Thanksgiving Message

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving Day! Whether you are watching the Macy’s Day Parade or maybe getting some morning fishing in before Football and a huge Thanksgiving meal. I thought this would be a good place to share what I am thankful for as it relates to J&H, Dark Matter and the fishing industry.

The last few years have been so strange due to all the ripples and shockwaves from the pandemic. It caused changes in how we do business and how our suppliers do business. It also changed the people we work with in different ways. I am most thankful for the health of my co-workers and that we were able to get through this without having major health issues. Within the industry we did lose some great people but their impact on us will live on in our memories and our actions.

I am thankful that the people I work with rallied together throughout the year. There are always ups and downs in a company with regards to the people part of it but I feel that overall we all came together to fix problems, and make the company better for not only the employees but also for the customers. Sometimes the employees will point out a flaw to me thinking Im going to be upset but I never am because the goal is to solve these problems.

Much of my attention this year went to customer service, marketing and Dark Matter. I am thankful that we made progress in all three areas. My team and I were able to help so many anglers have more fun on the water. Helping them get products from John Skinner, Fishaholic or maybe just the right combo for the job. It’s rewarding when they come back with pictures and stories of the fish they caught.

You all probably know that I spend a lot of my day on social media. I was able to build a solid foundation on Tik Tok and saw continued growth on Instagram and YouTube. It’s cool to see this happen. I am glad there are so many passionate anglers who are into the way I do stuff on social and who end up becoming customers. My coworkers help me a lot with ideas for content which is much appreciated. I have included them in more of the pictures and videos because I appreciate what they do and it is in the best interest of the business.

Dark Matter took leaps and bounds this year. We had been planning for years to bring products to market for John Skinner, Fishaholic and Psychedelic. All three of those happened and were huge successes. I talk about moments of prestige a lot and Dark Matter had a lot of them in 2021. The coolest one was watching it transition from the J&H store brand to a brand that could thrive without J&H. I feel really confident that Dark Matter will have a strong future. Another important one is that we are doing a rebranding campaign for the brand. We hired a branding expert who has actually designed several of the most well known logos in the world to rebrand Dark Matter so we are well positioned from a design perspective for the next year. This was another employee suggestion and I am thankful for that.

Whether you are a J&H customer, enjoy our content on social or this is your first time on our web site, I’d like to thank you for being a part of the J&H community. From the beginning I wanted to build something that wasn’t just a place to buy fishing gear but that was somewhere you actively wanted to visit because it was your happy place. Like the bar from Cheers. For the anglers who can’t physically visit the shop, I hope we’ve given off that same vibe and that you like the review videos and all our posts on Instagram and Tik Tok.

Happy Thanksgiving!