Shirt Success

T-shirts aren't sexy, says Barry Fox, but they sure do sell.

In fact, Fox and his wife, Jessica, sold $1.5 million worth of T-shirts to U.S. Army and Air Force bases worldwide in 2013. That's up 25% from $1.2 million in 2012 sales, and more than threefold since 2001, when they bought the business and it had $400,000 in annual sales. The couple actually sells a variety of apparel, including T-shirts, shorts, sweatshirts and jackets through more than 200 contracts with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

The Foxes are the lead sales team at Life Safety International. The company is a subsidiary of Sarasota-based Koala Tee, a 24-employee, $2.8 million T-shirt embroidery and printing business. Life Safety, also based in Sarasota, sells original designs of T-shirts printed by Koala Tee employees. Koala Tee buys the blank shirts from several U.S. distributors and then does all the artwork, screens, decorating and embroidering in-house.

“We have a niche,” says Barry Fox, who moved to Sarasota from England with his family when he was 15 years old. “We go out and see all our customers and show our designs to them.”

That means the Foxes, married in December 2011, spend about six months a year on the road. Most trips are taken together. They visit up to 110 bases a year, from Oregon to Maine and England to Okinawa. Once on a base they meet with the civilian buyers who stock the commissaries and retail shops for soldiers and airmen.

Life Safety is somewhat of an underdog's play in the low-margin, highly competitive T-shirt business. Competitors include brand name behemoths like Nike and Under Armor and lesser-known, yet still big companies like Soffe.

“There are many vendors out there,” says Jessica Fox, a Puerto Rico native who taught first grade in Orlando before she met Barry Fox and joined Life Safety. “Everyone is fighting for shelf space.”

The couple, along with a sales rep who handles some states out west, gets their piece of shelf space through a personal, relationship-based approach with buyers. That's why they spend so much time on the road. Barry Fox has even sold T-shirts in Kuwait and Iraq. “You have to visit every location,” says Barry Fox, “because every base is different.”

The company also puts a premium on flexibility. It will accept low-minimum orders, sometimes 40 or 50 shirts, for example, to maintain a relationship. The couple also works collaboratively with clients, so buyers can help design prints and feel some ownership of the order. Says Jessica Fox: “You have to listen to their feedback.”

One obvious challenge the Foxes face is travel. They aim for thrift, to limit expenses. For instance, they recently waved goodbye to their 2007 Dodge Caravan that had 260,000 miles — and lacked power windows. They replaced it with a 2010 Toyota Rav4.

The couple stays in Comfort Inns on the road, and they live out of tiny suitcases so there's more room for merchandise samples in the car. “We stay in a different hotel every night,” says Jessica Fox, 41. “It's like our second home.”

Still, while Barry Fox, 47, says the road warrior salesman's life can be tough, he wouldn't trade it. He has sold something since he first moved to the States, when he was a teenager at Riverview High School in Sarasota. Back then he sold Firestone car services, such as oil changes and tire rotations, door to door in his neighborhood. The services cost $300, and closing a sale was addictive. “I like selling and I like meeting new people,” Barry Fox says. “Every day is different.”

Sales Tips
Don't oversell: Barry Fox says clients rarely, if ever, buy an entire line all at once. “So you don't have to get them to say yes to everything,” Fox says. Instead, he says it's OK to encourage clients to pass on some products.

Do over prepare: Barry and Jessica Fox travel to every base they sell merchandise at because each installation is unique. They bring a different assortment of products to each base because what sells in San Antonio might not sell in Sacramento.

Be funny: Humor goes a long way in relationship building with a client. The couple says they go into every sales meeting with a goal to loosen things up right at the start. “These people have to go to work every day,” Barry Fox says. “You might as well make them laugh.”