Sackcloth + Ashes produces 14,000 blankets a month using 75-100% recycled materials with a goal of donating 1 million blankets to homeless shelters by 2024. And to think, it all started with one inspirational coffee sleeve. In this classic Logistics with Purpose episode, produced in partnership with Vector Global Logistics, Sackcloth + Ashes Founder and CEO Bob Dalton joins Enrique and Lillian to share the moving story behind his mission-driven company, how he and his team have grown from challenges, advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, how to support nonprofits in your city and so much more.

Enrique Alvarez (00:00:19):

Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of logistics with purpose today, we have an amazing show. Our guest is a founder CEO, published writer, and an overall great person. He’s scaring and he’s inspiring. And we’re going to have, uh, a lot of fun talking to him. And before I introduce you to him, uh, let me just say hi to Mike goes for the day. Liliana Sanchez. Lily, how are you doing today?

Lillian Sanchez (00:00:47):

Thank you. Thank you for having me here. I’m so excited. It’s going to be fun. Isn’t it. I’m

Enrique Alvarez (00:00:54):

Definitely looking forward to this conversation and, uh, in the pre-show, uh, it seems like it’s going to be, it’s going to be a good one. So before I introduce you to our guests for today, let me just remind everyone that if you actually enjoy conversations like this one, if you actually want to follow logistics with purpose and make sure that you don’t miss any one of these episodes, just sign, sign up for supply chain. Now you can get this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from, and you can also go to either our website@supplychainnow.com, which is by the way, a new website. So I would totally encourage you to do that and visit the new website, uh, or you can also go to a YouTube channel once again, this is logistics with purpose and without further ado, let me introduce you to the CEO and founder of sackcloth and ashes, Bob D’Alton Bob, how are you doing good afternoon.

Bob Dalton (00:01:52):

Doing well. How are you guys?

Enrique Alvarez (00:01:54):

We’re doing great. And we’re so excited to have you here. And, uh, and thank you very much for giving us a time to, to be here. This is again, Lily is, is a bigger fan than I am. Uh, but, uh, but we’re both super excited to, to have you here today. Yeah, thanks for having me. So, Bob, let’s, you start with the, with the beginning, like your journey when you were younger, where that you grew up, grew up, what are some of those kind of first memories that you have kind of growing up that kind of, uh, led to what, where you are now and what you, what you’re doing? Yeah,

Bob Dalton (00:02:27):

So I grew up in a little town, uh, called COOs bay on the Oregon coast and it’s a little fishermen logging town and, um, uh, grew up there. How to honestly, a great time growing up, there were like three, three hours away from any decent shopping. And so we were out in kind of the middle of nowhere, but I grew up right on the ocean. And so, um, you know, I’ve always been connected to the water and to the ocean, um, all growing up and, and still am today. I count, I always, uh, am blown away when I meet people when I’m traveling and they’re from the west coast, but they ended up moving somewhere in the middle of the United States or the east coast. And I’m like, man, I don’t know how you do it. I love, love the west coast. Um, and so grew up right on the water accuse bay and I’m in COOs bay surrounded, uh, by the bay. And it’s just, it’s so beautiful there. I, I have such a special place in my heart for it. Um,

Enrique Alvarez (00:03:28):

Lots of fishing I imagine, and everything that goes with the living next to the

Bob Dalton (00:03:33):

Ocean, a lot of commercial fishing. And so I didn’t actually grow up fishing much, but, um, I grew up maybe a couple blocks away from the ocean and it’s not the glamorous like type of ocean that you go out and swim in all the time. It’s more of a gloomy, uh, kind of rainy, uh, you know, type of ocean where it’s, it’s more majestic than it is, um, tropical, you know, and so, um, you know, my life changed, uh, when I was 17 years old, I started going to an organization called young life and I grew up without a dad. So, uh, the young life is an organization with a team of leaders that develop relationships with kids and mentor them and, um, encourage them and show up in their lives. And so as a 16, 17 year old to have a young life leader come into my life, uh, he was like 35 years old at the time.

Bob Dalton (00:04:28):

His name is Todd tardy and Todd just took me under his wing and just mentored me. And he, Todd was the first person that gave me a glimpse of who I wanted to be in the world. He loved his community. He loved God. He loved his family. He would have me over to his house for dinner. Um, and he’d work out with us after school. He’d go to our games, but he was the first person that I looked at. And I’m like, I want to be like him when I’m older. And as a young man, you know, um, growing up with that dad, that those types of moments are so, um, uh, they shape you, you know? And so that had a huge impact on me. He was the first one to tell me that I am a leader. He’s the first one to give me an opportunity to speak on a stage. And so I look back on that time in my life and I attribute a lot of my, um, fundamental, um, things that I learned as a young man, uh, to those years of being with an under Todd’s leadership. Is

Enrique Alvarez (00:05:31):

There an, other than the, of course, the amazing mentorship that you got and the support and the encouragement and just plainly the, the love that he showed for you. Is there anything in particular that he used to say to you that you remember until today, from those times back then?

Bob Dalton (00:05:48):

Yeah, I mean, um, the most fascinating thing was his life, you know, but the things that he would share, you know, he shared, he talks a lot about Jesus and, um, I grew up in a, I grew up going to a little Baptist church in my community by myself. I started running in the church bus when I was in second grade. And, um, I was always fascinated with God and, um, just kind of the mystery of life, you know, I was a kind of a kid. I remember standing on the, on the corner of my street and just looking up and feeling very connected with, um, whatever’s out there. And Todd was the first one to really talk about God and talk about Jesus in a way that, um, honestly just felt authentic. You know, I sat in a lot of sermons and just, it just felt very preachy and a little bit judgmental.

Bob Dalton (00:06:42):

And, um, but Todd was the first one to tell stories of Jesus that always stuck with me because not only was he talking about, you know, the way in which Jesus loved people or the way that Jesus served, he was living in that life. I mean, I was experiencing that, uh, through his life. And that was, that was an incredibly impactful time, um, in my, uh, development and in just my spirituality of, of really feeling a sense of connection with God in those early years. Um, and Todd helped me explore that and find that, um, and it was done in such an authentic way that you almost felt no disconnect between the spiritual and your normal day life. It was just one in the same, you know, Todd was the one who was like, if you’re walking into a building, make sure you always look back. And if there’s someone behind you, you hold the door open for them, you know, just stuff like that. Yeah. There’s this

Enrique Alvarez (00:07:37):

Little things like that that make like a huge difference. Not only in the way we relate to other human beings, but just, just becoming a better world because it’s, again, just the opening, the doors, the helping people on the streets. And this is a, so tell us, so when would this amazing example you were 17, 18 at the time? What did you want to be back then? I mean, you, you were young and didn’t know exactly, probably what you wanted to do out of, out of life, uh, or, or you had a, you’ve always had a path and a strategy and you kind of are just fulfilling the plan that you had back

Bob Dalton (00:08:10):

Then. I wasn’t, I would say, you know, when I was a child, my uncle would come home and I would build these incredible, I would, they bought me Lincoln logs and my uncle would come home and I would have built like these insane structures and buildings out of Lincoln logs that would just blow his mind. And he always told me like one day you’re going to be an architect. Right. And, um, just with the way that I, I kind of dreamed in, in the design realm to construct things and, uh, that always stuck with me. And, um, when I was in high school, what I was intrigued, not knowing where it could take me or what I could do with it, but I was fascinated with the art form of speaking and just communication in general. And I remember going to a young life banquet where they do like a fundraising banquet and Todd went up and gave a message.

Bob Dalton (00:09:12):

And I sat under a lot of Todd’s teachings every week. And he was one of the best communicators that I’ve still met as of today. And so that helped me really get a glimpse of like, I want to be a powerful communicator and somebody who can stand on a stage and deliver a message through the art form of, of, uh, whatever it might be a sermon or a speech, or, uh, in some sort of specific address, but really having the early confidence. And I started visualizing myself, uh, when I was like 17. I remember I walked everywhere growing up, cause my mom was, it was a single parent home. My mom was waitress and all the time. And so I would walk to school and I, and every time I would be on these long walks, I’d always be visualizing myself, speaking on a stage and, um, really crafting the messages that I would one day give.

Bob Dalton (00:10:07):

And so I thought I was going to be some sort of a speaker. And at the time there wasn’t a lot of options, you know, in COOs bay, I’m looking around and I’m like, if I’m going to be a speaker, uh, really the only option for me is ministry. Right? Cause that’s all that was demonstrated to me at the time. And so I thought I was either going to do young life, work the rest of my life or started church or something, but I just love the art form of speaking. So, um, at 19 years old, I, um, actually at 18 years old, I applied to be a part of a pastor school in Mexico. And last year I got accepted and last minute it fell through and I was about to spend six months in Mexico under like training under a incredible pastor.

Enrique Alvarez (00:10:52):

That would have been, that would have been exciting. Do you speak some Spanish

Bob Dalton (00:10:55):

Or no, not at all. I would have been great. Yeah, it was at an orphanage and it was just basically like, it would have changed the entire trajectory of my life. I think, you know, I would have been a pastor or something. Um, but instead I ended up moving to a small community in Oregon, central Oregon called Monmouth, and they didn’t have a young life there. And because young life had made such an impact on me, I wanted to start a young life. And so I, that’s what I did. I started, uh, forming a team of leaders and formed a committee and braised money and took those leaders into the high school to build relationships with kids. And that eventually built up to having, you know, a hundred, 200 kids every wow, come into young life club and I share messages every week to these kids. And so I got a that’s where I learned a lot of my entrepreneurial skills that are applicable today is I got to learn how to build a team and call people on a mission bigger than themselves and cast a vision for the community. And, you know, I always say young lives not only helped shape me as a young man, but it equipped me to do the work that I’m doing now. And so from 19 to 24 years old, I did that and thought I was going to do that the rest of my life.

Enrique Alvarez (00:12:11):

That’s incredibly powerful and just kind of taking a good idea and the encouragement that you had, and then you went to this new town and they didn’t have some things here, like, well, Hey, I guess I’ll just going to start it myself.

Bob Dalton (00:12:22):

Yeah. And many, many, many nights, you know, standing under the night sky, looking up at the stars and being like, I have no idea what I’m doing, but you know,

Enrique Alvarez (00:12:32):

That’s a, that’s a true calling of an entrepreneur, right. I mean, you’re basically just saying that to yourself almost every day,

Bob Dalton (00:12:39):

For sure. And, you know, I got to experience at a really young age, like saying yes to a vision and stepping out in it and not knowing exactly what it’s going to look like or how it’s going to work, but trusting the process and understanding that it will, if I continue to move forward. And that’s a really powerful thing to experience as a young person, because that cultivated a confidence in me that I felt like I could actually go out and do anything I could start and do anything because that’s what I’ve experienced. And, um, and so that was a crucial, crucial part of my journey of understanding that I can start with absolutely nothing and eventually have like this powerful experience where I look back and after five years of doing young life and Monmouth, you know, hundreds of people have been impacted and, and, uh, I got to be a part of, uh, something really great.

Enrique Alvarez (00:13:31):

That’s incredible. And so uplifting for everyone that’s listening to us. It’s just a, it’s amazing Lily. I think you had a couple of questions as well regarding that part of his life.

Lillian Sanchez (00:13:41):

Yeah. And well, first of all, let me share with you that I’m so excited because I just got my blanket from, from the United States to Mexico and I really, really love it. And well, if you don’t mind, let’s talk about your professional journey. So could you share with us what was a key moment that helped to shape your worldview and led you to create your own organization?

Bob Dalton (00:14:05):

Yeah, so basically right at the tail end of, of young life, you know, I was 24 years old and I wanted to transition out of young life and start, um, I just got tired of fundraising, to be honest with you, the nonprofit world gets pretty exhausting when you’re spending 50% of your time trying to raise funds and you do a lot of asking and I didn’t really like that part of it. Um, and so I was like, you know what, I think I’m going to jump into the business world and give it a shot. And I didn’t, like I said, you know, I had these entrepreneurial skills that I kind of cultivated through young life. I was passionate about being a speaker. Um, but I didn’t want to start a church. And so I was like, I’m just going to dive into a couple of careers and see what could come out of that.

Bob Dalton (00:14:50):

Not really being a guy, I never was really good at school and I never really was good at working for other people, you know, because I just wanted to go and I constantly wanted to innovate and do new things. Um, and if I wasn’t intrigued by something or interested in something, then I become a zombie. And so, um, I just started applying for jobs. And during that, like I applied at like red bull. I applied at Nike, you know, and I didn’t have a degree, but I’m like, these are things that I’m interested in, but not necessarily POS you know, a good qualified fit for, but I was doing it anyway. And in that same time period that transition, my mom ended up going through a series of events and ended up, um, finding herself, living on the streets. And it was through a very, a huge stream of events that I won’t go into huge depth, but she had lost a couple family members and, and, um, you know, really found herself in a really difficult spot.

Bob Dalton (00:15:44):

And so, um, she ended up moving across the United States from Oregon to Florida. She thought her aunt would take her in and didn’t take her in. So she ended up sleeping on beaches and benches, and that completely changed my paradigm of how I view and understand homelessness. Um, because I, I, as passionate as I was about helping people, loving people, you know, serving my community, homelessness was one of those issues that I would drive by people on the street and have very specific biases and judgment toward where my attitude was. You should have worked a little harder or you should have made better decisions with your life. And that was my attitude. And when my mom ended up in that situation and inspired me to actually do something about homelessness, so I started calling homeless shelters in my area to see what they needed. And they said, we need blankets and I’d called the next shelter.

Bob Dalton (00:16:35):

And they said, we need blankets. And I was familiar with the one for one business model that Tom’s pioneered, but prior to sackcloth and ashes, my company, there really wasn’t a one for one model that was helping people domestically. And I thought it would be interesting to evolve the one for one model and make it local since homelessness is such a prevalent issue right here in our own backyards. And so I came up with idea that for every blanket that I’ll sell, I’ll donate a blanket to that person’s local homeless shelter. And, you know, from there had the idea, shared it with a bunch of people. And eventually I drummed up enough confidence to buy a sewing machine and a roll of fabric from Joann’s fabric. And I tried to learn how to sew, and I realized very quickly that I’m horrible at sewing. And then, um, found a sweet little lady in my community named Tammy and Tammy started making blankets for me.

Bob Dalton (00:17:35):

And so, you know, you th I look back on this time in my life, I was transitioning out of home life. I was starting a blanket company. I couldn’t sew. And I had no idea how to run a business or start a business. But what I did have was that mentality of I have started something from absolutely nothing before, and it worked out. So I’m going to do it again. I’ll figure, I’ll figure out the way. And so Tammy starts making me blankets. Blankets are in the back of my trunk. I started hustling up and down the Oregon coast, walking into shops and just being like, Hey, here’s why you need to buy these blankets over the blankets on your shelf. Cause I’m going to drive down to your local homeless shelter and donate all the blankets in my trunk. And I got into 20 shops out of about 200.

Bob Dalton (00:18:21):

And, uh, that really set the precedent of entrepreneurship about one out of every 10 things works out. And it’s that one thing that works out that allows you to get to the next phase and continue on. And so on June 1st, 2014, sackcloth and ashes.com went live. And we had 20 shops up on the website and decent photography. And it totally looked like we knew what we were doing. And, uh, my only business strategy was to post on Instagram once a day, because in 2014, Instagram was kind of at the bottom of the wave. And I started posting on Instagram once a day, cause everybody was right here on their phones. You know, I was like, man, social media is like the new form of television. It’s um, you know, if we can show up where people are looking and where they’re at, we’ll be able to, uh, display and display our product in a creative way that will get people’s attention to want to participate in helping us with our mission. And so it was posting on Instagram once a day. And in November of 2014, five months into it, I got an email from Instagram and they were like, Bob, we love your story. We love what you’re doing. We want to feature you on Instagram’s Instagram account. And I didn’t even know Instagram had an Instagram account. I, I looked it up and they had 42 million followers. And so I was like, that’s incredible. You know, how long do I have to prepare it? How

Enrique Alvarez (00:19:43):

Many followers did you have by then before Instagram made that grand offer? Like

Bob Dalton (00:19:48):

Six to 7,000.

Enrique Alvarez (00:19:51):

That’s impressive though. Right? At the beginning of Instagram, you’re kind of like saw it coming. You started doing it. That’s, that’s an amazing story. And so before you continue with this story, which I’m super excited to hear for all the younger, uh, people out there that are listening to us and they, we have a lot of people that are just recently graduating or they’re still going through the phase of finding out what they want to do. I mean, what would be those like three main things that you would suggest them to do? I mean, what, what are those three main or three-year suggestions about kind of identify, just identifying what they’re good at going after it, things that you have explained to us throughout your life, but what do you think that they, people should do or should have to kind of do things like, like the ones that you’re doing?

Bob Dalton (00:20:33):

Um, the top three, it would be relatively obvious, but start working incredibly hard and don’t give up. Um,

Enrique Alvarez (00:20:46):

That’s it that’s, that’s it and totally. Yeah. And you say it’s obvious and it might be, but it’s just combining those three is hard.

Bob Dalton (00:20:54):

Yeah. It is, you know, um, that, I mean, that’s the entire journey and I’m still on that journey of, you know, working hard and not giving up. And so, um, you know, starting is typically for a lot of people, one of the hardest parts of the journey. Um, so starting, uh, was

Enrique Alvarez (00:21:12):

It, was it for you as well because you made it sound like so efficiently? Um, was it the starting part kind of the hardest part as well?

Bob Dalton (00:21:22):

Uh, yeah, I mean, it was, it was, uh, definitely, I dunno if it’s the hardest part, but it was definitely hard to start. And, uh, the backstory on that is I had the blanket idea for probably four months and all my friends were like telling me that I should, I should pursue it. And, um, well, I, half of them were like, you’re crazy out of your mind. And then half of them were like, you should absolutely go for it. Um, and so I found myself sitting in my car one day and my car was parked, had like a, a little Honda civic, parked it at this, in this parking lot and leaned my seat back all the way. Cause I was really depressed and it felt like the world was caving in on me. Like my mom’s going through a hard time. I have this blanket idea and I’m not doing anything about it and I’m pretty much broke and I’m applying for jobs and nobody’s getting back to me. So it’s kind of like all of those things at once. You know, the walls, the walls are just coming in

Enrique Alvarez (00:22:26):

The perfect storm, kind of closing on you.

Bob Dalton (00:22:29):

And, um, I’m sitting there and my knees are up on my steering wheel and my coffee cup is sitting on my knee and I look up and on the coffee sleeve, it says, what are you waiting for? And I thought it was so bizarre that I took a photo of it. And I was so convinced that I was actually going to start the journey and actually pursue it because I knew once I started, I, I, I’m not, I wouldn’t stop. So I was convinced in that moment that like, not only am I going to begin right now, but I’m going to take a photo of this coffee cup and then I’m going to blow it up on the screen when I get my first Ted talk and I’m going to tell the story that’s about to happen. And I drove straight down to Joann’s fabric and bought the sewing machine from there.

Bob Dalton (00:23:19):

And fast forward, I gave a Ted talk and blew that photo up on a screen. So I feel like, um, you know, starting was not as easy as it might’ve made it sound, you know, I, I, it was a really dark, depressing time in my life and I didn’t really have any other options other than to, to give up in a lot of ways, you know, and to conform to things that I would not enjoy doing. And, um, you know, looking back, I’m like, I was crazy. You know, uh, you know, I don’t know how to, I don’t think I have that kind of faith necessarily that, that I did back then. Like there was a level of digging deep that you have to have to buy a sewing machine and try to learn how to sew blankets and think you’re starting a blanket business. Um, it’s, it’s pretty insane. I’m actually shocked by my own self, looking back at the old me and being like that.

Enrique Alvarez (00:24:24):

So you have become a little bit less risk averse is what you’re saying. It’s kind of a, you have grown and I know we’ll go back to the story. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but, but do you think that you’re now actually a bit more risk averse or less risk averse than before?

Bob Dalton (00:24:37):

Uh, I think I have to be in summary. Um, I just have, you know, back then it was, I was responsible for me and my wife. You know, now we have 22 team members and launching other projects and a lot more resources coming through the brand. And then there’s a level of, you know, I’m still risky as hell and a gambler at heart, but now we’re entering into deeper waters where we have to have, you know, an infrastructure built under us in order to sustain longterm. No,

Enrique Alvarez (00:25:13):

And your story is incredible. And so for people listening again, three simple steps, right? It’s just start the it start work

Bob Dalton (00:25:22):

Hard and don’t give up,

Enrique Alvarez (00:25:26):

Never give up. That’s incredible.

Bob Dalton (00:25:28):

I do want to say this too, about the starting aspect of it is why people struggle with starting so much is because things change very, very quickly and the things in what you have in your mind of how things are going to be. Once you start, are going to rapidly change and you have to be okay with that. And the best analogy that I give on that note is one of my favorite artists is, um, Stedman. And he throws paint on a canvas and he never knows what he’s going to create. He just throws paint on a canvas, like really aggressively. And until he sees it and he goes, you know, it takes a pencil and he’s like, oh, that’s a horse, you know, but he doesn’t, you know, he doesn’t know what the Dow outcome’s going to be. He just knows that he’s can, he is, um, committing to the process of creating something new and the outcome will come. The outcome will come. And it’s your job to steward the process of it and possibly guide the outcome and to identify what that outcome is going to be. But your job is not to control it a hundred percent all the way through, or you will get tired and you will give up makes

Enrique Alvarez (00:26:57):

Sense. And now going back to your initial story, so you got that you had at least 6,000 followers on Instagram. You get an email from Instagram out of the blue and all of a sudden they open up the door to 42 million followers is what you said they had.

Bob Dalton (00:27:13):

Yeah. I emailed them back. I was like, Hey, how long do I have to prepare for something like this? They’re like, we’re posting about you tomorrow.

Enrique Alvarez (00:27:20):

Well, what’s the ask though. I mean, they were going to feature you, which meant what an interview or

Bob Dalton (00:27:25):

They basically, they did like a, a one to two paragraph. Write-up about the founding story of starting this blanket company because my mom ended up on the streets and, um, yeah, they posted it on the day before black Friday and it got like 450,000 likes. And we grew like 20,000 followers overnight. And then from that point on, I just took a huge interest in social media and really saw like, there’s something to this on a really deep level. And we have a really unique opportunity because we just got this like global exposure. And so I started contacting and we were being contacted a lot, obviously like with that kind of exposure, we had photographers all around the world, contacting us, saying, Hey, we want to work with you. And so I picked up on that really quick, like this was before influencer marketing, you know, like there was no influencers, it was just a bunch of random photographers that got hundreds of thousands of followers.

Bob Dalton (00:28:27):

Um, and so I would be like, Hey, can we send you a blanket and pay you to take some images of our product in some of the most beautiful places in the world and then post one of those photos through your feed. And so that’s how I grew the brand for the first four years, we sold a hundred percent of our product. Uh, probably like 90 to 95% of our product was sold through Instagram alone before Instagram even had a shopping feature. People were just clicking on the link in our bio and never sold into shops. Never, never had still today. I’ve never done any SEO marketing, um, no Facebook or Instagram ads. Um, like this was a hundred percent getting other people to represent and talk about our company made us a relevant, cool company on the, on the come up. And so that’s incredible.

Bob Dalton (00:29:24):

Yeah. So then by 2018, we had about a million people following our brand from all different platforms, you know, um, cause then the, uh, exposure from Instagram, it allowed us to build a Facebook following a lot of stuff, build an email list. Um, and you have all these other platforms, you know, and, and the influencers I worked with over 200 influencers at one time, um, and was really one of the, not only the first brands to start working with them, but also just helping them walk through the process of how to negotiate, you know, their rates and you know, what they should charge. And I tried to be really fair to the market value. There was no market value. It was like, you know, they’ll, there’ll be like, Hey, I’ll charge you a thousand dollars. And I was like, actually it’s closer to 500, you know, um, based on me working with 100 w this is kind of the consistent average.

Bob Dalton (00:30:20):

And then I try to stay fair to that. If somebody said 500 and I was like, actually it’s closer to a thousand, you know, uh, try to stay narrative that market value of what was being created now it’s completely different game, completely overpriced, um, completely over-saturated. And we’re not as involved as we used to be with influencers, but I’m still valuable. You know, if I was building a brand from, from nothing right now, I pursue it, but it’s just a more expensive route. Um, and so, yeah, so 2018, we had about a million people following the brand from all of our platforms. And that’s where we decided to launch our first major campaign called blanket, the United States, where our goal is

Enrique Alvarez (00:31:04):

Before you tell you, tell us a little more about blanket the U S um, where were you manufacturing all your products? Uh, about that time, it was still everything done in the same, uh, same town, the same people that you knew once before, because I’m guessing you must have been, the denial kind of went through the roof after that. And probably there was some issues on the supply chain side of things, which is something our listeners are super interested in learning about us. Well, yeah,

Bob Dalton (00:31:31):

It’s a fascinating part of the journey. You know, uh, Tammy only could make so many blankets for us, but, um, I

Enrique Alvarez (00:31:38):

Was going to say, Tommy is probably not going to be able to keep up with the man after that, uh, Instagram posts.

Bob Dalton (00:31:44):

Yeah, it was right after we got featured from Instagram that we were forced to start looking into other options. And so I flew down to Los Angeles and went to the fashion district because of that. I thought that that sounded really nice, but the fashion district is kind of a dirty hellhole. Um, and people are like slinging fabrics off the street. And, you know, I thought I would get stabbed at like three times. And so it’s not as glamorous as glamorous as I thought it would be. You know, I was like, I’m going to go to the fashion district, find some fabric and come home with some solutions. And that’s not the case. I ended up digging in some really dirty, giant warehouses of fabric. None of them worked out and I was just really discouraged. And then I came across one of my friend’s companies that was selling, um, a certain product that had, um, on the inside of product.

Bob Dalton (00:32:39):

He had this like nice wool blend product. I was like, I was like, yo, where’d you get this fabric? You know, I was just so in tune with fabrics and he goes, I have a manufacturer in Italy. And, um, and so for the last five years I’ve been working with Italians, um, and making product in Florence, Italy, and they’ve been incredible to do business with, uh, they have an insane ability to scale with us over the next, uh, few years. And, um, they’ve been a great partner, but now we make all of our fabric influence Italy made from a hundred percent or 75% to a hundred percent recycled materials. So literally like t-shirts and sweatshirts actually get, they get put into a grinder and turned into yarn. And that’s what we actually make our blankets out of. Um, so 75% to a hundred percent recycled materials turned into fabric.

Bob Dalton (00:33:38):

And then that fabric gets sent to our production hub in Oregon. And that’s where we produce best where we cut. So, and we do all of our fulfillment in house and we fought really, really hard to keep all of the logistics, um, from the time that we receive our fabric, keep everything in house if possible. Um, it just gave us more control and it gave us a lot more agility. It was not the most affordable route, but in the long run, we are going to be a very agile brand for the size that we’re going to be. And so now we’re producing about 14,000 blankets every month. And, um, we are, uh, looking to jump to that next level of production to probably be about 21,000 blankets a month here and the next three to six months. And, uh, we’re moving into a 27,000 square foot space, um, by September, uh, that’s going to allow us to scale for the next few years until we source our second hub, which will be in Nashville.

Enrique Alvarez (00:34:48):

Well, we’re at the locations. I mean, it sounds incredible. And the growth has been exponential to say the least, and for everyone out there, that’s listening to this interesting conversation, um, with Bob, um, your, your designs are beautiful. I mean, the pattern of the blankets and all that. I mean, I it’s, uh, Lily, you can probably talk a little bit more about that. So go ahead. If you want to ask the next question as well and, and take it from here, but I know you’re a big fan, so you must be kind of wanting to comment on the colors on the patents and everything they’re doing.

Lillian Sanchez (00:35:23):

Yeah. Well, I just have another question. Uh, can you tell us about some of your milestone and what accomplishment are you most proud of today?

Bob Dalton (00:35:33):

Yeah, I’m a hands down my team. I, uh, I, I attributed the success of what we’ve been able to do to my team a hundred percent, I think, um, you know, in relation to you kind of your thought on the designs of the blankets, like my team has worked really hard. We started with, um, um, uh, like native inspired designs that, that were very, um, we just thought were just, they were really cool. Um, that was literally, uh, the most that we thought about those designs. We just thought they were cool and they, we kind of preselected them for Italy. They were pre-created designs. And we were just, we were selling blankets, you know, so fast and, and we were just picking out relevant designs that we thought would be cool to sell to our audience. And so we started selling native inspired designs for the first, like two years or two, two to three years.

Bob Dalton (00:36:30):

Um, and then through conversations with native American, um, I, we realized that we were culturally appropriating through those designs and it made me do a really huge deep dive on what our strategy is moving forward and cultural appropriation and the way that I would personally define it is not just, you know, we weren’t caught, we weren’t infringing on copyright with these designs. We weren’t stealing these designs from tribes. Um, we were simply using this, these designs that were happened to be native inspired and cultural appropriation is not necessarily stealing something from school. Um, but being possibly be taking away opportunity that someone else could have. And that’s where we arrived with discontinuing all of our native animals, our designs, um, in 2019, 2020. And it was a big decision for us because about eight out of our 10 bestselling blankets for all native inspired products.

Bob Dalton (00:37:39):

And, you know, when we had really, really deep conversations with our team about how this could potentially affect our brand from a sales standpoint, we felt like it was the right decision moving forward. And that’s really the lane that I wanted to stay in with making that decision is we didn’t discontinue our native inspired designs to, um, receive a pat on the back or receive a reward. And we didn’t discontinue those designs to avoid punishment. Uh, we made that decision because we believe that that was the right decision to make moving forward. And that was a really big, uh, part of our journey as a brand. And so on that note, my team had worked incredibly hard to, um, now not only partner with native artists, which we have partnered with thunder voice Eagle, and we have a coming out soon, um, in July with another native artist and a hundred percent of the profits from both of those collections are given to organizations that are specifically native run and helping native people. And, um, my team has worked hard not only to form relationships with native artists moving forward, but also to, to design incredible designed product that are 100% internally created now and, um, and selling really well. And we have not only not seen a dip in sales, but we’ve seen a hundred percent increase in sales by making the right decision and working incredibly hard to innovate from a, um, an internal standpoint,

Enrique Alvarez (00:39:23):

I believe, uh, very personally and passionately that at least this days like, uh, the consumers are much, much better educated when it comes to things like this. And of course, making their decision, uh, us of whom to follow whom to buy from. If you have a company that’s sustainable responsible, and you’re supporting great causes like homelessness, and, uh, then you are giving back to native, uh, the native Casas and all that. I mean, just, it’s amazing. I probably probably wasn’t like that a couple of years ago, maybe 10 years ago, but I feel like the new generations are being a bit more educated in the way they spend their money.

Bob Dalton (00:40:02):

Yeah, definitely. Um, you know, you definitely have a younger generation that’s paying way more attention and, you know, like I said, we didn’t make the decision to avoid punishment from that generation. Um, which was a really powerful discovery in my journey is, is you should never make decisions to avoid punishment or to receive a reward, but make your decisions based on doing what’s right moving forward. And that was a big part of our journey and a huge awakening for myself of, of how we should be going about business in a very ethical way, but in a very appropriate way as well. No,

Enrique Alvarez (00:40:40):

That’s remarkable. And I’m sure that that’s going to, uh, resonate a lot with, uh, with business owners and people listening to this podcast. So thank you very much for, for sharing your experience and sharing that with us and going back to the campaign that you launched blanket, uh, the U S right. How did that campaign come about and what, what is it, and what do you want the listeners to, to take out of that campaign that you launched? You said in 20, 19, 20 19?

Bob Dalton (00:41:09):

Yeah. Um, 2018, actually, it was, uh, it was June 1st, 2018 is when we launched it was our four year anniversary. And yeah, we were just in a place where sackcloth was there really like we were, you know, they say, if you make it three years as a startup, you know, as long as the miracle, it’s like 80% of startups fail before three years. So we, we through three years and I was cocky about it, you know, and then for years, Hey, and I thought we were going under it. And so I, for us, it was the fourth. What

Enrique Alvarez (00:41:44):

Were, what were the big challenges back then and why, why did you kind of, so whether you change your, I had, yeah,

Bob Dalton (00:41:52):

I had a buyout, a business partner that got involved really, really early on like month, one of the brand. And, um, and yeah, fast forward a couple of years in sackcloth starts to take off and he starts to get into a financial, you know, situation himself. Uh, it put a lot of pressure on the company, put a lot of pressure on me and, you know, for himself being a non contributor in the Virgin at, by any means other than a very small initial investment, um, it almost completely, he almost completely tanked the company. And, uh, we held on for dear life and we fought and we fought and we fought. And, um, and so we bought him out on May 1st, 2018, and that’s when we were free. That’s when we were fully set free as a company. And we retained a hundred percent of the company and since then have had no investors.

Bob Dalton (00:42:55):

Um, so we still retain a hundred percent of the company, me and, um, two other people that I gave equity to based on the longevity of them being involved in the company. And, uh, so we’re still a hundred percent free. And, um, but May 1st, 2018, we bought him out June 1st, 2018. One month later, it was our four year anniversary. We have this huge following little to no resources. And we’re like, you know what, let’s launch a campaign called blankets. The United States actually originally we were going to call it blanket America. And, um, I reached out to this guy who had blanket blanket, america.com. And he did a kind of a similar thing back like 2013. And, um, wasn’t using the website. It was a completely dead, you know, domain. And he had it trademarked as well. So I offered him, I offered to buy it from him and, and he was just showed absolutely no interest in allowing me to do that.

Bob Dalton (00:43:59):

So I called it blanket the United States and trademark that instead. And, um, that’s what we actually liked blanket the United States better now in 2021. Um, and, uh, not using the word America as much. And so, um, I just love the, the United States. I think it’s a powerful, um, the word United is what we need right now. And, um, and so blanket, the United States felt like the appropriate name at the time. And our, we originally was like, Hey, let’s donate 250,000 blankets. Cause that seemed like a lot at the time. And they were like, nah, let’s do something a little bit more, you know, 500,000, like it’s. And then we got to the point where we were like, you know what F it let’s do a million round it up. Yeah. It’s a better story. It’s nearly impossible. Um, if we do achieve it, it will go down as a, an increment. You

Enrique Alvarez (00:44:57):

Will achieve it. It’s a matter of when not.

Bob Dalton (00:45:01):

And so when we set the goal of 2014 and, um, that’s our T 2014 is our ten-year anniversary. So that’s our goal is to donate a million blankets by 2025. Where are you guys know about a quarter million?

Enrique Alvarez (00:45:14):

That’s awesome. That’s just unbelievable. It’s such a great story. And

Bob Dalton (00:45:18):

We’re hitting that tipping point. I actually, as of this last month, um, really started to see the forecast of like, we’re going to hit a million blankets for sure. Um, just based on some of our national partners now. So when we launched blanket, the United States, it opened up the door for us to partner with companies that are interested in giving blankets as gifts to their employees or their customers. And when they, you know, sell a house or sell a car or do a mortgage or whatever that is, they give a blanket as a gift. A blanket is the perfect gift. Um, and so within a week of launching the campaign, we partnered with Subaru in Oregon, they bought 2,500 blankets. And for every super that they sold, they gave a blanket as a gift, and we donated 2,500 blankets to homeless shelters in Oregon. Shortly after that, a company bought 5,000, then a cost plus world market bought 15,000 and then companies now all around the United States are opting in to help blanket the United States.

Bob Dalton (00:46:23):

And, uh, as of this last month, we went into a national partnership with, uh, KB home. They’re a national home builder. And every home that they build, they’re going to give a blanket as a gift. And we’re donating over 10,000 blankets to shelters because of them. Uh, in this last year, we went into a partnership with Churchill mortgage that bought 20,000 blankets. And for every mortgage they do, they give a blanket as a gift. And then, uh, this last month we landed a partnership, a national partnership with REI and REI is now going to be selling our blankets in all of their REI locations, starting in fall. Um,

Enrique Alvarez (00:47:03):

Oh, congratulations. That’s uh, I love that store. I don’t, I don’t like shopping, but how are you? Hi, I particularly like so congratulations

Bob Dalton (00:47:11):

For all those successes. Yeah. They’re all really exciting. And we’re excited to come out publicly with a lot of those partnerships, um, you know, closer to fall and they start launching and we have our biggest contract, um, that I’m most proud about. Um, uh, we signed on April 1st, 2021, and I can not say what that is yet.

Enrique Alvarez (00:47:37):

Um, we’ll wait, we’ll wait anxiously, but

Bob Dalton (00:47:39):

It is the best partnership that we could have formed. Um, and it’s the biggest,

Enrique Alvarez (00:47:48):

We’re again, we’re excited for you guys. It sounds like you’re doing an amazing job in what you do and you’re changing the lives of so many people. And as you said, right, just the blanket is a perfect gift. And if you can actually give something, that’s you so meaningful for so many different ways and reasons. And then at the same time, you’ll be not only saving the planet because you’re a hundred percent, 75 to a hundred percent sustainable and you’re responsible and you’re supporting the homeless. It’s just, it’s a no brainer. I mean, why wouldn’t anyone kind of give a, give a blanket? How can people that are listening to you now participate in this, uh, people that maybe having smaller businesses and things like that, that they see and hear this. And they’re like, well, maybe, maybe we should start gifting blankets or, or changing some of, uh, the, the promotional materials that most companies usually give out, uh, for something more meaningful, like, uh, like your blankets. Yeah.

Bob Dalton (00:48:43):

From the practical side. Um, you know, obviously when you buy, he donated, we’d donate a blanket here, a homeless shelter in your local community. So we’re actually providing a blanket down the street from where you live to a shelter, but the blankets themselves come in a box and, um, the box says blanket, the United States on it. And when you open it up, it shows you a map of the United States that has dots all over it. That shows you all the homeless shelters we give to. But when you pull your blanket out of the box, on the bottom of the inside of the box, it says, take it a step further placed the following items in this box and donate to your local shelter. And we have like lip balm, water bottle socks. And so you can actually use the packaging in which the blankets come in to fill it up with items for people in need, and then go and deliver it to somebody on a street corner or at a homeless shelter.

Bob Dalton (00:49:37):

And that’s something that we don’t necessarily promote through our platform, but it’s something that I like to add an element of surprise for somebody who receives a blanket, um, that they purchased, or as a gift that they’re, face-to-face with the realities of, uh, of the opportunity to be able to do something on a really personal level that really nobody’s going to see if you do fill the box stuff, nobody’s going to see it. If you don’t fill the box up, nobody’s going to see it, that’s up to you. And I, it’s almost a, um, what I would like to consider performance art, um, in that it allows people to challenge the way that they think about this particular issue based on their willingness or unwillingness to provide resources in a really practical way through a vessel of, of this box. Um, and it’s not to shame anybody or guilt anybody.

Bob Dalton (00:50:29):

Um, but it’s more of a, a opportunity if somebody wants to take it a step further. So that’s the practice practicalities. I don’t say that to so you can buy our blankets. Um, we’re actually completely sold out and, um, you can only buy blankets right now on back order anyways. So this is not a, a sales pitch, um, but that is the practical aspect of supporting the company and the mission, um, and, uh, your local homeless shelter. And then beyond that, you know, apart from sackcloth and ashes and the product itself is just, you know, look, people knives when you drive by them on the street. You know, I, I think a lot of us are what I would consider Greenlight racers, which is we’re trying to hit the green light. So we don’t have to stop and be faced with the realities that exist in our society.

Bob Dalton (00:51:21):

Um, you know, which is just people that have come to a place in their life where they’re having to stand and hold a sign and ask for help. And, uh, most, most of the time I don’t have anything to give them. Um, but to simply look them in the eyes and, you know, nod my head and acknowledge them, it goes a long way, you know? And I think that that is the start of actually making a difference is acknowledging that these people are people, they’re people with real stories, you know, that have gone through a series of events in their life to cause them to arrive in that situation. And we all go through difficult circumstances, you know, it’s, it’s not a,

Enrique Alvarez (00:52:01):

And it could be anyone, right. So it could be, it could be anyone it’s not kind of a cause. Cause what you said a couple of minutes ago about like, well, you always have this preconceived notion that well it’s because they didn’t work hard or they didn’t want things harder. It just has absolutely nothing to do with that. Like the system, sometimes it’s just not in line and doesn’t really help them much either to kind of go out, uh, come out of the situation and we have to be impact the impact for that. And know, as you said, just look people in the eye and, and try to lend when someone a hand

Bob Dalton (00:52:36):

For sure. You know, and, and, um, you know, my advice for people that want to the number one question I get asked typically at events and in different places I’m sharing that is where do I start? You know, like what do I do? Um, number one, don’t give out of guilt. Number one, when you get out of guilt, you really want to curse the gift. Um, that’s a personal opinion, but I believe you curse the gift and it’s not good for you. And it’s not really good for the person that you’re giving to, to you’re kind of giving in with a negative energy. Um, number two is if you see a need and you have the ability to meet that need, then meet the need. Number three is if you see a need and you can’t meet that need find somebody who can and build a bridge. And I would say that over 90% of my entire journey is not me meeting direct needs and carrying the weight of every need that I see, I feel obligated to meet, but it’s me stepping up and having the opportunity to be a bridge builder and actually make connections, um, to be able to meet needs that I absolutely can’t meet, but know somebody who can meet that need. And we all have an opportunity to either meet a need or be a bridge builder. And I think we need more bridge builders in society right now,

Enrique Alvarez (00:54:08):

Nicely said. And I couldn’t agree with you more, Lily, I think you were talking about goals and you wanted to talk about the future, uh, the future of, uh, sackcloth and ashes and some of their, uh, future projects that they have.

Lillian Sanchez (00:54:22):

Yeah. Well, we know that you have a goal of donating one medium blankets to homeless shelter by 2024. Uh, what are your organization’s role for these year to help you to get there?

Bob Dalton (00:54:35):

What are the organizations that are going to help us get there? Yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, our current partners, like I mentioned is, you know, Churchill, mortgage, KB, home, uh, REI cost plus world market. Like these are powerhouse national companies, very well-respected. And those are the types of national partners that we want to partner with is well respected organizations that not only care about helping people in their communities they’ll care about every aspect of business from a sustainability standpoint, from a giveback standpoint, from a, uh, a team member standpoint, um, we want to align in our values, not just our mission and, and that’s really important to us.

Enrique Alvarez (00:55:19):

Thank you. And, um, so Bob, I mean, I feel like we could probably continue talking for another four or five hours, but, uh, but I think we appreciate this. It’s been very powerful, very insightful. And, uh, before we kind of let you go, cause I know that you’re an incredibly busy man, um, on building bridges, uh, I’ll send a couple of emails out there after the conversation. Uh, I know I’ve had the opportunity to meet Terrence Leicester, uh, loft beyond walls, but, uh, there’s a couple of, uh, people that might potentially be helpful. And so I’ll do that after this, but where, how can our listeners connect with you and, and w and what would you advise those listeners to do when it comes to, uh, not only helping others, but just facing, uh, some of the challenges that we faced because of the pandemic? I mean, what was the pandemic for you and your team and the organization? Um, what can we do to kind of like, come out of that, which I’m hoping it will happen soon.

Bob Dalton (00:56:19):

Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, through the pandemic know, I was like everybody else in the early stages freaked out and not knowing exactly what it was going to mean, not just for business, but like, are we going to, you know, are we going to survive this thing? What is going to know? What um, what it actually entailed. And so after I got kind of through the fear factor of it, um, I started asking the question, what can we do and how can we help, you know, how can we be contributors in this time? You know, sackcloth and ashes exists for times like that, you know, of being able to step up and help people that are affected by traumatic, difficult circumstances in their lives that find themselves living on the streets. And, you know, with the pandemic, it’s definitely increased in spiked homelessness overall, and in general.

Bob Dalton (00:57:05):

And so as a company, it was like, this is not a time to be fearful. This is a time to step up and lead and ask the questions. What can we do? And how can we help? How can we be a true contributor? And, um, I started emailing different leaders and people that I’m connected to and just saying, Hey, look, I know I’m a small fish. Um, and that sackcloth is a very small company in comparison to yours, but let me know if there’s anything that I could do to help, uh, serve you and, and contribute to you in this time. And I got a call from the CEO of world market, like two days later, and he’s like, Hey, Bob, uh, actually there is something you can do. I know you work with over 500 homeless shelters and programs in the United States. We’re about to shut down our world market locations for the next foreseeable future. Um, we have a ton of excess food and Easter supplies. Can you send me over your database of programs? We’re going to mobilize the food and the Easter supplies to people and programs and need. And so within about 48 hours, my team got them our entire database and list, uh, to all their store managers. And, um, that’s when I realized we can do something and we can be contributors and we can be bridge builders. You know, that

Enrique Alvarez (00:58:19):

Was, that was a huge bridge you build there and I’m sure that it changed the lives of a lot of people. Thanks to that email and your proactive approach towards say, how

Bob Dalton (00:58:29):

Can we help 100%? And that, that really sparked the vision for me, that I feel like I, um, I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to, and it’s the foundation that we’re launching in around October of this year. And the foundation is called love your city. And it will be a website, love your city.org. And you’re going to be able to type in your address. And we’re going to show you the grassroot organizations in your community and how you can immediately take action, um, by donating money and filling out a volunteer form that gets sent directly to that organization. And so, um, it’s basically what we experienced with that world market situation, but going to be done for the everyday person that says, you know what, I want to make a difference, but I don’t know where to start love. Your city.org will be a national resource and tool for anybody that wants to participate and make a difference on a level. And, uh, maybe we’ll have a follow up podcast at that point.

Enrique Alvarez (00:59:26):

You would always be invited and yes, we should definitely have at least one more. I mean, we’d love to, we’ll love to continue this conversation and dialogue with a CEO and founder of sackcloth and ashes, Bob Dalton. It’s been, it’s been a pleasure. Uh, if you guys enjoy this conversation, as much as we did, please, don’t forget to sign up for supply chain. Now, this is your episode, your series logistics with purpose. And once again, Bob, it has been a terrific conversation with you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your life story

Lillian Sanchez (01:00:00):

And thank you for sharing revelations, you guys

Bob Dalton (01:00:03):

For having me and, uh, appreciate it.