Auto Obsessed here at the SEMA 2022 Show at The Rag Company Booth here meeting Levi hey buddy
how are you good to see you again excellent this has been a long time in the making especially with
Covid-19 exactly yeah we haven't been out for a couple years and happy to be back we're happy
to have you we've been with The Rag Company now roughly about seven years yeah right you
know and a lot has changed in that seven years A lot has and you know some a couple things I'm
really impressed with the with The Rag Company is constantly changing constantly improving and
you know now I see we're switching over to all packaged pretty individual towels now yep right
a lot of our clients love that you can reseal them and it's fresh I guess right it's not it's not on
a box with a couple hundred towels yeah well you know that's how it used to be and it was great
for you know shops who just need to grab quick grab and go get a bunch of towels job yeah but
for folks like yourself who are our Distributors it was it kind of let everybody down a little bit
right in the sense because they spend the money to get the product you're like I got a couple towels
in a bag exactly you know and a clear plastic bag or however we made them right you know wrapped
them for everybody and that kind of wasn't what we wanted and so that was a huge undertaking it
took us three years of planning yeah to get these totally finished and ready for production and now
we are almost there where we're almost completely out of bulk and now solely packaged and passed
towels right and for those wondering a lot of them are different each towel is basically developed
as to how we were going to do the packaging so some have three towels some have one towel some
of our drying towels some are five some are ten pack some are a 12-pack right it just depends on
how the towel could fit in the back in the bag and probably the purpose of the job exactly you don't
need 10 drying towels right exactly but we need 10 value towels yeah right exactly so this was a
huge thing and this was also not only a huge thing for our dealers and Distributors but we wanted to
give our folks who were smaller dealers who maybe had just a detail shop at home right or a small
shop out of their business they wanted to be able to have something that they could sell instead of
just a stack of towels on the counter they now have some packaged product that they can give to
the customer and they don't have to worry about it getting lint and stuff on the throne in the
back of the car yeah or like you know the little plastic grocery bags right exactly you know this
gives them a little more professional brings the scale up a little more for the customer and that's
what we're all about exactly and it's safer too right yep I mean we're using a detailing towel to
take off wax let's say or use a quick detailer or spray on the car you know you don't want a
towel that may has been laying on someone's shelf for months right or in a box or dirt exactly so
we're really happy to see that one thing too in we talked earlier one thing too about The Rag Company
that stood out with me is it's not just the rank company purchasing from a vendor in Asia whether
it be China or Korea and you're just kind of yeah taking their products yeah which is kind of you
know handing it off to the next one so maybe no so we've so that's been one of the key things with
the company in itself when it was originally founded in 1999 Bev who owned the company she
started the very first relationships with our two primary factories one in China and one in South
Korea and she started those relationships right off the bat and as the company grew we kept those
same two core factories to the point that now we are the only towel company that or towel producer
right in that factory right so those factories no longer have to make anybody else's other products
they primarily just make The Rag Company products which allows us to really take an idea on how we
want the quality to be we can dictate how they fold how they package right and bringing on the
packaging and doing that because we had to buy the bags send them to our factories and we have
five factories that now manufacture products for the right company right wow and so that was a huge
undertaking in itself because we had to teach them how to pack the towels in each bag pack
what towels go how many of the quantities all that stuff right it is really huge in the scope of what
it is yeah but it really boiled down to having to have that relationship laid out in the first place
for sure and a lot of folks go I can just get towels anywhere I can go on Alibaba yeah you can
but you're not going to get the level of quality we are we watch our quality so high here at The
Rag Company that a lot of people don't even think about it and they get their first order
and they're like hey I got some towels they're just like these guys and they're way cheaper
yeah and then they sell them and then they get the next order and they're completely different well
that's what I was going to say consistency yes because we've been doing this for 12 years yep
and you know you've got a type of towel and it's like this and then all of a sudden it's not hey
this change its lighter GSM maybe a different color slightly different color yeah images are
bad it's almost like they're BC grade too and you're just like what's going on right now we do
not see that with The Rag Company no I know and I know we've had conversations before with Jeff and
there's a lot I know you guys do behind the scenes to make sure yeah we’re still going to have issues
this is manufacturing going to happen but our goal is to try and limit the amount of defects
that you'll see or have right and that's where we really shine and where we really step forward
is that quality control as well as our customer service for whether you're buying from our website
or you're buying from our Distributors like you Troy right you know our goal is to make sure that
any and you know we have our UK distributor we've got our Australian distributor back there and the
same thing it's the question of where we in the world we want to always make sure that it's right
100 perfect we've got some new product couple new products so one of the biggest thing is our
clay bars have been around for 100 years well we created a new clay bar for our folks and one
of the best Clays I've ever used the next thing we did was our clay towel now clay towels have always
you know they're not new technology but we wanted to take and improve upon that technology and so we
fell in love with the Optimum Clay Towel right and when Optimum decided to stop carrying this
towel we asked if we could buy it from them and license it from them they said yeah so we made it
two inches bigger all the way around so instead of a 10x10 it's a 12x12 and we basically made
it ours The Rag Company Ultra Clay Towel the cool thing about this pattern and the design of this is
most clay towels are made with a very low quality terry towel they use a very poor quality okay and
then they use black clay material and they throw it on their right and that's the towel
you're going to buy from many of the Distributors and dealers around here right manufacturers for
us we went with a very high quality fabric and this is this very thick quilted Jacquard style
Fabric and the cool thing about it is it absorbs copious amounts of liquid that does two things
one it gives you enough media to be able to wash and Clay right but it also allows it to be able
to be porous because of the way the clay is that that liquid can flow through between the surface
right which is really huge the other thing is it's incredibly durable so we're getting 50 to 100 cars
depending on how it's used right so if you're in a production shop and you're using this every day
there's a good possibility you'll get a hundred uses for 100 cars out of this Plateau which is
a massive thing absolutely now one of the great things is we developed was with the Clay Towel we
also brought on our Clay Mitt so for well that's the Clay Scrubber with the Clay Mitt over there
that's all right the Clay Mitt same thing but for folks who just want to be able to slide their hand
put your hand in clean and scrub same thing and then the packaging is designed so all you got
to do is dry these out so when you're done using it rinse it out hang dry it and it's ready to go
again you can fold it back up put it back in the package same with this we put vents on the back
of the box so that it dries out and is reusable it also has a great hang tag in there as well so
you can hang it when you're done and let it dry on a hook or something yeah easy way to clean if you
get them dirty the reason it's blue instead of black is we want to be able to see colors yeah
one it's our colors but two we want to be able to see the dirt and the decontamination process so
when we have Clay Bars when you go and clean you're like oh my gosh they have red over spray
all over the car it's in the clay you see the red right if you're running a black Clay Towel
or Clay Scrub or something you're not going to see that and so having the blue allows you to see
and identify what you're removing from the vehicle but also you can clean it by putting a little APC
scrubbing it with your hand rinsing it out okay and it's good to go and is there anything you
have to do to break them in or prep so yeah the first thing we do is we call it honing okay and
you hone it on glass okay so best way we recommend is use a Clay Lube or your favorite Rinseless Wash
or whatever you're using and clean the glass okay rub it on the glass and pretend like you're clean
all the glass right and I recommend people do that first before they touch their clear coat with it
yeah hit all the glass just to make sure the glass okay just go around and that way you've got you
know that you've been able to handle any straight edges any of those things and the goal of that is
it smooths the clay right and Seasons it so it's ready to go it's the same thing with the clay
out and then so I've been a detailer for over 25 years and I have horrific osteoarthritis so it
makes it a little more difficult for me to be able to hold on to things and do things day in day out
and so we started thinking of other ways how do we make stuff a little more ergonomic a little more
easier to use a little more easier to handle well with that clay that same idea we've developed a
clay scrubber yeah and what we did was we took our clay and that same fabric up here right so we've
got a very thick plush fabric on top to be able to absorb a lot of liquid then we took our famous bug
scrubber yeah which on the back has our Jersey Bug Scrubbers we call it and we put our Jersey
Bug on the back so this can live in your wash bucket okay so this guy you can throw in your
wash bucket you can use this side for scrubbing all your bugs off right safe it's effective it's
not going to scratch your arm to finish but we've all been there if you're washing a car you're
getting ready to work on it and as you're washing you hear that and it's half a fender yeah not the
whole Fender it's only half or it's part of the door or it's just the roof where it's only the
passenger side and you're like oh man now I got to clay this half I wasn't planning on it yeah well
now you've got this sitting in the bucket you were already removing bugs with it on one side yeah you
can pull it back out same thing knock down your clay whether you have just soap and water in the
bucket or you have Rinseless it'll work either way for that it can also work Standalone with a proper
Clay Lube right yeah if you want to as well if you prefer that shape yeah and the goal is I like the
mitt because I can stick my hand in it and I can clay and I don't have to use my fingers right same
thing with this it's a little easier to hold for me I'm able to manipulate it better but we also
did an edge on it so when you have to get into some of those Body Lines and creases you have a
section that you can still be able to work it so we tried to make it as versatile as possible for
our folks and then we hit the seams so that was a little yeah and you don't want to have any issues
like exactly but yeah but this is our newest thing it's great for cleaning glass like your
front windshield because you get the bugs off and you can clean any of the contaminants yeah
that's a good stick on it maybe you do a sealant or something yeah you know one step on the glass
to help keep the water repellency I could probably even take that with you on a road trip right yeah
you could yep exactly and that's one of the great things about it now this has its own packaging
this is one of the prototypes okay and it'll be hitting our stores it's on the water right now
okay and it'll be hitting The Rag Company it'll be by the end of the month being a plastic it'll
be in one of the plastic cases as well with the branding and the stickers and then you can keep
it in there you'll be able to keep it in the Box as well yeah right excellent and then one
of the biggest things we did that was hot this year was the Pro Pucks so we paired with Auto
Fiber okay here's another one of the oldest manufacturers microfiber as well like us yeah
they have their barrier material that is a patented barrier technology that they can put
in between microfiber and foam okay this allows Ceramic Coatings and liquids not to penetrate yeah
it stays in the fabric and for us we make really good applicator sponges but we don't have that
barrier technology right and on the other side makes a ton of variations but he doesn't have
Pearl right yeah so we combined and made the Pearl Puck as we call it yeah and again it's hard for me
to coat a car holding an applicator sponge for the old foam blocks with the right with the suede they
can't do that anymore yeah so this was designed for ergonomics right it sits in your hand it's
almost like holding the softball we put a little stitch on a little thicker stitch on this end for
folks who need to be able to have something to hold on to okay but you can put your Ceramic or
any type of coating on here coat your car and a lot of people go oh it's kind of round and it's
circular I don't know if it's going to work so many people as soon as they try they're like oh
my gosh I never want to do a different Ceramic Coating applicator ever again and that's one of
the great things I was going to say no one really thinks too so with that barrier yeah because you
got a 30ml bottle right saves product I'm also 30ml 50ml bottle and you see a lot of people using
the foam or the sponge but you can use a lot of product up inside the foam exactly you would never
ever get to use on the car right so that barrier it's only going to that level yep yeah that's
a great idea yeah and like I said there now is that's what it's for it's to be able to like get
that on save your product save you some time and save your hands mostly and now I understand why
that was there yeah we caught like a stitch on a softball right okay that's what it's for excellent
yeah and then a lot of the other products you know are normal UBS sponge same thing developed
with me and Ivan Lacroix very similar to the big red spots right the Ultra Black the Ultra Gold
Sponge and all those the Big Gold Sponge ours is the Ultra Black and it's cut same thing ergonomic
cut to fit in your hand and have a little more dexterity with it because for me it's getting
harder and harder after 25 years to be able to hold things for long periods of time or compress
my hands right to be able to grab honestly so I'm working on a lot of different things for
our company to be able to make it more ergonomic because if I'm having the problems and there are
new detailers entering the market every day yes I can make their life easier yeah that's all really
matters oh that's great but yeah well appreciate everything of course thank you my pleasure always
good to see you man it's been too long it's been too long exactly well good thank you man thank you
[Music] foreign [Music]