Telling the Stories of Athletes Through High-End Fashion with Carlton Dixon, Founder and CEO of Reveal Suits
In this episode of On Record PR, Jennifer Simpson Carr goes on record with Carlton Dixon, Founder and CEO of Reveal Suits, to discuss the risks and rewards of starting a business and following your passion. Carlton is a former collegiate student-athlete and has made his life’s work inspiring young men and women to achieve their goals, first as a coach, then as an athletic director, and now as the owner of a company that specializes in high-end custom suits and blazers.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: You and I met last year during the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2023 announcement. It was the men’s Final Four in Houston, Texas. It was inspiring to me to learn about your story, meet your wife Nikki, and also learn that you were a University of Texas basketball player. It’s been great to get to know you, and I’m excited to talk to you today. It is great timing because the 2024 class was just announced.
Carlton Dixon: We had a great time with that class. Nothing like meeting your mom though. She was wonderful. Nikki and I enjoyed meeting you guys as well and we love Ms. Juliene, that’s for sure.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: Well, I know our family loves you as well. You treated our family with such respect and grace. You made us feel like a special part of that occasion, and that means a lot to us. You had an incredible impact on our experience throughout the process. We’re grateful to you.
Carlton Dixon: Thank you so much. We want to be more than just the jacket provider. We want to be a part of enhancing the experience, not only for the inductees but for the families as well.
Can you give us a glimpse of what Reveals Suits is?
Reveal Suits will be six years old this summer. We’re still relatively the new kid on the block, but our signature niche is the inner linings that we do. The company was formed based on the collegiate licensing model. We have 90 universities that we have licenses for, so our suits can be the University of Texas collection suit, the Baylor blazer, the Michigan State suit. That’s the foundation of the business – the college licenses that we have.
We’ve taken that to expand into corporate opportunities – professional sports opportunities such as our partnership with the PGA of America. We’re doing some things in the golfing world now. It’s the creativity of our suits and blazers for men and women that separates us from any other clothier.
The fortunate thing with the Hall of Fame was that they allowed the inductees to tell the story of their journey to the Hall inside of their jacket with the lining. You see teams that the inductee played for or coached for, such as your mom with USA Basketball. Whatever was part of that journey, we’ve been fortunate to be able to bring it to life.
I think that that’s what a lot of entities are starting to appreciate about us. It can still remain a nice tailored suit or blazer on the outside, but it could certainly be very personal on the inside.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: I loved learning about that when we had the chance to go through the process of my mother being fitted for her blazer, and she ended up with something very simple, which is beautiful and classic – USA Basketball and the Olympic rings. You also had samples there from people who had family pictures or team pictures on the inside. I just thought that was such a beautiful nod to or reflection of their journey and what made them who they were as athletes.
How long have you been working with the Naismith Hall of Fame?
Your mom’s class was our third class. We’re embarking upon our fourth class. Our initial deal was a five-year deal. This is coming up on year four out of five, but there’s no way we’re letting each other go. We will continue to be the Hall’s jacket provider. That you can guarantee.
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve always been a sports guy – an athlete, coach, and athletic director. I love all things sports. I watch all things sports. Watching NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL (National Football League) drafts, you see the moment that’s changing young people’s lives. The suit has become a big part of that night. The red carpet. “What are you wearing?” “How loud are the colors?” I saw some guys start to do some interesting things on the inside of their suits. They wanted to pay tribute to their families, to their coaches, to their native country if they were from outside of the US. It was getting pretty creative.
Then I saw a couple of guys start paying tribute to their college. They were talking about how they wanted to do that, but all they had in their closets were T-shirts and sweats that represented their college. I was like, “Huh, that’s pretty interesting.” I’ve got tons of Longhorn polos and t-shirts and caps and sweats, but the one thing that I didn’t have that represented Longhorns for me was the suit.
I wondered if this could become not only a celebratory garment on draft night but also a viable product in the market. This whole business was formed on ideas that came to my head one night, and I had no fashion experience before. I was just like, “There’s got to be a way to bring this to life, and I want to be the one.” That’s when the competitive juices kick in. And so off to the races we went.
Nikki and I said, “Nobody’s doing it. Why not us?” I had no blueprint for it, but the one thing I did know is that through Google and YouTube and all kinds of other stuff, I could at least teach myself some of the fundamentals of the industry. Six years later, here we are. It hasn’t been easy by any means, and there was a little bitty pandemic we had to deal with as well. I almost thought I was going to be back on the sidelines coaching, but we stayed the course, and we’ve had some great support.
Our university partners believe in us, and they were very instrumental in helping us stay afloat throughout the pandemic with their purchases, their support, and their marketing continuing to open the doors for us. We are certainly thankful to come out on the other side of that.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: That’s fantastic. I love what you said. “Nobody’s doing it. Why not us?” That is such a competitive spirit.
Carlton Dixon: I didn’t want to say, five or ten years later, “I should have done this.” Once I saw that nothing like this existed, it was game on.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: What foresight you had. I played in college years ago, and you wore sweats to the games. In the last three years, what professional and college athletes wear to the stadium has become a competition of its own. There are social media platforms dedicated to what athletes are wearing, so kudos to you for that foresight.
Carlton Dixon: It was an interesting blend of sports and fashion that was occurring, and I was like, “Man, I think this would be perfect for this trend that is happening.” That’s our goal. You talk about where we want to be in X number of years – we want to be the brand for sports and upscale fashion.
As an athlete with that competitive spirit, can you share with me as a business owner and entrepreneur a time when you may have run into a difficult challenge, or you may have pushed forward on something and hit a point when you had to reflect? What did you learn from it?
I have a quick story for that one. We weren’t even six months into the business, and we had already gotten some pretty good group orders – Florida State football and Baylor football. We thought, “We’re on a roll.” We got interest from a woman’s club at Louisiana State University. It was about 50 young ladies, all in athletics, and we were just like, “This is great. We’ll have a nice-sized women’s group to showcase women’s suits. No looking back.”
I pressed forward, not even taking into account that the women’s patterns are different. The curvatures are different. I just thought, “Measurements are measurements. We’re going to measure, and I’m going to get it to my production team. Yes, these are ladies’ suits, but you make great men’s suits, so just make the sounds like you normally make them.” When those suits came back about four to six weeks later, we took them down there. It was a disaster. They were big. They were boxy. It was not pretty.
I had to take it on the chin. I took that moment to say, “Okay, you got a little ahead of yourself and as you are learning the industry, you didn’t even pause to realize that it’s a totally different pattern-making scheme when you’re talking about ladies’ suits. I was like, “If you are going to be in this industry, then you need to slow down. This isn’t like learning to play basketball and running up and down the court. You’re building a brand. You’re talking about customer service and high-end fashion. Dude, you need to slow down and make sure you have all your ducks in a row.”
It was a very humbling moment for me. You can say it was a failure at that time, but it was a failure that I was going to learn from. In basketball, you’re going to have some major turnovers throughout a game, but that was one turnover that I was not going to commit again. I’m glad it happened because it forced me to slow down and make sure we did everything properly and in order.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: We all need those moments in life to make sure that we can push ahead and be the best and provide great customer service.
What is your approach to risk-taking in business, and how does your background as an athlete, coach, and athletic director play into that?
You have to take risks, especially when you’re building something from the ground up. There’s no precedent for what we’re doing. I couldn’t compare to another custom suit clothier who was in the licensing space because we’re the first one, so the different buttons that we push are often risks. Now it’s a matter of how big the button you’re going to push is. You asked about how it equates to coaching. In the spur of the moment, I have to call this play, or I have to adjust what we’re doing defensively because this wasn’t working. That’s a risk because the adjustment may not work, but you have to do it because that’s the only way you’re going to find out if you’re going to win or lose the ball game.
Same here. It’s the only way we’re going to find out if our product works in a certain market, if this women’s feature works on this particular suit or if it was a bust. You have to take the risk if there’s a partnership you want to invest in because you feel that it’s going to pay off.
I’m the founder and CEO, but I have a team. There have been a couple of partnerships where I’ve been the only one who says, “No, we have to invest in this one because it’s going to pay off,” and I just have to play my CEO card and trump everybody who didn’t believe it. With one of those, it didn’t work, and I had to be accountable for that one as well. You just have to take the risk and you have to believe in your product. You have to believe in your team enough to know that we have the ingredients to make it pay off.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: I love that. It’s always fun to work with and talk to former athletes. We’re never really former athletes. We still have it in us. The analogies to teamwork, coaching, and leadership stay with us throughout our lives.
What’s your long-term goal and vision for Reveal Suits?
I truly believe that we could be the most successful clothier in the history of the industry. Number one, we do men and women, which is very rare, but our partnerships and most importantly our licenses give us the ability to reach millions of alumni, fans of these colleges, your favorite team, your alma maters.
For me, I’m a University of Texas guy. I will always be. In 30 years, I’ll be a Longhorn, in 50 years. In 100 years, of course, I won’t be here, but there will continue to be Longhorns and Tigers and Wildcats and Aggies and Spartans and whatever the case may be. Our licensing rights and our signature features, which are the inner linings, will never end.
We’re able to do everything else that a Men’s Wearhouse, a Brooks Brothers, and all of these other great entities out there can do. But our licensing rights, that just sets us apart. Along this journey, if we continue to execute everything properly in order and take the appropriate risks, I feel that we’re in a position to do something that no other suit company’s ever done.
In 20 years, I want my niece and nephew running this company and still having the same impact that it’s beginning to have now. I have big plans for Reveal, and I feel like we’re just now lighting the match even at six years old.
If you could rewind time and give yourself advice six years ago some advice, what would you tell yourself starting this business?
To try my best to maintain balance. I have failed miserably in that just because I’m just so passionate about the business and making it work. Nikki’s the leader in this when she says, “Hey, put the phone down, turn the iPad off. Let’s go watch a movie. Let’s go have some sushi. Let’s just take it easy. The email will be there tomorrow.” I thank her for that continually because you need that reminder.
If I could have prepped myself for that six years ago, I certainly would have made that a part of the framework. But that’s what happens when it’s yours. You’re responsible for everything that happens with the brand. I’m going a million miles a minute at times, but a balance is important.
Jennifer Simpson Carr: That’s great advice, and I think we’re lucky when we can find teammates for life who help us balance when we need that reminder.
What’s your favorite interlining you’ve done on a jacket?
Pau Gasol. With your mom’s class. Without a doubt. He gave us pictures of him and his beautiful family. Him and his brother, the Spain national team, his jersey retirement. He considers Kobe (Bryant) like a brother. He has two pictures of him and Kobe. It was just random pictures, but the way that lining came together. was fantastic. I let him know personally. I was just like, “Dude, this is my favorite. You nailed it on this one.”
What’s the most fun event you’ve attended giving out jackets for a celebratory occasion?
When we go back to the colleges, we love seeing those college football teams for the fittings because a lot of times this is their first experience with a suit, let alone a custom suit. When they have a creative say in their suit, and those suits come back, these guys are taking pictures; they’re FaceTiming with their moms and their girlfriends. They literally are ready to play, and that delivery happens in late July and early August. They’re ready to play games that day. There’s just so much excitement and confidence in the room.
What’s your favorite memory of playing basketball at the University of Texas?
Even though it was a loss, my favorite memory is my very first game in the Dean Dome at the University of North Carolina and I was fortunate to get a lot of playing time. We ended up losing in overtime, but it was a great game and my very first shot. I drove to the lane thinking this is it, this game is on CBS. My first point is about to come, and Rasheed Wallace swats my ball probably to the fourth row. And I was like, “Okay, we’re here. This is big boy basketball.”
Jennifer Simpson Carr: Well, thank you for indulging me on some fun questions. I’ve really enjoyed staying connected with you and following your great work.
Carlton Dixon
Learn more about Reveal Suits
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlton-dixon-33ab98163/
Instagram: @revealsuits
Jennifer Simpson Carr
Website: https://www.furiarubel.com/our-team/members/jennifer-simpson-carr/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennifersimpsoncarr
Instagram: @jsimpsoncarr
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