By Lissa Wyman

On Thursday, May 13, Bud Wyman celebrates his 89th Birthday. Not only is he my husband, mentor and best friend, Bud is one of the marketing geniuses of all time.

Many people in the rug industry know Bud as the founder and president of The Rug-Hold Co. He introduced the concept of rug underlay in the United States back in the late 70's. It was certainly a major accomplishment, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

I met Bud in the Summer of 1970, when I moved to New York from Cleveland, OH. At that time I worked for Home Furnishings Daily (now known as HFN). I was assigned to the floor covering beat. In those days, that meant carpeting. It was a subject I knew nothing about, so my editor suggested I see Bud Wyman who would tell me all about it. He didn't. But that meeting was the beginning of our 40 year journey together. (Our official 35th wedding anniversary is May 29, 2010).

When I met Bud, he had recently started Wyman Marketing, an advertising and public relations company. Three of his big clients were Heugatile (the first carpet tile introduced in the US), Omalon (fat-back foam carpet padding) and Kane Carpet Co. (Kane was one of the biggest distributors in the country, run by the father-son team of Eli and Alan Braunstein. Alan Braunstein is now owner of Worldwide Wholesale Floor Covering in Edison, NJ). A couple years later, he added Brintons Carpet, the British Axminster specialist.

Bud entered the floor covering business after World War II, on the advice of his brother-in-law, who worked for Armstrong. For awhile, he operated a braided rug company in Maine, then he went to work for J.M. O' Callaghan Distributors, the Armstrong Distributor in New England.

In the mid-50's, he joined Aldon Rugs, owned by the legendary Jimmy Marcus, who was a mentor to an entire generation of carpet Mad Men. Jimmy Marcus died a couple years ago at 105.

 It was the beginning of the "Golden Age" of the carpet industry. Aldon Rug Mills later morphed into CCC (Commercial Carpet Corp.) CCC sold tight, level-loop broadloom carpet for commercial application. As sales manager, Bud hired  such super-salesmen as Erich Arje and Herb Cantor.

Wolfe Nichols was the vice president of sales for CCC.  Bud still talks about Wolfe's outstanding  leadership skills. He instilled his staff with confidence, loyalty and high ethical standards. He led by example, never by  intimidation. I think Bud also has that gift.

Looking for expanded markets for CCC products, someone -- Bud? Wolfe? Jimmy? -- decided it might be a good idea to carpet kitchens. HUH?? What an outrageous idea. But Viking Kitchen Carpets became a division of CCC and the hottest carpet company in the United States.

By that time, Bud had become CCC's director of marketing services which was a fancy way of saying
 "Let it rip!"
 

During the next few years, Bud came up with such marketing gimmicks as the "Viking Giant" a 20-foot tall statue of a Viking warrior carrying a roll of carpet under one arm. Bud somehow managed to place the statue outside the Chicago Merchandise Mart during a January Floor Covering Market and the resulting press coverage went around the world, including a front page picture in The Chicago Tribune. After the market, CCC sold Viking statues to dealers and they dotted the American landscape for years to come. (I know there is at least one old Viking Giant still around. It's been reincarnated as  an Indian brave  in front of a Moccasin store in Maine).

During those years, Bud was one of the first people in the  business to introduce national television advertising for carpeting. He developed a co-op ad program with participating distributors and retailers to sponsor  the first  Andy Williams Television special in the mid-60's. All the participants were invited to attend the show's taping in Burbank, CA. Talk about building brand loyalty with your customers! These lowly floor covering guys became part of the world of big-time glamour.

In the late 1960's, Bud was lured away from Jimmy Marcus and became director of marketing for General Felt Industries. At that time, GFI made needlebond indoor-outdoor carpet.  Bud came up with the bright idea of throwing a couple rolls of it over Niagra Falls to demonstrate how tough it was. The carpeting, of course, was named Niagra. They gathered all the distributors together and filmed  the stuff getting flipped over the falls. Dressed in yellow slickers, the GFI guys went out in the turbulent river and retrieved the carpet.Lo and behold,  it survived without a scratch! Tough enough for your kitchen, patio or pool, lady!

Oh those were the days, my friends.

After Bud went off on his own with Wyman Marketing, he did a great job for his clients, but the days of publicity "stunts" was pretty much over. (However, I have a vague recollection of a steamroller rolling over some Omalon in Shubert Alley in 1971)

Bud always enjoyed working with clients, but he had an entrepreneurial streak a mile wide. He wanted to promote his own products, not someone else's.

One day in the late 1970's, Bud was walking up Third Ave. in New York and "bunked into" Sid Barsky, a pal of his who had at one time been sales manager for Jersey Carpet Co., a big distributor. He and Sid chatted about finding some European products to bring into the U.S. They decided to go to the Frankfurt Fair in January and find some "stuff." Anything that was a little unusual.

The "stuff" they found was a non-slip product manufactured by the Wunderlich company in a tiny town in the Harz Mountains of Germany. This "stuff" looked like coated fish net. At this time, most rugs just crawled around on the floor, willy-nilly. If such a thing as rug "underlay" existed, it  consisted of a hacked-off piece of polyurethane foam carpet padding stuck under a rug. A lot of people just nailed down the edges of rugs to keep the durn things under control.

Most floor covering people didn't think about rugs much back in those days, anyway. Rugs were mysterious hand-knotted thingies that Armenians were in charge of. There were also shaggy Danish rya rugs, some braids, and bound remnants sold in discount stores to trailer park trash. It was about this time that Carl Boukart came over to the US from Belgium and started making woven polypropylene rugs. They were breath-takingly ugly.

Bud and Sid thought this coated fish net stuff had real possibilities. They called it Rug-Hold. What a perfect name. Its beauty and simplicity still awes me.

When Bud got home from Frankfurt, he showed me the little scraps of coated fish net and demonstrated how they would be used. "Who the hell would buy that crap?" I asked.

Fortunately, Bud never paid too much attention to my opinions, then or now. He and Sid got busy trying to peddle it to retailers and distributors in the northeast. Bud wrote a nice news release and sent it to Floor Covering Weekly, where by now I was managing editor. I edited the piece and dumped it on the desk of Al Wahnon, FCW's editor in chief. He marked it "P.1."

The next week, "Wyman and Barsky Form Rug-Hold Company" appeared on Page One of Floor Covering Weekly. They were off and running. To this day, Bud credits that page one story as the cornerstone of Rug-Hold's success. Thank you, Al.

Thank you, Jimmy Allen at Einstein-Moomjy. Thank you, Gilbert Cavaliero of Bloomingdale's. Thank you Allan Price of Able Rug. Thank you, John Murse of Rugs as Art. Thank you, Sam Presnell of The Rug Gallery. Thanks to Joe Mascari of Carpets & Rugs International.  Thanks to ALL those many many loyal customers who took a chance that maybe someone might want to buy that crap.

Bud and Sid  loved their customers, but they understood that no business could succeed without a strong sales force. At first, Bud and Sid thought the product should be sold through distributors. Wrong.

After about a year, they started to gather a group of independent sales agents. Since both Bud and Sid had started out carrying a bag on the road, they knew that the biggest sales motivator is a healthy commission, paid on time. They didn't believe in cutting sales agent's territories when they started to make good money. They didn't believe in "house" accounts. They felt that the more their salespeople earned, the more they earned.

Through the years, Rug-Hold had many fine sales agents. Bud and Sid hated to fire anyone, but sometimes it was necessary. Both of them had been fired in the past, so they knew what it felt like.

Lots of people stayed and stayed and stayed. I remember when Bud hired Kipp Livingston, a kid just out of college. Through the years, Kipp and Susan have become a second family for us. Ralph Long was one of Rug-Hold's first salespeople. At first, Ralph had a distributing business that sold Rug-Hold. When he became an independent agent, Rug-Hold was the first product in his bag. For years, Kipp and Ralph were top producers for Rug-Hold.

Then there was Sam Whitman. "Ah. Sam," Bud always says. Sam closed his New York City sales agency and retired  to northern California in the late 70's. This bundle of energy soon decided that retirement was not for him. He took the Rug-Hold line and, at the age of 75+++ he could outsell 95% of the young whippersnappers.

Jeff Koehler was also just a kid out of college when he went to work for Bud and Sid. Bud's old pals from CCC days Erich Arje and Herb Cantor also carried the Rug-Hold flag. Handsome Herb -- especially-- continues to be a loyal friend.

All the fine salespeople who worked at Rug-Hold through the years. All tremendously loyal, no matter what. We thank you all.

Sid Barsky died over10 years ago and Bud took over sole ownership of The Rug-Hold Co. In 1993 he moved the business from the Empire State Building in New York to North Hamilton St. in Dalton, GA. That was quite a change. But it was fun and exciting to be at the epicenter of the carpet business. Challenging, too. We never regretted those years in Dalton.

Bud sold the business in 2002, when he was 81. We moved briefly to Florida. Bad idea.

Five years ago we moved back to New York, where Bud walks about two miles a day, visits museums regularly, reads at least three newspapers a day, lunches at his club  twice a week, does the laundry and feeds the cats. I still have to run on my stubby legs to keep up with him as he strides down the street. His only regret: "I retired too soon."

Bud also has a new love -- his I-Pad. He actually reads his e-mail now and I am sure he would love to hear from all of you. In case you want to wish him happy birthday, his email address is oawyman@rugnews.com .

Or  just use the comment box below.

05.11.10