Monday, April 11, 2011

New and Improved Catalog Viewing!

Rand's is very lucky to have our catalog on an epaperflip program. Click on “Catalog Request” in the left sidebar on our web site, and then click the “Click for Catalog” link near the center of your screen. Once you see this new catalog you will be amazed. You will have the ability to flip through the pages, zoom in and out to read small text, view it in a slideshow mode, e-mail it to a friend, and even download the .pdf file to save it directly to your computer.
Watch for us in the New Ranch & Reata magazine, with more than a hundred pages of real west articles, pictures and people. And be sure to subscribe. This is the other magazine that is really bringing back some western history and articles. Look for the Cowboy way, you won't be disappointed. 
Our Hat shop continues to be involved in cutting, reining and other horse activities. We had a great family fun day for all this first week of April at a new indoor arena nearby, and thanks to a weird spring snow storm of about 12 inches, we had to put our hats to the Rand's waterproof test. Guess what, it still works and we survived the snow and melting mess. With any outdoor activity, our pure, beaver, fur, felt takes a beating and keep on, well you know...
Watch for a bunch of new customer pictures on our home page. 
                                                                           
                                                                   Happy Trails for now
                                                                          Ritch R

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Rough Trip to Vegas

 Dear friends and Rand Hat Customers,
This year started early with our trip to Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas. The National Finals Rodeo is always a great experience with hundreds of thousands of cowboys and cowgirls.

After packing and loading for the Road to Vegas, it started snowing. Well this is nothing new after making hats in Montana for over THIRTY years. We are used to Montana weather. About an hour out of town the freeway was closed because of a white out. Big truck, trailer and four wheel drive, only 900 miles to go.

Twenty Four hours later I finally got to Salt Lake City. This was only supposed to be an 8 hour drive! Traffic was unreal. Because of the storm you would have thought there was a mass evacuation. Two lanes of traffic and the worst weather I had driven in for many years.  

I decided to stop and have lunch with my friend Randy Brooks in Mona, Utah which is just outside of Salt Lake City. Randy who is a great friend, customer, and team roper showed me his new barn, horses etc. It started snowing again. Another 14 inches of snow fell. With the freeway closed again we felt like we would never get to Vegas. Two days later I finally arrived.  The 200 Hat samples for the show are safe and sound. Unfortunately we had a broken windshield and mud from bumper to bumper. I get in line the next day to let the Union in Vegas allow me into the convention Center.

You need plenty of patience for this, because when you own a little company the Union doesn’t give you as much flexibility as a big dog. Seven hours later they finally let me in to another line to get our displays inside. Finally the next day my friend and employee Jorge arrives in Vegas and we began the set up and steaming of the hats. 

Vegas was full of great customers from all over the planet. And the Rodeo was great, with the best talent on earth. If any of you out there have not been, go. It is a sold out event in the city of bright lights. You will not be disappointed. 

There are so many of our customers that have become ours friends it made our time on the road a lot better. 

So, now to continue to catch you up, January brought us the Safari Club International show, Reno Convention Center. This will be our 23rd year with this group and the people from all over the world, Europe, Africa and almost every place in between. We had great conversation with customers from Cuba, and South Africa. It really is a great experience every year. The wild life exhibits are like no other place.

I finished a dozen new hat styles and hat bands for our new outdoor collection, some Safari styles ,and some new Saddle club collection hats. Watch “Under Wild Skies” on cable and you will see our hats. We have a new special on the Outdoor channel and we have a video of us making hats. You can order it from us and, we will mail it on a DVD or flash drive. The video contains all of our new collections. My friend Josh whom works on many projects with us throughout the year has been in overload on the new Saddle Club collection, which is now very western and is now being sold in all places of the earth. Thanks to Josh for his artistic talent and drive in helping us finish this collection. We have not loaded all the pictures on the web site yet, but will be there soon, available on a DVD.  I just need to get Austin to load some more for us.  You will soon be able to turn through the pages of the catalog without us mailing you a thing. We are going to cut down on our postage bill, and give you all instant selection in page by page views.

We had a great exhibit at Denver for the WESA wholesale market; this is in January every year during Stock show. Be sure to look for a dealer near you on our dealer list.

We went down the Road to Reno convention Center for the FNAWS, which we have been supporting for over twenty years. We also are active members of the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation. 

Look for us at Bishop Mule days which is the largest Mule show in the US. They have a parade there that is large enough to take up about 2 hours of our time every year. It is a small town (Bishop California) with a large event. 

This event is Memorial Day weekend every year. We have a lot of customers from California and Nevada that attend and you will see Mules from all over the US. being shown and sold.

The road warriors are wearing thin this year because of all the diesel prices being so high, and the airline seats keep getting smaller and the air travel is more difficult. 

We will have a big trunk show in Switzerland for 2012 and will update everybody on that as we go. 
             
Since this will be our first blog, watch for updates soon. Don't forget we are open Monday through Friday Mountain time, if you need to call. I will personally call you after hours if you need.
                                                                                
 Ritch and the Rand crew    

Hat Number 5

Greetings Everyone,
I received my 5th hat today. #57 gunslinger. Like the others..."Perfect".


Thanks,
Frank Hudson

Customer Letter

Dear Chely,


I recently sent you a hat of mine to be resized and to have the brim reshaped. You folks did a great job with it...including the new hat liner.


This note is to let you know that I have two more hats that are a little long and need to be re-sized. The second hat is slightly long and would fit wonderfully if it could be resized the same as the last hat you fixed for me. I will be sending it along.


Thank you very much for helping me out the way you do. I appreciate all the effort you make to see that I get the hat I want.


I appreciate Randy's experience and skill. I proudly wear his fine work every time I put on the "roof" and leave the house for the day. When I go out, for whatever reason...I am wearing a Rand's hat.


My thanks to all of you.


Todd Houser
Cypress, CA