A Chat With David Isham, president/CEO, National Roper’s Supply

We’re National Roper’s Supply, so our bread and milk product in our catalog is the rope that guys use to compete. We ship about 60,000 ropes a year to competitive cowboys across the country. A guy that ropes a couple of times a week, he’ll on average buy three or four ropes a month. A rope to a cowboy is a lot like a golf ball to a golfer. If you play golf, you just love to open up a fresh new pack of golf balls. No matter what new ball comes out onto the market, you try it because you think it might increase your performance. Ropes are the same way. Guys like fresh ropes, because they’re quicker and just feel good. Needless to say, we ship a lot of ropes. The largest rope company in the industry — we’re their largest account, they’re our largest vendor — 10 years ago took the rope market and tack industry by storm. They had enlisted the help of an advertising agency that created a very effective marketing campaign for them.