Normally, I understand that question is meant to receive a short answer like “I’m great”, or “fine”, allowing the conversation to proceed, or not. But for some reason I let my mood do the talking and used the opportunity to actually gripe and complain about every offense of the day. I covered the rude waiter at lunch and the horridly careful left turner who stole seven whole seconds of my life at the parking entrance. I’m sure there were others, all of similarly inappreciable importance and depth. When I finished with whatever self-involved impulse it was, I caught myself, and remembered to at least ask her the same question. How are you doing?
She answered in very frank language exactly how she was doing. Her year had a story that topped anything I’d had to say. Not because it was spectacular and wonderful only, but because unlike my unsolicited gripes, her year had rough parts that actually justified any and all complaining. But that’s the thing, she wasn’t complaining at all. None. Instead, she was telling me how she was facing it, and her strategy for handling it. I thought of her strength and dignity. I thought of my own, and how I’d just tossed it aside to accommodate an embarrassingly meaningless rant about nothing important.
I’ve gone back to that moment many times since. I’m glad it happened. Fortunate even. It’s never a bad thing to have your subjectivity checked hard. It made me think of what I have, why I have it, and most importantly, who lit my way to it. I like the focused moment of gratitude it insists that I recognize. When I follow that moment it always leads back to one thing; our customers that make so many great things possible here. I wanted to make sure I express that as this year finishes.
I found the above photo last week. It’s Holger at our first sewing machine, which we still have, inside the 800 sq ft apartment that was our home, office, factory and warehouse for the first 3.5 years of Graf Lantz. We’ve kept our spirit but we’ve grown a bit since then. And that’s my point.
Along with all the years since that photograph was taken, you have given us yet another great year, and yet another possibility filled next year. You have allowed us the space to ask the question of how a company can grow and still maintain the core values that made it exist in the first place. You have given us more GL team members with amazing skills and experience to push those values forward. You have shown us we can build, as well as dream and in that , you have made Graf Lantz the little company that could.
These days when someone asks how I’m doing, I have an answer I plan on using for a long time, “I got nothing to complain about”. I understand the only reason I get to say any of it is because of those (you) who believe in us and what we do. Thank you for all of the possibilities.
Whatever your holiday looks like and wherever it finds you, Holger and I, and the whole gang at Graf Lantz, wish you the very best new year ever.
Sincerely,
– Daniel and Holger
]]>This year the quickly growing team at Graf Lantz has been hard at work thinking about what it means to strive for doing one’s best versus chasing perfection and its adjoining disappointment. The holiday itself is imperfect, but the focus on gratitude is one that we absolutely look to prioritize as a team. Gratitude, and knowing that even if we’re not perfect, we’re continuing to work towards better.
It means being thankful that our crucial raw materials shipment was only four weeks late, rather than five. That only two machines broke down instead of three plus the cutter. That the website launched with a few typos and broken links, but at least it didn’t crash. That I found two lonely socks at the back of the drawer that became a slightly mismatched, but functional, pair.
As we look into other interesting ways of doing that Graf Lantz thing, we’ve kept all this in mind. That’s how we came to create our newest GL adventure, glob. Literally speaking, glob is our new offering of fashionable, colorful, reusable bags made with recycled bottles in ripstop and mesh. Figuratively, glob is our way of speaking to doing one's part in cleaning up the world or, at least not contributing more to the problem. It's the tiny little things we do as individuals that add up. The things that are doable. You may not be able to pilot a miracle ship that removes all the pollution from the sea, but you can keep the trash from getting there.
glob is not about us saving the world, it’s about having colorful daily reminders that keep us mindful of the many small choices we make every day and how they add up and glob together. We invite you to join us in this new adventure, the glob movement.
We’re grateful to have the support to keep trying new things, to keep growing our team, and to keep striving for and missing perfection.Happy Thanksgiving.
– Daniel
]]>From early on I noticed everything. Big families have big dynamics to navigate . Beautiful memories awash in golden light go on forever in my head. We invented games and toys that made us the creatives we are. But there were other kinds of memories, like popcorn steaks, that just kind of lingered out there for a long time, unsettled and suspicious, not knowing what to become.
With only 10 kids at the time my parents had moved us from the back hills of the Ozarks in southern Missouri across the country to the big city in hopes of getting treatment for my oldest brother’s disability. They landed with nothing but determination. In the end, the family thrived, but the first years were very, very lean.
I like popcorn now, but for a long time I couldn’t stand the thought of it, let alone the smell. It meant fear. It meant a kind of shame and guilt. It meant a 5 year old boy instinctively knowing not to cry when mom and dad, not such great actors, walked in projecting an oddly strained excitement about tonight’s super extra special dinner treat extravaganza: popcorn steaks!!!!!
It was code for: There is no food in the house. Their search that day hadn’t managed to pull a meal together and bring it back to the nest. However, once my dad gave a rousing “HEY KIDS, MOM SAYS WE GET TO HAVE POPCORN STEAKS TONIGHT!!!!!!!” We all joined in.
A bag of popcorn, food coloring and little sticky melted sugar can go a long way when you get to play with your warm dinner and shape it into unicorns and air planes. Early on, I made a T-bone steak for my dad. I worked hard. In all that golden light it is perfectly formed. I can see a thick, well marbled slab with the bone and fatty parts rendered perfectly. I’d nailed it. He ate it with a fork and knife. I wondered how he could cry and smile all at the same time. He said the steak needed a little salt and tears have a little salt. I’ve wondered since whether he’d lifted that line from a movie, but who cares. I won first prize. The name stuck.
Unfortunately, that kinda thing can only happen so many times before the kids get to gossiping. Young minds create all sorts of monsters. We came to face those nights pretending bravery with complete dread inside. I’ve tried to imagine what it must have been like for my parents. I can’t. If you’ve never experienced the fear of daily hunger, you can’t either. It should be hard to imagine. But I can tell you first hand it’s a lot more than just feeling hungry. It creeps into every aspect of life and grinds away at the bonds that hold a family together.
My parents came with all the optimism and blind courage they could muster but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until they found the courage to reach out for help that things changed. Reaching out isn’t easy, but someone was there to respond, without judgement. They just saw the situation for what it was and filled the most basic of needs. That’s because they knew, just like Feeding America knows, the very simple act of removing food insecurity can enable a family to make their way back to independence and on to a life that has room to make all those golden memories.
Feeding America understands exactly what my “popcorn steak” story means. As an adult I had long since come to terms with these memories, but working with Feeding America showed me how to make them helpful, and valuable. That’s why we love working with them. They just get it. They see my story every single day of the year and they know what I know; food solves other problems, not just hunger. Food is like oil in the gears to get things moving again. Or like the perfect simple tool, right when you need it. It changes lives. It changed mine.
Thanks to the Graf Lantz customers, our Mask campaign with Feeding America is a huge success — we’ve donated 5M meals to date. But there are many people in need and reaching out. That’s why we are expanding our ways to Support Feeding America with our new campaign, A Place Around the Table.
I named it for the hope it represents. I was at my mom’s place in Utah recently. I told her I was going to write about the famous popcorn steaks. It got a good laugh. She made me promise to talk about the good times around “the table”. When the hard times passed, popcorn fell deeply off trend around the house. Rice crispy treats suffered the same fate by association. Huge family dinners became the fashion. At some point she had my dad make a giant circular table. It was 10 feet in diameter and seated 16 tightly. There was a 4 foot lazy-suzan carousel in the center. It never stopped revolving. We even had a food fight once. It took up a whole room and it was the center of everything in the house. She said, “I had him make it because I wanted all you kids to know you would always have a place around the table”. The name stuck.
A Place Around The Table is a commitment to extend our Feeding America partnership. We’ll be donating five meals for every tabletop item purchased. We thank you for the support that allows us to continue to provide meals for our communities. And, we thank you for giving Graf Lantz a place around your table.
– Daniel Lantz
]]>As the initial shock fades and the logic builds, it’s fairly obvious that protecting ourselves actually means protecting complete strangers, even the ones who don’t quite get it yet. It’s not exactly some high minded principle. The golden rule is usually pretty simple. For example, I’ve come to think of masks like stoplights. My sentiments toward most red lights are seldom warm, especially when I’ve been on a smooth roll down Sunset Blvd at a sweet 45. But, I get why they exist. We all do. It’s not a question. They make logical sense. They let everyone know what’s going on in the intersection. They keep us safe. They give us peace of mind. Simple.
As we debated our approach to mask production, we figured we could handle the “how” part. Our factory was designed to make us independent and nimble and it has always carried us. We were more interested in the “what” and “why”. In the end, we decided we wanted to produce more than masks, we wanted to create peace of mind, and our new Anshin line was born.
Anshin is one of those words in Japanese I’ve just always liked. It is pronounced (awn-sheen). It means peace of mind, but the characters, 安心, actually read as peace in the heart. It conveys stability, dependability, predictability and a sense of the comfort and ease of normalcy.
We figure everyone could use a little Anshin right about now. Adapting to new environments requires everything learned in the old one. As we got things up and running we realized the changes we thought we would have to make were not as big and scary as they seemed at first. We think everything we make should have a purpose for life and lifestyle. All we had to do is what we always do, use quality materials to create beauty that is useful and lasting. It’s the same with the changes we all have to make.
Immediacy and comfort may not be the guarantee we once thought. And yeah, there will be inconvenience to some extent, but we are convinced the best way out of this is directly and forcefully through it, with everyone working together. Things like realizing the coffee breath in your mask is actually yours is never pleasant. Struggling to remember patience while waiting in line on X marks can be tedious. Greeting people with a bottle of hand sanitizer instead of a handshake is just plain weird. There are many. But I’m betting most are things we can all live with, and for good reason: many people can’t live without it and we may be one of them. That’s good enough for us, so we’re sticking to it. We hope you will, too.
Beginning with masks, the Anshin line is a set of tools we are designing to make the transition to all these new routines smooth. In the next few weeks, we will begin to release more of them as we ramp up safe production. Stay tuned. And in the meantime remember that smiling with your eyes seems to be a talent we are all born with. It costs nothing and it takes no effort. It has more value and gives more peace of mind than anything we could ever make. Use it.
Thank You for reading this far.
– Daniel Lantz and Holger Graf
]]>At Graf Lantz, we are on the go like crazy as well. And It’s not stopping. And it’s totally all your fault. If you’re still reading this, we want you to understand that you have been part of the most fascinating, challenging, inspiring and encouraging year ever here in the Graf Lantz universe.
With your help 2019 has been a year that allowed us to simultaneously deepen our roots, explore new ideas, open new territory, and focus our vision. It taught us how to produce more and waste less. It solidified our belief that growth, product quality, excellent customer service, and better working conditions for our team are all the same thing.
When we started this adventure our goal was to make beauty that is useful, lasting, low impact and trusted. That has not changed. 2019 made us better at it. We are ready for 2020. Again, it’s all your fault and we are beyond grateful. We are energized.
Finally, 2019 was the year we made it easier for people to talk to us. Perhaps that’s been the best part. That is how we get to keep being the company we started. So, keep talking to us. Let us know when we’ve done well and when we’ve missed something. It keeps us on our toes, it keeps us inspired and it keeps us on track.
With Humility, Gratitude and all our Best Wishes to you in 2020,
– Daniel Lantz and Holger Graf
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