The silver lining in our boot story continues to shine.
We wrote about being unceremoniously dumped by our boot sponsor, Justin, two weeks ago. Immediately, Rod Patrick Bootmakers of Fort Worth threw down some silver and said: “No boot provider for your event award winners? Well, you got one now.”
We lamented the passing of commitment to community by the iconic Fort Worth boot company whose image was constantly polished and reinforced by men such as John Justin, his longtime executive J. T. Dickenson and then, most recently, Randy Watson.
Justin built the boot brand, grew Acme Brick and found time to be mayor of Fort Worth and chairman of the Stock Show and Rodeo. His companies were sold to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which also bought TTI locally and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
But Buffett’s shoe folks took over Justin Brands and its boots, and essentially have left town.
Times change. Companies are started. Some make it. Some don’t. Local companies are purchased and usually that’s a nice reward to the individuals who either started and/or built the business.
Rarely do the employees in the long run – long run, I said – benefit. “The rich get richer” is not just a saying. It’s true.
But as times change, sometimes those changes do not benefit the community. Fort Worth has some geopolitical and business schizophrenia going on.
We are growing like crazy and at an impressive rate. Change is fluid here, and constant. We need change. Our boot story has touched more readers than almost anything in our newspaper’s history. Local folks others than ourselves have felt abandoned and hurt by Justin’s new corporate attitude and lack of appreciation for historic relationships between old companies and the community.
There is a public relations problem that is deep for Berkshire Hathaway, and someone should do something about it. Buffett and his investors are going to get richer, but he is so out of touch with all he owns that the communities his companies serve will continue to suffer.
It’s called corporate greed.
Buffett is brilliant. He is also witty and charming and can be down to earth. I met and sat next to him at dinner several times when he was the largest single investor in the company that owned the Star-Telegram back when I was publisher. The only thing he isn’t is handsome, which doesn’t matter when you are that rich.
Justin and Berkshire can deal with their own problems or continue to walk away and ignore them in Fort Worth.
But the boot story has revealed a crack in our community that has to do with managing rebirth, growth and an increasing population.
We miss the “old” Justin and long for its past commitment. But as a newspaper, an institution that also serves as a public watchdog, we often wish some of the “old” – politicians and elected officials, to be specific – would fade into the background and let new leadership take the reins.
Few things in life are truly black and white. The boot story is but a mere symbol of the effects of change, and it illuminates deeper concerns about the way Fort Worth handles change.
Richard Connor is president and publisher of the Fort Worth Business Press. Contact him at rconnor@bizpress.net
