Brand Names Power: That Stetson-Justin-Kelley Quality

Stephen Bly

There’s Something About Brand Names … by western author Stephen Bly

Long before radio and TV, even among the cowboys and ranchers of the Old West, brand names meant something to them. John B. Stetson made beaver hats with high crowns and wide brims like no one else. A man only had to buy one Stetson in his lifetime, unless a footpad or sneak thief stole it.

Another man known for brand names, Joe Justin, settled into Old Spanish Fort in 1879 on the Texas side of the Red River and began making boots. Without help from advertising agencies or basketball star endorsements he managed to gain such a reputation that a pair of Justin’s still denote distinctive brand names in boots.

Over in El Paso another Texan practiced his craft. As a young boy in Childress, P.M. Kelley sat around the ranch headquarters listening to cowpunchers complain about their bits and spurs. Determined to do better, Kelley gathered a few tools and the help of his younger sister to make better ones.

P.M. Kelley sold everything he could make directly to the cowboys who lined up to purchase them. Owning a pair of Kelley’s sat a man in the highest class of punchers. Try buying a Kelley bit or spur at an auction today and you’ll have to get a bank mortgage to cover it.

You can’t beat a solid reputation.

What’s the quality of what you create?

The shelves in the kitchen? The flower garden? The rebuilt doll house? Your family’s next meal?

Or your relationships? Your marriage? Your family? Your service for God?

The Bible says the day will come when we’ll all be known by our brand names, so to speak …  “the fire will test the quality of each one’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:13).

What’s at least one way you could step it up a notch?

Copyright©1994

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