National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Mike Fadden, CEO of Galls, largest public safety market provider
Hi. This is sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith with the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. You know, a few weeks ago, I was on a radio and video show with a bunch of other guests, and one of them was the CEO of what I know to be the premier uniform company in The United States. And I started listening to what he talked about and some of the things that are happening, And I thought, wow, I need to talk more to this guy and you need to meet him. So Mike Fadden, welcome to the show.
Mike Fadden:Thanks so much for having me, Beth. It was a pleasure being on with you on the LEO Roundtable, and I'm excited to be here today with you.
Betsy Smith:So you are, you're not a first responder, but you clothe and equip first responders around The United States and internationally as well?
Mike Fadden:North America, I would say.
Betsy Smith:Okay. And, yeah, that's a pretty big job. Tell us about Galls and the kind of the evolution of the company and how you came to be the CEO.
Mike Fadden:Yeah, I'm not a first responder, but I'm the son and grandson of two retired police officers. So I came to Gaul's five years ago with just a passion for what officers do. We talk about here at Gaul's is we serve the heroes that keep this country safe. I tell our people all the time that we have the best customer base in the world, customers that run towards danger, not away. And they earn our very best effort every day.
Mike Fadden:And that's what we're going to do is we're going give them our very best effort every day. So the last five years, I've been totally focused on the officer experience, making sure that they're getting the best products possible and they're getting them when they need them on time.
Betsy Smith:So, I have to tell you that I'm so old that we passed around the golf catalog in roll call. It was paper, and we were all like, Hey, if we can order enough cool stuff, maybe we can get a discount, things like that. Because a lot of people don't know that some police departments, especially small ones, the officers have to buy all their own stuff. Other medium sized agencies, like where I was from, we got provided with some things, so we got a uniform allowance. But a lot of cops have to buy their stuff with their own money.
Betsy Smith:And I know that Galls is sensitive to that. Talk about that.
Mike Fadden:Yeah, we are. Let me back up just real quick. I knew the day that the Galls catalog was going to hit my dad's mailbox when I was a kid. And my first day on the job, walked in all excited. I said, Okay, guys, show me the next catalog to go out.
Mike Fadden:And they said, Mike, we don't print catalogs anymore. What are you from the '70s? And I said, you know what? That Gulls catalog is special to officers. And as of today, we're going to start printing the Gulls catalog again.
Mike Fadden:So it's alive and well. I was proud to bring that back. But yeah, I mean, there are so many places in this e commerce world that we live in where officers can buy their gear. But listen, we not only exist to serve officers, but we invest a lot of money in charities that support law enforcement and organizations that support law enforcement. A lot of money.
Mike Fadden:We just signed on to be the we haven't even announced this yet, so maybe I'm jumping the gun.
Betsy Smith:We just Yay, breaking news. I love it.
Mike Fadden:We made a big investment to be the premier sponsor for the National Law Enforcement Hall of Fame, Megan Stockburger. She's doing great work.
Betsy Smith:She really is.
Mike Fadden:We worked really hard with the COPS organization, concerns of police survivors. I could go on and on and on. So what I would ask is you can go spend your money a lot of places. But a lot of those places are a lot of those sites are owned by companies that are anti law enforcement, oddly enough. And there isn't a company in the world that's more pro law enforcement than Gulls.
Mike Fadden:So I would just ask people to give gulls.com a try when you got to come out of your own pocket for your gear. During Defund the Police, so many big companies kind of hid and of turned their back on law enforcement. We weren't shy. When law enforcement was taking shots, were right there with them. We weren't shy about it.
Mike Fadden:We stand by law enforcement. I just hope officers stand by golf as well.
Betsy Smith:You know, I love that because what law enforcement needs to think about and other first responders is, I know it's easy to jump on your Amazon app and click, click, click and order a pair of boots, but on that same site, you can order an F the police t shirt to go with that. So why would you want to put your money toward an organization that frankly actively works against our profession? So I really appreciate that, because you're absolutely right. Post 2020, post the death of George Floyd, a lot of pro law enforcement companies kind of went dark and didn't really want to talk about their support of law enforcement. And I remember Galls as being one of those companies that unabashedly supported this profession.
Betsy Smith:And so I love the multiple, multiple charities you're involved in. I also love the fact that over the years, over the decades, golf has really evolved as this profession has evolved. And one of the most extraordinary ways you're doing that currently is the evolution of uniforms and other clothing and gear for women. And let me just say that when I went and bought my first police uniform in December of nineteen eighty, yes, I'm that old, I had to go to the store, pick out a pair of men's pants. They had to chop about a foot off of the hem, and then they had to have a lady sew darts into the waistband to the point where my back pockets touched.
Betsy Smith:And I wore that, those kinds of pants, for probably fifteen years. So talk about some of the new things you have for women.
Mike Fadden:Yeah. So in uniform industry, it's a dirty secret. Call it pink and shrink. So take a men's uniform, make it smaller, and put a pink zipper on it. I think that's BS.
Mike Fadden:And every time I spoke to a female police officer or female chief, And with the female chiefs, I wanted to talk about growing their business and equip our customer portal and sell them more stuff. They wanted to talk about when was I going to fix the female uniform issue. So finally, after years of that, I said, all right, we are going to fix this. Was a small company called Her Blue Wear. It was founded by Denise Zak.
Mike Fadden:She's a very small company. Her sister is in law enforcement. And she made her a uniform that was designed for a woman. And she had a cult following. The women that knew about her loved her uniforms.
Betsy Smith:I was one of them.
Mike Fadden:Yeah, okay. Because they're the first and only uniform specifically designed for a female police officer. So I met Denise. I really impressed, and we bought the company. And she's on our payroll and she's going to help us.
Mike Fadden:She wasn't big enough to have the resources to launch this nationwide. We were at NOLI, National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. I know you know what that is, but I'm saying it for the rest of your audience maybe. We did our soft launch there. I was there with Denise, and it is clear that we got a winner here that the market is starving for this.
Mike Fadden:And we'll launch it nationwide officially coming up in the third quarter. So we are so excited to bring this to the female officers and listen, it's just not about the fit. After doing some market research, I mean, because the waistbands are in the wrong spot, the body armor doesn't fit right. And that's a safety issue at that point. If that body armor is off just a little bit, it can mean the difference between life and death.
Mike Fadden:And the duty belt sits wrong on the hips, which causes back issues. So I'm really proud to bring this finally way past due to bring a female police uniform designed for female police officers.
Betsy Smith:Yeah, that's absolutely fantastic. We're so excited about that. Now, you talk about uniforms for everyone, again, when I go back forty some years, even the fabrics that we wore, fabrics that didn't breathe, shoes that fit horribly and were very uncomfortable. Honestly, it was a safety issue. It was a morale issue sometimes, and it was a physiological issue.
Betsy Smith:What changes has Gaul's made over the decades, since your dad was on the job, let's say, to make life better for your average patrol cop or your average SWAT officer?
Mike Fadden:Yeah. Well, listen, we view police officers as athletes, and athletes don't wear wool uniforms like back in the day, right? So a lot more moisture wicking fabrics. We're trying to get more weight off the hips and onto a load bearing vest with moly, etcetera. We were talking about this before the show.
Mike Fadden:Just in shoes and boots, you were doing a foot chase in little shoes not designed for foot chases. And there's some companies out there. We have our own private label golf duty boot, but you got Under Armour, Oakley, Bates, all making really good boots that meet the physical rigors of the job. We have launched a tactical pant called Mission Made. It's our own private label.
Mike Fadden:I had a board of directors meeting this morning, so I'm dressed up. But usually, I would stand up and show you. I wear Mission Made tactical pants to work every day. They're great, and they move with you. And so we're excited to bring that innovation to officers as well.
Mike Fadden:But yeah, just a lot of innovation that's happened back thirty, forty years ago.
Betsy Smith:Right, right. So I have to ask you, so, you know, race in a police family, you turned out relatively normal for that, but what was it like to come into the industry as the CEO at a time where law enforcement frankly wasn't very popular?
Mike Fadden:Yeah, it's an interesting story to tell now. Well, first of all, I've been in the uniform business for twenty five years. I worked at Aramark Uniform Services for twenty five years. So when this job came open, it was like my dream job because I've always had such I grew up idolizing people that wore the badge, and now I got to serve them. I started three days after the George Floyd incident, which ushered in to defund the police.
Mike Fadden:So yeah, it was a rough start. I think Gaul's listen, when I got here five years ago, what I found was that the bones of this great company that I knew as a child were still here. But I think they lost their way a little bit from a service perspective. And when I started, I'd walk down in our distribution center five times a day and cut open 10 boxes right before they went on the truck. So I was cutting open 50 boxes a day.
Mike Fadden:And what I saw was not acceptable to me because, again, these people earn our best every day, and they weren't getting our best. So I started putting this card in every box. Got my ugly mug on the front, but on the back, it's got my email address. And I asked customers for their feedback. And boy, I got a lot of feedback.
Mike Fadden:And we just got really focused on listening to officers and taking care of their issues. And we turned this company around really quickly. And today, we enjoy 99.8 customer service I'm sorry, customer retention. And I very many nasty emails anymore, but these still go in to every box. So Betsy and I were talking about when you can go a lot of places to buy online.
Mike Fadden:But if you buy from Galls and you need help or you're not happy with what you get, that card will come in the box and you can email me directly and I'll take care of you.
Betsy Smith:I love it. I think the general public probably is unaware that in addition to making uniforms for us to get down and dirty in the mud and the blood and all that, law enforcement has various best dressed cops contests. There's several of them around, some are regional, some are national. And they're pretty cool because I've been in a couple and usually you put forth all your different uniforms, your honor guard, your patrol, your command, SWAT, all that cool stuff. And where does GOLDS fall into all that?
Mike Fadden:Yeah, our industry association is called the National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors, NA UMD. And every year, they name the best dressed agency and Gull's customer has won 10 out of the last 11. So we're pretty proud of that. And there's so many great chiefs out there that I have the pleasure of working for and working with. But just a couple names come to mind.
Mike Fadden:Manny Morales, Chief Manny Morales in Miami, Chief Mario Foster, runs the Bureau of Printing and Engraving in Washington. Those are two past winners. And those two gentlemen just take the uniform so seriously and they're so focused on every detail it just permeates our organization that I've heard I've heard the same attributed to both deon Sanders and Jerry Rice but it's the old look good, feel good, feel good, play good. An officer in a great looking uniform, they feel different. They feel different about their job.
Mike Fadden:They have that command presence that helps them do their job better.
Betsy Smith:Well, yeah, It's an officer safety issue. When, you know, the the FBI's been studying this for decades. When a police officer shows up on a scene or on a traffic stop or whatever and looks completely squared away and presents themselves as such, bad guys are less likely to attack us.
Mike Fadden:Right, that's right. It's important. And we're proud to play a small role in the mission and our role to keep officers safe.
Betsy Smith:You know, now we're seeing federal agents under attack because everybody thinks anybody in a brown, tan, green uniform is ICE coming to raid something. What are your thoughts on that when you when you see these officers out there just trying to do a job? A lot of them are probably in your uniforms. You know, what what are your thoughts on all that?
Mike Fadden:Yeah, well, at GOLs, have a saying, not all heroes wear capes, but most of them wear GOLs. A lot of those people are GOLs customers. And yeah, they're just trying to do their jobs. And listen, I got to be careful not to get too political here because I'm really passionate about it. But when people ask me these questions and listen, I do a lot of interviews, and sometimes people try to trip you up.
Mike Fadden:You know that very well. What I try to say is just imagine your personal life for a second without cops. Let's just stop and really think about that. And I think more often, there's some people you're just never going to get through to, but it does help when really force people to stop and think. What would life be like without cops?
Mike Fadden:And I think it's terribly misguided energy to further a cause that shouldn't be furthered. And what I try to do is, listen, anytime I see an officer in a restaurant, in a gas station, I'm trying to pick up the tab. I'm not sure everybody has to do that, but we should just take the anytime you see an officer, we should take the time to just thank them because they're doing tough duty and, they should be revered in this society. And it just, it hurts me personally when they're not like what you're seeing on the news today. It's just wrong.
Mike Fadden:I would just ask, that's what I ask everybody when I get these types of questions is they deserve, they earn our respect and we should give it to them every time we see one.
Betsy Smith:I love that, so well said. You're the boss of a large organization. You came in, you made a lot of changes, improved a lot of things. What are your favorite leadership principles? Because we talk a lot about leadership in the law enforcement profession, but what about leadership in general?
Betsy Smith:Give your thoughts on good leadership.
Mike Fadden:Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm blessed to work with some of the most amazing people. I guess you could go elsewhere and make a little bit more money than working at GOL's. People work at GOL's because they love our mission. So listen, I'm just one person on a really big team but the people here are outstanding.
Mike Fadden:But from a leadership perspective, I think leading from the front is the most important thing. When the CEO is gonna put his personal email on every order and actually deal with every single one that comes in, every email, every phone call that comes in, that sends a really strong message to the organization. And that's what leading from the front means. So if the CEO is willing to do that, I walk by and thankfully we don't have a lot of them. But if I hear an angry customer on the phone, I want to help.
Mike Fadden:And when you do things like that, the rest of the organization sees where the bar is for taking care of customers. I think leading from the front is super important. And then again, have some speeches, some canned speeches that I give and one of them is called computer chips or potato chips. So in that speech I talk about whether you're manufacturing computer chips or potato chips two industries that are very very different. It comes down to two things taking great care of your employees and thrilling customers every day.
Mike Fadden:I've kind of just always used that as a I learned that early on and no matter what business you're in, it's about people and you got to take care of your people and you got to throw customers every day, which is what we try to do at golf.
Betsy Smith:I want to go back to that catalog because I really find it fascinating that you're bringing that back at an age where everything is about social media and your website and e commerce and all that. Talk to me about, again, where that came from.
Mike Fadden:Yeah, like I said, I walked in a little over five years ago and I was so excited to see the catalog and actually be able to have a say in the catalog. Was so fired up about it And they laughed at me. And I kind of slunked back to my office kind of embarrassed. I reminded myself that I was the CEO. And I got to decide that we were going to have the catalog.
Mike Fadden:So it took me about two years to get it from dead to, but yeah, our third one since I've been back, this is last year, going to print probably in Q3. So yeah. Yes.
Betsy Smith:I love that. Now I know you guys have great social media. Talk about, tell me where people can go to find out, you know, to see your stuff, to find out more about GOL's, get to the website, things like that.
Mike Fadden:Yeah, it's funny. We're just now starting that. I didn't wanna do a whole bunch of marketing until I felt like we were ready to tell the story. And I think you can honestly tell the story unless your service is outstanding. And it took me a couple of years to get us there.
Mike Fadden:So just in the last six months, I've hired a director of marketing to start telling the story. So our social media game has got a lot to be desired. So it's gonna be awesome. But we're just now starting to really ramp that up because I listen, marketing is convincing people to think one thing whether it's true or not. I didn't wanna tell the story until it was true.
Mike Fadden:And now we can say we give the best service in the industry. But listen, if you're on LinkedIn, can look me up on LinkedIn. I shoot a lot of videos. There's one on there right now. We shoot those in house and without me knowing it, I'm not an actor by trade.
Mike Fadden:They have a really tough job to make these videos and they saved up all my bloopers. And we just put that on my LinkedIn the other day and I've got a lot of feedback and it's pretty embarrassing because there's a lot the bloopers that are on there are probably only like 10 of the total. But yeah, I'm on LinkedIn, but our social media game is gonna get a lot better here going forward because now we're ready to tell the story.
Betsy Smith:Well, and I love that because again, part of leadership is being able to be vulnerable. It's being able to laugh at yourself and laugh with your people. Very often, that's lacking in law enforcement, and I know it's lacking in the private sector as well. So I appreciate that, and we really look forward to that. Mike, I got to tell you, law enforcement is so appreciative of the support that you have brought back to Gaul to support of everything from police officer mental health and beyond, and we really appreciate that.
Betsy Smith:So gosh, I wish we had more time, but we gotta go, and I want to thank you for spending time with us today. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, you can visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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