Tools of the Trade

Kicking off our reinvented “Profile of Success,” Chinn shares with Matt Griffin, associate editor, his biggest challenges through the years and what he thinks makes Garrett Wade special.

Catalog Success: What has been your greatest career challenge?
Chinn: Managing the strategy for the company during the ‘80s and early ‘90s. We added a lot of product, and we took on the responsibility for exclusive lines of equipment, especially machinery. When we did that, we were doing more than we could handle properly. We’re tool guys, so we loved every tool. We had this huge annual catalog of 200-plus pages, and it was sucking up all of our marketing budget just to produce it. Stylistically we never altered our position, but all of this product outstripped our ability to manage the business. When the dollar crashed in the early ‘90s, we just couldn’t sell machinery anymore, because our customers couldn’t pay what it would cost to keep it profitable.