Turbocharging Your Automotive Restyling Game – A Podcast Journey with Ron Leslie of Katzkin
Welcome automotive lovers, gearheads, and restylers! Nothing quite matches the thrill of diving into the captivating world of automotive restyling tailored to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity. If you’ve ever hoped to gain invaluable insights from an industry leader, buckle up. We recently had a fascinating conversation with Ron Leslie, Vice President of Sales for Katzkin Leather, on the Ride-In-Style Podcast.
A Trip Down Memory Lane:
Ron’s journey in the industry is nothing short of inspiring. With over two decades of experience with Katzkin, Ron shared highlights of his thrilling journey in the industry along with the spectacular growth of Katzkin from a small furniture leather business to a giant in the automotive restyling world. Over the years, he journeyed from a contribution in marketing and branding to running the VP of sales, making a significant impact in the restyling landscape.
Customer-First Focus:
One thing unarguable about Katzkin is their rigorous focus on exceptional customer service. Ron spoke about Katzkin’s commitment to 24-hour order processing and their investments in massive inventories and warehouses, guaranteeing fast deliveries. Katzkin’s unwavering dedication to stellar customer service is truly commendable!
The Magic of Katzkin Leather:
Tuning in to customer preference, Katzkin has positioned itself uniquely in the restyling space with its ability to turn around customized orders in record time without compromising product quality. They offer a wide array of patterns and styles with quick turnaround times, making it an attractive choice for restylers and end users alike.
The Advent of Online and Digital Tools:
In our conversation, Ron provided insights into the increasing need to integrate into online platforms considering that the initial customer interaction is now primarily happening online. Katzkin has developed digital tools to make it easier for restylers to sell, thereby prioritizing a seamless customer experience.
Hard Work, Honesty, and Whole-hearted Commitment:
For new entrants in the restyling industry, Ron had some hard-hitting advice – work relentlessly, prioritize honesty, and always strive to be the best. In his words, success in this industry is an amalgamation of hard work, constant innovation, honest dealings, and customer-oriented strategies.
Conclusion:
Our enriching conversation with this dynamic industry leader has left us with invaluable insights and a deeper understanding of automotive restyling. Ron’s journey and Katzkin’s meteoric growth is a testament to their commitment to delivering excellence and cementing their name in the automotive restyling universe. Through constant innovation and staying true to their customer-first approach, Katzkin continues to blaze a trail in the industry.
As we continue to bring more engaging interviews from the restyling cosmos, keep the wheels spinning and your passion ignited. As they say at Katzkin – keep riding in style!
Read The Transcript
Ron what what are some of the biggest challenges You’ faced in the industry and how did you overcome them all
there’s never a shortage of challenges um you know it’s uh you know when I started at catskin it was it was making
product quick uh we were you know for the longest time when I started I mean
part of the first decade we budgeted our annual sales based on what we could make
uh and we were striving to become a 24hour you know 24 48 hour turnaround on
any custom interior you could want welcome to the ride and style
podcast your turbocharged pit stop for automotive restyling buckle up with
Jesse and [Music]
Josh welcome to another episode of the ride and style podcast we’re already on
Introduction & Background
episode 9 and today we have a guest woo we have Ron Lesley VP of sales for cats
skin hi Ron how are you today I’m great Jesse thanks for having me H yeah excellent thank you for being
baby aesome seven years in the business Jesse we got one of the Legends with
us the leather the Le I’m Ron what nicknames do people have for you in in
the business any I you know nicknames are funny because you know I have a rep who renames uh
everybody in his own by a different name and and they’re not polite names and so
watch for Webasto at one point and the next rep that got his phone got all these customer uh nicknames in there
Snake slum you know slum War all these crazy things some I won’t repeat just
because want to keep it PG um and I keep joking with I’m like one of these days when you’re fired I’m gonna fire you
just for it I want to know what my nickname is because I don’t know what it is and uh I’m sure I have one in his
phone I’m going to have to be there and take his phone away to find out but I don’t know what Les I don’t know I mean
maybe it’s just lovable Leslie maybe that’s what every that’s what he he that’s what he hopes all the resellers
think right so oh I we try to work hard for our
customers so and Ron before we dive into everything can you just give us a quick background on on who you are and and
what you’re doing in the industry now we’ll go back in time and talk about the past in a minute so well it’s pretty
simple with me I um uh I’ll start from the beginning I grew up in a family business uh small business so it kind of
uh was a good entree into working with restylers I went to college uh got a
degree uh working with auto dealers out of Northwood University immediately went into the center side of the business um
met restylers and a few years later I started at catskin uh and to do their
marketing and branding and kind of get that started I did that for the first couple years I took over the VP of sales
uh 21 years ago now and I guess I reached my Plateau um because that’s
exactly what I’ve done for the last 21 years um there was nowhere else to go no I it’s truly I just love it but uh my
whole career has been Cat Skin either on the marketing side the OEM side or the
total sales side and then uh before that I was in the sunroof business little time in OEM with uh my previous employer
ASC actually was on the team that launched the first mobile video system for Auto
uh at one point and uh so but no I’m I’m a I’m a restyler guy better a restyler
guy uh my whole career so it’s been a really cool uh cool run Josh how did you
guys meet how did you Ron’s Ron’s a legend it probably was uh what you know what the first recollection I remember
is when you were hired from ASC so this is 23 years ago uh or or maybe when you
were promoted to like not the national sales manager back then you were like the marketing guy um and Mitch
introduced me to Mitch Katz catskin the the founder of catskin and he said this Ron guy and which Ron was
about my age so I was like oh cool you guys got somebody you know not not the catkin was old but I mean you just got I
just I just knew him immediately and then and then I remember like a year later thinking okay I wonder talking to
a few peers and they’re like somebody said well that guy’s really sharp and so
that was my first impression I’m like okay well I’m better trust what this guy says so and you know we’ll get into it
but yeah Ron don’t let him kid you he’s he’s done a lot for this industry a lot for the leather business a lot for
catskin a lot for restylers um I do want to ask you Ron who you said you met
restylers who was the first restyler you met to understand what restyling
was uh the first restyler uh I don’t remember the first
one I met was first one that really made an imp CH the first one that made an impact on
me and the first one that was one of my regular customers when I started selling sun was Ralph George and uh Ralph took
me under his wings um and taught me so much um about the business and the
really cool thing Ralph was already established by that point and was he was the largest freyler in the country or
largest single point at that point and he was incredibly successful he’d been successful for couple decades at DAC
already he started in the early 80s and he was still going out three to four
days a week seeing dealers he was still taking me to the dealers teaching me the way he sold and it was so enlightening
um because he was you know one of the cool things about selling the car dealers is you know you keep your spirit
up you get you know you get pumped off you go in you have that great energy and all the good salespeople do that and
Ralph was amazing you know forever he was doing that and he taught me a lot um taught me a he
taught me a ton about U doing things right um standing behind your product uh
motivation excitement he was great totally buiness I mean he hey we’re talking about so he has a shop called
now it’s called sat Specialty Auto treatments they’re down in Fort Lauderdale um now Ralph sadly passed
away about uh what 2017 2018 I can’t remember exactly and then uh he also won
lifetime Achievement Award and his son Ralph uh Jr and uh Christina you know
run the business now Christina’s over in Germany but she’s coming back uh but yeah awesome awesome growth I mean we’re
talking about now talk about leather I mean we’re not giving give away Secrets but I remember one time being there and
UPS pulled off pulled out pull or dropped off some leather kits the whole truck was leather kits I was like oh my
gosh this is crazy this guy does some leather no he awesome I mean they were
rolling 50 kits a day there for the longest time it’s uh awesome I had a lot of cool customers at the beginning a lot
of them are you know kind of say my age they’re not necessarily here all of them anymore but like Jack Cole was a trick
out of Nashville he yeah from Cole Brothers and that Jack was so much fun
um because Jack liked nothing more than to work hard all day and party all night um and uh so you know I was in my 20s
and you know living in Atlanta at the time and um Jack would call me with ideas no doubt like Sunday morning at 2:
a.m my phone would be going off and if I’d answer and I answered it most of the time because that’s I still do that but
um he’d call me I got this great idea you gotta be up here Monday morning we’re gonna go to the dealers and we’re gonna do this all right jack I I’ll
leave my house at Five I’ll be there at eight lot of but I mean that’s restyling
I mean you come up with creative ways to help the dealers sell more cars and you want them do it are most restylers alike
are they all different I mean or would you categorize them like with you when you meet with your Sal staff do you go okay this is an A type restyler this is
a b type this are a level one level two I mean how do you guys differentiate
restylers um we you have differentiations based on volume so you
have sumary stylers that are um still learning the business and can only get so much product through so you’ve got
devel metal restylers that you’re focusing more Technical Resources toward because they really need installation
help training help business organizational help and uh you know
because if you’re running a fourman fiveman shop you you don’t have a salesperson um so how does the owner
organize his day to get out and do things um and those customers are critically important I mean they they
grow they become the future um of the business but then you’ve got your larger customers who need um who need more
Focus um on our product because they get bigger and they have a lot of products they may be offering so how do we uh
we’re fighting for our mind share I mean we want you to sell weather and heaters and coolers 247 but you know you’re
selling tent and truck cffs and wheels and XYZ accessories so uh so I guess we
you know we don’t categorize them differently but the way the sales team
handles them uh they may be providing different assets and different resources to different people based on you know
where they’re at in their business development Hey Ron what what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced
Challenges & Triumphs
in the industry and how did you overcome them uh there’s never a shortage of
challenges um you know it’s uh you know when I started at catskin it was it was
making product quick uh we were you know for the longest time when I started I
mean probably the first decade we budgeted our annual sales sales based on what we could make uh and we were
striving to become a 24hour you know 24 to 48 hour turnaround on any custom
interior you could want uh which is really I mean it was really a heavy lift
because you know we built the business into delivering product in 24 to 48 hours 3,000 patterns 100 plus colors
design it any way you want you know put Bubba on the driver’s seat and Bobby Sue on the passenger seat do whatever you
want to the seat and ordered on Monday and we’ll ship it to we’ll ship it on Tuesday um and so building that kind of
system took us a lot of production um expertise and really created a unique
Advantage for catskin and it was one of the ways we went from being a small company in the industry fighting for you
know 10% market share to a much larger part of the business was to be creative
and be fast um because one thing we learned and we’re really committed to in this business uh when a restyler calls
in an order he’s late before he got the order um you know the dealer wants that car back wants to close that sale wants
to make that delivery um and so we evolved the business into that that was a big challenge was having more capacity
than we needed and then managing to it um for a business that would work and then building up the infrastructure of
warehouses all over the country stocking 600 you know Factory style SKS and all that that was a that was a heavy we it
was in fact in fact it was so good they did such a good job Jesse that all of a sudden us restylers we get a call from a
dealership says hey I have a truck here I need leather it’s Monday all right all right we’ll have it done by Wednesday
because we’ll have it Tuesday we’ll do it Wednesday and then all a sudden Co
hit comes and then all of a sudden catskin has some uh you know a little maybe Supply change I’ll let him talk
about but it it jumped to two weeks and these deal de’s like what do you mean it’s going to take two weeks I’m like
well everything in the world takes two weeks right now now the good thing is catkins come back and now we can have it
again fast but we don’t promise our dealers as fast we haven’t come all the way back so we still give us a little
bit of buffer time so but what what were the challenges during covid with Supply
chains why why did it take oh what wasn’t the challenge yes yeah what wasn’t the
challenge during covid right but um well I mean the the first challenge was right out of the gate right I mean you got
into it like in 2020 you get March and so we’ve got three manufacturing
facilities we got the one in Los Angeles we got one just south of there over the Mexican border and we got one in
Malaysia and so when covid hit um California of course was on the Leading
Edge of uh shutdown and control and all that stuff we have this day that comes
up in it was a February or March of 20 something like that and they’re like okay La is going to have to close all
businesses closed like no no we got stuff to do but they’re like no no on Monday we learn like on a Friday like
Monday nobody’s gonna be able to answer the phone nobody’s going to be able to come to the office nobody’s gonna be able to do this so literally I mean the
team at cat’s get there are so many amazing people there um so like at Friday we’re talking about this we’re
going through all these things our receptionists were figuring out how to unwire our switchboard for the entire
Factory and then we go we take our entire it team to our house and set it up at our kitchen table so that Monday
morning at 6:00 AM when restylers try to call we’ll be able to take the call we
don’t know how how we’re going to make anything well we got a plant in Mexico that’s not closed down right now so we’re going to figure it out um and and
we ship product every day we never closed we never closed one minute of one
day through the entire run of covid now the plant in California closed but we
shipped out of uh Mexico or we shipped out of Malaysia we had to figure out how to do a direct ship out of Malaysia when
Mexico got closed out but then California was back up and then and that all the supply Logistics I mean there
was there was a run for six months I’m not kidding you we were managing Supply
trying to get stuff in because you’re getting short shipped not shipped stuff wasn’t getting across where we we didn’t
know at 4M one day if we were going to be able to make kits the next day because we didn’t have airbag Fabric and
every interior we make has airbag fabric on the scam you can’t make anything without airbag fabric um but our airbag
fabric supplier short shift us and we had to find and it’s not like you could just go down to the local I they do have
CVS just got to go in the back cabinet it’s it’s called airbag
Supply or a breakway thread or black leather I mean they ran out I was like
what color you he said we’re out of black I’m like how are you out of black leather you can wait you could send me
Sunrise yellow but you don’t have black not R out of
black no we never ran out of BL can’t within a day of it um but
uh but no it was um it was a challenge and it I I look I mean it sounds a
little company Centric to say everybody’s great it’s it’s a phenomenal group of people that are really
dedicated to customers in the business there’s a really good customer focus um
we’ve always been kind of known for a few things and one of them is really good customer service um and we we
really invest in customer service uh like Josh attests to this um it’s all
the companies you deal with when there’s a problem and there’s going to be problems the parts made wrong or they
rip it when when they’re installing it or something happens we make Parts same day um all the way up until like 2: p.m.
Eastern uh Josh can be doing an install at 1 pm he’s like oh shoot I got this car is disassembled it’s got to go back
to the dealer the headrest rip when we were putting it on he calls us at like one o’clock I’m like okay it’ll be there
in the morning um so I mean we and we have to make that part however it was read with you know Billy Bob written on
it um he’s still going to get it tomorrow morning uh to uh to do that and that’s a huge focus of the company that
we have a fun group of sales guys who like to have a good time and go out and see car dealers so um you know that’s uh
kind of what we a good product I mean I’ve been really blessed I uh you know
i’ kind of grown up here I started I was in my 20s now I’m in my 50s but uh you know it’s uh it’s a really fun really
fun product to sell and you know it’s all about the people you work with you spend half your life with them so um
yeah got to have fun Hey Ron how has the industry changed since you first got
Evolution & Trends
involved and and where do you see it heading in the future you know there’s certainly a a
lot of change in the IND I mean when I first started at catskin our number one selling vehicle was a Grand Marquee um
with uh it was a G by the
way gathered inserts and piping and all the rec were putting simulated convertible tops okay Mar classic I
called it I remember early on in the business
like 20 years ago now this is this will be funny for restylers that have entered the business in the last 15 years I used
to beg restylers um all the time we got to go after the truck market we’ve got
to go after the truck Market there’s no leather on these trucks they sell a lot of trucks no they’re all commercial no
no people drive trucks and you know we we can do trucks and
Reyers were so disinterested in trucks over 20 years it was like no no that’s
for the truck cap guys that’s what the truck Market wants yeah we we do Honda odsy and
Toyota Camry and Grand Mar no no trucks are gonna be big guys we we got a big oper and and now the now my top 10 model
all have a truck bed um but uh um but no I mean so you talk about a
shift um you know from now cars are basically an appliance for not all cars
but the mass Market cars are mainly used as an appliance you know some they just wants them to get back and forth to work
and so we could still sell those for an economic angle for the person that wants to have the ease of weather and the
luxury of weather but doesn’t want to pay for a $7,000 package you know that’s
you know that’s still there but the real the real Market is in the trucks and the
SUVs sty besides trucks take trucks out of it now over think about it for the last 23 years you’ve been a cat skin the
number one vehicle would it be a Camry just I mean just overall
volume outside of trucks probably because Camry was so dominant Jessie it
was just a line of Camry’s that we used to do just a line of c and there it was great about it only came in two colors
you either got gray or tan yeah and so so you which what color is your car gray
and it didn’t have a bunch of models you know for the longest time and then eventually it got weird and they had a weird vid number where was it built we
had to send you the right kit but for the longest time it was just Camry because then you could also do power sunroofs and leather in a Camry home run
oh love Camry yeah C Camry’s were were awesome
for the longest time and uh it probably was I’m I’m trying to think we did a lot
of hound Odyssey for there was years where Honda Odyssey huge uh but no it’s probably C
it’s probably Camry I mean it’s definitely trucks overall at this point Ron I want to I want to ask you
know uh over at SEMA uh uh the the our friend that we affectionately call Gandalf the wizard uh who does all of
the the uh studies and um they puts out the SEMA reports he you know truck has
dominated and they’re but they’re actually predicting CUV in general as being the next big thing because of the
number of of them on the road so I’m wondering if you’re you guys are already kind of seeing that at all with with
leather installs certainly I mean we have a a a
pretty big diversity and you know we make it for everything anything that has you know cloth or synthetics or things
like that we’re going to pattern it so the uh dealers and our customers can upgrade it um the uh
the the CUV Market if you consider like a Rav 4 or a CRV to be in that market um
definitely um among among the best sellers there are those customers want that luxury but our Market is created by
being able to do what the factory wishes they could do you know it’s it’s great
customization great personalization on the interior and then there’s the economic angle we still got to fit an
economic an economic angle that makes sense so if the cuvs are offering uh a
premium leather on the lower trim lines then it becomes less attractive for our product but what’s really really cool is
used cars have gotten so expensive that they’ve went from an afterthought in our business to over a third of the business
and um I mean that’s been the huge part of the huge ride over the past few years
really as the cost of a used C doubled I mean literally doubled over the past
four to five years uh it’s particularly for a late model used uh you know they
used to be 20 now they’re 40 and on a $40,000 vehicle you can start to really
make sense of putting a couple thousand dollars into the interior doing some accessorization some restyling and
making it special when it was a $20,000 vehicle I mean you’re really bumping up
against what can the buyer afford um on that vehicle now there’s still buyers that want to personalize and make things
cool and all that but um but used cars are are probably more excited about them
than even that c segment um and but I mean they’ll create dysfunctional
economics on some of them and it’ll be a huge win for the for the aftermarket um leather and other items because I am
hearing from the oems right now a lot of DEC contenting on the lower and mid trim
lines um and a lot more a lot less packages so that they can simplify
production especially with the domestics they need to simplify their manufacturing to uh maximize their
output uh now their cost factors have gone up because of some stuff with UAW contracts and different things they
really need to be efficient that efficiency is going to limit options um for vehicle Trimline packages and it’s
just great for the restylers I mean and and leather will be one thing but I mean it’ll be everything it’ll be blind spot
and B up and all the other items that they add for dealers that word that you used I think think you said DEC
contenting is that the is that the word can you explain that to um beginners or
people that are not as Savvy yeah for sure um so it’s you know
if you go to try to buy a vehicle right now on some of the trucks or um off-road vehicle trim lines like the Wranglers or
the Broncos they may literally have 15 different option packages as base
packages and then you can add or subtract any of hundreds of different
options on your original equipment vehicle um for the oems that is very
very difficult on their production assembly line process to be able to build that and it kind of just builds
over time and keep turns into this huge animal that they can’t manage and and so
then they say okay look we’re not doing 12 trim lines anymore and add any of 100
accessories we’re going to three trim lines we’re going to a base and a middle and a high and we’ll give you three
options on and and that’s that’s the way our cars are going to be positioned and we’re
going to be more efficient they may be able to make their cars for less money or they may be able to make more profit by doing it that way and so it all works
out for them but what that does for us is huge I mean that was the Camry thing right the Camry hadn’t have didn’t have
options for the longest time they had an Le and SE and an XLE and if you wanted
leather you had to buy The XLE and the L and seie didn’t have it there was no way to get it and so uh you know that that’s
the bones of the business the more the more complex the oems are willing to
make their platforms and trim lines the more it can make it difficult for those
uh to be able to offer you know going along with that Jesse just you know when you when you talk about DEC contenting
you know one thing that was uh you know keyless entry is one of those things so for instance you pull out your keys and
you have a little lock and an unlock button right in fact almost every car now has that however during 0809 when
that to when that whole you know when the Great Recession took place manufacturers start DEC
contenting that option and some other options similar so now you would get a brand new car Corolla let’s say it would
have power locks but it not would not have that keyless entry it would just be a normal key and they would do they
would DEC content different items on the vehicles to make them a little bit less money so that people could afford them
well all of a sudden our business there you know customers get used to something and they’re like whoa how in the world can I get by without keyless
entry so you know it that’s what happens is sometimes like Ron says these animals they these manufacturers have become
monsters in what they’re offering and they have to go back and start DEC contenting just to put it back into the
back online and back on track and then we pick up any of the uh scraps that are left
over so their streamlining and simplification which is for their own economics actually benefits us
because every time they remove an option then it’s an opportunity mean just think about when they start when they start
DEC contenting remote starts and saying ah you know what we’re not going to put that on that model anymore everybody who
gets that car who’s used to that now they need that remote start heated seats leather you know everything so yeah it’s
it’s it’s going to be really good actually for the next few years I think I’m agree I agree with Ron I’ve heard
that same thing they’re going to cut a lot of packages out and we’re going to have a lot of opportunities some open
gaps now I want to tell you something about Ron Ron comes up with a lot of
words that he may have created DEC contenting I don’t know but let me tell you another work he came up with that
Jesse is absolutely in love with so Jesse loves me only through Ron and
here’s why I’m the one that enlightened Jesse and his team into trim level
economics now Ron is the originator the grandfather The Godfather of Crim level
economics so I’ll let him explain what that means but Jesse just fell in love with that and the whole thing about it
Ron here is the one who that you know I’m gon I’m giving him all the credit it was probably his wife but I’m it’s you
know tell us about that Ron I’m enamored this is great hey I
gotta tell you this so km you’re right I when I first started in this business as
an intern at AFC I wasn’t even out of college yet a guy named Leo xandy who I
think know you’ve met before J um used to run ASC sun and so I was this intern
green kid coming in and and said that and what are you gonna do for the summmer he says I want you to go through
this Auto blackbook manual and go through every vehicle made and determine
the trim level walks for sunroofs between every trim line that there is
and so you know I turned out this 150 page report at the end that had all the
trim level economics and walks for Suter when I when I first started at ASC so
what it is basically it’s the non sexy way to sell so I’m not good-look right
um if I was running ay hire good-look girls because that that’s a good benefit but I’m not good-look so I GNA know what
I’m talking about so for me it’s trim level economics you go in there and you say okay the difference between an LE
model and an XLE model with the leather equipment you know what I live is
$9,000 if you want want to get leather on an L you want to get leather on this model an F-150 before you can get an
F-150 with leather you’ve got to step up $99,000 from the base it creates that walk so the guy that walks in to buy an
F-150 that has a dirty job and doesn’t want a cloth interior uh but just wants
a 4×4 truck um with seats that aren’t going to look like garbage in 30 minutes
um he’s got to spend $99,000 more that’s the whole economic angle of our business
like restyler can offer a package to the dealer that he can make good profit on and sell to the guy for 2,000 bucks and
he doesn’t get a walk to $99,000 and he gets the car he wants for $7,000 less than the OEM packages would allow I mean
that’s the economics of our business and almost every model has just really good
economic angles for doing what they’re doing and sometimes they’re over $20,000 before you can step into a model
that has the weather equipment on it um and win win win win for the customer cuz
they’re not paying so much win for the dealership they’re selling the car they want to get rid of on the lot and making money making more money and win for the
restyler win for the mcam manufacturer win for the government because they collect taxes on all
four I uh I had my my my uncle visited me briefly to say Merry Christmas and he
was asking about this and I actually I didn’t explain it as well as you did Ron but the the the term walk value sounded
so cool and I didn’t know so I said you know what like if you’re at the dealership and he says well let’s walk over here to this High better this more
expensive model and I didn’t know if it was figurative or a literal so I thought well maybe it’s both so you literally
have to walk over to the other car that or the other truck or whatever and so that and he got it immediately and I
said yeah and that’s what a restyler does they help get what you want and personalized without having to walk over to the more expensive mod that’s EXA
something for your next podcast when you do training for us Ron have a little you know miles can do this in a in a second
have a little guy right and say okay now let’s look at Bronco what’s the walk and have a little guy walk from the base big
bed and he walks over to the whatever and says okay the walk is
$4,000 and then he runs to the next one because it’s only $2,000 or whatever but
that’s exactly what it is Jesse it’s the walk from trim level to trim level to trim level because you used to do that
now in the old days it was oh you can’t afford let’s let’s just keep let’s walk backwards so
the other thing you want that right I mean you get the people who want to H the Denali but
they come in with the budget of a an SL or what LT and so you know they they
walk them back down but you know some of those things that they really wanted on the Denali they can they can keep them for on the LT if they’re working tell
tell us about your uh the your new initiative of how you’re trading restylers I just love it and I think
it’s a great way to to get the information out there that we can rewatch tell us about that
oh yeah well we first of all we have a great sales team all right we have I have a sales team of 15 people that are
constantly working with our customers providing um support and uh selling tips and tools and we’ve got a monthly
newsletter and we’ve got uh we’ve got a weekly uh restyler Focus letter that
goes out we got pattern releases but I wanted to do something that would be received a little better so I started
doing some videos that were short um under 10 minutes I was shooting for five and I realized I can’t talk in five
minute increments i i i bued them for five and they go 10 I I have not come
good enough to to keep them under 10 but or keep keep them under five but the the
idea was to have two or three things that would shoot out every week or two to re to restylers that would give uh
some of the economic information about some of the new cars give them a sales tip or two that may be working in the
field like the 24 Mustang came out on the last one and I so I told Reyers you
know look a lot of dealers stock Rous and Shelby packages and these $30,000
packages out there those packages won’t be out for six to 12 months so go to your dealers and put together some
packages to fill that profit gap for them so stuff like that that you’re not going to put in a typical new product
release for a 24 Mustang and then I try to cover a one or two dealer objections
and and then try to get done in under 10 minutes um but for the we have really
good response I was so it was so cool I started running them and and they’re getting watched by like 80% of the
people that are seeing it and like 60% of the people are staying for the whole time and so I’m looking at my Google
analytics on and I had to figure out how to do this I never done any type of video casting I’m still probably doing
in a real Antiquated way but um I’m I’m making a PowerPoint deck and reading through it basically but it works but it
was a video so I was getting you know six and 10 minutes um from couple
hundred restyler salespeople out there and um and then I got great feedback they were like yeah give me more give me
more videos are good I don’t want to read emails the emails are what we did so what I did is I got this and I said
this is great so I immediately I and my reps get it too because they’re on the email blast but I forwarded to him I
said hey watch this before our next we we meet once a week for a sales meeting so not only did they watch it ahead of
time but then we watched it together at the sales meeting because it’s only 10 minutes and I you know I got them for
an hour so I’m like I’m going to take 10 minutes because what happened is they caught one thing that they wanted to
focus on in the first time they watch it but then they caught a second thing when we watched it together and we discussed
it um so you know I mean I it’s a great tool I love that you do it and you know
I I agree with you don’t do it too often though so that people go I’ll just catch the next one but often enough where it’s relevant it’s it’s a great tool and
Jesse’s the M marketing genius Jesse what do you think what could he what how could he do it better I think
it’s I think it’s awesome I think it’s fantastic and I I think a big thing nowadays is to make sure that that all
this content is is uh people learn in different ways and so it’s great if you
have multimedia multi-step multi-channel kinds of marketing pieces where someone who wants the video great maybe that
same video content could be turned into a written version you know you can transcribe those videos and then and then have them edited into blogs or or
you some people want to read some people want to watch some people want to listen right so I I love it and I was going to
lead me to my next question Ron which is obviously you’ve talked about customer service Focus you guys have that and now
I’m hearing that you do a good job of the education what else makes Cat Skin unique um and especially toward
restylers um but what makes you guys unique and what sets you apart from from the uh the
competition uh a great product um you know we we have some advantages is that
it be very hard for our competitors to uh try to compete with from product
quality and safety standards and things like that I mean we’re also an oem supplier you know we’re we’re A supplier
to stellantis supplier to Ford um we do we do airbag testing OEM but more than
airbag testing we do full seat validation testing with the OEM we have we have just so much more re in the
resource bucket than what anybody else could have there but we also have a lot
more fast creative customization capability I mean we just can turn stuff
around really quick at catskin so you know we come up with an idea and we try
to launch in no less than a week uh we’ll we come up with stuff we want to
do an American flag Edition uh pated into the inserts and we want to launch
it for Fourth of July boom we’re out there we rock and we roll we try to do it um so we try to do things really fast
and we’re trying to be very creative um and then we have a we also have to manage a huge um a huge inventory of
warehouses around the country that allow the restylers to turn around the product in 24 hours we still think that fast
24hour turnaround is critical um is critical this business it’s amazing you
would think a car purchase is something that people are willing to wait and it’s this idealistic thing like yeah they’re
going to go in and they’re going to order their car and they’re going to wait 10 weeks and they’re going to get that’s not the way the car business
works in the United States or Canada um people people it’s a it’s a process they
want to take delivery now so the fast turnaround the great product the safety
great service um just always trying to try and do and I think listening um
listening is something that’s really really hard for a manufacturer um you got to be listening to your customers if
you do you’ll be very successful uh because your customers will tell you what you need to do and they’ll and
you’re also able to implement the feedback they give you which makes you better um that’s uh that’s critically
important and it may seem simple it’s really hard to do um and we try to do a
good job of it um always try to do better so are you guys trying to expand uh I
Expansion Plans
don’t know if you want to talk about Acquisitions or anything like that but the company is really bit now right it’s
you know it’s great so let’s talk about it I mean let’s be honest here if I’m a
if I’m a manufacturer my competition they’re a thorn in my side you know so
what do you do you pull out the thorn and then you go okay I’m gonna buy you so uh you know that’s what so tell us
about that Ron I mean I know you’ve been working on it for six years but no 23 years you know what I mean yeah we
we acquired a competitor not to be named uh but they uh it was the right time you
know we needed to expand our uh production footprint we we got a new an additional plant out of it we got um
some patterns that we didn’t have for allow us to expand back into the older models uh which we were getting more and
more demand for because we’ve been investing millions of dollars into retail awareness of our product so we’re
getting more demand for some of the the backdated patterns and stuff some we might not have had and you know for us
it was just really about doing the right thing for the business we had been making all these Investments to build a
profitable business model for our customers and for the dealers and
something that would really work uh for the entire business and so if somebody’s
not making that investment and they’re just riding on the coattails of it um it would be a shame to see them be very
successful discounting something so there was there was definitely some Advantage there but it was just about
doing the right thing uh for the business and uh the time was right so um
we we acquired their assets and uh and it’s been great I mean it’s it’s uh we’ve been able to transition their
business um bring the quality level up to catskin standards and introduce new
patterns and uh and grow our bandwidth so that we can provide more inventory
one thing Jesse that I is just amazing what people still don’t realize is if you go tour one of their factories which
I’ve been to been to I haven’t been to Malaysia Factory but I’ve been to the one in Mexico and one in in montabello
and it’s amazing when you walk in first of all you see you do see this um you
know huge like million dollar machine that’s cutting the actual patterns out
that have to be sewn eventually but then so you see the technology and you see the computer and you know let’s say it’s
going to make an F-150 pattern it lays out the color and it figures out exactly how to to do it without any waste and
all that and then those pieces get piled and they get sent to an actual sewer
that has a sewing machine and the guy or girl just sits there and they sew it so it’s like it’s handmade custom still
it’s not all just computer you know technology robots or anything like that
so I mean as cool I mean yeah you can get some mistakes but you can get
mistakes with robots so to have somebody actually hand touch it and make it
knowing that man somebody actually spent some good amount of time and then to meet the deadlines that he’s talking
about is it’s it’s very impressive when you go it’s called a versalis that uh we
have several of these multi-million dollar machines that it’s they are amazing pieces of equipment so a leather
hide is not a perfect um uh canvas to work with this is coming off of a cow um
and product is very natural um we don’t stand blast our material we we go for a
really nice hand soft touch so you can’t just blast it off and then boss the Grain on the to get that you got to use
the full grain top coat leather so when you lay that hide out it has to be
scanned and then you have to identify all the imperfection then you’ve got a nest 200 pieces that are all different
pieces to make up this leather actually on a d on a a ram truck right now it’s like 387 pieces have to have to be
nested um into the into these hides and vinyl that are going to make up the interior then you’ve got to cut the Pham
then you’ve got to combine all this stuff um in any of a hundred colors then you know you got to go through the whole
manufacturing process airbag sewing all the clips and J zippers and snaps and
but everything that goes then you got to box up and you and you’ve got 24 hours to get this done 500 times
um and it’s it’s really really um it’s it look I mean it’s a very very intense
business um we built a incredible so Josh will tell you this you can literally call caskin say Okay I want a
kit that’s red with black inserts and I wanted for a Chevy Silverado uh with a
solid rear seat and codor they go you go pick up the car and you call us back like 30 minutes later and you say I’m
sorry the back seat’s not solid it’s 6 already cut it um I I’m gonna call BS on
that I bet he’s just charging me twice uh no he probably they they do you you
you better make sure your first when you order it online or you call them you better make sure you know because it’s already on its way it’s already on the
UPS truck yeah there’s just no way to do it
unless you roll it I mean it’s uh I loved the the the um jeep that you guys
had at SEMA the one from Jurassic Park uh that design it was so beautifully
done I took pictures of it I I really love that thing um I’m sure you’ve seen other like you guys have done some
special projects or maybe memorable projects is there anything that comes to mind that you would you could share
anything that was sort of special or different oh we’ve done so many so many
memorable projects over the years it’s uh I mean everything from you know working with superstars like Shaq back
in the old days in The Beach Boys and uh on additions to the stuff we’ve done with car Shelby Chip And You Know Jack
Rous chip F the stuff we did with fo um the you know we’ve got so many great
things and we’re just trying to keep keep growing it and taking it I mean um
at SEMA this year we launched an addition with Steve McQueen’s son um on a McQueen truck that’s gonna that’s
being built they sold them out um and a couple hundred of them or something like that and you know I’ll tell you what one
we did recently super super cool I loved this so we did um we have a company that
does conversion builds that we work with um does a lot of trucks um there’s this event in the California desert called
the king of hammers where it’s like for the ATV and serious off-roaders they try
to climb this king of hammers Trail and being able to make the trail is like a real Badge of you know you’ve got
something right it’s it’s you know climbing up rock walls all kinds of crazy stuff they got this really wild
Trail so they wanted to do a special edition Bronco for the king of hammers and they were getting the right
suspension and tires and trucks build a few hundred of these you know makeing this king of hammers Edition what are
you gonna do on the interior for the king of hammers truck we’ve got a design team we got this lead designer Ramy
who’s just amazing so he said he comes up with stuff and it blows my mind he
pattern pered the king of hamers Trail into the insert of the king of hammer
bronos awesome so the insert Bronco they only made a couple hundred of them it’s
it’s got the trail and it’s perforated into the interior of the seat um you know the trail this truck’s GNA be able
to go down and I just thought that we’re doing stuff like that all the time but that one was really cool I’ll tell you
I’ll tell you one Jesse so we had Ian Lan on um so 2023 man same a person of
the year sorry ladies he beat you too um and we had him on it he we did his uh
Bronco uh we built it for SEMA what two years ago I think for boosting and he
had he had watched that movie Fandango old movie with Kevin cner it was BR the Big Ben Trail and everything and so I
said he let you know he’s like talk to me about what he wants to do this is I said well whatever we do we got to make this thing look good we put a leather in
it so we wrapped the dash in Mahogany and I’m a big mahogany fan as you can tell my my headphones but so I had
catskin make this mahog leather and it had nice two-tone piping and had the hex
stitch in it you know and two-tone stitching and it had fangang Fandango uh embroidered on the back seat back and
everything like that so anyway I love I think it looks beautiful and everything like that so he’s gets this vehicle
right and he put so much time and effort we built a lot of it he he designed like the wheels and he wanted to mount a
certain way and he wanted the flares to be a certain way and he wanted this graphic pattern and he spent hours and hours and hours and hours and he he had
so many compliments and people always said oh wow I really like that interior oh wow he would get so pissed every time
he text me he’s like the one thing that everybody loves about this broko is the cat can carrier that you put in it I was
like dude it’s what sets that thing apart so to this day he’s still like
that I do all this work and I drive this around it can do all these off off-roading things but it’s got this
leather in it that everybody likes
that’s awesome Ron what was the what was maybe the funniest or the most bizarre or the strangest thing that’s happened
to you in your business you’ve had a long career I’m sure you could come up with something weird you got anything funny bizarre strange different well the
first thing that come in mind I really can’t say on the podcast remember Jesse he goes and visits restylers and then
they go out to dinner and or drinks after and then they have a catskin party
every year at see it so there the what you’re asking is really not
allowed yeah it’s um I’ll give you a I’ll give you a strange somebody fell in
the pool at the cin party yeah happed a couple times
um pretty Infamous for our parties at SEMA we’ve uh uh we’ve been running our
parties from at SEMA consecutively um every year except when SEMA didn’t work
since 20 200 and you know whoever whoever whoever this they may not
realize this you know we have a lot of very people in Industry so this a good time to tell them because the authorities aren’t going to be able to hear this so so tell Jesse what how do
you so Jesse you when when you’re when you’re catskin and you rent or you you know for the weekend uh or the week
however long you guys rent at the Elvis room at the top left the Westgate which is the largest hotel room in Las Vegas
it’s amazing it’s beautiful but usually the Westgate is like oh if you want drinks you use our drinks so Ron go
ahead and fill the fill the children in on uh how my boy here pulls off a epic party that everybody comes to since
2001 well you know I I’d like to i’ like to point out that casin does everything he can do to be fiscally
responsible disclaimer disclaimer Tim he said
it no but seriously I mean that you tried to throw the you try to throw a party for a thousand restyling uh
professionals and uh and buy all of the uh tequila from the Westgate Resort
would be um prohibitive shall we say even Elvis can’t afford that
so yeah so we we always uh we always run a couple uh big big uh three row SUVs
and take them down to the liquor store and uh provide our own bar setup uh for
for the hotel uh but but no I mean it’s it’s allowed us to throw that party uh
and be responsible I mean we do a lot of things to be phisically responsible really do but that one is that one’s
kind of Infamous in the industry because we uh yeah we do whatever it takes to make that party happen and uh there’s uh
there’s party party is among the highlights of my year every year because
you know the really cool thing about that party is for years and years and years we take big customers out to
dinner and we do the things you do in Vegas and all that stuff um but you couldn’t pay attention to the hundreds
of smaller customers that you know you may get five minutes in the booth or 30 minutes in the boo them or something but
you couldn’t really show your appreciation and those guys are working hard um and when we throw these kind of
parties uh where we can invite everybody they so appreciate it and I’ve got some
big customers now that were really small and they’re like I couldn’t believe you guys were welcoming us up to the Elvis
Suite uh you know drank till we dropped and uh and have a good time and uh and
so that that’s uh and I’ve heard a lot of customers got a lot of great business ideas out of that meeting um because
Network some of my best memories of networking at SEMA is at the catskin party when you’re talking to another guy
you know you may not bump into these people at the show the show is so large you know what’s the chances you’re going to happen to be in the same booth at the
same time but you’re at the party and you talk to hey what’s been going on this last year this that and successes
or new people and there’s so many people from outside just restyling that are part of the industry that still come to
this thing it’s crazy but well and you’re a great networker
because Josh figures out how to get everybody to come to him I mean what he does when he comes to the party is he goes back to Elvis’s bedroom he pulls
out the um robe um you know Dismounts the clothes puts the robe on and then
comes back out everybody wants and Josh isun funny story about that Jesse so Ian and I are together right and you know
Ian’s never done a leather tier but I said listen it’s the best thing on your Bronco you want you come to this party so he comes to the party and we go to
we’re like okay we got to go find these robes cuz you know if you’re going to be the Elvis room I mean you might as well
walk around like a baller and so we go we put the robes on and there’s a security guard
now whatever but there the security guard only has like one arm okay and but
he’s a big dude and he goes you need you guys need to put those robes back and I
just look up at him I’m like I mean and I know what was going going through Ian’s mind like we can run I think even
if he tackled us he’s only going to get one of us with one arm but and we said but it’s one big probably could have
Crow we probably could have taken him but you know we’re not going to do that we’re not going to do that it’s Ron’s party anyway I said you know what we
will put these back in 20 minutes and he just smiled and goes all right he let us
out we were back like an hour later or something like that I lost track of time but anyway uh we did put them back to so
so hopefully you charged for those robes hey let’s talk about uh um let’s
talk about Pro because one thing I found out this week Jesse so Ron is he’s this
is his second stint on Pro um and he you know being on the select committee I
should say and uh he run he actually runs one of the task force for uh sasp
also the um what we get into the auto shows back into that he kind of runs
that but what I found out is katkin was one of the uh founding manufacturers I
mean so the restylers had their group of that start a pro but they needed buying from everybody and katkin in
1992 uh was one of the katkin was on board pretty quick back then as far as
being a part of pro so tell us Ron why are you guys part of pro why do you personally do it what do you g
him well we’re rest point based company so I don’t know if you’re not going to be involved with the Professional
restyling Organization that seems a little Sil the U uh yeah you know for for me
it’s it’s just been something I I loved working with restylers and doing things to make the business better I started um
in Pro back like right when I was starting in the in the business with ckin like in
012 um I I joined the select committee I was elected to to get involved with that
and the thing we were working on then that I was so proud of was ASC testing for leather interior installation and
sunroof installations so we kind of were validating our um our proficiency and
all that so that was you know a huge thing I worked on and I termed out of pro uh after that and then I had some
people who worked for me that were great that kind of kept cats getting involved uh with Pro and were great and then they
said hey you want to come back and I SLE love come back um and so I ran for it and they uh they graciously let me back
on a couple years ago and uh so now we’re working on restyler education but it’s you know using stea money to do
things to make our business better trying to fight for our share of uh of
that SEMA pie of money in all honesty not buttering him up Josh
was huge in fighting for the restyling industry to get our fair share of the
funds because you know the restyling business business is not like the founding part of SEMA you know I was started by the gear the race car drivers
and you know the people who’ve been in the edel Brocks and the Hol and all these people and hey I love them I mean
I’m I’m a you know Detroit kid who loves hot rods don’t get me wrong but um they
were getting a disproportionate share of the funds from what was coming out of SEMA and Josh fought tooth and nail to
get more funds into the reyling side of it and uh and so now I’m kind of seeing how you know how accomplished was with
that and now we’re working on things to get the restyling out into the auto shows started the uh the pro cup
challenge uh where we create these great vehicles that can be replicated on dealer Lots um I mean it’s a it’s always
a great group of people putting some time in it’s not that much time uh a
couple hours a month usually you know you put unless you’re you know president or whatever they call the leader of it
um but you know they spend they spend a little bit more time but you know for the dozen of us or so that are on the
select committee we take one or two you know key items and we get together once a month and talk about things overall
and what what should we be working on everybody gives a little status update but it’s it’s great and you know I don’t
know I I love the networking I love being around people I love staying in touch with I like working with the
Reyers part of it more than the manufacturer part of it um just it’s
just kind of me but uh yeah I think we got some things coming so we have a we
have a great core now too so Kobe and Kevin are doing a great job so but people like Ron you know they gets lost
that there’s really 15 other people that are really behind this scenes making sure all this happens so it’s really
cool thank you for all your volunteering help it’s awesome I appreciate thank you
for all you did I’m not dead yet you were I mean thank you for it’s not is that what you’re gonna say my funeral
thanks for all you did I’m not dead we’re still fighting no I’m joking I’m joking he
knows a for lifetime I told Brer last year just
because you won Lifetime Achievement just because you’re the first person in the last three years that’s been alive to win
it doesn’t mean you have to go away anytime soon stick around
buddy uh Ron uh I would like to hear a little bit about how you approach
Business Strategies & Partnerships
marketing and sales for cats cuz you’ve got an important role with that right so what strategies have you guys been most
successful with what are you what are you doing in terms of Business Development at Cat Skin um gosh that’s
it’s it’s kind of My Life um it’s uh I think it’s just hustle it’s uh coming up
with new um new exciting things that are going to help restylers Market to dealers and dealers Market to end users
there’s a lot of new things in the works right now as the whole dealer side of the business is evolving um you know a
lot more of the initial customer interaction is happening online behind the scenes um through Business
Development Centers and on websites and more digital tools where that may have happened in the past at an initial walk
of a lot at the dealership by a customer they may be doing a lot more that early research on Vine they’re still taking
delivery at the dealership primarily or finalizing their purchase there but we used to get introduced a lot earlier um
because we were you know we were Forefront in their profit picture and we had stock units on the lot things so
we’re working really hard right now to get integrated into those tools so that
catskin gets known um by the consumers as early as possible in the development
cycle so that’s a that’s an important part is you know we spent millions and
millions and millions of dollars over each year for multiple years here to make more consumers aware of our product
we’ve probably tripled or quadrupled the the consumer awareness of the category
over the past couple years so part of that is driving the consumer into the
dealership and uh making it easier for our restylers to sell um and then just
you know listening and doing things right um I don’t have any you know big farflung what’s the business going to
look like in 2026 things I mean I’m I’m working on what’s going to happen in two weeks and how are we going to get
restylers um to focus on selling Cat Skin and what kind of great advantages can I give them that’ll make them want
to promote and sell my product um to their customers and uh you know that
that’s the big thing and how can we be more supportive of our customers retail efforts themselves a lot of our
customers have invested heavily in retail as they had to change their business over the pandemic you know
really five seven years ago a lot of Reyers weren’t very retail Focus focus and a lot of them have a lot of effort
on retail now um and so my part of my thing is how can I support your retail
but also don’t forget about the wholesale there’s a there’s a real need to keep the volume at a certain level so
that we can all be successful and that wholesale opportunity is still there so I’m trying to do a lot of things um but
it’s all it’s all restyler Centric customer Centric um stuff how do we get
in front of the customer how do we make it easier for the restyler if if you had to give some advice to somebody just
starting out in in restyling what what would you what would you tell them um maybe they don’t carry catkin
yet um I would tell them it’s it’s an awesome industry if you’re willing to put in the work um there’s uh this is
not an industry where you’re not going to be able to be successful without working your butt off
um and uh you thing you know the thing that’s been really good for me I learned I got taught day one of this business
and uh was just be honest with everybody you know when something bad happens um
address it take care of it go over above and beyond to make it right um people in
this business are are very forgiving if you just tell them your circumstances
and and you work through it and uh we figure out a way to be successful but so yeah I would tell them to uh don’t be
tricky about it don’t be devious don’t go out and just try to cut price and do you know figure out how cheap you can do
something go out and do it right be the best at it and uh and focus on focus on
what you can handle um so that’s I don’t
know we’re gonna let it pass because you know you’re you are a
legend Ron how do how do people get a hold of you or find out more about what you do uh if if people are curious about
How To Contact Katzkin
catskin what what websites do they go to and how do they how do they get a hold of you right so uh catkin actually has
two websites we can mention on this uh on this venue so kin.com is retail I
mean that’s where consumers interact with the company we have a different site called caskin toolbox.com that’s
focused on the wholesale side of the business so um we build Tools in there that restylers can use to find trim wine
walks to go through uh vehicle configurator design your own tool that
doesn’t try to accost you and sell you at the end of it like we would do on our retail side um and then you know my
contact information hasn’t changed in 27 years so I mean it’s ronell atcat skin.com and my mobile number is in
everything that you know we do so reach out to me reach out to any of my 15 great salespeople we have uh we try to
be very very accessible uh try to listen like I said and uh you know we try to
work hard so that’s awesome thank you so much for being here today any last words thanks Ron for
being here you you really are have you’ve taught me personally a lot about this business over the years and uh
we’re just happy to have you around and I’m glad you’re only 50 because that means I can keep stay Pace with you for
a while and you’re not leaving because I don’t want you to be out of here before I’m out of here
so yeah we got a few more C I will see you in a robe next
November all right fellas thanks yeah thanks a lot appreciate it Ron all right care guys that was
great and there you have it another high octane episode of the ride in style podcast reved up and ready to go your
hosts Jesse Stoddard and Josh pson shifted your Automotive game into
overdrive if you’re hungry for more insights Trends and game-changing interviews from the automotive restyling
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