Glove Love
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Smith & Hawken, which until last month was a specialty retailer selling premium lawn & garden products as a division of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., closed its 56 stores at the end of 2009. While the recession boosted do-it-yourself business in most areas, it doomed this retailer focused on high-end products skewed toward extravagant ornamentation and over-the-top uniqueness. When I first heard the news I looked at my poor, tired hands and said, “Sorry fellas, back to ordinary gloves for you.”
I do a fair amount of gardening and work about the house and I’d found the most excellent work gloves of my life at Smith & Hawken a few years ago. The palm-side was made of deliciously supple deerskin with padding in just the right places and reinforced double-strength in the areas my gloves typically failed after some rough use. The backs were a breathable, stretchable plastic mesh of some sort that made them fit like, well, a glove! Finally, the gloves had Velcro pads to hold them on that adjusted to my wrist size.
The price on these gloves was ridiculous but the thrill of strapping them on as I headed to work outdoors in fine weather made me happy to buy a replacement pair when the first ones finally succumbed to repeated beatings. I still use the old pair for painting – the few holes in them aren’t a problem for that work. So when I heard Smith & Hawken was dying I rushed to see what brand was on my gloves to find out where I could look for them elsewhere and learned they were branded by the store.
Aaarrrrgh!
The gloves I loved were to be gone forever!
I don’t know who the product designers and marketers were who fashioned those gloves – but they did a great job. By tending to the workaday needs of my gardening hands they had touched my heart. I can’t say that about many of my branded-products experiences these days.
Then a ray of sunshine burst through the clouds of glove-deprivation, Target stores has bought the brand and will be carrying Smith & Hawken products this upcoming season!
I hope Target stocks my gloves – I may buy two pairs this time.
