00:00
This episode contains language and subject matter which some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised. If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold,  then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison.  Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese.

00:41
Welcome to the Big 6.0 podcast. I'm Guy Rolison. And if this is your first time here, grab a cuppa  and brace for something just a little bit shy of average.  Of course, sitting alongside me is my old mate and the only person  I know who thought that the tan coefficient in trigonometry probably had something to do with Coppertone and a chair.  What are you talking about? The fabulous and always be treated, Kayleigh Harris. Hello. Hello.  Look, our guest today.

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is the classic Aussie battler.  The little guy who gave it a red hot go  turned a few scraps of fabric into a fashion brand that now reaches around the world. He's a bloke who didn't grow up with a lot,  didn't follow a straight line and definitely didn't have a backup plan.  But what he did have was grit, imagination and the guts to back himself.  In an industry that's overrun by mass produced overseas designs,

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His brand, Jimmy Stewart proudly flies a flag for Australian made fashion, which is bold, original and impossible to ignore. That'd be pretty close. Pretty close.  He's reinvented himself more than once, stared down rejection and somehow turned a pandemic into a business opportunity and is the creative force, the craftsman and the character behind the brand. Jim Greeniger, welcome. Thanks very much, Guy. Thank you, Kayleigh, for having me.  I've known Jim for

02:08
Oh, well over 10 years now, so he's as colourful and as large as life as you'd expect, but he's also a caring, hardworking and no-nonsense guy who genuinely looks out for people. And he'll never admit to just how tough his personal journey's been, but that's part of his charm.  And as impressive as the destination he's arrived at is, it's important to start every story at the beginning. And that's where I'd like to start today. So, Jim?

02:38
Welcome once again. You had a tough start, raised by a single mum,  two older sisters,  and probably growing up a whole lot faster than most kids would have had to have grown up. And that was through necessity, really.  Can you walk us through your life growing up? Yeah,  it's a journey that I often think about because it's so filled with twists and turns.

03:08
I remember my mum did it really tough. She married a guy that already had a family that had been married.

03:20
It's funny I found out about this whole other family that I had  later on in life that they were step people, you know, wonderful people, but that was his first sort of journey. you know, my mum divorced him, I think after seven years or something.  And I think he had a problem with a bottle.  He was a bit of a gambler. And I think he came home one day, you know, without  any money again. He'd blown his paycheck and mum just picked up the kids and...

03:50
took us out and we living in this little flat in Campsie.  So she sort of went round as a housekeeper  and  my elder sister moved to the country. She was 17 and getting married.  My other sister, who's five years older than me, moved down with her at the age of 12. So my 17 year old sister was looking after the 12 year old and then mum had me and  I went round as  a package deal with the job she had.

04:19
She worked for, I remember she worked for  a  high court judge or something in Beecroft and we lived in Murray Farm Road there.  And then she lived with someone else at Epping and looked after their kids and I was part of the parcel. So it was a bit tricky, you know, so, but you know, she did a wonderful job. She did a wonderful job with me and I was scared shit of her, but you know, she was, you know, she  was hard. She wouldn't let me swear. She wouldn't did.

04:46
she sort of did everything that both parents would do, you know, and as much as I think, you know, it's really important having a male figure in the thing, I didn't have one.  But it's, I know that she got,

05:03
she was renting  the back of a house in North Strathfield.  And this was part of my journey.  It's a funny part of the journey, but it's,  we're renting the back of this house in North Strathfield. And I'd moved so many times before I said to mom, don't want to move schools again.  I was in year five and I said, I want to finish it off. And we were living at Croydon at the time when I went to Croydon school.  And I think we were living in this house that ended up being a brothel.

05:32
and all my friends were the prostitutes and mum said we've got to get him out of here. So that's where she moved out and we moved into this flat in Concord, in North Stratfield. So I said look I don't want to change schools again so I want to keep commuting to...

05:50
to Croydon school. So I get the train from North Strathfield, I go to Strathfield, I change. I get on another train and go to Croydon and go to school. So I do that. And I'm trying to think of what age I was, 12 or 13? And might've been 14. I just couldn't imagine me letting my kids do that at that age. But you know, that's what happened back then. And she had herself, she couldn't rely on anybody else. All she could do was what she could do.

06:20
So I remember there was this one defining moment in my life that I was on the train and I was coming back from Croydon and we got to Strathfield Station and I had to change trains as I normally do.  And I was there and an older man had come up to me  and he approached me and he started talking to me. And you know, I was green as an apple and you know,  very happy to have a chat.

06:50
And he started, he said, oh, you like girls? And  I said, yeah, yeah, I like girls. And he said, oh, you like to take them out, suppose? I said, well, know, mum gives me money if we go to the movies. I'm just as green as an apple.  And it was at the time where Strathfield Station was trialling,  the toilets were five cents or two cents or something. I can't remember which one it was. And he said,

07:14
go into the toilets,  I will give you five dollars  to either suck his dick or I'll  either suck his dick or he'll suck my dick or whatever. And I didn't quite understand him and I asked him to,  I'm sorry, I don't understand.  And he said it again and I said, no. And he walked away and I never saw him again. And I ended up burying it.  And I buried that story and this is where,  you know, things sort of,  you're not even conscious of it, but you bury it.

07:44
I didn't tell mum, I didn't tell anybody. Mum was the closest person to me and I just, it was never going to come up. So then my mum ended up getting remarried again and she married my stepfather and he lived in Ryde and that's where, you know,  we moved to Charles Street, Ryde. And across the road were twin boys. There was a family, wonderful family, but the twin boys were two days older than me and they ended up being my best friends.

08:11
And for the first time in my life, because we moved so much and it was really hard for me to bond, know, these guys  were just wonderful.  They were just absolutely wonderful.  And  they were twins and I felt comfortable with them. And I remember one day thinking, I've got to tell somebody about this.  So I sat down with them and the first time I'm opening myself up, you know, and  you're worried about it, you know, you're

08:40
you're worried about what they're going to think and whatever. And I end up telling them the story. And they were funny guys, know, very good sense of humour and we all always had a good sense of humour. And I told them the story and I just said, so this guy has asked me to go into the toilets.

09:00
to suck his dick and he was going to give me five dollars and Greg said, what'd buy? And from that second forward,  it wasn't a problem anymore and it was wonderful.  He had cracked this thing  that I had buried for so long and these two guys are still my best friends to this day.  the one that said, did you buy Greg?  Unfortunately has  early onset dementia.

09:28
and he doesn't remember a lot of his past  and the humans gone from him.  And it's really sad. He's the same age as me. He's two days older than me. So that was a real defining moment for me. So  that was my upbringing. But meeting that family, I ended up working for the family for a long time. But that was  a very defining moment for me as a  child. if that.  So let's get to  this is.

09:57
putting you at the beginning of high school, you go through high school and then you're deciding like all kids are at that age, what you're going to do with your life. What were you thinking? I can't believe how stupid I was back then. You know, I just think on a scale of one to 10, I was like minus 32. You know, I was so stupid because  I guess I didn't have that father figure in my life and there wasn't,  you know, your dad can put you aside and say, look, what would you like to do? And there was none of that for me.

10:26
And I only found out about two years ago that a boiler maker was a welder. I could have been a welder. If I would have asked what a boiler maker was,  I could have possibly done that.  And you know, I love carpentry now and I didn't want to do that. So I was a bit lost.  I was I was very lost. And I had all of my friends from school were doing, you know, they were doing trades and they were doing different things.  I was lost and I had lots of different jobs, lots of really

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meaningless jobs. I remember working at the fish markets. It was my first job and I'd come home and I'd have a shower straight away because I stunk and I'd go over to my friends Greg and Daryl across the road and they'd go, have you had a shower? And I'd go, yeah, I just had one. They said, do want another one here? You know, I couldn't get the stink out of me. And the jobs were equally as bad. I worked from there, Fleming's, Fosse's, you know, there was lots of just really shitty, meaningless jobs. But then

11:24
We decided to sell everything or sell everything. You know, we had a few different things  and travel around Australia.  And  we got to Rockhampton. Who's we? Who's we?  It was Greg. Yep. The gentleman that  helped crack the code with that thing  and his other younger brother, Terry. So  our first stop was Coolingatta. We lived there for a while. We got a little place and then we moved up to Bundaboo. We picked tomatoes.

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We picked rock melons. We lived in a tent up there at a place called Winfield. I remember that. And then we moved to Rockhampton and  Greg had a tendency to fall in love often.  And he fell in love there and that's where it stopped. So we then came back down to Sydney and then I'm looking, I'm going, what am I going to do? And  everybody I felt like was two steps ahead of me because they were doing apprenticeships and they were doing traineeships and whatever.

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and I see this job for a prison officer in the paper. And I go, I thought about being a policeman, but  my grades were terrible. I was terrible at school.  know, we had a school reunion about 10 years ago. And I think I spent the whole night apologizing to people, you know, because I was a bit of a thug.  You know, I think I'd moved around school so much that when I, you know, when I turned up at Metta Bank school where I did my high schooling, I was quite a tall guy and

12:50
You know, everybody was working out where, you know, the picking order and I got picked on a few times and I had to stand up and be counted and I did that. But I just realised I was a thug. And so when we had the school reunion, I spent the whole time apologising to people, you know, I'm so sorry. know, like they just said, no, no, you're OK. You were just a bit tough. And I said, no, no, I've worked it out. I was a thug. You know, like,  but they were all really nice. And then so I saw this job for a prison officer and I thought, well,

13:21
And maybe I could do that, you know, so and the training was probably the best part of it because, you know, you learned so much and I really threw myself into it because I felt like maybe this is this is my future. So I did it for six months exactly to the day. And it was just the hardest, not hard physical and not hard mentally. It was hard training because you're dealing with the worst people in the world. You're dealing with the rapists, the murderers. I mean, I mean,

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Maximum security. I'm in the MRC, the Remand Centre at Long Bay. These people are the worst in the world. I remember talking to a guy once  and I thought he was a decent sort of person. He was a crimp. But you never ask them what they're in for because they never want to tell you if they're a pedophile.  They  wouldn't want to tell you. But I remember talking to this guy and I just thought he was decent. I thought, how did you end up in jail? Where did things turn wrong for you?

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And then I remember he got sentenced and him and his mate held down an 87 year old woman over there with a beer bottle. And I thought, and I remember Greg and Darryl, my friends from across the road just say, you're getting really tough. And I thought that's enough for me. And that was it. So I six months to the day. Well, as they say, jails are full of innocent people, right? Yeah. And I never met them, but I noticed just in the news, in the

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recently they're talking about a huge shortage of prison officers in the system in New South Wales. Can you see why that's the case? I don't know what the answer is, Kayleigh, because it's just a really, really tough job. But it was run back in the day. We're talking about when I'm 21. know, 21 is the youngest you can be for a prison officer. And when I was there, it was there was a lot of English there and they ran it and it was unionised that

15:20
You know, I remember a guy coming up to me saying, you're to be sick tomorrow. And I said, no, no, I feel quite good. He said, no, no,  you're going to be sick because I'm going to do a double  and then you will do my double the day afterwards. And so it was all there were rorts going on. But, know, you'd stand by a gate and that's all I would do for half the day. And I'd wait for  you know, a prisoner to come along and go gate boss. And I'd open the gate and I shut the gate. And that was my day. And I just felt like I needed.

15:49
I needed mental stimulation. I was not getting it from that job. Your mates are saying it's making you hard. This is coming from mates who knew you might have been a bit of a tough guy at school as well. But you're also a guy that, you your past would say that you're a bit of a free spirit as far as the breeze, not knowing what you're going to do professionally. How hard was it to move away from being in the corrective services system where there was stability, a regular paycheck,

16:18
there was potentially a career there for you and move into something which you probably had no idea where you were going to jump. Tell me how that decision to go from corrective services to that next part of your life came about.  I remember  I didn't like the corrective services and it was making me hard and  there was nothing nice about it. And then  my twin friends Greg and Daryl, I remember

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Darrell, the other one, had come back one day  and I said, where have you been? He said, I just enrolled in a fashion course. And I went, a fashion course? He said, yeah, it's called fashion technology. And I went, what is it? And he said, well, you learn to do patterns, you learn to sew and you, you know, and I went, I'm not doing anything. I'll go and enroll too. So I enrolled as well. So we enrolled at the first year was at MetaBank.

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And I was so fish out of water. The day turned up where everybody turned up for the class and the introductions are done. there's Daryl and I and every girl. They're just young girls. They're 15, 16 year olds and they'd been doing home ec with their mom. They knew how to sew. And I am so out of my depth. What have I doing here? But I was interested. I was really interested.

17:47
And the teacher I had was amazing. We had about five teachers, but we had one main teacher called Julie Martin. I would have to thank her. She was amazing. there were times that I would have been the greatest pain in the ass the world's ever met. Because I remember they were doing a... They were showing...

18:15
all these different figures, like there was a stoop figure and whatever, and they'd say there's an erect figure and I'd start to giggle.  you know,  totally, you know, like ridiculous young boy behavior. But I had it all over me, you know, and  she tolerated it and she put up with it.  I remember one time, you know,  I just started sewing stuff and I thought, maybe I'm getting this, maybe I'm starting to understand it.

18:45
And she came by and she said, Jim, can I take that from you? And I go, sure. So she's taken it. And it was a shirt. I was making the shirt. And she went out to the front of the class and she goes, this is what you don't do. And she showed them.  And I had put one sleeve out of an arm and the other one coming out of the neck.  Even though I'd started to get a little bit of confidence, know,  it got.

19:13
belted down and put back in my place. But she was tolerant, she had a lovely way about her and that's where it all started. So to be fair to say it didn't come naturally to you? Absolutely not. It was very, very different. And I didn't see it as a career at the time. I saw it as something that was...

19:39
I was out of the Corrective Services, thank goodness. I started to maybe behave a bit better. Not that I behaved badly, but I think I just looked at people and judged them. I don't know. I can't quite remember. So, planally, you finished your studies, though. You've got through the course. Yeah, yeah, I did. What happened after that? Did you say, well, OK, what am I going to do now? Or did you start making things at home?

20:06
What happened? Yeah, it was all of that. There was a second year. The first year was at Metabeg and then they closed that part of the TAFE. So I had to find another TAFE, which is Peterson.  So I did the second year at Peterson. I did part time at East Sydney  and I started to get, I started  to get, although, you know, in a class of 25, I was 23, 24. Let me tell you, you know, there was no illusions about where I, you know, where I sat.

20:35
or the talent that I had. I had very little talent  and  I had some ideas but they weren't great. know, like  the first year I did with Darrell, Darrell oozed  natural ability  and you know, there'd be an exam on and I'd study so hard for the exam and I'd get a  C plus and I'd be so happy. Darrell would study the night before and get an A minus. You know, he just had that in spades  and I didn't have it.

21:05
And so I had to work hard. So we did the second year. We did the second year at Peterson. We finished everything. I sold everything I owned and I went overseas. I was overseas for six weeks. I blew every dollar and I came back poor. Started working part time at Riderswood Leagues Club just to get money. And then I thought, well, maybe if I start making things, people might buy them. And at the time I was living, I think I was living in Carlingford.

21:33
And so I was cutting things on the floor with scissors and I'd make some of them and then I'd get other people to piecework and do put things together. And there was a shop at Eastwood called Woody's and I'd make a couple of things and I'd go down and I'd show him and he'd go, no, they're not me. So I just wanted to walk away, make a couple more, show him. And I think he got to the stage where he was so sick of me that he tipped me into someone else and he said, go and see this person.

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So went to see that person and he loved everything that I'd made. And he said, what else have you got? So I brought everything. He bought everything. And he wanted to know when I could make more. So that started from there. And then he said, look, you don't just sell to me, you sell to other shops.  So,  and it was funny getting into the industry after TAFE, you go, how much is a buttonhole? How much do you pay for fabric?  So many things that you didn't know.

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And you look back on it now and I think, God, how did I get through it? No, it's crazy. So he took me into some other stores. I started selling to other stores. And I remember my first big order was there was a chain store called Ron Rolls. They were at Burwood. They were also Liverpool. They were in two other  shopping centers. And she gave me an order and it was over three thousand dollars. And it was just we're talking 1983.

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1984 and that was so much money. And I had no money. Like I started the business with $100.  So, and I had no one to borrow off. Mum had no money, you know,  and so, you know, I just sort of scratched through and  made the order, delivered the order. She gave me the check for three and a half thousand. I remember taking it to my bank manager, which was one of my best friend's  father. And he ran the Commonwealth Bank at Seaforth, Max McCarthy.

23:32
And I went in there and I showed him the check. And I think that everybody thought I was just, you what's Jim doing? You know, like whatever. And he looked at the check and he said, maybe you got a business. Was that daunting,  that first order to come in and you think, my gosh, that's that much money. And I don't know what the order was. don't know whether it was all of a sudden, how am going to do this  or? I shit myself. I shit myself. I just, I had to try and  lie to get accounts from people. had to make up.

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things that they'd give me an account, know, so and they did.  And one of the companies, Martin and Savage, that I buy fabric from today was one of the first people that I bought fabric off for that Ron Rolls order, which was just amazing.  And we're still in contact today and I still buy fabric from them, which is just amazing. Because most of the time I buy fabric  by myself when I fly overseas.  So where are you up to now? Where is the business now? Well, the business...

24:28
The business is called Jimmy Stewart. Yes. I want to ask you about, you know, the Hollywood namesake for the business. Where did that name come from? Well, OK, when I first started  working and as I said, I worked at Rodgers & Leagues part time. I was dating a girl called Geraldine Stewart at the time. And we thought we kept it very quiet. We thought nobody knows about this until they started paging Jimmy Stewart to the fight.  Everyone knew.

24:57
You know, everybody knew it was like Wi-Fi. always do. And she had nothing to do with the business, but it was a catchy name. And at the time, back then, there was an actor called Jimmy Stewart. And so it was a play on that. I thought, yeah, maybe this is a this is a good thing. You know, we spell Stewart S-T-U-A-R-T, which is the way her name was spelled. And we'll do it that way. And then I end up getting in.

25:24
trouble with trademarks. Trademarks wouldn't let me have it. It wasn't my name and I had to fight for three years to get it, but I got it. So, and then started sort of going from one shop to a next shop. And then we were wholesaling, you know, we had an agent up in Queensland, we had an agent down in Victoria. We were selling to lots of different shops and then COVID hit.

25:49
And I'm making this  flamboyant extravagant thing that people like to wear and show people. And then all of we're locked down.  We haven't we haven't touched on the type of  shirts and things that you make. So like you just said yourself, flamboyant, lots of character, lots of color and big patterns and things like that. Why did you choose that? Where did that come from? Well, that wasn't where it started. Where it first started. I remember the first shirt I ever made was

26:18
If you've ever watched the Seinfeld episode, the puffy shirt, it was very similar to that. And we called it a pirate shirt.  And that was the one of the first shirts I ever made. And it was the first shirt that I ever got into a shop. I remember I was so proud. It was a shop at Carlingford. It was called Patabout. And the guy had agreed to take it on consignment. So he wasn't buying it off me. Take it. And if he could sell it, I would get paid for it.  But that was the defining moment for me.

26:46
getting it into a shop, you know, I felt very important. But I was making things, I think at the start, that I wouldn't wear.  And I think something changed somewhere down the track. And I think it was when I first started flying overseas, buying my own fabrics. I started  buying some flamboyant stuff and I thought, gee, I like this. I really like this because  it's not, it wasn't a young person seeing it's, you know, it's 30 upwards. That's my demographic.

27:17
And  you get guys come in and I  still to this day, you know, in  we've got a shop in Mossman and guys come in and they put something on  and they're in shock. They come into the shop and the shop is so full of flamboyance that they're a little bit intimidated. And I said, look, you're not going to buy anything you don't want to buy, but I want you to try some stuff on because guys are very, very regimented in the way that I don't wear pink and I can't do this and I can't do this. Whereas women are completely the other way, you know, but it's

27:47
I think the flamboyance started when we, when I started flying overseas buying fabrics and then I could buy whatever I wanted because I worked out that I couldn't buy from local wholesalers anymore because the local wholesalers were selling to companies that they would buy sampling and get it all made overseas. So I've worked out I'm, I'm, I'm dead. If I get it made here, I'm paying twice the price against somebody that's made something in China. I have to have my own stuff. So it's not the same because you get a local

28:17
fabric mill and he's selling to him that's getting made in China and selling to me that's making here. I'm dead. They're buying the same garment and my garments $10 $15 wholesale deer are so they're not going to buy from me. So I stopped buying from local people and went overseas and found my own fabrics.  as you say,  it's not a young market.  What's changed that  those guys in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s have decided, look, I don't

28:46
need to wear just a blue solid shirt anymore. I want to be a little bit out there because  without word of a lie, I was actually at the races last weekend  and the term, oh, there's a Jimmy Stewart. It just piques your attention, but there must have been some cultural shift that you saw coming to actually  go down that path. No, I don't think so, Guy. think divorce plays a big part.  And I'm serious. You know, we get a

29:16
amazing amount of people that are just divorced. And he's worked out he's been in a marriage that maybe it's loveless or maybe he's given up or he hasn't tried with his wife or whatever. And then all of a sudden the wife's left him or the marriage is disintegrated and he's back on the dating scene and he's got to wear something and there's nothing better. Women notice what men wear and I get these guys come in and they go,

29:43
Thank you so much for what you set me up with the other day. I had women all over me and they're just saying,  this is so good. He said, I've never had this. This is like finding the internet for the first time. You know, like I've got women coming up to me, you know, like, and it's amazing because lots of men, men are stupid. Fundamentally we're stupid. You know, like if you look at a guy, a guy won't buy something.  They'd look at a flamboyant jacket. They go, oh, look at that. That's hideous.

30:11
Then they see another guy in a jacket and they go, God, there's another guy in a jacket. Then they see another guy in that sort of jacket and they go, maybe I could wear that jacket. Whereas women are exactly the reverse. A woman sees another woman in a jade green dress  and another woman in a jade green dress, she goes, I'm not buying a great jade green dress because they're everywhere. So it's exactly the opposite. So men have to see a few other people  in it.

30:40
I think, too, when I see a man in a flamboyant shirt,  I think, wow, he's got confidence. He's  owning that look. He's loving that look. And that tells me a lot about that guy. It's like you're happy and comfortable in your own skin. Absolutely. Yeah. And we do.  I remember I was in a pub one day and I felt like I had the sun behind me because it was so big. But we do big sizes. We do up to 11 XL. And that's the size of a small country in Africa.

31:09
You know, this guy was behind me and I was like, he had this, like the sun was behind me because he was in one of my shirts and I've turned around and it was so bright and he just, he owned it. He loved it. Yeah. You mentioned the pandemic. And I know we had a chat about this because you need to be seen in these shirts. And you came up with what I thought was a great business model to circumvent

31:37
the problems that we had with the pandemic. you talk about that? That was a bit scary for me because my wife now, Wendy, with the love of my life, she's worked for Qantas all of her life and she got stood down and we had two mortgages. We had a mortgage on the house of Bill Gola. We had a mortgage on her house in Balmain. And then all of sudden, nobody's buying my product. And I thought, we're in a lot of fucking trouble.

32:07
We're in a lot of trouble, you know? And I remember sitting down one day and I said to Wendy,

32:14
I'm going to make a face mask." She said, what? I said, I'm going to make face masks.  I've got cotton fabric. All my stuff is cotton. This is the best thing next to your mouth. And people are starting to want face masks. So I had to Google how to make a face mask because there was certain, and I buy elastic and it was too thick and it was too stretchy and it didn't go over the ear.

32:42
Eventually we got the prototype and we thought, yeah, that's great. It was three layers and you know, had this elastic in it. So we made some and I remember Wendy did a lot of eBay stuff. She'd sell stuff on eBay. I said, look, why don't you put these face masks on eBay too? She said, yeah, all right. So she put it on eBay. Then we were going to dinner one night and we selling one here and one there and they were $13.95 or $15.95 or something each and there were free postage in it.

33:13
And we're going out to dinner one night and she said $700 has just dropped into my PayPal account. I said, for what? She said, I don't know. So she looked at, she said, masks, they're buying masks. And I said, wow. So we went out to dinner and by the time we got home from dinner, it was four and a half thousand dollars that were there. Now the problem was I'd only made 50 masks. So I was in negative by a lot. So I panicked.

33:42
I went to work at 4 a.m. that morning. I cut some. I started making them. I caught in some friends that I knew that could sew and we started making them just in and it never stopped. And  from that moment forward, we were just a mass factory. It stopped. I stopped making shirts. I had all this dodgy fabric that, you know, I thought was good five years ago that nobody really liked that was under  the table that.

34:09
turned out to be a fabulous mask. And so we converted all this old fabric in the mask and it worked out fabulously. So we were doing all of that. And then at one stage we had $36,000 in PayPal and they locked us out. We went to get the money and we tried to get the money and they wouldn't let us have the money. So, you know, we work out what's going on here. you know, we had to make, had to book in a phone call to Arizona, which was the head office.

34:38
PayPal, and we just said, you know, why? And they said, it's fraudulent. We looked at your eBay account and, you know, the massive spike and it's fraudulent. I said, it's not fraudulent. I've done this all my life. I make clothes and this is what I'm doing. I can send you videos of things. But also you had this feedback system and our feedback was at 9.7. Everyone's really happy. They're getting their goods. It's not fraudulent.

35:05
He said, oh, try us to get in a couple of weeks. And this went on for ages. And we just couldn't get the money. So we sent a solicitor's letter. They ignored it.  Just didn't know what to do. And then my younger daughter was working for Channel Nine at the time. And I rang her, Rosie. And I said,  can you get me current affairs number? She said, what for? And I said, we still can't get our money out of PayPal. So she said, yeah, all right. So she went up there and she spoke to them. And she said, Dad, they're very interested.

35:35
So a guy called Brady Halls, I don't know whether you remember him from The Current Affairs, he rang me and he booked, we had to shop at Avalon at the time, so he came and met me down at Avalon and did a bit of videotaping there and then went back to the factory at West Rye and did some videotaping there and there it was, everybody sewing, making masks and it's funny, I had this shirt and it was my biggest ever selling shirt and it...

36:03
It had an embroidered red back on it. Do you remember that guy? Do you remember the  I've been doing the shirt for 20 years.  Anyway, it got to the stage where we did tarantulas and we did scorpions and we did that. And we did lots of big sizes and we did up to nine XL. Anyway, I had some of these shirts that are on the nose. Nobody wanted to buy them anymore. I a nine XL tarantula shirt. So I've got to wait for  a nine XL guy to buy this. It's ridiculous.

36:30
and I'm trying to get $60 or $70 wholesale for this shirt and I can't sell it. And then I thought, hold on, if I cut this shirt up and I cut where the tarantula is and I make the tarantula right where the mouth is, this could be good.  So I did one and it was fabulous.  It's not me, but there were lots of people that, you know, we were in a world where everything was subdued.

36:59
And you know, can't go out and you can't do this. And this was a way of people really showing their thing. So I turned that shirt that was 50 or 60 dollars by the time I cut masks,  it made 600 dollars. So I got all these shirts that were scorpions and redbacks and whatever in the mask. And people love them. You know, I couldn't get enough of them. You know, we were backed up with them. So for, you know, a good

37:29
year and a half, Wendy worked for me because she was stood down so she became a rag trader  and  we just made masks  and  we got through, which was great. They were Australian made and  they had mandated Victoria so everybody was panicked and they needed masks and I had jumped onto that bandwagon earlier than anybody else so it did really well that period but it wasn't through

37:56
good management was more luck, but it just bounced my way. then  back to the PayPal thing, they did the current affair thing and Wendy and I were really worried about how we'd come out, you know, with the video coming out because  you spin it another way and whatever. they were,  I remember us watching it on TV and  just before it went to air, Brady Halls rang us and said, look, we rang PayPal and we said,  we're doing a story on you.

38:26
and you're gonna come out of it really badly. Release their money and we'll say that you did the right thing. And they said, we'll release their money but we don't want it to air. And they said, that boat's sailed. It's going to air. So how do you wanna come out of it? And they released the money and Brady Hall framed me and said,  try and get the money. And we transferred it straight away.  The 36,000 went into our bank account. We got it, we could pay people again, because we're really behind the eight ball.

38:55
And then it went to air that night and Wendy and I were sitting on the lounge going, crossing our fingers that this is going to look all right. know, my nose is not going to look any bigger than what it really is. And Wendy's worried about her hair.  You know, did they show my legs in the thing? Anyway,  it came off really, really well. And when it was over, it was called Jimmy versus PayPal. And then when it was over, I had this.

39:21
There was a young girl that worked for me and I said with my phone, if we ever got an online order, can you make a ka-ching sound? She said, yeah, I can do that on the phone. Give me your phone. And she made this ka-ching sound. So whenever I'd be walking along, somebody would buy something online and would go, ka-ching. And I go, oh, what have I sold? And I remember that night, Wendy and I going to bed and just going, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching,

39:48
Oh my god, you know, because people had found us  in a world where everybody was anti-China. And you had this guy that made stuff in Australia. Oh god, he didn't even know he existed. And that was what they were doing. They were buying all that stuff.  You've got a flourishing domestic market. You've got a flourishing overseas market from online sales.  You've also  happened to have a few, we'll put inverted commas, ambassadors, a lot of guys that

40:17
are very well known in this country have actually sported a Jimmy Stewart shirt as well. Can you share a few of those  with us? was one, probably one of my favourite things. was,  it's another story, which you sure  I'm not short of, but  I used to sell to a shop up in Bangalore, which is just below,  it's inland from Byron Bay. It's a lovely spot. And there was an old bank building.

40:45
And a guy had taken over the bank building and he called his business Design Bank and they bought a lot of my product and they sold it really well. And you know, the Australian made thing was really good. And I'd go up there and I'd do some sales trips and I'd sell to them. Anyway, he rang me one day and he said, do you know Steve Roach, blocker? It was a really hard question to answer because when I was young, I played rugby league for Birmingham Rydal Mayor.

41:15
And I played against him. He played for Balmain police boys. And I remember he punched me in the face one day in like that over and we got into a punch up. You know, I remember that scrummy clock me and my nose was bleeding and,  and  I remember that. somebody saying, do you know Steve Roach? Really hard to answer.  And I said, I know who he is, you know, whatever. And they said, oh, he came up here and he was raving about your shirts and he wanted your number.

41:46
And we didn't give it to him because of, you know, whatever. I said, oh, right. So that was interesting when they said that. And then about a year later, a friend of mine who's a builder  got invited to Bunnings for it was just before the state of origin. And it was one of those nights. And he said, do you want to come? You know, it's free. And I said, yeah, yeah, we came. A couple of us came. And then I was sitting next to a friend of mine, Craig Sheppard, and he looked, he saw Blocker and he goes,  there's Steve Roach.

42:16
I'd love to get my photo with him. I said, just go up. talking to people. He said, no, no, he's talking to people. I said, I'll be talking to people all night. Just go up there and  he goes, oh, no, I'll wait. I said, come with me.  So he came with me. walked up and he was talking to somebody. I said, oh, Steve. And he's turned around. I said, you don't know me, but a long time ago we used to play against each other. And he goes, really, who'd you play for? I said, Ermington Rydleman. And he said, who was in your team? And I said, oh, Steve Massey.

42:45
Paul Morris,  whatever, and he said, that was a good team. I said, yeah, it was a good team. You played for the police boys. He said, yeah, yeah, I remember. And I said, we had a bit of a run in once, was scrum. He said, really?  think, you know,  it was like, can I buy a vowel? He would have had that many run ins with that many people, so he wouldn't have remembered my one.  But I said,  I believe you like some shirts up in a shop in Bangalore. And he said, they are the best shirts I've ever seen. I said, I make them.

43:13
And he goes, get out of here, where are you? And he was living at East Rye at the time. And I said, I'm at West Rye. And he said, I'll you tomorrow.  So he came down and he bought some shirts for himself. But he also had  to be careful because they were sponsored by Lowe's at the time and he couldn't sort of do some stuff. But he came in a few times and we had lots of phone calls. Lovely bloke. But  just a knockabout bloke. there's been lots of, we had John Williamson come into the shop and.

43:43
He saw a jacket that I made that had a big cockatoo on it. It was quite funny. When he came into the shop, I wasn't quite sure.  He came in with friends of mine and they just said, can we bring in a friend? He really likes your stuff. And I said, yeah, sure. And I didn't know it was him.  And we're having a coffee, which there's a French patisserie two doors down. And we're having that coffee. And I'm looking at him going.

44:09
is that, you know, I didn't want to ask. And then  the guy I was with, Brian, he asked Brian, said, Brian, what'd do with my guitar? He said, I put it in the shop. So then I thought, yeah,  it's John Williamson. So we went into the shop and he  came in, he's looking around, he sees this jacket we call cheeky, because cockatoos are so cheeky. And it's just got this big cockatoo on it. And  he said, oh my goodness, that's fantastic.

44:39
I said, I'll get it down, you can try it on. So I got it down, tried it on, and he just loved it. He said, I'll take it.  I said, John, while you're here, I'd just like to tell you, we also do a shirt with the same fabric, so you could wear the shirt  and the jacket. He said, Jim, you've gone too far. And I said,  okay. I said, do want me to show you how to play guitar? And he went, I said, you're in my domain now, go and try it on.  So he put it on, he went, I gotta have it.

45:09
I've got to have it.  So he told me he was going to launch it at the Country Music Festival. He said, I've got one guy that  always wears something to show me up. He said, not this year.  You've found the love of your life with  the wonderful Wendy.  Business is going well. Is there one moment that you can pinpoint where you said, yep, that's the proudest moment?

45:37
or that's a defining moment in my life.

45:44
No, I don't know.  I get quite emotional over things and I think about things  and  Wendy's definitely had such a big part in my life.  as I said before, I had that open heart surgery a year ago with a quadruple bypass and without my two kids and Wendy, I don't get through it.  It's all about family and friends  and those that are close to you, it?  At a certain age?

46:13
and a certain point in your life. Jim, it's been a destination. The journey has been not always smooth, but  just because I've known you for so long.  You're a genuine fellow. I'm so pleased you have been able to join us.  So thank you for not only your time, but for your friendship over the years as well. Wonderful guy. Thanks for having me.  Thanks, been a pleasure.  The views and opinions expressed on the Big  6O are personal  and reflect those of the hosts and guests.

46:41
They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.  This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

46:59
Ah,  and before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast.  So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?