The 'real' J. Peterman debuts in Menlo Park The 'real' J. Peterman debuts in Menlo Park (May 26, 2004)

The man who became famous in a 'Seinfeld' parody brings his furniture line to Traditions

By Jonas Raab
Special to the Almanac

John Peterman, founder and president of the J. Peterman Company, was at the Traditions home furnishings store in downtown Menlo Park on May 12 to promote the introduction of 10 pieces to his 32-piece furniture line.

Sitting back in his "Thackery Armchair" at Traditions, Mr. Peterman -- well known for being parodied as a quirky, eccentric clothing designer on the sitcom "Seinfeld" -- points to a chair across the room as an example of what the collection offers.

"The Rescued Beauty (named the '1930s Modern Armchair' in the catalog) made it's living on French ocean liners in the 1930s," he tells the Almanac. "That became a Peterman piece because it's got an attitude."

Cathy Ettel, manager of the Menlo Park Traditions store, says she loves the new collection. "It's a beautiful look and complements our other pieces," she says. "His philosophy meshes with Traditions -- it's all about variety and Old World look."

In certain situations, she says, it's hard to tell if a piece is a "Peterman" or a "Traditions."

The "Tuscan Sideboard" is a reproduction of a piece Mr. Peterman picked up in San Gimignano, Italy, "at my friend Guido Mazzoli's estate," says the catalog description. The sideboard -- used for holding linen, silver and china -- contains concealed panels.

In order for any piece -- clothing or furniture -- to become a "Peterman," it must have three qualities, he says:

"It has to have romance, and by romance I mean the romance of a journey to another time and place that's more interesting than where we are today; it needs to be unique or hard to find -- I don't want something that's all over the place; and it needs to have its roots in authenticity."

John Peterman notes that he has the final say in every aspect of production. He finds the pieces and brings them back to a company called Jeffco Furniture, based in White Plains, New York, for manufacturing. In some cases, he combines several pieces into a new creation.

"The dining room table (named the 'The Provence Dining Table' in the catalog) I bought in Provence," he said pointing to a nearby table. "Actually I bought a few different ones and made the one I wanted."

Mr. Peterman says he turned to Jeffco after almost going with several other companies that seemed more concerned with something other than Mr. Peterman's furniture finds.

"They really wanted to just take the name and put it on their product," Mr. Peterman says, "and I said that's not what I want to do. About a year later I met with Jeffco and here we are."

The 'real' Peterman

So how did a former Pittsburgh Pirates AAA baseball player become a clothing designer?

"I played baseball when I was very young and got hurt," Mr. Peterman says. After that, he went to work for General Foods, followed by other large corporations.

"Then I did what you do when you don't have a job: I became a consultant, and built up a consultant business. Then, I bought a cheese company. I thought I could take it national. That was a bad idea, but it turned out to be a good investment," he says. "I bought 50 percent [of the company] for $3,000 and sold it for half a million."

John Peterman became interested in the clothing business in 1987 when he bought an authentic cowboy's duster -- a floor-length coat -- in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

"I bought the duster because it took me to another time and place, it was authentic, and it was unique and hard to find -- maybe not in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but certainly on Madison Avenue," Mr. Peterman says.

He ran several ads in local papers until finally an ad in the New Yorker led to the selling 75 of the dusters to U.S. customers and 2,000 to a mysterious gentleman in Japan.

'Seinfeld' years

Mr. Peterman first heard that he had been on an episode of "Seinfeld" after returning from a trip to San Francisco. "I got into the office in the morning and people said, 'You were on Seinfeld last night.'"

The show originally used his name without asking, but after a character portrayed as the "Soup Nazi" sued the show for defamation, the show's attorneys went to the producers and advised them to get permission from Mr. Peterman.

"Of course, there was all the internal discussion of, well, 'The guy portraying you is over the top and not like you at all,' and I would say that it's a good thing he's not like me or no one would watch the show."

How did he feel about being portrayed on "Seinfeld"?

"I said: 'Fifty million people see the name every week? Might not be a bad thing.' I would get the scripts six weeks in advance and sign off on them -- the shows were never the same as the scripts anyway," he says.

In 1996, on a talk show called "Fox After Breakfast," Mr. Peterman met the actor who played him, John O'Hurley.

"O'Hurley is a good friend of mine," says Mr. Peterman. "He's actually an investor in the new J. Peterman Company."

Bankruptcy

In 1999, the J. Peterman Company filed for bankruptcy. Mr. Peterman attributes the fall to several factors, including expansion. His mission was lost among the many employees, he says.

"People came to work for the J. Peterman Company because they loved the culture and the culture was one of rewarding success and not punishing mistakes," he says. "If you don't make any mistakes it means you aren't doing anything, you can't learn anything."

This philosophy functioned for a while, but too many new employees began to go back to familiar ways.

"When things got fast-paced, people would revert back to the cultures that they previously knew, which set up divisions and politics and did punish mistakes and all that."

After the bankruptcy filing, Mr. Peterman went through six weeks of depression. "I decided that wasn't a whole lot of fun, so I wrote a book."

The Harvard Business Review contacted him and asked if he would do a case study, which he declined. About a week later they called back and asked if he would write a firsthand account of the rise and fall of the J. Peterman Company. He accepted and the article came out in the September/October 2000 edition.

"So I wound up on a bunch of television shows promoting the article and began to get a passion back for living and one thing led to another," he says.

"The company that bought J. Peterman at the bank auction had some trouble and had to sell J. Peterman and the inventory. I made a deal with the liquidator to buy it back."

The new company

The main thing that J. Peterman says he wants to steer clear of is imitation. He says he often goes into clothing and furniture stores in order to make sure that he is not copying anything that is already in the marketplace.

"J. Peterman's business is like a love affair with the customer and a love affair goes on for two reasons," says Mr. Peterman. "A love affair is not like a marriage where there are legal obligations -- a love affair only goes on if each partner stays interesting to the other and they don't bicker and fight.

"Well, 'staying interesting to each other' is to continually provide new and exciting products and 'don't bicker and fight' is just to have good customer service," he says.

"There's such a same-ness out there," he says. "Whether it's clothes or furniture, it's a very incestuous business. All the merchants will run out and shop the competition's stores and then make little changes until the original piece that started out eventually makes the whole cycle back -- since everyone is making changes until they finally get back to what was really good."

What does the future hold for the company? Mr. Peterman is going to "play it by ear," he says.

"I would rather do a few things really, really well than to spread myself too thin in the hopes of making billions of dollars." He then added with a wry smile, "That doesn't mean I don't want to make money."

INFORMATION

** For more information and clothing/furniture prices: www.jpeterman.com.

** Traditions is located at 850 Santa Cruz Ave. in downtown Menlo Park. The business has other stores in Los Gatos, Berkeley and Walnut Creek.

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