I caught up with the new entrepreneur’s (Terry and Sherry Braley) this January at a Biker Rally. After talking to some fellow riders they were telling me about Terry and Sherry’s new website (Road Rash Apparel) and how low their prices were on their Leather Apparel. So after digging through the crowd I finally met up with them. I introduced myself and we sat down and must have talked for over 2 hours about their new business. Well, they talked. I asked Terry and Sherry why they started their business and WHY! Do you sell your apparel so cheap?
Terry – “Well, we were on the Internet one night looking for some leather jackets and chaps to purchase. We must have searched for three hours looking at what seemed to be every site there was to look at and I couldn’t believe the prices of some of them. I know you get what you pay for, but damn? I don’t want to pay for the whole cow! “
Sherry –“It seems that all the cheep leather was that “patched leather” or some call it “Diamond Cut leather”. We weren’t interested in that. Not to say there’s anything wrong with it. If that’s what you like, then buy it. To each its own.”
Terry- “Yeah. I had asked around about what kind of jacket to buy. The majority of the riders I had asked, told me to get one that was made for riding. You know, just in case you lay your bike down. And patched leather wasn’t the best way to go.
Anyway, I made the comment that someone needs to start selling this stuff that caters to us poor bikers.”
Sherry – “I looked over at Terry and said, “We can do it””
Terry – “A week later I quit my job and started building the website. I did A LOT of research on Leather. Types, thickness of it and where it comes from. I was almost sick of leather after about 3 days. Anyway, we decided we wanted to purchase our leather from an American made manufacturer and I ended up finding a company in Spokane WA that had what we were looking for. They manufacture leather apparel made for bike riders. And its damn good leather. And I’ll tell you. What I pay for the jackets and what I sell them for, we don’t make a big profit on them”.
Now that we've covered those aspects of Biker Shirts, Leather Jackets, Motorcycle Apparel, Boots, Chaps, Vests, Leather Lingerie, let's turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.
Sherry – “Yea, we’re not in it to get rich. Just make a little money and help out our fellow bikers”.
Terry – “Since we’ve went live on the Internet we have sold more T-Shirts than jackets. That’s okay. I think when people see our price’s they think its cheep leather and stray away from it. But it’s Top Quality Leather! You can’t find our type jackets on the internet for a better price I think”
Well without going into the whole 2-hour conversation we had. We continued to talk and they told me more about what they sold on their site. T-Shirts, Leather Lingerie, Boots, Chaps, Vests and the list went on. Terry said “right now we sale over 700 types of t-shirts and plan on adding more. By the time we get done, we will have well over 1500. That’s a lot of damn shirts”
These were two of the friendliest people I have ever met. Both Terry and Sherry are from Georgia and reside in Douglasville Ga. And you could tell that these were just two people really trying to look out for fellow bikers and our shallow pockets.
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