Gadgetory

this is Ben Fox Rubin with Cena George Zimmer started the suit retailer Men's Warehouse more than 40 years ago but he was fired in 2013 amid disagreements with the board he's now back with a new company that offers tuxedo and suit rentals online called generation tucks he's here to talk to us today about the startup which he introduced just last week so George tell me a little bit about what the response has been so far about the introduction of this new company well I think everybody is just waiting for online tuxedo rental because up until online tux rental you had to make three trips into a store to rent a tux one to go in and pick it out a second to get it fitted and a third to return it so today you can do it from your living room so what's the what's the reason for actually wanting to do this you founded and helped run a successful company for more than 40 years you're 66 years old a lot of people retire at that point what's what's the reason for actually going ahead with this in the first place well I said I started Men's Wearhouse in 73 and after a quarter of a century I went into the tuxedo rental business at Men's in 99 and over the 13 years that I was there built it into a four hundred million dollar plus business it's also much more profitable than selling regular clothing so I decided to just have an online tux rental business and it's going to be extremely successful and profitable isn't it all personal though well I mean people want to know if there's any revenge not really it's it's is really we're too busy trying to create what we have to worry about them you know they are in the same business so I guess there will be some impact but that's not what we're looking for you were known pretty well for a signature line with Men's Wearhouse is there gonna be a signature line for generation tax well we've not been able to trademark one in the 40 years since my first one it's become much more difficult to get a trademark butt but a line that I'm starting to look for is something like Gen tux we got you covered nice what one other question I also had was is it different creating a business online we were talking a little bit before about how you're a bit of a tech Lyday you with Men's Wearhouse they're not exactly doing a lot in online these days so what's that been like for you well it's it's been about hiring the right people and combining high-tech and high-touch my domain expertise in tuxedo rental with the technology that is now been first promoted by uber but is now spreading everywhere is where we're able to make everything more efficient by matching supply and demand with technology is that right I understand that at one point maybe you were involved in something else well I have been involved in a number of things but really the thing that I think most people didn't realize was that I've always been involved in the beer business in fact I don't drink beer but if I did I drink those seconds stay thirsty my friends very good George thanks for coming on and this is Ben Rubin thanks for watching you