Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542297
pants. Then they move to vests. Then they can move to coats, because there's a different way of sizing different coats." Foster tells us this is the important first step for new Costumers to understand what they are handling. "You have to be able to understand that before you can move on and as they're doing that, they're taught what they are handling." The employees are taught sizing, how to process returns, taught what to look for and how to repair it when necessary. "Before anything goes on the pipe, everything has to be restored back to a rentable condition. That means that if there's buons missing on something, they're put back on. If there's hems that need to be restored to a rentable length, they're restored. Everything that goes onto the pipe is ready to be put onto a principal. We don't have a section for background and principal, because the clothes don't know the difference. Every single thing has to be ready to be rented for a principal. When you bring an outfit into a fiing room, you don't have to be told, 'Well, we have to put suspender buons on this or this sleeve length has been taken up, or the lining needs to be repaired.' Employees are moved into billing next and by the time someone has worked for the company for one year, they've learned how to properly size, identify fabrics and garments by period, and how to pack E crates without damaging clothes." Foster says, "We start teaching them the importance of how to pack an E crate, because so many people don't even know how to do that. They think it's just like packing a suitcase and it's not. You can damage clothes really easily by not knowing how to pack a box." They also learn 'how to write up dry cleaning tickets and rental orders and how to do a return properly.' Throughout this work, they are taught characterizations, something Bayless prioritized when he first started the business and a practice that Foster continues. "When they are learning how to do characterizations, I tell them to dress a mannequin, and then I come along and they have to tell me the characterization of that mannequin. I'll ask them things like, "Where do they come from? Are they rich? Are they poor? Where is this taking place? Do they have a history? Why are they using that haversack? What happened here?" and they have to tell me the characterization. Because if you can't build a character, anyone can come in and pull 50 pairs of pants. But how do you make those pants into a characterization? They're also doing So when everything is put back, we not only put our hats back in size order, we put them back in a range of colors too. When you're looking for a brown fedora in a seven and three eights, you're not digging through all of our fedoras. First of all, they're organized on a shelf, and there is a brown seven and three eight section for fedoras. Our staff has been taught that that's how you put it back. We try to make it quick for people to pull, to come in and out, pull what they need. Everything is sized properly. "It's hung properly." New hires in the company are trained on the warehouse floor everything from sizing the clothing to characterization. "A typical person coming in, they are first taught how to size. We teach them in the men's department, for example, shirts and Left: Hats arranged by size and color. Opposite (L to R): Tony Avila sizing in Western section; Remy Beland sizing shoes; Darby Godfrey checking in rental returns. 42 SPRING 2026