Dixie and I, Kirby (aka Mr Pure Dixie) married out of college and lived on my family’s ranch. I had done leather work building saddles, chaps and other things, and Dixie had always had an eye for design and a gift of being creative and making something out of nothing. She used to cut up old shirts to give them a new look so she could wear them again without having to spend money on a new one.
During the early years of marriage, Dixie always wanted to be a mom first and foremost, but she also wanted to work. After much consideration and prayer, we bought an embroidery machine to do custom embroidered logos on clothes for local customers. This was a great way to raise kids, stay on the ranch and generate some additional income. Soon, Kirby and Dixie were combining their gifts of leather work and design to use the embroidery machine on leather and creating leather belts. The first ever belt was a gift from myself to Dixie. The buckle function was not great, but the embroidered design is still used in the business today. Dixie’s passion was always about creating something new, so her leather design journey began.
The first step into the pool of entrepreneurship was going to ranch rodeos with a small tote of embroidered belts to sell to the ladies in the crowd. Women loved the various designs and Dixie’s creative eye. Looking to make this passion grow, we went to a wholesale market in Denver to find the next steps to grow this idea. It was overwhelming, there was so much to see and we just felt like minnows in a big pond. Nothing was happening, no direction, we felt lost. So, we decided to pray about it and ask God for some clear direction. We sat down in a couple of chairs in a busy hallway with people walking by, we held hands and prayed out loud. Then we got up and went on hoping we would get some clarity.
Not all of our prayers were answered immediately, but this one was! We were on our way to meet a contact who unfortunately could not help us, but she did take us to meet someone else. Her name was Diana, and she was very friendly and eager to help. We showed her our belts that were in a suitcase on the floor. She picked them up and inspected them one by one, after she looked at one, she put that one over her shoulder to pick up another one. The embroidered belt looked very nice draped over her shoulder, Dixie and I looked at each other and both had the same thought, ‘what if the belt could also be a purse strap?’ Diana also had contacts to a place where we could have the cutting and sewing done and ramp up production. Things were starting to fall into place.
Over the next few months, working to solve problems and listening to customers, the belt system, interchangeable patches, minis and the Pure Dixie system and culture began to come to life. People always ask how we came up with this idea- the short answer, we were not smart enough to come up with this on our own, it was an answer to prayer. The long answer is in a variety of stories that are written and some still yet to come!