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EP624: Pete Roberts - Built By Freedom, The Origin USA Story
39 Plays1 hour ago
“Blue jeans and boots built America, and if we’re going to build it again, this renaissance, it has to start with jeans and boots.”
Today we welcome Pete Roberts, a pioneer in American manufacturing and the visionary behind Origin USA and Jocko Fuel. Known for reviving manufacturing on American soil, Pete shares his personal journey from small-town Maine to building a brand synonymous with grit, resilience, and purpose. Pete is driving an American-Made Renaissance. He shares his mission to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., emphasizing the importance of American-made products and the generational craftsmanship that built America’s industrial heartland. From rescuing a denim factory in North Carolina to rebuilding the supply chain from “dirt to shirt,” Pete’s goal is simple yet profound: make quality products, built entirely in the USA.
After a defining moment in Abu Dhabi, Pete doubled down on creating Origin, a company committed to manufacturing high-quality jiu-jitsu gis, jeans, and boots on U.S. soil. The journey wasn’t easy, but Pete’s “crime of passion” became the foundation of Origin USA, where every product is crafted to last a lifetime.
“Built by Freedom” is more than just a tagline for Pete Roberts—it’s a mission. Pete is reshaping American manufacturing, one pair of jeans at a time, while challenging us all to rethink how and where we make our purchases. This episode is for those who believe in supporting products with purpose, and for anyone who wants to understand what it takes to build a legacy from the ground up.
Pete’s Expert Action Steps for Purpose-Driven Success:
1. Long-Term Vision
“Anything great in life takes 10 years.” Committing to a decade to build something meaningful is essential for creating lasting impact.
2. Purpose Over Ideas
Purpose is the gravitational force that drives ideas. When grounded in purpose, your work will outlast fleeting trends and establish a legacy rooted in genuine impact.
3. Mind Share and Soul Share Over Market Share
Forget chasing market share. Focus on building genuine relationships with customers who believe in your mission. Capturing mind and soul share leads to loyal customers who value more than just the product.
Key Product Highlights:
• Origin’s Jeans and Boots: Built by freedom, Origin’s jeans and boots are not just products—they’re symbols of American resilience. These handcrafted items represent Pete’s commitment to making apparel that not only lasts but tells a story of quality and pride.
• Jocko Fuel: Created with his partner Jocko Willink, Jocko Fuel offers premium nutritional products available across major U.S. retailers, supporting customers who value fitness, discipline, and purpose.
Where to Learn More and Support:
• Origin USA: Discover products built by freedom, including jeans, boots, and jiu-jitsu gis.
• Jocko Fuel: Fuel your body with purpose-driven nutritional products.
Listeners, this is your chance to support the resurgence of American manufacturing. Join the movement, spread the word, and let’s build a future that’s made in America.
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
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Transcript
Jeans: Symbolism and Supply Chain
00:00:03
Speaker
Genes are freedom. Genes are America. Find a pair of genes that isn't made by communism. You can't. And so literally the thing that represents freedom actually is made by communism. When people think of American denim, I want them to think of origin. Not blinded by fancy brands and marketing messages, but to know that the cotton in the jeans came from the Tennessee Delta region from Texas, that it was spun and woven in Tryon, Georgia. It was cotton sewn in Ashford, North Carolina and shipped to you. And if you follow the box, That dirt to shirt, field to finish fiber fabric supply chain exists on this soil. And if there's a strike at the ports, it doesn't affect what we're doing because every component comes from American soil. So this year we'll sell a couple hundred thousand pairs of pants and I call it the uniform of America. You know, a cotton t-shirt, a hoodie, blue jeans and boots is the uniform of America.
Introduction to Pete Roberts
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:01:22
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nikki Ballou, and we have a very special guest lined up for you today. Today's guest is um one of the leading lights of the Renaissance of American manufacturing in the early 21st century. He is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu master. He is also a close friend and partner of a great American hero, Jaco Willink.
00:01:53
Speaker
I'm speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only Pete Roberts. Welcome to the show, Pete. ah Thanks for having me. That's quite the introduction. I appreciate it. Yeah, you bet, brother. Great to have you here. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
Pete Roberts' Backstory and Inspiration
00:02:08
Speaker
So Pete, um why don't we start by you telling us your backstory, man? How'd you get to be the great Pete Roberts? Yeah, well, you want the short version or the long version? Long version, let's go. Oh, Yeah, I mean, just ah and just a yeah ah kid from from New England, grew up in a small town in Maine.
00:02:29
Speaker
And I watched a lot of the manufacturing leave as I was a kid opening the newspaper on the weekends to see the game we had played the night before always passing over the news of another mill shutting down. And so grew up in a small town where manufacturing, footwear manufacturing was kind of a big deal and supported the community.
00:02:55
Speaker
um You know, went into college, played sports, dropped out, started my first business ah and then um made my first bit of tuition payments, I guess you could say, ah running that first business when the recession hit in 2008-2009, ended up losing everything. The thing that kind of kept me on the rails was jiu-jitsu.
00:03:15
Speaker
and training jiu-jitsu and competing in jiu-jitsu. It was my therapy and passion um and after licking my wounds for a short time, decided to to take another round at at being ah an entrepreneur.
00:03:32
Speaker
um working for the man never quite fit my ADHD, INFJ personality so I was always looking to work for myself I didn't fit into a box any type of box oh and And so I was looking at jujitsu and I was like, man, I got to I see I have a lot of ideas to kind of reinvent this jujitsu. And I was a design major in college. I was an art art major, sculpture major. So I like to work with my hands. I like to work in three dimensions um and decided I was going to and reinvent the jujitsu. g And that that was that was this idea that, you know, I could just do it better because it hadn't been touched in such a long time. I compare it to like
00:04:18
Speaker
When when football players used to wear leather helmets and and it would be as if today being bigger, faster and stronger, they still wore leather helmets and jujitsu just hadn't changed and the uniform hadn't changed. So it was like we were still wearing leather helmets in a way this uniform. um I looked around Maine, couldn't find any manufacturing and in having already lost everything during the recession.
From Jiu-Jitsu Gear to American Manufacturing
00:04:43
Speaker
ah You know, I didn't have any capital to really do much in I ended up importing one gi, one jujitsu gi from Pakistan with my design and and that kind of was the seed money I pre-sold it and that was the seed money that that allowed me to get started. um As I got into it, I didn't feel real good about sending tens of thousands of dollars ah off to Pakistan ah and then and then something happened and I know everybody as an entrepreneur probably has a defining moment in their life and mine just happened to be
00:05:17
Speaker
while I was in the Middle East competing in Jiu Jitsu in the World Championship. um I had won my way through this this trials, kind of like the Olympic trial for Jiu Jitsu. I had won my way to Abu Dhabi and I was I was I was stretching before my match in the quarterfinals. And I saw somebody walk by and they had this this guy I had designed on. And as they walked by, there was a different logo on the back.
00:05:42
Speaker
And in that moment, I had known that I had gotten ripped off. And that was kind of the defining moment where um I went all in headfirst, arms tucked with reckless abandon and ah probably a crime of passion to say, I'm not doing this this way. And I think growing up in in the small New England town and seeing the mill shut down and, um you know, the fact that What we used to do as makers ah was gone. And the fact I felt powerless that I couldn't do that anymore and that I had to continuously send my designs and intellectual property overseas to be made.
Building Origin USA: Challenges and Triumphs
00:06:24
Speaker
It just really it really sat heavy. And the defining moment was getting back, calling my buddy and telling him to bring his chainsaw over that I needed to build a factory.
00:06:37
Speaker
And in the woods behind my house, I marked out some trees and we started cutting them down. And it sounds very romantic. um And when I talk about it, I feel like I'm talking about somebody else, but that's exactly what we did. We cut down a bunch of trees in the woods, had a bunch of eastern white pine sawn out into timbers, got a bunch of friends from Jiu Jitsu and family members to come and erect a erected timber frame factory. We started up a generator and started selling stuff.
00:07:06
Speaker
And there wasn't really any plan. Again, it was a crime of passion, but I had an absolute singleness of purpose that I was going to make this thing in America um and I die trying. so ah So, yeah, man, that was the beginning of origin. That was 2013 when we started cutting those trees down.
00:07:28
Speaker
And, you know, now and there's a there's a lot in between then and now. I mean, there's a lot in between and we could we could get into it. But as far as like the backstory, that's the backstory. um Of course, the, you know, origin. And then I founded Jocko Fuel with my partner Jocko, a nutritional brand. And, you know, ever since I've just been grinding, driving um both these brands, building these two monsters, I like to call them because they like to eat time and cash. ah um So just trying to keep it keep these two monsters fed. I know 400 or 500 employees spread over multiple states and you know just living into living into the mission.
00:08:13
Speaker
Wow, it's quite the story I got to tell you. um
00:08:21
Speaker
I'm a weirdo because I collect knives. I own 130 knives and swords all around my my house. And I've become buddies with Ernest Emerson, the founder of Emerson knives. Now, you may not know who Ernest is, but I think Jocko knows him. In fact, er Ernie told me he knows Jocko.
00:08:45
Speaker
He's the man who invented the tactical folding knife for the United States Navy SEALs back in the 80s. Wow. Nice. So um it's called the CQC-7 for close quarters combat seven. ah's It's a really cool knife and it was designed with what's called a wave. Let me see if I have one lying around here. I may have an Ernest Emerson knife here just Oh, here we go. So this is one of this is an Emerson knife and you see this little feature here. It's it's a wave. So you put this in your jeans and you pull it out. It'll deploy. It'll catch on the on the edge of your pocket. It'll self deploy on the way out. So it gives you an extra second getting your knife out that way. It's pretty cool. And you did this for the seals and ah back in the day and
00:09:34
Speaker
Ernie also said to me ah when I interviewed him on my podcast, he said, America gave me my start. America gave me everything I have, so I'm going to make all my products here in America. Now, God bless him. He started his company in California in the 70s and he's still in California. I don't know how much longer that's going to last. That's right.
00:09:55
Speaker
but you know I got to know quite a few knife makers, so there's also a fellow named Greg Medford out of Arizona. He makes all his knives in Arizona. yeah there's um There's two ex-Green Berets in North Carolina. They they made Spartan blades, Curtis Iovido and God, Mark, I forget Mark's last name. I'm better buddies with Curtis. And I've just been fascinated because they've been at the forefront of making knives in the United States and selling knives made in the US with American workers to people.
00:10:33
Speaker
now When I heard about Origin through Ryan, ah I'm like, wow, this sounds like a pretty cool company. How the heck are they doing this? How they making clothes and boots and jeans and and gear in America and affordable for for people to buy? Now, not you know cheap, because it's not cheap, but it's at ah it's at a good your stuff's at a decent price, yeah right? people keep People can buy your prices. And I want to just understand, from your point of view,
00:11:04
Speaker
First of all, why was this important to you to do it in America? And secondly, how have you made it work?
Business Philosophy and Workforce Development
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, tie a couple of things together, um how we've made it work and why it's important. um And also, I'm going to have to look into one of those knives, the Spartan knives, because I i am a Spartan. My family came over from Sparta, Greece. Oh, dude. I'll hook you up, man. I'll hook you up. We'll talk offline. I'll hook you up. I'll hook you up.
00:11:33
Speaker
So i'm I'm very, very Greek. um And that leads me into my papu, who but was a first generation American. um And he grew up in the, he grew up in PB Massachusetts, but he used to work on the PB tannery when he was a little boy, eight years old.
00:11:51
Speaker
Um, I used to tell me, uh, Pete, you got to have that Spartan grit. Um, he used to be in there and pull tax out of the hides by, by hand. Uh, and he was paid by the piece and my, his Yaya and like my great grandmother who just passed in like 2010, she lived to like 110 years old. It was crazy. wow well Um, she worked at the Lowell spinning mills. And so, you know, I think when I was a young kid, my papu and Yaya used to romanticize about working in the mills.
00:12:21
Speaker
um and somehow that got lost on the boomers. I think my mom's generation the baby boomers were said go to college they told them to go to college don't work in the mills don't work in the factories it's not good work and so there was this stigma around working in the mills and I think i think that between the stigma and then of course The decisions that were made in the early 90s, this bipartisan decision, I say bipartisan because both parties were involved in the in the predatory capitalism and exportation of America's greatest industry of all time, greater than steel and automobiles, um textiles, textiles were the greatest industry in American history. And people don't realize that in the impact that
00:13:10
Speaker
stripping out the soul of America and sending it to China happened through textiles. and ah in a major way. ah You have factories that are just shells abandoned, deteriorating. I like to say the people moved out and the pigeons moved in. And it's sad to see when you're driving through these mill towns that I grew up in, um that might my grandparents worked in, my great grandparents worked in, um gone. And there's just this really sense of hopelessness.
00:13:45
Speaker
um And I took it upon myself to fix that, you know, that was the impossible mission. ah and and And I'll talk but a little bit about the power of purpose and fleeting ideas, but how purpose is, you know, is gravitational and why it's got to lead ideas and and not lag behind them. ah But it is an impossible mission to this day. And and not only, you know,
00:14:13
Speaker
Did I want to bring blue gene manufacturing back to America? um People ask me why jeans and boots? I say, well, jeans and boots built America. And if we're going to build it again, this Renaissance, it has to start with jeans and boots. They're two of the hardest products to build.
00:14:31
Speaker
an asymmetrical thing that's sculpted around a foot, which we call a last, and blue jeans, which there's one factory left in America and try on Georgia that can weave the fabric for blue jeans. And so when you think about this this frail supply chain, when you think about the knowledge that's been exported, the machinery that's deteriorated or sent to the sent to the scrap piles,
00:14:57
Speaker
you really take a look and say that's a stupid idea to want to try to manufacture apparel and footwear in America. It's a bad idea and and it is. it's It's a bad idea. um I guess if you buy into the propaganda that we've been told, which is you can't do it in America, it's a bad idea.
00:15:21
Speaker
I don't buy into that bullshit. I don't buy into the propaganda. And my model, not having been in manufacturing was, well, I'm just going to do jiu-jitsu on this thing. You know, like I'm a third degree black belt in jiu-jitsu and I didn't have any formal business training. I just knew that in jiu-jitsu timing is everything. Leverage and balance when to look for the escape, when to tap out and when to apply pressure.
00:15:49
Speaker
Leveraging angles is the way that I've been able to, I guess you could say, build two companies, Origin and Jocko Fuel simultaneously.
00:16:01
Speaker
um
00:16:06
Speaker
It was real hard the first few years of manufacturing. I mean, so hard that, you know, at one point my back was completely against the wall. And, you know, I had to remortgage my house because we just didn't have any capital and we didn't have anything really meaningful to to go raise capital against. There was no assets. It was just an it was just an idea. So um We found a way and I think that that resolve that we earned in the early days, um you know, has really carried us through, you know, the 2024 2025, you know, I guess 14 years later when you really look at the timeline here. um And
00:16:52
Speaker
aligning ourselves with the remaining mills that have the knowledge, um making commitments to them that we're going to do what we say we're going to do so that they can give us decent pricing on textiles and carry materials for us, ah then training a workforce to be um skilled across multiple You know, multiple cells, not just pulling levers and pushing buttons, but a skilled workforce of craftsmen and women. And then unbreakable culture. ah And you combine those things with ah with a customer who can purchase factory direct.
00:17:34
Speaker
um And you kind of strip out the middleman and you can then offer a product like we are at a reasonable price made in America without compromise. ah And in it and it in it and i just I just kind of bundled that into, you know, a few paragraphs. um And I've made a lot of tuition payments trying to get there and I still am making tuition payments to this day. Big one, but the model There is a model that works. There is a model that's sustainable.
00:18:04
Speaker
um And the fact and in in in saying we can't do it in America is a lie. so ah So yeah, man, I mean, that's kind of the why I had to do it and and how we got there, I guess.
Cultural and Heritage Influences
00:18:21
Speaker
That's a great story. So I wish I um had my head out of my ass a couple of years ago when I wrote a book with a great American by the name of Wayne Allen Root. I don't know if you know who Wayne is, don't but ah Wayne Allen Root, this is what he looks like. He is um They call him the Donald Trump of Las Vegas. He is a conservative radio talk show host. And um I approached him, a mutual friend introduced us, about writing a couple books together. So we agreed to write two books together. The first one
00:19:02
Speaker
I'm trying to find it here. It was called The Great Patriot Boycott Book, which is a list of 116 woke companies. And we went and we told Americans to stop buying from them. And I'm proud to say we were at the forefront of the Disney boycott and that really took a whole lot of their a market cap down as well as a bunch of other companies. But then we wrote the great Patriot Bicop book. This is America's most patriotic companies. Now you know how to put you guys then. I want to put you in there. So maybe we need to do a third edition and i put you guys there. President Trump endorsed the book. He found out about it. It's really cool. um And we're looking for companies that stand for American values and the principles of Americanism. And
00:19:53
Speaker
You know, everything you're saying without you coming out and saying it directly is all about love for country, patriotism, Americanism, everything that made America the most ah unique nation in the history of the world. I'm a a man from the Middle East. I was born in Iran. I'm a Christian from Iran. And when my family ah left Iran because of the Islamic Revolution, because my mom and dad said, this is going to be a place to raise a Christian family. We were we went, we came to the West. ah We settled in Canada, but I've always been someone who's been wowed by America, by the premise on which she was founded, by the essential goodness of the American people. You know, during World War II,
00:20:48
Speaker
When German soldiers invaded a country, civilians were afraid. they They'd hide their daughters, they'd bury their valuables in the yard. Same when the Russians.
00:21:00
Speaker
beat the Germans back, everybody would do the same. They they were all out there ah afraid of these soldiers because these soldiers were out there for themselves. And they had no compunction in attacking the civilian population, stealing from them, raping them, what have you. American soldiers came there with candy bars for little kids. You you know, they were the great liberators. yeah um I yeah had the privilege of interviewing two lamb. I don't know if you know who two lamb is.
00:21:30
Speaker
ah Two, ah the character Ronin in Call of Duty is based on two. He was on a TV show as well. He's a former Green Beret. And he talks about how he and his family escaped Vietnam to come to the United States. And one of the things that really inspired him was joining the military, joining special forces, becoming a Green Beret, because the motto of the Green Beret is it's it's is to free the oppressed. And to me, that's what America has been all about. And it it strikes me, Pete,
00:22:08
Speaker
I don't know if you've thought about this deeply or not, but it strikes me that that's who you are. You're about liberating the oppressed right here in America. The people who who are the craftsmen, it could be the next generation of workers, plus consumers. Because if consumers buy American goods, they're feeding the country that's feeding them, that's giving them the right to be free. And I'm i'm wondering what your thoughts are on all that. Yeah, that's funny. i i yeah i i told I was told recently um that um i that the story reminds this another another person I was speaking with that of of Atlas Shrugged. And so I had to look into that and I was like, okay, that's interesting.
00:22:48
Speaker
um And I think what you're saying, you know, for sure has some some real legs. The way I look at it is I believe there's going to be a great awakening of the American consumer when the lies that they've been part of are revealed.
Consumer Awareness and Documentary Projects
00:23:06
Speaker
And so I see it as my job to. To help people want to know what they're funding, where their dollars go, how things are made and why it's important to
00:23:26
Speaker
tend to, I would say, localize. um And I know we need world markets and a world economy. And I am i am i am pro trade. I'm not against trade. I'm i'm for fair trade. um Fair trade is very important. um But the impact we have as as consumers,
00:23:45
Speaker
um to get that quick shot of dopamine you know is is harmful um is really harmful because the largest exportation of wealth in the history of the world is the American dollar going overseas, going Asia. like It's just facts. you know so I think i think my my job here is to kind of reveal the truth and the lies.
00:24:12
Speaker
um and help to provide ah education and a platform for people you know to where they can make a ah a better decision and whatever that decision is is on them at that point. um But i I don't know, I just think there's just been so much noise in the system. I think that brands have had such a strong voice in convincing people to do things. I think politicians and and and corporations have had such a strong voice voice and wielding ah wielding their weapon of capital and power and influence for policy. And I think the American consumer not only is being leveraged for their dollars, but also sent home um from their from their work, which was at one point
00:25:01
Speaker
you know meaningful to them. So it's just a really strange environment when you start to dig and I've been all over the world working on a ah documentary with a ah business partner Steve Best. Seven countries countless hours talking with historians and you know educated folk trying to trying to learn about like the the Like how we got here, you know, because it it isn't just unique to America. um oh It's it's all over the it's all over the place. So, um yeah, I don't know. So I think yes, for sure. You're right. And ah hopefully it just shows people it's possible. And they they take a ah risk themselves and and get on board. I don't know. Let's build a gang and make some shit happen.
00:25:56
Speaker
So, Pete, ah Atlas Shrugged is the book that I read when I was 20 years old that opened my eyes. You know, ah I was in university third year and I had a paper to write and a friend of mine had given me this book for Christmas and I just started reading it. And I couldn't put it down. I was 20 years old, so I had an insane amount of energy then.
00:26:24
Speaker
For that week, all I did was read, work out, eat, and then write my essay. I slept one hour that whole week. One hour. um it's a You've seen that book. It's an 1,100 page book. It is not a type of book. I haven't read it, but I've seen it.
00:26:44
Speaker
Dude, I read it in a week while doing my paper, while not sleeping. It woke me up to this is the world. This is an individual with a dream is the most important person. And the the collective, the collective is another bullshit name for tyranny to allow a group of elite oligarchs to impose their will and their vision on other people without their consent. That's all the collective really means. What's beautiful about America and what's beautiful about Atlas Shrugged is that America was founded on the premise that an individual has worth. An individual's voice should not be silenced in favor of the collective. And Atlas Shrugged is all about that. They they turned Atlas Shrugged into a movie. it's it's on three It's in three parts. It was on um on um
00:27:38
Speaker
on amazon prime but you can also buy the dvds i mean you go to you you can go by the dvds and watch him at your leisure i highly recommend you read the book put it near the top of your list it is an important book for a man like you to read
Storytelling and Product Mission
00:27:51
Speaker
but watch the movie and just yeah holy shit yeah yeah this is this is what it's all about and You know, Pete, I'm going to throw this out there. You may you may think I'm crazy or you you may already be doing this, but if you're not, I've written and published 11 books and many of my books are collaborations usually because im ah I read a lot. I write a lot. um I do most of the writing with my collaborators, but they bring a lot of their ideas in there. I'd love to tell your story. I'd love to tell the origin story with you in the form of a book. I'd love to talk with you about that.
00:28:24
Speaker
ah it is It is super special what you're doing. It's very important that people understand this because if we don't um we don't feed the arsenal of freedom, the arsenal of democracy is what FDR called America back in in ah World War II days.
00:28:43
Speaker
then slowly but surely the forces of tyranny are going to be able to take over. They're on a do on our They are. They are. The the Communist Chinese Party is ah has got a 200 year plan to be the dominant power in the world. The the Chinese are patient. yeah you know And we we we need to see this because if America falls, like when when the Shah's government fell, my family had a place to go to.
00:29:13
Speaker
If freedom, if freedom falls in America, where are you going to go? No, it's good. Yeah. I, I have started writing, uh, I have about 10,000 words I've drafted. up Um, yeah. And, and it's funny because the, the person I was speaking with, they're like,
00:29:33
Speaker
I don't know, there was something in the book, I guess something in Atlas Shrugged about a person up in New England who had like a world machine or something. I don't know what he was referring to it out. he's like and He's like a motor and he's like in that loom that you rescued, the last loom left in Maine was like the motor.
00:29:50
Speaker
And it and I was like, damn, that's kind of cool. It was it was like the the we found this old loom because we needed a wee fabric. And there was one person that knew how to run it and we dragged it back to the woods and we made it run again. And it was like the motor that started this thing. um And so I know there's a lot of um a lot of parallels. So I need to dig. I need to dig into it more, but.
00:30:17
Speaker
But yeah, I think you're spot on with all of that. um And I think people need to realize how we got here. I think it's really important and um And how we educate the next generation, I think podcasts like this and others, um they're paying attention to and they're not paying attention to traditional news sources. They're going and seeking knowledge um through through you know avenues that they trust and platforms that they trust and people that they trust. And so it's really, and I have two kids, ah one about to be 22, the other one 18, both in college now, but
00:30:50
Speaker
um I never talked a lot about news or politics. I only talked to them about ideas and, you know, and in how to live life and emotional intelligence and, you know, just your basic up upbringing. They didn't get phones until they were 14 years old. um And it's strange. It's strange where they both ended up on their own, you know, in a really good place. um So I think that generation's smart. This next generation's super smart, I think.
00:31:20
Speaker
I think we don't even realize how smart they are with the information they've been able to extract in and separating the truth from the lies themselves. They they haven't they have a knack for that not not getting sucked into. um I would say a lot of them not getting sucked into um emotional decisions and looking at things. um I don't know. I don't know, just with a with an with an open mind yet,
00:31:49
Speaker
um What's the word I'm looking for? They have they almost have like. And ah just a knack for like calling bullshit, like that's bullshit. I don't trust that person, you know, versus OK, this thing makes sense. And I like it because they're challenging themselves and those around them in.
00:32:14
Speaker
it Versus like, you know, my mom, for instance, who's who's an avid Fox News watcher and that's all she does or my in-laws who they're, you know, they watch Fox News constantly. And if it's on the news, it's it's true. You know, so. Oh, yeah. Anyways, my digress.
00:32:33
Speaker
No, you don't. This is this is this is a good part of the conversation. I think the generation that's going to value origin and what it's all about are these kids. These are the kids you need to get to buy your stuff anyways. And I think it's important to be speaking to them through podcasts like this and others. Yeah. ah So it's good. I mean, I have a 16 year old son and an 18 year old son. My 18 year old son was all set to go to university and um he He started working for a fitness company. ah
00:33:05
Speaker
Quick digression, a year and a half ago, I'm 57, I was 55. I weighed 227, I was overweight, and I got ah reached the point of being disgusted with myself, so I hired a guy who's a former bodybuilder to get me in shape. He helped me lose 60 pounds. At 57, I did a competition against 35-year-olds. I have abs at 57, which is good. you know so you know And I'm i'm i'm actually, I'm a businessman who's training to, ah when I turned 60 to get my IFBB pro bodybuilding card. ba just for shits Just for shits and giggles, right? So my boy's working with the guy who's my coach. He's got like 15 coaches working for him. He's got a nice company here. ah Really, really good dude. And ah he started working for him. And then a month into the summer, he comes to me and he goes, dad, you're gonna be pissed if I don't go to university and I take a year off.
00:34:01
Speaker
And I'm like, what? He said, I'm coming to you because I know mom is going to lose her shit. yeah tell her that if i So I need to get you on my side first. and And we talked about it. And he said, look, if I go to school, I got to spend that. We put money aside for university, but it's still going to cost ah quite a bit of money. and um He said, I'm just going to go and party there. I'll study. We'll spend all this money. While I work here, I'm going to make money. And I think I'll learn more this year than I will in university. I've talked to people at the gym who have their kinesiology degree, and they told me they've learned more work in here than they did at school. So I said, OK, fine.
00:34:42
Speaker
So I talked to his mom, I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that. let Let's let him make a decision. And reluctantly she agreed. And now he's telling me he's he's there seven days a week. Pete, 18 years old, seven days a week. He's up at 5 a.m. every day. He's in the gym by six. He's training guys. He's educating himself. He's learning about kinesiology, biomechanics, all this stuff.
00:35:05
Speaker
And yes, he's not woke. i know you I know that's a difficult one for you to swallow, but he's not woke. And that's because these kids, they they smell bullshit. And the the authorities and the powers that be at school everywhere are just feeding him bullshit. and yeah companies like you show them reality and authenticity and that's why you're going to be able to create strong brand relationship with them. and i'm I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that and how are you guys thinking through how to create the brand kind of stickiness for the next generation of customers for you guys?
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, I i have, ah you know, I learned about market dynamics, I guess later in life, probably five years ago was the first time I actually heard that term market dynamics. and I heard it from um a friend of mine who's also a business partner, a guy named Kip Folks, and he was the co-founder of Under Armour.
00:35:57
Speaker
And he was also the chief operating officer. And when Kip left the company, you know, five years ago, six years ago, he called me and he said, hey, you don't know me. My name is Kip. My non-competent Under Armour ran out. I was a co-founder. I'd like to help Origin. And um I was unpacking for him one day what this thing was, origin, and and and I'll share that with you. And he told me, oh, that's called market dynamics. And I was like, okay, well, I've never heard that term. I look at it like a triangle. um At the top of the triangle, you have, ah or or you could even say a a diamond, let's say. At the top of the triangle, you have the greatest generation.
00:36:41
Speaker
On one corner, you have the Boomers. On the bottom, you have the Fort Builders, the Gen Xers. That's my my generation, um is is the Xers, right? And then you have this this other generation, like our kids.
00:36:55
Speaker
um and And what you have is you have ah you have a relationship between the greatest generation and the Gen Xers. We spent time with our grandparents. We spent time listening to their stories. We spent times hearing them talk about the war, about you know about working in the mills and factories, about um their parents coming over with nothing, immigrating with nothing, all for the American dream, risking it all on the American dream. So you have this real first-hand real firsthand experiential knowledge.
00:37:31
Speaker
Then you have the boomers who were just like kind of rebellious, like, you know, they got beat as kids, you know what I mean? They they they went to Woodstock and um and and and and you have exers which are like, they they weren't raised by the greatest generation, so they got the best from them. They only got the good stuff ah from them, the the stories and the soul of America.
00:37:55
Speaker
and and i call and i And I call the Xers Fort Builders because we were the last generation that were raised without technology. We only got technology when when we we hit college, right? And all of a sudden, boom, the internet hit 1997. We have technology and phones and iPods and all that bullshit.
00:38:12
Speaker
um And it's changed the world. ah But before that, we had the plan. We had to call our friends and say, I'll meet you at 7 o'clock in the morning. and you know We had to wait for the street lights to come on. We crashed our big wheels. you know We got bloodied up. ah We drank from the garden hose. So you have this like generation of ah just like gritty individuals. um and And then you have this new generation, our kids,
00:38:37
Speaker
They've never walked foot in a factory. They don't know how how things are made. They're super smart and they're getting all their information from these sources, but it's just it's information through digital devices. and so It's not tangible. and i think I think the company that can connect what they're looking for, right and Origin sits in the middle of this diamond, this wave of freedom, of reclamation,
00:39:02
Speaker
um when you the The company that can connect what they're looking for which is is they're they're looking for something experiential. they're looking to They're looking with all this knowledge now to experience something tangible. They want to touch it, feel it, smell it, understand it, be connected to it.
00:39:19
Speaker
um and and And I believe we as a company have this great opportunity to connect them to what once was, which was we used to build things to be durable, to to outlast utilitarian. They would be overbuilt because everything America made wi was built as survival gear because we were at war.
00:39:44
Speaker
um And so things used to be built to last and they're not anymore. And I think once this new generation realizes that and realize those stories and they see this conduit um between what once was and what what could be and because they're so smart that we're going to convert them into customers and and we are in a major way. i mean both through Origin and Jocko Fuel, ah my nutritional company. um We're seeing it in our growth and in in numbers and everything. um and That is the market dynamics of which Origin exists. um and Again, I learned that it was market dynamics just a short time ago. For me, it was just a plan.
00:40:41
Speaker
All of that never heard market dynamics before heard a lot of other terms around markets But this was really beautifully explained and as you were saying this couple of ideas came came to me, you know, um, I I had this vision of like a Film crew following you and the team around in the factory as you're doing shit and just um filming them, building things, doing things. And then having conversations with a fellow on a line and saying, what are you doing? Why is this important? And then turning that into a whole bunch of clips, putting it out on an on an origin kind of, I don't know, rumble page or YouTube page or whatever, what have you or ex page. And then having I see origin also going to local schools and saying, hey,
00:41:29
Speaker
We're looking for young boys who would like to come ah and have a tour of the factory. And, you know, we're going to provide them with a lunch or whatever. But we want to show what a potential career building things in America could look like. Because here's the truth, Pete. I have a good friend of mine. I run a men's group. That's how I know Ryan Mickler, right? we We're both into this whole men stuff. I mean, it's not it's not a business for me the way that it is for him. It's a labor of love. I do other things for business. But um The guy who runs a group with me, he works with his hands. He's got a landscape construction company. Him and his brother run it together. And his biggest complaint the last four years has been it's hard to find young men who want to work with their fucking hands. You know what I mean? Are you hearing this as well? Because it's yeah I would say that if we didn't have the gravity in the community,
00:42:29
Speaker
I would agree. in in But because we've been at it for over a decade, most of our workforce is between 20 and 30 years old. So like a lot of the kids that work for us are kids that like, yeah, I want to work with my hands or be in the trades. I'm really am not interested in college. and um And so we found like a really, really good group of of humans, both both boys and girls, men and women, um that you know right out of high school have started with us and have and been with us and have stayed with us. Yeah. And and I would say um it hasn't it hasn't been as hard in this little spot in Western Maine where there's not a lot of other opportunities. so But i could see I could see kids who didn't grow up fishing and hunting and processing their own animals and deer. and
00:43:23
Speaker
Um, you know, it's a bit, it's a little bit like grittier, like, I mean, Maine is, it's, it's cold. It's like Canada, right? It's, I mean, it's cold. It's unforgiving. You know, a lot of these folks grow up, you know, where they're splitting 10 quarts of wood.
00:43:39
Speaker
um So they're they're they're pretty calloused individuals by the time they get out of high school. um they're They're definitely not soft. um But i i have heard I have heard that there is you know kind of teaching kids to get their hands dirty again is ah is a slippery slope. Yeah. So so when when I was thinking of this, I thought to myself, what could be cool is,
00:44:07
Speaker
Maybe the second book you write is The Case Against College Education in 2024, 2025, 26. And ah there have been a few guys who've been talking about this. Patrick Bette David from Valuetainment actually wrote a book saying, ah this is why I don't think you need a college degree. My son is not going to go to college. He's told me flat out. Now, I want him to do Peterson University online. I signed up for that myself. It's been good. I've been taking some of the courses.
00:44:33
Speaker
and The nutrition course was really good. the um The storytelling course is good. But he doesn't want to go to school. He wants to work seven days a week. He wants to learn on the job and he wants to make money. And I got to tell you, I like that. I think college today is ah is ah is unless you're going to do something like, you know, become a doctor or a surgeon, something along those lines where you're going to learn skills that you're going to immediately apply. It's a waste of time and money. You've got all these woke left wing fools.
00:45:01
Speaker
in academia, they're trying to indoctrinate your kids to hate their parents, hate America, hate the Western tradition. Who the hell needs that? What are your thoughts on that? There's, I mean, it's definitely a polarizing society. um I think, you know, for both my kids, I said go to college, don't go to college, it doesn't matter.
00:45:23
Speaker
like your college is important if there's something you want to learn because you're going to pay somebody to teach you. So, it's not yeah it's it's not necessary.
00:45:34
Speaker
My son decided he wanted to go and get his business degree and my daughter she was kind of on the fence and we'll see she's in her freshman year she will she or she sticks it out but um she went for fashion and textile design because they both want to work in the business him on the business side and her on the and there's one school left in america which has a true fashion and textile program and that's north carolina state and north carolina and rally north carolina and c state and c state so she's part of the wolf pack so Um, so yeah, you know, and, and her boyfriend, um, who they're very serious, he's like, I'm not going go to college. I'm on a, I'm going to go into the trades and I'm like, cool, like good, good route. I mean, the kids, kids in trades are making are killing it. Uh, and of course everyone that works for me in the factory, some of them went to university. I've got one kid got his degree in biology and he works in the footwear plant. So just because you go to university or go to college doesn't mean that that is the path you end up following. And I myself am a college dropout. So um I think that college is an option and should be weighed equally against all the other options.
00:46:48
Speaker
I don't think it should be weighted above the other options. And I think that's where and for me, it's not one versus the other. It's here's college as an option. Here's the trades as an option. Here's OG just on the job training. Like what do you want to do? What are you interested in? College is always there. If you want to go explore that, it's not going anywhere. You know what I mean? And so like don't rush into it if you don't want to. um And I think that that's I think that that is really where at least my my friends and and the influences around me, that's where their minds are at. That's where my mind is at. I don't pay too much attention to the extremists. um You know, I try to block out a lot of the noise, um but I do believe that the that America is broken and I think education has really taken a beating.
00:47:40
Speaker
He was taking a real beating um as of late. i i ah I'm nervous for these really young kids right now and and some of the things that they're going to be exposed to and experience as they go through school. So they got to have strong home lines, they got to have strong parents, they got to have strong community outside of school, and they got to know who they are. And I think that it's, you know, that's the the job of the educators is not to raise your kids, that's yes's your job. And, know you know, I think my daughter, she,
00:48:10
Speaker
She wasn't really liked by some of the teachers because she just had such strong opinions and such a powerful voice that didn't match with their ideology. And um I said, Yeah, you got to have a voice, Chloe. This is America. You can't have a voice. Amen. Amen. Good for you. Good for her. God bless her. So You know, I think what you guys are doing is great. And I think it'd be great for you to do things like videotape what you're doing and put it out there on social media channels and and podcasts and show people what it looks like to actually build things without giving away any secrets, of course. Sure. Yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
I also think it's a good idea for you guys to do ah you know factory visits by local kids, young young boys, and have them have them come in for a day and see what it's like. I think that would be really, really fantastic and we'll get a lot of people excited about ah working with you. and For whatever it's worth, i ah and Not that I want to give you more things to do, but I think you should start some sort of a peer alliance of American manufacturers who think like you. There should be people like Origin in there, like Ernest Emerson and some of these other knife companies and other folks who are building things in America. This organization ought to meet, ah you know, at least annually and talk about things to support other manufacturers and and put out
00:49:32
Speaker
um put out messaging out there in the world to encourage ah young entrepreneurs to do things in America and also frankly to to do some lobbying of government officials going forward to be start being more pro-American.
00:49:48
Speaker
yeah ah say Say whatever you want to say about Donald Trump. I happen to be a fan. But the greatest thing about this guy is he said, let's make America great again. Let's have America be first. Let's have its citizens be first. And let's make sure that people that do business in America, people that create jobs in America and bring innovation to America are the ones that are celebrated and rewarded. And I think he's 100% correct. And that's the beauty of Origin USA as far as I'm concerned.
00:50:19
Speaker
I think um ah think it's hard to see your neighbors you know starving, hopeless, without purpose. And when you when you live in real America and you see that, it's hard not to say what went wrong and why isn't anybody fixing this and what can I do about that? So I think a lot of folks don't understand that. that that is that message, how important it is, you know, it's it's, um, the country's broken. I compare, you know, I was was telling somebody recently, if you take Europe, all of Europe,
00:51:00
Speaker
in now. Now, think about Europe. Think about the tip of Italy, like all the way up through England, Scotland. Right. It's how many languages and cultures do you have there between France and the square miles of America and the square miles of Europe are, I don't know, couple, maybe 10,000 or something. It's the same size.
00:51:26
Speaker
And so when you think about the United States, me up in Maine and Joe Schmo down in California, you don't think we're going to have differences. I mean, where we're raised culturally after 250 years, you don't think there's going to be differences. Could you imagine if if in in Europe you tried to like.
00:51:44
Speaker
force everybody in pigeonhole everybody. But this thing, this experiment we call America is so very important that there is alignment in unification. And what I see is I see more, I see a lot of division happening right now. And I say, well, factories used to be the unifying thing.
00:52:04
Speaker
factories where everybody from all these cultures, whether you're you're Greek or French or Irish or talent, you melted into the factories. You did hard things together. You built hard things together. You walked away at the end of the day. You look back and you say, we did that. And I think America is missing that. I think i think origin you know is a glimmer of hope. you know and And for me, jujitsu is the other place you find that. You find everybody.
00:52:32
Speaker
like regardless of background or where they're from coming together, passionate about one thing, it's it's it's the melting pot that America once was. And I think having more of those types of experiences is would be tremendous because um because we are so separated at this at this point. I mean, and yeah, I don't know where it's going to go, man. I think just got to do the right things for the right reasons.
00:53:01
Speaker
So I'm very optimistic that America's best days are ahead of her. Ronald Reagan used to say that America is like that shining city on a hill and that her best days are ahead of her. And I believe that very strongly. ah The last few months, it almost appears like God is watching out for America. And the reason I say that is ah You know, on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, someone tried to take out Donald Trump and it looks like God turned his head and that bullet scratched his ear instead of blew his brains out. And, you know, ever since then, there just seems to be. um
00:53:42
Speaker
a sense in the culture that people can be themselves again, that they can express their First Amendment rights. And I think that's what's made America special all this time. And companies like yours are out there building things in America and ah making communities strong.
00:53:57
Speaker
I'm very hopeful for America and I'm very grateful that a man like you exists and a company like yours exists. And I want you to know that it's not just me. There's hundreds of thousands of people all around the world that are looking at you and seeing what you're doing. And they get hope from that. So you should feel really good about that. I appreciate that. I do. Yeah.
00:54:25
Speaker
So look, let's talk about some of your products. Let's go nitty gritty into what what's some of the cool stuff you build because I'm interested. And I wear jeans and t-shirts except if I have a business meeting with some hoity toity dude. yeah This is how I dress. So there you go. The blue jeans. I mean, we brought blue jean manufacturing back to America. um We We rescued a ah dying factory in Ashboro, North Carolina a couple of years ago. This old timer, Wally, would have taken it to his grave, um spent 20 hours negotiating it with him, and he ended up selling selling the factory to us.
00:55:06
Speaker
um and It was a denim plant and it was the last denim plant at scale left in America. and It was the last wash house left east of the Mississippi. It was the last bit of infrastructure. so You have one mill that can weave denim and now you have one mill that can manufacture denim at scale. um and That's the one we bought. um We put millions of dollars into renovating it. and And in blue jeans is just so important to me because it's the only other thing that undeniably unites humanity besides our DNA. Everybody, regardless of where you live or what time you're from or where you're from, loves blue jeans. And I think about the fall of the Berlin Wall. I remember watching Freedom Unfold and in Men in Jeans wielding sledgehammers smashing that wall down. And it's like that is freedom. Jeans are freedom. Jeans are America. And guess what?
00:55:58
Speaker
We sold it all away. Find a pair of jeans that isn't made by communism right now. You can't. go And so literally the thing that represents freedom actually is made by communism.
00:56:13
Speaker
and so It was really important really important for us to bring blue-gene manufacturing back to America. i want When people think of like American denim, I want them to think of origin. Not not blinded by fancy brands and marketing messages, but to know that the cotton in the jeans came from the Tennessee Delta region from Texas.
00:56:36
Speaker
that it was spun and woven and and try in Trion, Georgia. It was cut and sewn in Ashboro, North Carolina and shipped to you. And if you follow the box, you're going to end up in a field talking to a farmer and that supply chain, that dirt to shirt, field to finish, fiber fabric supply chain.
00:56:52
Speaker
exists on this soil. And if there's a strike at the ports, it doesn't affect what we're doing because every component comes from American soil. So blue jeans is really important to the future success of origin. I've committed to making a million pairs of jeans a year. I'm hoping that we get there within the next few years. um This year we'll sell a couple hundred thousand pairs of pants. um And where's the other thing, man? Boots, boots built by freedom.
00:57:20
Speaker
ah Made in America, um and and I call it the uniform of America. you know A cotton t-shirt, a hoodie, ah blue jeans and boots is the uniform of America. You look at the old photos of the of of of the dudes building the big steel structures in New York City, sitting on the edge of the beam.
00:57:40
Speaker
and they're wearing blue jeans and boots and gritty, hardworking Americans. And and I just ah just think for us, for Origin, like those things are so important to the to our to our DNA, not just of the brand, but of of this mission we call breathing life back into the dream. And that's that's our mission, is to breathe life back into the dream. So um on the origin side, originusa.com, like we always love the support we needed. I got 50,000 pairs of jeans in stock that we've made ah for this holiday season. So go get some. We've got $12 billion dollars of inventory. That's my cost in stock. So go get some. um And know that every dollar you spend doesn't leave American soil. That's really important.
00:58:30
Speaker
um And and of course, we're trying to not only put on people um what they need, but in their bodies, the same thing. And and so Jocko Fuel, which is my other company, started with with Jocko Origin, actually started the company um in 2017. You know, we're trying to get it within arm's reach of every household in America. So you can find Jocko Fuel at Jocko Fuel dot com.
00:58:58
Speaker
um and and and local retailers like like Walmart and others, Vitamin Shop and you know, HEB, you know, all sorts of places. So you know, there are two two companies that continue to scale and um You know our brand affinity is like 99% like once people enter the brands they don't leave just because you know like I was saying before folks want to be part of something real ah they want to touch feel smell be part of it. It's got to be experiential. It just can't be ah it can't be without purpose. um So yeah man that's yeah.
00:59:38
Speaker
Those are great products. So I'll tell you, there's two ads. I'm going to see if I can send them to you, find them to you and send them to you on on YouTube that I think you are you guys ought to look and create your own version of them. There's one um called Hello Trouble by Gerber Knives. You've got to watch this ad. It is the manliest, coolest fucking ad in the world. I'm about to see it. Dude, you like it'll give you goosebumps. Hello. I'm not right. Hello Trouble. Trouble.
01:00:08
Speaker
Gerber Knives, G-E-R-B-E-R, Gerber Knives. Just see if you can find it, watch it. And the other one is called, ah it's the encounter collection. It's about this leather bag. You gotta watch these ads. They tell stories in a beautiful way. The Hello Trouble follows a bunch of tough manly men wearing jeans with knives, getting into all kinds of trouble and shit. There's a little narrative over it. And then you watch this and you wanna go buy a knife. Okay, okay. I gotta see. I need this. i need need ah got Dude, I'm gonna i'm goingnna send you, listen, I'm gonna email you my personal cell number and I'll send you shit like this anytime you like, but i' i'm I'm a dude who's into this kind of stuff. I'm into messaging, selling, that's my whole my whole gig. like i'm the i'm I'm the king of action, the market and sell. But the other the the other one, the encounter collection, is a letter written by a father in ah World War II who died, written to his son.
01:01:02
Speaker
Like he he died before his you know his son became an adult, right? yeah um And um so Buddy's saying, hey, son, if you're reading this letter, you know I didn't make it back. And here's ah here's my my message to you, to my advice to you to help you win in life. And there's there's a beautiful narrative about, you you know,
01:01:27
Speaker
ah what kind of man to be, how to be in life, what things to value, makes you cry why and it's an ad. but It's an ad and you want to cry. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, origins away, you know, God bless Gerber Knives, you know, God bless the encounter collection, origins away better, more emotionally powerful story than either one of these. You take some of these and create some stories with dudes wearing jeans and doing hard work out there and wearing your boots and,
01:01:55
Speaker
You know, a father maybe do like ah a thing of a father pet who passes away in ah in an accident or or something. And he was wearing his stuff and he and he's got a letter for his son, old fashioned letter. The son figures out. I'm going, man, this this could tell some really good stories for you guys. We had a we had a real situation recently.
01:02:13
Speaker
ah We got a letter from a woman and really she she wrote about her husband and his origin genes and and um how important they were to him. And when he passed away, um he wanted to be buried in his origin genes. Wow. um It's not anything we have ever ever put out there would for for, you know, but I think that I think that there's something there as far as like it's important and people that come into the brand there they're they're They're not shopping for fashion. therere there there and ill And I'll talk about it in a little bit, but um and there's purpose behind their actions. There's purpose behind their investment. They're not spending for the sake of spending. It's very thoughtful.
01:03:02
Speaker
um and um Yeah, no, I love I'm gonna watch this and there's another ad I like I haven't ever seen these ones but I think it's called so God made a farmer and I think we see the Ford commercial maybe I don't know if you ever seen that one. It's really really powerful. You probably like that too. Yeah, but yeah, no, I appreciate I'm gonna watch these after we get off here.
01:03:25
Speaker
You should, you should. you you You'd get a ton out of them. ah And to like, i I think Pete Roberts, you ought to be like the Elon Musk of this industry. You should be world famous, not to be famous for the sake of like being an influencer or some bullshit like that. But because you got a powerful message and I think you're going to inspire a lot of people to do the right thing. And frankly, I think it's going to get you a shit ton of customers, more than Origin can handle. I think that if you get to that level,
01:03:55
Speaker
everything you make will sell out like that. just do ti tu tu to There'll be a lineup of 10,000 kids begging to work for you. And there'll be private equity dollars like bringing you hundreds of millions of billions of dollars and going, we want to invest. How do we invest? How do we get in on this? That's what Elon, that's what allowed Elon Musk to take all of his brands to the level that he's done, I think you ought to be that guy. And to you know for whatever it's worth, if that's ah something you ever want to talk about offline, I'd be honored to talk to you about it because um what you're doing is super, super important.
01:04:29
Speaker
so Look, I'm just gonna say for myself, I'm old school. I hate all this stretchy jean bullshit. You know what I mean? I like 100% cotton. You guys ever gonna make 100% cotton jeans? Yeah, next year we're making, so I negotiated with our mill. Good. We're getting the cotton at at good pricing and we're gonna be able to add a sub $100, 100% cotton jean to our lineup. It's probably gonna be in the... Oh! Yeah, so it's coming next fall, 2025. Yep, yep, we're doing it.
01:05:00
Speaker
So look, for whatever it's worth, I'm not a, you know, I'm a decent looking 57 year old man. I'd like to model those jeans for you for free. I want to be your poster child. I'll hand them over to you. yeah I just want, I just want to be the first guy who gets to buy them. That's all. Cause I love a hundred percent cotton jeans. Nice. My, my, my lady bought me the stretch jeans. I put them on once. I took them off. I said, I can't wear these. Get rid of these. two Get them out of here. This is just horseshit. And your boots look like they're fantastic as well. I'd love to see I'd love to get them here in Canada. I don't know if it's only possible to order them online. I can get I can get the team to ship you some probably some mock toes would be best. But yeah, I can get I can get those. I got really wide feet. Yeah, yeah. I got I got like 40 feet. They'll fit fine.
01:05:51
Speaker
Ugh, a man after my own heart. Okay, so we're talking genes. Let's talk about the gi. Let's talk about the gear, the where where you guys got started. So what's so damn special about an origin gi? What's all the fuss about?
01:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, outside of the fact, in fact, it's made by magic. um No, the earth the origin key is the only key in the world that's not only made in America built by freedom, but is built for performance. So um the way we built the pants actually was based around blue jeans. So we looked at blue jeans, other key pants, other jiu-jitsu pants, they more fit like trash bags where you cinch it closed. Right. So the waist is huge and you cinch it.
01:06:34
Speaker
Our pants are are built with innovation. And then our jackets, we weave all the material um proprietary material in our factory in Maine. um And we have different weaves. you know We have but a Raptor weave, we call it. And we have this American Pearl weave. And it's just it's just a really good, quality, handmade, innovative, performance-based product. And you know and in i think I think since we started manufacturing geese,
01:07:03
Speaker
And I was trying to figure out how many how many returns we've had because of failures and then how many gears we've actually made. It was something like less than 200 returns for failures over the course of a couple hundred thousand shots. That's it insane. Insane statistic, almost unbelievable statistic.
01:07:24
Speaker
but True. I even had a guy at our annual immersion camp this year who had bought one of our first made in America jujitsu keys and he was still wearing it. He was a, he was a black belt and, and it's just continues to wear in its phenomenal construction. So yeah, I mean, if, if folks are looking for something to last a lifetime, then they want to buy an origin key. That's for damn sure. I'm You know, I'm 57 years old and buddies of mine are doing jiu-jitsu and they're telling me, you should try this. I've never done this. I go, I don't know. Should I? Shouldn't I? I just love seeing that masculine camaraderie in there. So I'm guessing because you're a third degree black belt and in jiu-jitsu, you're going to tell me, yeah, you should do it. Stop being a pussy. And I'm kind of like, OK, I'll bite the bullet and go to a class because ah
01:08:11
Speaker
Everybody I know and I respect practices jiu-jitsu. It's it's it's crazy jiu-jitsu built my my companies like it jiu-jitsu philosophies built my companies I tell people all the time like if it wasn't for jiu-jitsu, I wouldn't be even close to where I am I give it to I give it to jiu-jitsu and And you absolutely should should train. it's it's goingnna It's going to open new parts of your mind that um you're going to put yourself through things you probably never experienced. Jiu-Jitsu is just this really, I don't even know how to explain it. It almost seems magical. But um when when you play life or death with friends and you have to learn how to
01:09:00
Speaker
how to retrain your body and your mind to think about adversity. um It opens it new synapses. it's just It's a really wonderful gift.
01:09:11
Speaker
and and and it and If you allow yourself, if you allow yourself to go through the first six months or 12 months, you will become addicted to it because jujitsu is basically it's a way of solving problems. And so when you learn how to solve problems, you take those problems, solving skills into your business, into your life, into your marriage, into leadership, and it changes the way you look at the world. It changes your world view. It's really wild, really wild.
01:09:45
Speaker
I yeah had the privilege of interviewing Royce Gracie on the podcast a couple years ago. um and to be you know One of the cool things about what I do is is every so often I get to interview the very best in the world at whatever the heck it is that they do, and Royce being one of those folks. um He was the first person I had on my show when he spoke to me about jujitsu, what it was like.
01:10:10
Speaker
he kind of woke up the thought of me that maybe I should try this at some point, you know, because I just thought to myself, you know, up until last year, when I was overweight 55, the thought in my head was, it'd be nice to get in shape again. But you know, it's probably too late for me. I'm old now, right? It's not gonna happen. And When I got disgusted enough with myself to want to do something about it, and I hired this coach who was 20 years younger than I am, and I told him the first question I asked him was, do you think a man my age can get in really great shape again? And his answer immediately, no hesitation, was absolutely fucking loot yes. Yes, and hell yes. And he showed me pictures of all kinds of guys my age and older that had done it. So, you know, I think this is a good thing. ah I think I ought to do it. And I think other people ought to do it as well.
01:10:59
Speaker
It'll change your life. Amen. Amen. So, Pete, if folks are interested in buying your products, if they're interested in finding out more about the origin story, if there's folks who who want to maybe even arrange to come and tour your factory. what's What's the best way? Where do you want me to send them? Yeah, I mean, originusa.com ah is kind of our, you know, and we only have one channel where we sell stuff and that's like the best place to look. um You know, we do have Instagram, it's Origin USA on Instagram. um ah My own Instagram is pete.org and then we have a YouTube channel, also Origin USA.
01:11:48
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, that's that's like the the places you can learn more about us. And, you know, we capture the, we've captured the journey over the years on YouTube and, you know, on Instagram we share insights and, and of course, through the web is where you can actually support what we're doing and and help rebuild America.
01:12:09
Speaker
Amen. Amen. So you sell all your gear through the website. Yep. Yep. For origin, it's only a two one channel strategy. We'll open up stores probably in 2026 and some strategic locations. Um, but right now it's a one channel, uh, business. Damn.
01:12:29
Speaker
Yeah. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Yeah. You know, that's how Ernie Emerson sells his knives. He used to have dealers, but now everything gets sold on on his website. And the crazy thing is he sells out of everything. And I mean everything. You ought to, I ought to connect you with Mr. Emerson. I think that each other would like each other.
01:12:50
Speaker
and gra Yeah, he's a good dude. He's a really, really good dude. OK, great. So we'll make sure we put all that and in in the show notes. I'll reach out to you offline to get some of this stuff shipped to Canada. I'll give you my credit card. So I think that no now'll we'll get it shipped up on us.
01:13:06
Speaker
Very gracious of you, my friend. And we'll make sure. Look, folks, ah Black Friday season's coming up. Christmas is coming. in Buy some jeans, buy some boots, buy some geese and go get yourself some Jaco fuel. It's ah it's a way that you're going to be supporting America and you're going to be supporting freedom. I'm going to call this episode, Pete, ah with your permission built by Freedom, the Origin USA story. Please. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think that's a good name for the episode. And if you ever start your own podcast, maybe that should be the name of the podcast built by freedom with Pete, featuring Pete Edwards, man. I have I have thought about it. I had a podcast ah years ago that was pretty successful, but I stopped it about five years ago to focus on this documentary um that we've been filming, which has taken five years. But um but yeah, I know I thought about it.
01:14:01
Speaker
You know what, it's a good thing. You know, it's funny, Ernest Emerson had a podcast up until 2019 as well, the Ernest Emerson podcast. It was very successful. He had Leif Babin on it, who's Jaco's partner in his echelon front business. He had ah Ben Greenfield. He had um Evan Hafer from Black Rifle Coffee. Yeah, yeah, those guys were all on his show and then he stopped it too because he got too busy because he likes building shit. So he's he's one of these...
01:14:33
Speaker
He's one of these dudes who actually goes on the factory floor and builds knives. yeah ah And now, just because he's not busy enough in his old age, he's decided to hand build guitars as well. That's crazy. yeah he God bless him.
01:14:49
Speaker
so so pete um We like to end off every episode by asking you, our guest expert, what are your top three expert action steps? These are your three best pieces of advice yeah for a listener to take their life, their business, what have you to the next level. So what say you? Yeah, I mean, I can, I, everything I,
01:15:14
Speaker
have learned is you know a regurgitation you know of something I've experienced and or something somebody said to me that had an impact on my life. um I think that's really important and just to start off with I'd say number one is somebody told me once when my back was against the wall and I didn't couldn't find any way out he said you're not special your ideas aren't special and nobody gives a shit.
01:15:40
Speaker
And I was seeking advice from this gentleman ah and it really put me on my heels and he said, if you believe in what you're doing, you have to go all in. And at the time, I was about 30 years old and he said, Pete, how old are you? It's 30 years old. He said,
01:15:56
Speaker
from zero to 20 you're learning from 20 to 60 you're doing and hopefully at 60 you're enjoying the fruits of your labor. He said anything great in life takes 10 years. He's like you're 10 years in and you have four chances it doesn't matter if the first time it doesn't work out you have still have three chances and that really stuck with me. Anything great in life takes a decade to do, takes 10 years. So if you're going to do something, you got to be willing to commit a decade to it if you want to build something meaningful and you have four chances of doing that. Some folks have more than that. So that's the first bit of bit of advice. The second one is like that ideas are fickle. Ideas are fleeting.
01:16:42
Speaker
And what's more important than ideas is first is purpose and the power of purpose. And I like to say purpose, the power of purpose is the gravity. It will lead ideas. It will pull ideas along with it. And so if you don't have purpose,
01:16:57
Speaker
and you just have an idea that's why most businesses fail that's why that's why the percentage is so low of businesses that fail because people have an idea but they don't have purpose and so the power of purpose will take you to places you never knew you could go ah and you'll definitely earn emotional calluses in those places and maybe even get a bit of um what I call CEO shingles if you if you really go into those deep places. um But again, everything great in life takes 10 years to build and a little bit more I guess the last bit of advice I'll give is I believe that market share as we know it is dying.
01:17:38
Speaker
I believe that market share the way it was once billed is an old model and people want to be part of something meaningful meaningful and and they want to be part of something experiential and this goes back to my market dynamics conversation. um So with so much noise in the market with so many people with so many things to say ah I don't chase fleeting market share. I try to gain mind share number one. i want to I want to show and educate and create value for the person. That's number one. The second thing is soul share. I want to touch their soul.
01:18:18
Speaker
like like no one ever has when it comes to a company's mission, a company's responsibility, a company's ethics, a company's vision and I want to pull them into it and if I can gain their mind share, if I can gain their soul share, then market share is the byproduct of doing those things.
01:18:39
Speaker
um and and it's a winning it's a winning model. ah So those are the three I guess expert action steps or three pieces of advice that I would give that I've never I don't think shared on a podcast because I have a keynote speech um that I go around giving and those are part of my keynote speech so um hopefully your your listeners um you know hopefully they resonate.
01:19:05
Speaker
Dude, I'm honored that you shared that here for the first time on a podcast, first of all. Secondly, I just want to tell you, i this is the 600 and change episode of this podcast, and I got a men's podcast, I've done almost 170 on that. I've interviewed some really, really super smart people. These are the three very best expert action steps I've ever heard. Oh, geez, thank you. Thank you. Dude.
01:19:32
Speaker
like Fuck me. These are good. Damn. OK. They will be in my book. Maybe you could just tell maybe you could just read the first 10,000 words for me and tell me if it's if if it's if it's trash. and Yeah. ah Done. ah Done. you you You got it. And listen, ah no joke. I'm I would be honored to help you with the book and I'll be honored to help you write it. um I don't want any money. I don't want nothing. I just want to help you do it. um it's ah it's It's a special thing you're doing. It's an important thing you're doing. The world needs more of you. and ah As far as I'm concerned, I think Origin USA should be um should be one of the leading companies in America.
01:20:20
Speaker
over the next 30, 40, 50, 100 years. And when you're gone, I think the company should outlast you. I think there should be towns all over Maine, all over America that are building things in America. And the origin idea of starting with textiles should then spread to everything else that's built using specialized manufacturing knowledge. And one day,
01:20:48
Speaker
You know how in certain markets, there are some brand names that have become verbs like Kleenex. You don't say tissue paper. You say, get me a fucking Kleenex, right? I want people to say about origin. Hey, are you going to origin it? The origin model. Origin it. Are you going to origin it? Are you going to go there and origin it? You're going to start it here in your hometown, in your backyard, in the woods. Is that how you're going to do it? And I want everyone to know what the hell that means when someone says that because that's I'm there. It's a hundred. It's a hundred years. grand And it's going to transcend my life. I yeah I say it all the time. So. it Amen. Amen. And these these expert action steps are really good. So listeners, Pete Roberts and origin USA are the real deal.
Encouragement and Conclusion
01:21:37
Speaker
I strongly, strongly encourage you to go to Jaco fuel dot com origin USA dot com. Check out what they do. But more than that, support them. Buy some shit. You know, like
01:21:49
Speaker
Christmas is coming. You got stuff you want to buy for people. What better way to show you care about somebody than to buy them something that's going to last them? Not some ah piece of apparel that'll you know break apart after 10, 15 washes, but something that will last them 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. Why not buy them a pair of boots that honestly are going to be so good that when they pass on, their grandkids are going to go, shit, these are good boots. I'm going to take grandpa's boots. You know, like that's what you got to be thinking about. And you want to support people that come here. So I'm glad that you as listeners support authors when they come here with their books. That's awesome. Support a company that's trying to bring freedom back. Built by freedom is something worth preserving. Pete, my man,
01:22:40
Speaker
Thank you for coming on my humble show. It's been a real honor. God bless you for who you are and what you do. I appreciate it. Thank you much. Yeah, you bet. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. To find out more about today's guest, the one and only Pete Roberts, go to his websites for his companies, originusa.com, jocofuel.com. Go to wherever you listen to this episode, be it on our website, thethoughtleaderrevolution.com or iTunes, Spotify, Rumble, YouTube, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And
01:23:11
Speaker
Make sure that you share this episode with a friend of yours that believes in freedom. Make sure you share this episode with a friend of yours that needs to hear a message of encouragement. Because what Pete had to say, especially in his three expert action steps.
01:23:28
Speaker
to be purpose-driven, to not take yourself so seriously, because you're not really special, and you've got at least four kicks at making something good happen, and to not go for market share, but instead to go for soul share and mind share. I mean, these are gold. Everybody needs to do this. Until next time, bye-bye. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.