There’s a funny story that goes along with this picture. The other day I received an order for a bracelet. Later that same evening I received an email from the person that placed the order, stating that they made a mistake on the size and wondered if I could change it to a smaller size. No problem, I wrote back. The next day I surprisingly get an order for the smaller size bracelet, with the same ship to address. Same person, second order right? WRONG.
We start exchanging a few emails and I refund the first (incorrect size) order. This was being purchased for this persons sibling as a gift. Now this person is wondering why am I sending back the money. I explain that I had two orders and was just cancelling the incorrect one. My customer and I are both confused at this point.
Well, long story short. This person ordered a bracelet for their sibling and at the sibling bought one for themselves. About 10 emails later, we all figured it out and went through our “Twilight Zone” moment so to speak. Both siblings thought it was funny and ironic. It was also a sweet gesture on the first customer’s part.
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there. (In my Larry the Cable guy voice). What do you think?
If you are anything like me, you ‘ve probably heard of all the amazing things that can be done with a paracord bracelet. Personally I like how I can take some raw material and tie a few knots and voila. But I must say in my mind this is just the beginning. I believe we must go deeper with our preparedness. We must round out our systems and do all that we are personally and financially able to do to be ready for lifes inevitable moments, be they good or bad.
So now you have a dozen feet, plus or minus, of rope on your wrist. What do you do if the lights go out. Do you have a knife to cut that cord. 550# test is just that…tough as nails. There is no way anyone is ever going to be able to tear this stuff, like maybe I could with jute twin or something.
GEAR CHECK
For those of you that have been followers of The Nutnfancy Project (TNP), you know what’s coming next. Often the host of the show, who goes by the screen name of Nutnfancy, does a gear check on guys when he meets them.
It’s not a lot of stuff, but it all has its importance. Most of the items are based on EDC or everyday carry items. What is my gear check like on most given days. Well, let me see. Keys, wallet, badge wallet, chapstick, multi-tool (Leatherman Juice S2), flashlight (Streamlight Protac 2AA), Knife (a few choices to choose from) and firearm(s)(?),(Not going to tell you). Oh yeah I forgot about the main thing that this article is about in the first place paracord. I always have one of my bracelets. That gives me about 9-10 ft. of cord with a 550# tensile strength. If I remove the inner strands and use them individually, I have 7 more strands of the same length, each with a tensile strength of 50# each.
Perhaps this sounds like a lot to you but it isn’t too heavy. It gives me a lot of capability. Many times I’ve gone into a dark place or have had to look in dark place and the flashlight is indespensable. Many people think a light isn’t necessary in the day time, but one thing I’ve found about my job as a police officer is that it is extremely easy to end up in somewhere that is darker than expected.
Having a good multi-tool has proven useful countless times as well. From the need to screw or unscrew something, or cut something with the small scissors, I never want to be caught without it.
Well, I’ve succeeded. A bit of food for thought for you. Do your own gear check and see how you fare.
It was a crisp, cloudy day. The air was heavy with anticipation and we were getting close. Close to what. Wait for it. The sale of our 500th paracord item. This happened some time ago, but in all the frenzy I forgot to post anything about it.
In many companies this may not be that significant of an event. Five hundred sales of any product is not all that big in the larger scheme of things in the business world. For us it was a big deal. A very big one. I had began keeping track of the sales of our paracord items from the very beginning for obvious reasons: tax time. I didn’t want to have to track down receipts and other paperwork when it was time to file my taxes. The benefit that offered was that I kept records of all the sales, which helped me to know the progress.
We were in the throngs of several weekend shows and before each show I would check where we were in relation to the number. This one particular show, I knew we were only about 4 sales from the big number. I told the family so that we would all pay attention and not miss it. Sounds simple right? Not really.
It took a while on this particular day, a Sunday, for the sales to begin. The crowd was a bit sparse which allowed us some time to talk with some of our fellow vendors. A few of them bought some paracord items, so I was keeping a watchful eye. Well I got to talking to my friend Ken and our daughter Ashley taps me on the shoulder and says she thinks this is the one. Of course I excuse myself from Ken and double check and what do you know, it was. Before that we had decided to make a bunch of noise and surprise whoever it was. That is exactly what happened. We made a bunch of noise, with all the shouting and strobes lights and stuff. Just had a lot of fun with it. She was shocked and didn’t know what was going on at first. We even allowed her to pick up anything that we had for sale with our compliments.
She is actually an author. She was selling her book “Reflections in a Broken Mirror” and her name is Melanie Drake.
Here are the end in our series of how to make the bracelet. It’s been fun and we’re glad so many people have enjoyed. We did hear from Amanda reference the bracelets after she received them. In her words, she called it, “Awsome Custom Work”. We love linking up with established businesses to produce something for them that is one off and hopefully better than they expected.
We’re getting closer to the finished products for Amanda G. Keep watching to see the end result. If you like what you see, subscribe to us below and also subscribe to us on YouTube
Part 2 continues the instruction on how to make the bracelet. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from visitors to our YouTube page and we are glad to add the video here.
I published a post of this series on our facebook page but I thought people checking out our website would like to check out just how their bracelets are made. A bit of an inside look if you will.
Perhaps you’ll recall back around Labor Day of 2013, when I posted about the order for 21 bracelets to a local high school football team. I wanted to give an update of how things went.
The day after I delivered the bracelets to the team I decided to go to their football game. It was only about 12 miles from home, so why not. I only watched the first quarter of the game but when I got there, the table where I purchased my ticket to enter the game had several items on it related to the team, sort of like fundraisers. They had T-Shirts, stickers, mugs and guess what: some of the extra bracelets that I had delivered just a day prior. I was proud to see them there on the table. Felt real official.
Well it put a thought in my mind right then. They were obviously selling things for the benefit of the team, so maybe I could help out. I figured I could donate a few bracelets to them so they could sell them at the games and use the money for the team. Fast forward to a couple weeks later and I made about 6 bracelets in my small, medium and large sizes, packaged them all up and took them to their practice.
My second visit was unannounced so I had no idea if I would be able to speak to the coach or not. I waited around for a while to see the coach, but he didn’t come. I figured the guy probably has an outside job and couldn’t get away. Soooo what to do now. I saw a few ladies, who were obviously moms of some of the players, laying out a blanket so they could talk while waiting on the boys’ practice. I went over to them and they were very helpful. I told them what I wanted to do and they took the bracelets for me and and one of them said that she was in charge of the table and would definitely put them out for sale.
This post is the first time I’ve said anything to anyone about this other than my wife. This is not me bragging or boasting. This is just announcing a way to give back for my appreciation of their support for our business. Hopefully this will encourage others to consider doing the same.
As you can probably figure the Head Coach is the guy standing on the sidelines with his hands on his hips. As most coaches, he’s probably trying to figure why the guy’s aren’t executing a certain play like they did all week. 🙂
We’ve received a few questions asking, “What are these little things”, meaning the paracord zipper pulls. I figured well, why not show them. If interested you can find them here: Zipper pull Set
Around Labor Day of 2013, my brother contacted me and said that a friend of his who is a coach of a local High School football team wanted to equip all of his team with our bracelets. My brother told me the guy saw a bracelet he was wearing last year and showed some interest. Apparently now he wants to make it happen.
The order started out with 16 bracelets and was increased to a total of 21, all medium blue and black. Team “W” and I got to work and banged them out in a few days.
On September 6th, I stopped by the teams practice and presented the bracelets to the team with the coach. As he spoke to the team, he explained that he wanted to give these as a gift and a symbol of his love for them. He called them “Warrior Bands”. I love it.
All the young men seemed to like them and I was honored to have been a part of such an experience. No pics of the team as yet, you know, permissions are needed from parents to publish pictures, but here are a few pictures of the hard work we’ve put in.
![IMG_20131016_061746_343_zps9e716f94[3]](http://paracordsandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_20131016_061746_343_zps9e716f943.jpg)
![DSC03789[1]](http://paracordsandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC037891.jpg)
![IMG_20130907_193516_937_zps9d90549b[1]](http://paracordsandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMG_20130907_193516_937_zps9d90549b1.jpg)
![IMG_20130905_220055_340_zps53ae989c[1]](http://paracordsandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_20130905_220055_340_zps53ae989c1-169x300.jpg)