Episode 3: How Did Alex Hamka Go from Dentist Student to Thriving 3rd Generation Tailor?
Welcome to another inspiring episode of Main Street Matters. In this episode, our host Terresa Zimmerman interviews Alex Hamka, a third-generation custom tailor and proprietor of Alexanders Custom Clothiers in Northville, Michigan. Alex shares his journey of taking over his father's tailor shop after his father fell ill, transitioning from being a pre-dental student to tailoring.
Tune in as Alex discusses the evolution of his business, focusing on bespoke tailoring and innovative strategies like membership packages and personalized services. Alex reflects on the challenges and successes during the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the importance of community, resilience, and continuous innovation in his business.
Key points discussed in this episode:
-Alex Hamka’s journey of taking over his father's tailor shop
-The evolution and innovative strategies of Alexanders Custom Clothiers
-The challenges and successes faced during the COVID-19 pandemic
-The expansion and unique approach of Alexander's Custom Clothiers
-The role of bravery and conviction in executing business strategies
-The impact of tailoring on people's lives, including heartwarming stories
-The significance of Main Street as the heart of the community
-The importance of personal connections and sense of community fostered through the business
-The future of Alexanders to focus on scaling and developing membership packages
Featured in this episode:
Alexanders Custom Clothiers: https://www.alexcustom.com/
Alexanders Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexanderscustomclothiers/
Alexander’s Cars and Coffee: https://www.instagram.com/alexanderscarsandcoffee
Coffee shop mentioned in this episode: https://www.sweetbrewcafenv.com/
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Host - Terresa Zimmerman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terresachristensonzimmerman/
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Alex Hamka - It's not just about selling the most expensive suit or having models wear our garments, it's really impacting people's life.
Terresa Zimmerman - Just backtracking a little bit during Covid when you didn't have all that interaction. I can understand why you lose the passion for it because you're not with your people. You're not with your customers.
Alex Hamka - As a business owner, you got to continue to dig deep and reevaluate the times that we're in, whether it's good times, bad times, slow times, and you got to be able to pivot.
Terresa Zimmerman - Welcome to the Main Street Matters podcast, where we celebrate and support the heart and soul of our communities, our main streets. I'm your host, Terresa Zimmerman. Welcome to Main Street Matters. I am here today with Alex, the third generation custom tailor, entrepreneur and proprietor of Alexander's Custom Clothiers in Northville, Michigan. Welcome, Alex. Hey.
Alex Hamka - Good morning. How are you?
Terresa Zimmerman - Good, good. I'm so happy for you to join us today.
Alex Hamka - I appreciate you having me on.
Terresa Zimmerman - So first things first, tell us about you.
Terresa Zimmerman - Tell us about Alexander's.
Alex Hamka - Well, I'll start with the beginning. I was a pre dental student. And my father, had West Nile virus, so he was hospitalized for two years. And I left school. Took over his tailor shop. Literally working from four in the morning to 11 at night and then heading downtown to see him at the hospital. You know, at the time, Jacobson's was going out of business, and we had an influx of all of these garments that need to be altered. So, I kind of got thrown into this pool of fire and had no choice but to, teach myself whatever my father had taught me, you know? So, he recovered. And that's where I felt like this was my calling. You know, it's a dying trade. Everybody in this business is pretty much a haberdashery. So you don't have many people who are doing tailoring or working on patterns or actually making garments in-house. So when he recovered, I thought, I'm not going back to school for dentistry.
Alex Hamka - And I'll do corporate communications, public relations, but I want to open up my own store. And, an opportunity came along where I had a had an attorney and a guy from downtown Northville. So downtown Northville is a very high end, low key, very quiet money. And they actually came to the shop and said, hey, we're working on a new project. Your dad has a great reputation. We'd like you guys to open up a northville. My dad was done, he didn't want to work anymore and he wanted to give me his shop. So I ended up not telling him, but I ended up signing a contract, you know, that I was going to open up a store without him knowing, you know? finally a few months go by, a year goes by, and I pick him up and I drive him right downtown, and I give him a key and I'm like, open up the door. He's like, what's this? You know? So he walks in for the first time and was baffled.
Alex Hamka - You know, he was amazed. I was nervous, but, you know. I was born in this country, so I had to take it up a notch. You know, I didn't want to just take over his tailor shop in Manchester. My grandfather had a custom factory where they may choose in suits. My father was the designer. this was in Lebanon. And during the six day war between Israel and the Arab countries. Lebanon really wasn't part of that. But Israel ended up occupying. The whole south up to Beirut. And, my parents and grandparents, everybody fled. And they came here because of Ford Motor Company. So all of my uncles opened up tailor shops and clothing stores. And, that was the beginning of their journey. And I said, you know what? Since I was born in this country, I need to really elevate because, again, it's a dying trade. All the Taylors are 70, 80 years old. So, you know, I want to be able to dominate this whole region, you know, throughout the states.
Alex Hamka - And it's been working. It's been great.
Terresa Zimmerman - That's amazing. I mean, it kind of brought tears to my eyes a little bit hearing your story.
Alex Hamka - Yeah. It's unfortunate. You know, I, I, I look at the photos that my grandfather had, my father had and they actually had 150 employees that worked for him. Wow. they had over a dozen shops. My grandfather back in the day would. you know, if people didn't have money, but they came from a good family. They knew the village. He would give them a line of credit. And, you know, you'd swear on your mustache that it's like a handshake, you know? And if you found a guy without a mustache, you can't trust them. So he would loan out all the shoes and the garments, and then they would repay him back. And, you know, he got really many people starting in that business, you know, which flourished and everything until the occupation happened.
Terresa Zimmerman - So that's incredible. Swear on your mustache.
Terresa Zimmerman - I have never heard that.
Alex Hamka - Basically, what you do is, you know, back in the day, everybody had a mustache. Yeah, right. And then, you know, some of them curled it. So if if you ended up doing this to your mustache, it was as good as a handshake. That's. And anybody who didn't have a mustache you couldn't trust. Now you could trust me because we live in America.
Terresa Zimmerman - You shaved your mustache off this morning, though, right?
Alex Hamka - Yeah.
Terresa Zimmerman - That's right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, so there's so much that you just said I have questions. So one, your dad had West Nile virus. How scary was that? Oh had you already learned tailoring from him to some extent or were you starting from scratch at that point?
Alex Hamka - No. So, he literally lost. All of his muscles. Just bone and skin. It was straight up. It was the scariest thing. He lost £40 in three weeks. Oh my God. So.
Alex Hamka - And at the time, there was 800 deaths in Michigan. So his friend died from that and we were worried. But we kept the faith and thank God he recovered. as far as the tailoring goes, growing up, my father was like a leather expert. So I don't know if you're familiar with Tannery West, Wilsons Leather back in the day. Yeah.
Terresa Zimmerman - Well, yeah.
Alex Hamka - He after work, he picked me up and he'd have a rack and we'd go to the local malls because he had a contract with them to repair leather jackets. And the bass mill is nothing but sewing machines. So, you know, I picked up the skill by watching and observing, but he never wanted me to do tailoring at all. He wouldn't teach me, you know, he'd show me, but he wouldn't teach me. He was like, you know, you're born in this country, you can go to school, you can get an education, and you're going to open up your own thing. I don't want you to do this tailoring.
Alex Hamka - And unfortunately, well, fortunately, you know things always. Kids always do the opposite. So if you don't want your kids to go into something, tell them go into it, you know, because they'll end up going against your word. and that's what happened with me. It's just I found, a love for being in the tailor shop when things were tough with my father. And I was able to just kind of get into my own world, you know? a lot of it was. He did. Teach me a bit, you know? But, you know, in school I took drafting. architecture 3D. You know, all of that helped. it kind of helped me understand, you know, shaping the garment, making patterns, whatnot.
Terresa Zimmerman - Well, I mean, I guess if you were on the dentistry track, you were going to be building teeth and molars and spacers and all that. So that's that's quite a pivot you just made.
Alex Hamka - Yeah. I'm happy. You know what? I'm happy.
Alex Hamka - My nephew's a dentist. I told him one day I'll work for you because I did work in a dental office. You know, I've worked on some patients during the 911 issue and all, you know, dentists were closed for a few days. So I've got my own secret stories with some patients.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah, well, so is your dentist nephew a customer of yours now?
Alex Hamka - He is. He is the only thing he'll. Where? I've got many nephews. I have 22 nephews and nieces. Wow. Wow. So I'm a I'm a great uncle, you know? Yeah.
Terresa Zimmerman - That's amazing. Okay, well, tell us who. Who else besides family are your customers? Who do you serve?
Alex Hamka - All right, so when we started, we really only offered bespoke tailoring made in-house. And, you know, high end off the rack garments. I pulled the plug on off the rack because I didn't want to compete with department stores, and I wanted a unique type of clientele that I wanted to mold and build, you know? So even when I needed the money at the time, I would turn away clients because, you know, you had to train the customer.
Alex Hamka - And the word slowly spread over the years, and every single client that walked in the door wanted custom suits. So, the clients we have are all CEOs, pretty wealthy clients, you know, athletes, team owners, you name it, we have it. Even the guy who's not extremely wealthy but is into quality, you know, buys less instead of buying everything on sale, you know, and has a closet full of. I would say garments that don't fit right. You know, we have a lot of smart clients who like to spend and spend carefully, you know, so, that's one part. The other part is we do a lot of membership packages. We started growing, meaning we fly out to clients homes, will go through his whole closet, take a look at what garments fit him best. What don't. We'll get rid of everything. And then when we come to the shop, we'll, you know, place his order, make his garments, ship everything out, and then we'll take another flight to his home.
Alex Hamka - We'll do a final fitting and then organize his whole closet. Like we have a client where we've signed NDAs with. And it's every quarterly, you know, he'll spend a huge amount because he's got several homes. So if the client gains or loses weight, his staff will have to replace everything in his homes. and we're on top of that constantly because, you know, the way himself. any change like, he's well known, you know, been on New York Times front cover. So we have a lot of really, really great clients, who take this very, very seriously. You know, speak unless you're spoken to type of thing. Come in. I measure them up. We're done. Others who are billionaires, you know, you could sit down and have a cigar with them and pick their brain a bit, you know, so every client is different.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah. So you you work out of the store, but then you also these packages, you go to their homes. Yeah. And how did you start with that.
Alex Hamka - We started actually doing commercials that was local during the Super Bowl. Wow. Cool. And you know, we we kind of became like wherever I'd go, a local celebrity, people knew who I was. We ran, 25,000 commercials a month. And it was really due to branding, from there, we want 24 awards on our website, worldwide. We did a short film for Alexander's, and the websites Alex custom.com. We had Miss Michigan in there. It was shot beautifully. It was like. To me is one of the best commercials out there. Not not not that I'm biased, but I kind of am because, you know, the directors are well known movie producer and, you know, he's done a lot of great work. So from there we're like, okay, what's the next step? How do we scale our business? Because we continue to grow. We have nine employees, and what we did is we ended up taking the space next door. So let's take a few steps back when we sign the contract, I ended up picking the middle shop instead of taking a corner, and I was 23 at the time.
Alex Hamka - And the owner goes to me. How come you don't take the corner? The corners? That's. That's gold. I go gym, I go, I'm taking the center because when I expand, I have the option to go right or go left. And immediately, as soon as I said that, he goes, nobody's ever said that to me. And, you know, there was about 20 people who were lined up to take this spot. He gave it to me. You know, he's like, because you weren't thinking about just your you're thinking way ahead. And, during in 2016, we expanded, took over the space by appointment only. So now we don't even take walk-ins we turn them away or we'll put them on a contract, on the calendar. that's helped us give the time to the client who's paying. You know, he wants to come in. We want to make sure our consultation is perfect. Our time spent with them is great, you know. It's got to be informative for the client.
Alex Hamka - But at the same time, I got to interview the client to see what he likes, what his personality is like. You know, where does you wear these garments? Get to know the cast. So we give them about a good hour consultation and then we would go through the fabric. We'll measure them up and in four weeks he'll come back to do a final fitting. So from there we ran ads in, you know, the local paper. You know, we did a few PR releases and started posting it, you know, online on our Instagram. And immediately we started getting calls like, I have a guy from Vegas, you have $28 million house reached out to us, wants us to fly out to remake his whole closet, you know, which is incredible. So there's a demand. It's trying to find those types of clients, you know, because now we can scale working with less clients, you know, because at the end of the day, our space is only so big to handle so many customers.
Alex Hamka - And as a businessman, every dollar counts. We want to continue to give the best service. But we can't keep doing that by cutting our time on the volume of clients that walk in the door. So we're like, we have to go by appointment. We got to grow the clientele base with a higher ticket, and this way we can focus on that client instead of dealing with ten clients who are spending the same amount. You know. So it's more of a it's become more of a business decision. to keep the doors locked and, you know, again, focus on the client because that's that's what it's all about.
Terresa Zimmerman - To do that, you really have to know what you stand for, right, as a person and as a business in order to do what you're doing. So does that conviction, because I can tell you've got conviction around that. But does that conviction ever get tested? Do you ever go, oh, well, maybe I should.
Alex Hamka - You know what? I'll tell you. So my father, very traditional.
Alex Hamka - And when we decided not to hang any garments on the rack, all of the reps that he knew. Family members who were, you know, in the suit business all said your son, you know, is gonna ruin his business. He's crazy. What do you mean, he's not going to hang garments? and sure. And behold, you know, I was kind of the pioneer in this whole area. And after ten years, the same reps were like, man, you know, this is now what they're doing. It's 20. So I've been in the business since 2004. I'm 40. I opened up at 24 years old. I'm 43 right now. and I think that helped us. We have to stay visionary. We got to go with the gut instinct. A lot of it is gut instinct that most people, I think, have to dig deep to find it, you know, and you have to be confident and move forward. Like once you make a decision, you got to make it happen.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah. Well, I mean, I think your gut instinct, even if you have learned how to listen to it, you then have to find maybe a little bit of bravery. You called it confidence. But I think also maybe a little bravery to go execute on it. Right. So how do you how do you do that. Where do you find that little edge of bravery to say, yeah, I'm going to go for it.
Alex Hamka - That's a good one. You know what? My, Being around my father. He was always disciplined. Once he made up his mind, he never looked back. You know, so growing up, seeing him, maybe in that environment. made me who I am today. You know, aside from that, I'm surrounded by a bunch of great family members, friends, nephews who right now. Are becoming leaders, you know, whether it's in the city or state. And while they were looking up to me, now I'm looking up to them. You know, the rules have changed a bit, and I throw some of these ideas at them and they're like, we love it, you know, do it.
Alex Hamka - Sometimes they'd be against it. And I would still do it. You know, at times I would be against something and they're pushing me to do it. Like, for example, TikTok. I'm not a big TikTok guy. I don't like social media too much. But my nephews were like, listen, man, you have to have a presence on TikTok because it's different than Instagram. So we started shooting some videos, just educational ones. I didn't care for it because everybody on TikTok or Instagram showing suits, putting combos together. As soon as I went to the back. I had no intention of being recorded, but the guy's like, hey, do you have some work to work on? I'm like, yeah. He's like, just go ahead and start working and I'm just going to film you. I'm going to ask you a few questions and just do your thing. We did that. He sends me, you know, a minute and a half after a week of the editing and the music and you know what we worked on? I ended up hitting 2 million views.
Alex Hamka - Oh my gosh. So we have, like, 1.9, 2.1, 1.8 million views on the the stuff in the back room because nobody's ever seen. You know, a tailor in the back explaining what he's doing. Right. And immediately we started getting calls from Houston, Texas, Palm Beach, California. We already have those booked because. Like, for example, let's just say use Tom James for an example. They're known to go out and make custom garments. The issue is they're haberdashers. They're trained salespeople. Yeah, it works because they have a great software. They're constantly cold calling, emailing. And you know what? To some that's great. The issue with that is they got away almost three or 4 or 5 months to get the garment. And if the garment is wrong, they have to send it out to the factory, and the factory sends it back to them and still an issue. So there's too many people in the kitchen or in the tailor shop, you know, with us, you're dealing with me.
Alex Hamka - And I have a great team, Adriana and Mike. I mean, they're on top of everything. So they are literally the lifeline to our motor. You know, they're the oil to the engine. they keep everything running smooth, and it's allowed me to kind of take a step back from micromanaging. They've been handling that, and I've been focusing on more of the client and the garments and the construction. You know. So, in 2008. Before the economy crashed. I flew out to Canada to make patterns because I wanted to manufacture to make a silhouette like Tom Ford or Brioni. You know, typically in the business, if you're dealing with a manufacturer, they'll give you a template to use to mark up. Right. The problem is all these templates I didn't care for. There was always an issue. So I have the photos of me meeting with this French Canadian tailor. And he's like American American, you know, like, what do you guys know? And I got upset because I wanted them to pitch the waistband down instead of up.
Alex Hamka - so I go, you have a sewing machine, you know, talking to the owner. I go, let me show him what I want done. Maybe he'll grasp it that way. Yeah. So I try it on the part before. And it had too many rolls right below the waistband. Yeah, took apart the waistband. And I have it all, you know, on the, on our film. Dropped the waistband, picked up the front. Put it on. The rolls are gone. And I got American. American, you know, like. Now, what do you have to say? Yeah. And ever since then, I got the instant respect. I was 24, 25. So you're going up to a 70 year old telling them how to do a pattern when his whole life he's been making it. But that's where the drafting from school comes in. You know, all of that played a role. And then once we launched. Our line. That's when our custom blew up.
Alex Hamka - Yeah, I mean, it just took off. Took off. And we are the number one custom shirt maker in the whole country. Wow. Yes, we have awards. We have, you know, a placket from our manufacturer is over 480 accounts where the number one custom shirt maker in Northville. Custom suits. We've always been the top five in the past six, seven years. And we made number one and number two last year. And this year or last year and the year before.
Terresa Zimmerman - That's great. Congratulations on that.
Alex Hamka - Thank you. Yeah appreciate it.
Terresa Zimmerman - I mean well that ask that begs the question, what do you do for an encore. I mean, how do you how do you continue to innovate? How do you continue to you know, I mean, I don't want to say stay current because you're obviously current. You're ahead of people. But how do you continue to do that?
Alex Hamka - That's a good question. You know, after Covid, I must admit, I got a little soft.
Alex Hamka - Lost a little bit of the drive because you're looking around you. Everything is shut down. It's hard. People are working from the house, right? There was no incentive to keep pushing. and the culture was different. It was too laid back to relax. Nobody wanted to work. and when we first opened. We ended up making over 200 garments in the first month. Wow. Okay, if you go on my Facebook, you'll see seven racks full of garments. I didn't think I could sell one suit. Okay. And I was worried because I can, you know, the team came back and Adrianna stuck with us, you know, so we had our core who during Covid really believed in the shop. Knew we would survive, I had no doubt. But I did have a question mark as to how are we going to sell suits if everyone is from home. Right. Well, what happened was people cleaned up, you know, their eating habits. They're not traveling as much. So a lot of clients lost weight.
Alex Hamka - Some clients gained weight, doing a lot more zoom. Right? So people wanted to feel good. They had money that they were saving. Yeah, they probably got rid of a car, and they just wanted to get out to feel good. You know, they're cooped up in the home or office and, you know, what we did there was, okay, how do we launch? A line. For the environment that we're in. So what we ended up working on was a deconstructed garment with no shoulder pads, no liner inside the garment. Very lightweight, breathable that you can wear with shorts, like a nice pair of khaki shorts. Loafers wear jeans and not feel like you're dressed up, right. Because your whole life they've been dressed up wearing expensive garments, and now they feel awkward dressing up because of the culture. So I had to reprogram their mind like, hey, this is perfect. You're not too standoffish. It doesn't look like you're showing off, you know? And you still have a jacket on.
Alex Hamka - And, you know, we took off from there. So we as a business owner, you got to continue to dig deep and reevaluate the times that we're in. Whether it's good times, bad times, slow times, and you got to be able to pivot.
Terresa Zimmerman - Well, it also sounds a little bit because of that volume. Like people missed you.
Alex Hamka - Yeah. It was it was great, man. It was when we came in it was hopping. It was so busy. It was good. I miss them more than anything. You know, it's. It's funny, all the money in the world. You know, they say you're a stranger in your own community, you know, because like your self-worth, when you come to the shop and you're taking care of people's issues or problems, you know, is so amazing that we take for granted. And when you're away from all of that, it's almost like it's the meaning of having millions in and you can't enjoy it with anyone, or you don't have a personal life or you can't do much with it.
Alex Hamka - It's just money, right? So, I think the reflection was good for me because it cleared my mind and got me re-energized and focused on the shop.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah, well, with that kind of volume, you probably had no choice.
Alex Hamka - Yeah. That's true. I was stressed out. Yeah, it wasn't easy.
Terresa Zimmerman - A good stress, though, given the maybe not so positive stress of the prior year, you know, being shut down. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those kinds of relationships, you know, you clearly develop those over your decades in business at that point. So that's it's nice to have that played back to you that it's important to them too.
Alex Hamka - It was it was good. And then what we did was I started to Alexanders cars and coffee. I thought it would be great to get some of our clients together. Because a lot of people, you know, move to town who are working, let's just say for Ford Motor Company and don't know many people, but have nice exotic vehicles.
Alex Hamka - So I wanted to. Set up a morning cars and coffee with cigars, you know, high end vehicles. So our clients can kind of get to know each other. Like, I wanted more of a family community. And it took off. We had 178 vehicles show up. Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche sponsored an event. Ford Motor Company sponsored event like. It's amazing. It was excellent and it kind of got the traffic back into the shop. Unintentional.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah, well, I don't know how big Northville is or how big the main, the part of Main Street that you're on. And I love that you're on Main Street on Main Street matters. But where do you put 178 vehicles?
Alex Hamka - Well, we started on the back lot. Our back lot carries about 100 vehicles and there was a traffic jam downtown. So the mayor is like, I have a parking lot one block down next to the, library, Northville Library. And it's the public schools lot that they don't really use. And they're not there on Saturday.
Alex Hamka - And that holds about 250 vehicles. So it was perfect because it was still downtown. It was local, you know. So we got the right crowd and we had Jack Roush show up with, Roush Racing. You know, we had a lot of really great people come to the event. And, because it was in downtown Northville and local, you saw a lot of relationships built, you know, and they're like Alexanders cars and coffee. Alexanders custom garments. I wanted to relate. The high end exotics with our high end suits well. And who?
Terresa Zimmerman - Who did you get to do the coffee for you?
Alex Hamka - we used the local sweet brew and spice. We want to keep it local. downtown. It's a great Italian family, you know. so into the Italian beans, you know, that they. That they get from Italy, you know, great families. So we had them serve all the clients.
Terresa Zimmerman - Amazing, amazing. And so has that. Is that an annual thing? Do you do that? Oh, cool.
Alex Hamka - We start, May until October, every second Saturday of the month. So it's one time a month from 8 to 10:00.
Terresa Zimmerman - Oh my gosh. Okay. So that's that's regular. That's that's incredible.
Alex Hamka - It is. It's good. Yeah. And then, on our Instagram, it's Alexander's cars and coffee.
Terresa Zimmerman - Cool. We'll, we'll make sure we put that in the notes, too. That's great. You're such a visionary already. It's. I'm sure you have an answer to this, but, If not, no worries. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but if you think about the changes that are going to be happening in the next few years, three, two, three, five years out, I don't know when you see, like the next big change for your business, you know, what do you see? And are you preparing for it now?
Alex Hamka - Yes. That goes back to scaling and working on the membership packages okay. The reason why one is you got to bring value to the client.
Alex Hamka - Yeah. So just to give you an idea, our packages start at 30,000. 5000? 250. Okay. We have clients where they literally spend 50 to 100,000 almost every quarter. Okay. The problem is, I don't want to wait for them to spend the money. It's almost like I want to guarantee that we have the money. And as an incentive, you know, they get my personal cell. It's almost like a white glove concierge, right? They're able to text me anytime if there's any event. You know, they can shoot me a message. Hey, could I wear this with that? Some people have staff already that handle their, wardrobe for them, but it's more of a personal relationship. Instead of just calling the shop. the other thing is we want to incentivize these guys where either way, you're spending the money in that year. Calendar year. what comes with it is coaching. So for example. There's a company that came to us by human resources, said the CEOs flying out to Japan, and we need help with attire and etiquette.
Alex Hamka - It's not my perfect you know. And I would do research. Obviously they don't wear a lot of tan or khaki colored garments. In Japan. It's mostly charcoal or black. And here we're navy. We're blues. Right. So a lot of sport coat country club. Look, in a way. so we sit down and, you know, we did our homework. I have some Japanese clients to see the etiquette. Shaking hands, not shaking hands, right hand on the chest or bowing. So what we started doing is we started Alexander's, Wardrobe and Image consulting agency. So this agency here is now you end up. We become your personal coach. We'll go out to your closet. You know, again, it's remaking your wardrobe to fit a specific need. language barriers, etiquette on the dinner table with different cultures. The whole nine yards. So his assistant would reach out to us as, hey, he's going to Middle Eastern place. You know, let's just say Saudi Arabia for business. Now, a lot of them use their fingers to eat.
Alex Hamka - It's a tradition with the rice and the lamb. So silverware is really not great over in that culture. Right. So you have to let these guys know and to practice at home. So that's what we would do. We do that. And then some of that is a write off. Because it's consulting. You're a personal coach, you know? And now they're like, well, hey, I need a write off. And, it works for both parties. And on top of that, what we would do is, you know, for every dollar spent, we would give you $1 for garments, okay? It's like the credit card American Express, you know, you sign up, we're going to give you points. So, you know, we reached out to our tax log, you know, guy and said, hey, this is what we want to work on. We want to make sure it's kosher for him. Nobody's going to get in trouble. This is how we're presenting it. this is exactly what we're doing.
Alex Hamka - And we came up with a detailed explanation and sheet on how many hours we coach, how many times we meet per week or month where that money is going towards, you know, and, it's been good. So people have been buying the packages.
Terresa Zimmerman - That's great. Well, so do you have, not to name names or specific stories, but have you gotten some feedback from that kind of thing that you can share? Like what's been the impact of that on someone? Yeah.
Alex Hamka - You know, in addition, sorry to that was again, for it to be beneficial for the client, what we wanted to do was say, all right, if if the client dresses up 5 or 6 days a week, his casual attire is lacking. Meaning is jeans, is polos, is khakis. So depending on the client, we would throw in complimentary X amount of dollars that go towards a casual look, you know, which really is almost like a good 10 or 15% of the amount you spend. Either way, they're paid for and sitting in our showroom.
Alex Hamka - So in order to grow our showroom, because we have to spend a certain amount every month with some lines, we said this would be perfect because it's paying for itself. You know, the client is benefiting and we're able to get more product in and continue that cycle. So, it's been excellent. And then the client doesn't have to come in and give me his credit card all the time. I just send out his fabric or we'll send them pictures or send them videos. Go ahead and run it. And he already has a credit balance at the shop.
Terresa Zimmerman - I mean, that's a high service level. You're rounding out their entire wardrobe. It's not just the custom suit or the custom clothing, it's the entire package.
Alex Hamka - So true. So I have, I've got a good. Story. We had a. A very wealthy man from Scotland who lives in New York. And he had a surgery on his stomach. And what happened was his one side of the stomach blew up. The other side didn't.
Alex Hamka - Well, okay. he's been everywhere. And I'm trying to find this photo because I'd like to show you it. he's been everywhere. Nobody could help him out. He's made clothes. He went to several. He had clothes made in New York. So I get a call on the phone explaining his situation from his assistant. Yeah. And I said, send me some pictures. He sent me photos. I said, yeah, I can do it. So he flew in and when he walked in, he goes, are you Alexander? I'm like, yes. He grabs my wrist hard. He goes, don't waste my time. He goes, because you're not the first one who said, you can do it, okay. Others have said that. Got me happy and we're never able to make a dress for me. So I go to him. I can do it. And I'm going to do it. And if you see what we did for him, like I teared up because most people in this business think it's only suits for models that we're working on.
Alex Hamka - We're we have an impact on people's life. You know the whole nine yards. This isn't just about beautiful suits about their personality. It's about, you know, their confidence level. It's about their self-worth, their dignity, their pride. You know, and it's so much more than just clothes. I'm trying to find you one here. We had this lady come in. Okay. And her grandfather passed away. Okay, so what we ended up doing was. I know there's too much glare.
Terresa Zimmerman - There's a glare, but I can see it a little bit. Yeah.
Alex Hamka - We ripped apart the sleeve. The collar. Is that her?
Terresa Zimmerman - Is that her grandfather's coat? That's her.
Alex Hamka - Grandfather's coat. He passed away. Okay. And this is all he used to wear? Okay. Completely recut the garment. And put it on and she had the best smile ever. So this is just one of many, many, many examples. that I can talk about.
Terresa Zimmerman - Thing to do. Oh my gosh, I'm tearing up again.
Terresa Zimmerman - You're making me cry this whole time.
Alex Hamka - I have to show you that. I have to show you this one. It's it's so incredible. But, yeah, that's pretty much, what we've done. Oh, here it is. Okay.
Terresa Zimmerman - Okay.
Alex Hamka - Yeah, yeah. So his his belt is literally on his stomach. Yeah. Okay. It's extremely hard for him to get any garment. Look what we did for him.
Terresa Zimmerman - Oh, wow. Wow.
Alex Hamka - And on the actual table, one leg was going this way. The other leg was coming straight down. Yeah. On the table, it looked like. Holy. This is. This is weird, right? He puts it on, and even his pleats laid. Perfect.
Terresa Zimmerman - Wow.
Alex Hamka - So those are.
Terresa Zimmerman - What? So what did what what was his? What was his reaction to that?
Alex Hamka - I tell you, so he was in the fitting room. He opens the door and he sees my smile. And I go, you gotta take a look at the mirror.
Alex Hamka - This is incredible. He goes, I don't want to look in the mirror. And I'm like, why? This is like, perfect. He's like, I could tell by your smile that you're happy with it. That's all I want. I swear he did not look in the mirror.
Terresa Zimmerman - What? Wow, wow.
Alex Hamka - He would. He refused. So it could be like he's just so unhappy with. Yeah. What happened to him in surgery, but. He knew it was gone, you know, and you couldn't even tell he had a flaw. Amazing. And, As soon as that happened, we ended up making them a whole wardrobe. You know. Incredible. Yeah. It was, it was. Those are some really incredible moments. Better than all the money in the world when you see that. And again, there's so many intimate stories like this that many people never hear of. Yeah. It's not just about selling the most expensive suit or having models wear our garments. It's really impacting people's life.
Terresa Zimmerman - Just backtracking a little bit during Covid when you didn't have all that interaction. I can understand why you lose the passion for it because you're not with your people, you're not with your customers. You get back with your customers and you're like, what was I thinking? Of course I'm passionate about it.
Alex Hamka - I'm like, I'm never retiring. Yeah, I would always talk about early retirement. I'm like, absolutely not.
Terresa Zimmerman - Yeah. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah that's great. All right. So I know we've taken up so much of your time, but I have one more really important question and you've kind of answered it. But maybe you can just put it in a nutshell. Why does Main Street matter?
Alex Hamka - Because it's the only main street in town.
Terresa Zimmerman - Oh, I'm so funny.
Alex Hamka - I don't know if I got the question right.
Terresa Zimmerman - Well, I'm. I'm falling over here.
Alex Hamka - you're so kind, man. You got such a pure heart.
Speaker 3 - Great stories.
Terresa Zimmerman - Love them. Love them so much. Thank you so.
Alex Hamka - Much for having me.
Terresa Zimmerman - On. Yeah. No, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it.
Alex Hamka - God bless you, man.
Terresa Zimmerman - You too.
Speaker 3 - Thanks.
