’m telling you every email that I get and I go through, I mean I think you have a new one now, you have like a sweater blazer that I’m thinking of investing in that one as well for him but it looks really, really good. So, I will definitely promote your product because I’m definitely a fan already even though I haven’t actually seen or felt it as yet.
Justin shared that you will like it, it’s fun.
Justin’s Experience as an Entrepreneur in Creating Quality Customer Experiences for External Customers and Internal Team
Me: So, tell us about entrepreneurship. What has that been like for you and in terms of customer experience because this is a podcast about customer experience, how has that been in terms of navigating the quality of the experiences your customers have, not just your external customers, but even managing 20 team members and kind of having that level of energy and culture that they have the same level of passion that you do.
Justin shared that for him, it’s a constant learning experience. He’s never ran a consumer product before. All his other businesses have been B2B, which obviously has consumer experience, too. But this is, a little more, he guesses you could say a little more delicate when you’re dealing with the public, it’s a little more delicate.
He would say it’s been a journey, just like you said, it’s a customer experience journey, learning how to, and learning about all the new tools that are out there to improve the customer experience, starting with emails and then emails around the flows. So, you have post-purchase survey, you have an abandonment cart flow, and you have all these different flows that you have to kind of keep in mind and balance of, is it too many emails? Is it not enough? And they’re constantly looking at that.
From the customer experience standpoint, they hired a company within the last two quarters, about six months ago, to actually look at their customer experience on their website. So, they’re going through and they’re actually A/B testing many different aspects of the website, changing button colors, changing some larger issues that the sections on the website and trying to make it the cleanest, easiest possible customer experience for online. So, that’s a pretty big investment to make those changes, and they’re all doing it with data. So, sometimes they’ll run a test, he’s like, test A is definitely going to win, and it turns out test B wins and they’ve got the data to prove it. So, they’re doing some enhancements there. Also, the checkout experience, card experience, upsells, down sells, you name it, they’re working on it, but that’s a big part of it.
Skills Gained or Sharpened Since Starting this Journey
Me: Can you tell our listeners maybe three skills that you have either gained or even sharpened since you started this journey?
Justin stated that there’s a lot more than three, like he was saying, he has never been in the fashion business before so he’s had to learn pretty much all aspects of it. At the end of the day, they sell widgets, they sell service, sell product, they’ve got customers who are trying to service them and try and create great products at great prices, at the same time, creating the brand.
But a skill that he thinks is really important is learning how to edit, video editing, everything right now is a lot very social driven, a lot of social media whether that’s your social media ads, whether it’s organic posts.
If he didn’t have or kind of learn, he really had to learn how to do all this, the skill to edit video, to edit photos, he doesn’t think they’d be anywhere near where they are right now. He thinks the time to get things out would be more difficult, to hire somebody else that doesn’t have your eye or your taste, the way you want to see it could be really difficult, even if you paid somebody, not to mention the expense and the speed, how slow it would be.
But you might see something and not quite, you need to have it adjusted so you’re going to go back and forth a thousand times. If you can learn CapCut, learn Instagram, learn Adobe Photoshop that is an incredible skill to have. Now, they have a graphic designer but he’s still doing a lot of the video editing, he’ll take more when they’re on set with their models and he’ll do a video, he’ll be like oh I’m going make this in an ad. Well, at night he can kind of learn how to tweak and cut and edit a lot of the videos. So that’s one skill for sure.
Accounting, another good skill that you got to have, you’re going to run a business, you got to know your numbers inside and out. Accounting, he didn’t really do it before, but now he’s really understanding P & L’s and cashflow statements, balance sheets. As they get more and more complicated, they now have a CFO. But kind of understanding that skill as well.
And kind of bring it back to the customer, customer support, they have four part time and a couple of full-time customer support representatives and being able to understand, “What’s our culture? How are we going to talk to these customers? What’s our brand voice?”
He read something a long time ago that has always resonated with him which is, “Treat your customers like you’re talking to a celebrity.” Like imagine your customer called and it was like Cindy Crawford on the line. Well, he can tell you, every company in the world would be bending over or backwards for her. Or Tom Cruise calls, it’s like, “Oh, I want to stay at your hotel.” That hotel would do everything they can. They wouldn’t be paid anymore. They would do everything they can, and this is before social media.
So, now everyone feels like there’s some reciprocal, “Oh, I’m gonna get a post out of them.” But this rang true way before that when there was nothing that they would even do for you, but it’s just knowing that treating your customers like they’re celebrities is really important to them, and they feel like they do kind of go the extra mile and customers call and they say, “Hey, this is sold out.” They’re like, “You know what? Let me see if we can go find one in the back for you.” And doing whatever we can, but he thinks that’s just like overall feeling of treating customers like they’re celebrities, like you would treat one.
App, Website or Tool that Justin Absolutely Can’t Live Without in His Business
When asked about an online resource that he can’t live without in his business, Justin shared that they use Shopify, that’s in their tech stack. They use Triple Whale, which is an e-commerce attribution software and tool, allows you to kind of figure out where your sales are really coming from. Facebook and TikTok and Instagram, they’ll all organically say they they’re attributing more sales to them when really, it’s probably not. So, they’re over-attributing so Triple Whale kind of helps them there. So, he would say those two main softwares.
Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Justin
When asked about books that have had an impact, Justin stated that he thinks one of the better sales books he’s read is The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies, which is a great book, and one of the big takeaways he’s taken from it is selling based on data, which he thought was an interesting concept. It’s letting the data sell.
So, for instance, his software business, he could have to think about how to relate to the to those, but the software business he had is a texting platform, basically telling clubs, let’s call it Country Clubs and Golf Clubs, it’s called member text, to use texting in addition to email, and so when he would do a demo after reading the book, he would basically say, “Hey, did you know open rates are only 20% and 80% of your emails aren’t getting open? And did you know that the average a member of your Country Club is not reading your emails because they’re busy, they’re professionals. 40% are this and that.”
So, you’re taking them down this road of data that’s doing the selling, and then you just come in with the solution. Like did you know text message is a 98% upgrade, and it’s ready within three minutes, and 94% of people prefer they’d be texted.
So, it’s letting the data sell whatever of goods you have. So, he guesses if we connected it to clothes, it would be like, “Hey, did you know that clothes are one of the first things people notice about you when you’re going to get a new job or when you’re going to go on a date?” So, you’re using that data to say, “Oh, well, by the way, you know, we sell this awesome garment and it’s $100 and how much is that worth to you?” You’re kind of trying to let the data sell for you, and that was a really interesting concept from that book.
What is Most Important to Justin as a Customer Doing Business with Another Organization?
Me: Now, we’d also like for you to share with us, Justin, I know you mentioned the three skills that you’ve developed as a result of this entrepreneurial journey that you’ve been on. I think it’s important also for our listeners, and I want you to answer this question not as an entrepreneur, but as a customer. As a customer when you shop with another organization, if you could tell us maybe one to three things that are most important to you as a customer, what do you look for in an organization, whether they are selling you a product or they’re giving you a service.
Justin stated testimonials, social proof. He wants to know, have other people use this service, use this company, bought this product and liked it? He thinks social proof is really impactful. The return policy, whether that’s a service or a product. He gets demos all the time of different softwares trying to pitch them on e-commerce softwares, “Hey, we can do this to your checkout.” “Well, can we try it out? Is there a trial?” He thinks it’s really interesting.
Something else would be, especially for the B2B products, it’s support, customer support, and being able to reach somebody should there be a problem versus just being able to have to like email in. It’s always nice when you have an account manager that’s going to hold your hand or someone that you can talk to. He’s sure there’s 10 or 20 of these things, but those are kind of these three things he looks for.
Collars and Co. – Are the Products Only for Males?
Me: Now, this is totally not customer service related, or I guess it could be. While you were speaking, just now, in terms of testimonials, I thought to myself, I was thinking about our listener base, and I thought to myself, even though I do have a wide cross-section of gentlemen that listen to my show, I do also have a wide cross-section of females. And if I can recall, your product is only for males, correct?
Justin shared that they do have a women’s line too. It’s a smaller one, but they do carry women’s polos with a firm collar.
Me: Perfect. So, that’s the question I was going to ask you, if you’re looking to launch into the female side of it. Because I know men are very conscious about their fashion but I’m sure if you’ve seen the world as it has evolved, women are even more and I’m sure that’s a potential of money you’re leaving on the table that you could definitely captivate.
Justin agreed, totally. They’ve got a board there that they look at with ideas for their women’s line and they’re going to definitely expand it. He guesses the reason why they haven’t gone so deep in it is they feel like there’s still room for their menswear, they’re still launching new categories. They’ve got a cool travel blazer that’s stretchy and comfortable, you can roll it up in a bag. And they’ve just created these pull-on pants where you literally just pull them right up and they’re like professional dress pants but the button’s just a faux button, there is a zipper but you just pull them on like sweatpants.
But reaching women is a whole other animal. And all of their influencers, all of their models, they’re all men. So, if they wanted to get into women’s, it’s like a whole other business. And he guesses right now they feel like how much resources they want to put behind that. And it’s really a whole other game. It’s different Facebook campaigns, you’re speaking to them differently than you would their male audience. But it’s definitely something they have on their board. And he could see over the next few years they’ll probably roll out some type of women’s, a larger women’s line.
What Justin is Really Excited About Now!
Me: Now could you also share with our listeners what’s the one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about? Either something you’re working on to develop yourself or your people.
When asked about something that he’s excited about, Justin shared that people ask him a lot, “I’m sure you’re thinking about your next idea, right? You get this serial entrepreneur idea, like what’s your next idea? Come on, I’m sure you’re thinking about something.” And the neat thing with this business, with this brand is he gets to come up with a new idea all the time, whether that’s a new shirt pattern or a new category altogether. And he kind of get to scratch that itch and kind of get that dopamine hit to see if it’s going to work or not.
So, like when they launched the Travel Blazer, that was just completely new. Sure, they were known as like a polo company, but now they’re coming out with a Travel Blazer. Well, how’s it going to work? Well, he gets to kind of design it and come up with the marketing behind it and create the ads for it and the pictures. So, basically, they’ve got some really cool things coming.
The next thing he’s most excited about is actually their performance dress shirt line. So, they made a dress shirt, it’s a performance dress shirt, but it doesn’t look like one, it doesn’t feel like one. It feels incredible. It’s got like an icy cool thread in it. So, it feels cool to the touch on your skin for guys who gets hot. And they did a partnership actually with the Arrow McLaren IndyCar race team. So, it’s now the official performance dress shirt of the Arrow McLaren team, which is really neat. And they were actually in Indianapolis last week doing photos with the drivers. So, they’re really excited about it. He thinks it’s the best performance dress shirt out there on the market, they’ve tried them all, they’re all sitting in his office on hangers and their idea was how do they beat it and they think they did.
Where can listeners find Justin online?
Website – http://www.collarsandco.com/
LinkedIn – Justin Baer
Instagram – collarsandcoclothing
TikTok – collarsandcoclothing
Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Justin Uses
When asked about a quote or saying that he reverts to, Justin stated yes. So, it’s interesting when someone comes in his office and they’re like, “Hey, we’ve got a big problem.”
What he says is, “Good. This is great. What’s the problem?” Because that means they’re going to be able to improve something.
If there’s an issue, “Hey, we’ve got a big problem, people don’t like the tags or something.” He’s like, “Okay, great, well, if this didn’t come up, we never would have been able to improve them. Let’s call the factory, change the tags, make them faster, make them smoother, da-da.”
So, it’s kind of reframing your mindset of looking at your problems as kind of good things, because those are things needs attention and you can make it better and improve on it. If this problem never came up, you never probably would have changed the tags or something like that. So, they try and look at problems that way.
It definitely stays in the solutions. You have some employees that would kind of think about the problem, like, “Let’s just solve the problem. There’s nothing we can do about it. Let’s just fix the problem.” So, that would be another thing, really staying in the solution, not wasting time, hemming and hawing about it. But they do look at problems as those are good things, that’s great, that means they can improve.
Me: And that’s actually a great way to look on it, especially from a customer service perspective, that your challenges or your complaints from your customers are actually opportunities for you to improve. So, it’s good that you actually think that way from the onset, that you reframe problems into solutions, because if they were never presented to you, as you said before, you would never have gotten the opportunity to fix it, and you could lose business as a result.
Justin agreed, yes, so you should be so excited someone comes to you with a problem, because if they didn’t and they kept it to themselves, well, you wouldn’t be able to help the next thousand people that’s going to have that problem.
Me: Awesome. Well, Justin, I thoroughly enjoyed this interview. As you can see, I’ve been smiling from ear to ear. I just found it so amazing. Sometimes I think God really divinely puts people into your life, and I don’t think you ended up on our podcast by chance. So, I just want to tell you, thank so much for taking time out of your very busy day, I’m sure you’re busy, you have lots of other things doing but you took the 25 minutes to sit here with me and have this conversation and I’m truly grateful and I know our listeners will get great insight and just great value from this conversation that we’ve had together.
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