J. Peterman rides again

“It's not fun going bankrupt,” says John Peterman.

He should know. When his $75 million company went bust in 1999, he left a trail of pain that started with him and extended to his family, his employees and their families. Does he have regrets? Surely he must, but Peterman doesn’t dwell on them. The former Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman says he learned early on that “when you strike out or make an error, if you think about it, you're gonna do the exact same thing again. So I learned to forget about my mistakes.” 

This attitude has helped the owner of J. Peterman Company start over again from scratch.  “There were many lessons learned,” he says. No doubt that’s true, but why would he want to go back and reopen the same venture?

Aside from the determination to regain something lost, Peterman says: “I really didn't feel I knew how to do anything else as well as I knew how to do J. Peterman. And I felt that I understood the mistakes, and so, I figured I could do it again.”

Twenty-two years ago, Peterman began his Lexington, Ky.-based mail-order clothing business with a modest $500 out of pocket, an unsecured loan of $20,000 and a single item: a mystical-looking cowboy coat which he described as “a horseman’s duster.” It was an item which he originally bought for himself from a shop in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and for which he received many compliments. He added a few other items and then went ahead and created a catalog.  It was a catalog that caught the eye of many high-end customers — and unintentionally broke all the rules of the business.

“I didn't even know the rules of the catalog business,” Peterman says. “I didn't know how to set up a warehouse. I didn't know how to set up an order entry system. I didn't know anything. But just did it. And learned as it went along.”

Lady luck must have been smiling because among his customers and admirers was the comedian Jerry Seinfeld and some of his producers. They decided to create a parody of Peterman and his company to include in their hit television show, “Seinfeld.”

“Although I don’t live in horse country, I wear this coat for other reasons,” Peterman wrote in his catalog. “Because they don’t make Duesenbergs anymore.” (If you’re running to Google “Duesenberg” right now, don’t bother. If you have to ask, this catalog isn’t for you!)

“Seinfeld” changed all that. The show's producers gave a copy of Peterman’s catalog to actor John O’Hurley and asked him to create a character that sounded like the way the catalog was written. O’Hurley, who had never heard of the catalog or Peterman, looked it over figured it out. 

“So,” O’Hurley says, “I started leafing through the pages. And I realized this is the most unusual catalog I've ever seen. It was, like, these long Hemingway-style adventure stories about an Oxford button-down. And I was rather intrigued by it. And I thought he sounded a little bit like a '40s radio drama, combined with a bad Charles Kuralt.”

Thanks to his pitch-perfect comic timing and silky-smooth baritone voice, John O’Hurley introduced John Peterman and his exotic catalog to an estimated 85 million people a week.  Peterman, for his part, thought the parody was a lot of fun. However, some in the company thought the show made him look like a buffoon and worried about the company’s image. But Peterman saw it differently: “You know, you're being parodied on the number one show on television. You're being given all of this publicity. How bad could that be?”

MORE FROM YOUR BUSINESS

Small Biz Secrets: The 40/20 Rule

Small Biz Secrets: The 40/20 Rule Bite-sized buy-in Dollars & Sense: Holiday bonuses Small Biz Tech: IPhone apps Business Answers: Pitching to the government Newsmaker: Small Business Summit Small Biz Secrets: Building Relationships This Sunday on Your Business On the fast track Business War Chest: "Start with why"   Add Your Business headlines to your news reader: