KING: The Bounty Hunter of Mancos

Steve King, owner of the Bounty Hunter in Mancos, is testing the old saw that says: "if you build a better 'mouse trap,' people will come to you." Steve did this by placing himself and the headquarters of his business--Bounty Hunter Custom Hatters and Custom tailors, a high-end line--in the little town of Mancos, Colorado. Steve has a second store in the very up-scale resort town of Telluride, a few miles from Mancos, but the production facilities and the flagship store are in Mancos. Some of his friends think him "mad" in that New York City, or San Francisco or Los Angeles would be a better place for such an ambitious enterprise. Steve loves living and working in Mancos.

Steve's Bounty Hunter hats and clothing are world-class. Almost the entire line is designed by Steve and many of the hats are hand-made by him, often late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. The list of people wearing his custom made hats is a "who's who" list that ranges from movie stars, through country and western stars and other entertainers to, yes, even some politicians. Signed pictures of his customers and rave reviews for the Bounty Hunter line of hats and clothing adorn the walls of the Mancos store and fill the pages of Steve's memoir albums.

Some idea of the breadth and depth of the line can be seen in the Bounty Hunter Catalogue, the fith edition of which is in press. Hats covering a wide range of styles and prices are featured. So are leather jackets, boots and other leather products. In addition, there is a line of wool and cotton clothing.

The Mancos store is a remodeled general store. Steve did the design and much of the remodel work. Mancos has a population of about 1,000. Most of the town's streets are still unpaved; the people like it that way. The downtown is small, with a number of empty buildings. For a time, an old-style western saddle-maker's shop was across the street from The Bounty Hunter. The look and the atmosphere of Mancos is definitely old West.

Even better than The Bounty Hunter products is the man. He has an old-fashioned work ethic that he learned on the family dairy farm in upper New York state. He grew up on the six-generation farm working from four in the morning until late at night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. That regimen was required from the time he was old enough to milk a cow until he went away to college.

Steve started Bounty Hunter in 1991, in Mancos. He did it with only $2,750, money which he had saved the year before he struck out on his own. Before that, over a span of 20-some years, he alternately worked in top-of-the-line retail stores as a salesman and as a designer and--believe it or not--in forestry-related work. When he tired of one, he went back to the other. Because he always gave 100% in these two very different kinds of work, a job was always waiting for him one place or the other, usually with the same companies on both ends of the work cycle.

When he went into business for himself, Steve soon turned a 900 square foot store into a 4,000 square foot store in Mancos. In addition to that and in just four years, he opened stores in Telluride and Aspen, in Colorado, and in Scottsdale, Arizona. He did this by frequently working 18-hour days.

The Bounty Hunter stores with the hand made hats and clothing became the "darlings" of the industry. Annual sales approached $1.5 million. His employee roster grew to 35, with an annual payroll of half a million dollars. Then, things began to happen that Steve could not have predicted. First, the interest in Western wear, which many of the items in his lines were, fell out of fashion, quickly and profoundly. Second, the Colorado ski slopes at Aspen and Telluride received very little snow over two consecutive winters. Sales fell-or at best stayed flat-at all four stores. Rent, payroll, taxes and other major costs stayed high. Steve's work ethic, his reputation in the industry, his knowledge of the products and his dedicated customer's kept things from falling completely apart.

He demonstrated just how deep his ethics and convictions are when the unforeseen events mentioned above, events totally beyond his ken and control, forced him into Chapter 11 protection and reorganization. With dedication, hard work and indomitable will, he recovered from that ordeal. He payed off his creditors, one of whom was the over-zealous State of Colorado, and emerged with a smaller, leaner and more focused company.

Almost no company that goes into Chapter 11 comes out with their honor and their company in tact the way that Steve has. Only about nine percent get their emergence plans confirmed and only about five percent of that nine percent make it the rest of the way out of Chapter 11; the vast majority go into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It was not easy and it was not pretty, but Steve and those who stayed with him did it. Since then, he has moved on to do what he does best: Design and make world-class hats and clothing.

The story would not have had such a bad downside except for the fact that the State of Colorado's tax collector got impatient when Steve fell behind with his withholding taxes. Instead of working with Steve, as any responsible creditor would have, the collector padlocked the doors on the three Colorado stores.

Though actually solvent, Steve had to go into Chapter 11 to get his stores back, to get them open and to begin the long, slow process out of Chapter 11and back to profitability. This he has done--in spite of the difficulties that having the state step in presented. Not only did Steve bring his company out of Chapter 11, he structured the plan to pay all creditors at 100 cents on the dollar, plus eight percent interest. (Ten to twenty cents on the dollar with no interest is not uncommon.) It was that dedication to pay the 10% that allowed Steve to emerge with the smaller, stronger, more focused company, one poised to take advantage of the present market and of a market that will continue to grow in the months and years ahead.

Steve's philosophy is "you don't quit; you don't run away; you keep your promises to your customers and to the staff that stay on board; and, you work as hard as you can for as long as you have to, to succeed."

Those are pretty strong credentials. Steve never let his customers (new or old) down and he did not desert those employees who stuck with him in the hard times.

In addition to his willingness to work long hours and his genius at design, Steve is also an accomplished photographer and graphic designer. He even finds time to play the guitar and to compose songs. That doesn't complete the list of his interests and accomplishments, but it gives you some idea of the depth and breadth of the man.

A look at his celebrities list reveals that he has sold hats and other items to: Kareem Abdul Jabar, Carol Burnett, Robert Duvall, Shirley McLain, Jay Leno, Emmylou Harris, Jack Nicholson, Kenny Rogers, Richie Havens, and former Colorado Governor Roy Romer, just to name a few. In addition, he has provided hats and, in some cases clothing, for movies and TV shows including "Mars Attack," "Indian in the Cupboard," "Lazarus Man," "Geronimo, an American Legend," "Brisco County" and "Gambler V."

One thing that the Chapter 11 experience and the downsizing have not done is take away Steve's love of what he is doing. He is not "Mr. Bounty Hunter" because of that. He is as motivated, as dedicated, as excited and as optimistic now as he ever was. In fact, with the rather steep and precipitous learning curve that the ordeal of the past three years provided, he is--if anything--more upbeat about the future for himself, his hats, the clothing and the Bounty Hunter stores.

There is a sign in the Mancos store that reads: "You will never own a great hat unless you are impulsive." Those words are true, based on my experience and the experience of those people I know who have bought fine hats. My advice to the reader is that you should visit Mancos or Telluride and that you should buy one of the Bounty Hunter hats and some of the fine clothing. That will change the way you think about yourself and it just may change your life in ways that you have dreamed about or in ways that you cannot now imagine. If you can't go in person, get his catalog by calling him at 1-800-BEST HAT or 1-970-533-7215. It is okay to display that kind of impulsiveness once in a while, especially when it will change you and your life in positive and constructive ways.