Doug Shea discusses how Sharp Dressed Man puts men in position to get a job and succeed – and how founder Christopher Schafer took his vocation and passion and put it to work for others.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, suit, man, chris, sharp dressed man, years, nice, good, interview, bill, volunteer, skateboard, dignity, wife, dressing room, walk, dude, talking, suspenders, thought
SPEAKERS
Bill Cole, Nestor J. Aparicio, Doug Shea
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:03
Welcome home. We are back in Gainesville. We are doing all things a cup of soup or bowl this crab cake row the crab cake tour extension. It is our big game week we’re gonna be Hollywood casino on Sunday. I’m just going for Taylor Swift. I mean, that’s the only reason I’m gonna be there. Bill calls ride shotgun here today we are in Catonsville at State Fair, I see is what kind of zeros at some sort of peanut butter cereal was what’s going on in their minestrone soup. We got all sorts of things. Peanut butter is like a real big thing. And black beans and beans in general, for for the Maryland Food Bank. I have Carmen here. He told me all the things that they want to donate. And sure enough, it cost us on Tuesday. I looked it was always weird stuff. And every single thing he told me to donate so people do go out to the Maryland Food Bank site. They do pay attention to directions. I’m not one of them. Everybody knows I don’t follow directions. And they’re listening. So I appreciate that. Stay fair to five Pappus all day Friday. Bill calls with us each and every week. He’s sort of inspired the community charity series back after my wife’s illness. I forgot your mug today, dude, but I wind up in fighting Chris Shaffer from Sharp Dressed Man he couldn’t be here he winds up sending one of the newest sharp dressed man who’s very very sharp dress by the way I would have dressed better had I known and smarter more is such that Chris actually set we filmed I bought about a year and a half ago. It probably probably open it was Perry Hall. We were comrades right yes. Sharp Dressed Man. He is the the how many guys work in sharp dressed man these days besides Chris.
Doug Shea 01:33
Just be don’t say
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:35
he’s the new the newest sharp dressed man
Doug Shea 01:38
and a host of volunteers. So we’re very grateful for well give
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:40
me the lowdown and where we are because I’ve donated to Chris. I love Chris man rock and roll guy playing the drums doing the skateboard thing. He’s really unique cat. I love having him on the program. I love his vision for what he tried to do. But there was a vision beyond this about a sense of purpose for pride for men getting a job for men having dignity and saying if that job takes a suit, I don’t have a suit. I can’t get an interview. And I want to show well, right for the most important impression,
Doug Shea 02:11
right? Absolutely. So these gentlemen are, you know, men who have invested in themselves, they want to be a part of the community. And when they come out of that dressing room with one of their new suits on and the look on their face when they see themselves in
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:24
the mirror can’t be the guy get when I put a suit on.
Doug Shea 02:27
All of us, all of us there every Wednesday when we volunteer. By the way, if anyone wants to come down to 50 West Dyckman street, every Wednesday told it to so you see these guys come out of the dressing room and all of us were in shock. But these suits just look so great on these guys. And they feel so good about themselves. And I even had
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:47
a suit on in a long time. 25 years it was a sharp dressed man. I mean, I’m not a customer. I’m a donor, right, I’ve given some of my stuff I lost weight years ago, Chris came over to my house, like in the early days, and he was telling me off because that’s what he does. It’s Tyler, you know, and he was measuring me up he saw my closet. He’s like, dude, this shit unfit you man. Like, he can’t use em. Boy, you were in that and, and my wife was like, my wife had been trying to get me to get rid of this, I lost my weight and Oh, six. And this is like 12 right before she it’s like six, six years later. And I’m kept waiting to get fat again. And I didn’t want it doesn’t look like 18 years. So I mean, I had all these Excel things, the things that were just gonna drag, you know, I go back to the pictures. But Chris came over, he’s like, man, somebody’s gonna want this. Like, let me you know, I’ll put up and somebody were put on edge and a guy could look at stuff and put on a jacket and said Man look good. They’ve thought about me and we thought about the future. But I guess I take it for granted that I’ve always had a sport coat that I don’t wear often enough, right? I mean, you know me, Bill, I got 10 sport coats in my closet. I don’t wear them that much.
Doug Shea 03:53
Did you bring them today? I can take
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:55
these ones. These are mine. This is my really my Robert Graham’s man’s real deal. People donate to you guys and and with a purpose. And I’m asking for food. I even talked about goats for winter for keep people warm gloves, all that kind of stuff. But getting a job and getting a place up who comes to sharp dressed man.
Doug Shea 04:12
So we work with a lot of organizations in the area. So we’re the icing on the cake, right? All of us here in the Baltimore area, we have a vested interest in making a difference in the community. So for example, we partner with United Way of Central Maryland, they have a veterans court program.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:26
I love hearing that because that Franklin Baker on on Monday afternoon, so So you get these,
Doug Shea 04:29
you know, people who have served our country and of course, we’re talking about men, right? At this point. So they come back from serving their country. You know, sometimes they have those psychological traumas that lend themselves to maybe getting in trouble. So the veterans court what they do is a rehabilitation program. So instead of incarceration, they go through the program and when they graduate, they come to us we put them in a nice suit. We have ray of hope, organization, some different you know, rehabilitation homes,
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:56
people come in, they pick out one suit, that’s the that’s where the beginning is It’s right. Well,
Doug Shea 05:00
we pick it up for them because we take a look. And we think letting go yes. So we will give them one or two suits. We’re working now with some, some organizations that people have dress codes where they work, and they can’t afford necessarily to have five nice outfits. So we’ll send them away with maybe one or two suits, made some slacks couple of different ties, so that they have enough that, you know, they’re not going to wear the same thing over and over again. But the end of the day, they go on these job interviews, and they feel good about themselves. And when you when you look good, and you feel good about yourself, you’re gonna knock the interview out of the park, right? So the people who want to be back in the workforce, they want to be back into the community they want to be you know, and they walk out of that dressing room and they look so good. They feel good about themselves interview
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:45
with you in a suit bill, you’re not, it’s different.
Bill Cole 05:49
I think the concept is this. So our world is crafted in a way where we don’t really get to set all the rules, right? So we’re comfortable here hearing comfortable, we don’t we don’t necessarily get to set all the rules, right but but a job interview requiring a suit like that, that’s there’s a rule there, whether we like it or disagree with it or agree, that doesn’t really matter. I wore
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:11
suit when I interviewed at the news, America when I was 15. And they laughed at me, I walked in, and I’ve had people come in looking like you to interview my sports radio station, and it’s made me uncomfortable. You know, I’m like, I’m more casual than that. Viewing in the bank. I mean, if you get out of jail, if you want to show
Doug Shea 06:29
them and maybe that’s not required for the interviewer, but sure makes that person feel really good about themselves, they see themselves and they’re like, Well, I’m worth this, you know, we’re
Bill Cole 06:39
that the person is entering an environment that already breeds a certain level of uncomfortableness and challenge to them, whether they’re Second Chance guy or whatever the scenario is that they’re walking into the idea that, you know, we have these societal rules or whatever our ability to you know, the dignity I heard earlier, like the confidence that that’s, that’s a great word changing, right game changing to someone who is trying to figure it out. They’ve put all the effort in, and now they’re walking through this door. And right, just that little again, like we were talking about with that I’m with, Hey, I know I can’t put my hand on your back all the time. But like, we’re behind you, man. It’s the same thing. Like we believe in you. But you’ve done all these things. We want to make you look good. So you believe in yourself when you walk through
Doug Shea 07:24
the venom. You know, unfortunately, there’s a lot of people judge a book by its cover type of thing. Well, these guys their cover looks pretty good. Sure. Chris
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:32
a little bit because he’s not here to defend himself. But Bill Yeah. Bill your roofing and I know you well enough that you’ve given second chance people opportunities, you’ve had you employment situations that are under your roofing things, that you can give people an opportunity to feed their family give dignity, give them a chance, where if they don’t have a college, whatever it would be right, Chris me was a tailor and thinking about like, what he could use his skill set for, right? Like he’s got this skill set to make dudes look good. He makes suits and whatnot. I don’t know what point he made that connection, that his skill set in fixing up a beaten up suit, which I’m sure is where this thing started is a hammer down and let me fix this well, and make you look, Taylor’s
Doug Shea 08:16
clients have these old suits, what are we gonna do just throw them in the landfill? Or Chris has always been an entrepreneur, a visionary. And he had this vision like I can really isn’t visionaries where I can make anyone and a lot of things. Absolutely. I’ve known him since we were five years old. So we grew up together that we did Glen Burnie, he would have, you know, skateboard festivals, and w HFS would end up showing up a year or two later. And you know, it became an event versus just so he’s always always working on this next thing, but this has been consistent for over 10 years now. But he saw a need with his own business of all these suits to recycle them, and what’s the best way to do it? He gave back if you make people feel, again, the dignity and respect that they deserve. And then they’re contributing members of society versus you know, eliminates recidivism or hopefully, you know, reduces it right. But so, well, they don’t.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:12
Right then. Right?
Bill Cole 09:13
It’s, it’s all about all the legs on the stool, right? I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about all the different ways and that was I think some of the overarching idea around 100 charities and what we’re gonna do it this week, and all that stuff is like just exposing the fact and you know, Adam was given us a hard time because we need to talk more positive about everything because there’s good stuff to talk about. So we all need to we do need to be reminded of that right. And I think this is another example of just people to your point about Chris finding a way to take their skill set and have it have impact across you know, all classes all people all groups and getting the meaning from that for him like that’s super waterway
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:56
when I went down to the play, it was the original location You’ve since moved. Where are you now?
Doug Shea 10:01
West Dyckman street where so it’s right off in 95 You caught off on I think it’s the route to where do
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:09
you fit in the Fells port and Harbor East area where he had his incident. He
Doug Shea 10:13
had all his own shop, right? Yeah. So this is this area now is sponsored by the Kevin Plank foundation Under Armour. So this whole entire building is full of organizations like ourselves. So what are
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:25
the steps a couple years ago, it was the day my wife got her COVID shots. So that would tell you, and she was at first COVID So early 21 We had passed on my wife had her COVID break down in his office, like she got a shot. And then she’s like, I’m feeling sick. You know, it was that it was that overnight, shooting a half COVID But I remember being in his place and and I had been there a couple years before because he had sort of a jam thing with a band and his space. And so all of his clothes and I’m like, Oh, my God, do you like because I thought a sharp dressed man when I first met Chris maybe 1012 years ago. It was like it’s nice to have a couple of 48 larges in a cup. No, no, no dude, it was like being in a Simmons Men’s Wearhouse it’s
Doug Shea 11:04
even better so 1000s of jackets. Actually dressed almost by then this year will be a past 12,000 12,000 jacket. I just picked up about
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:15
12,004 coats. That’s crazy.
Doug Shea 11:19
Nice quality garments, right. I just picked up 50 suits from Morgan Stanley investment up a wealth management and Lutherville they do these clothing drives they look as nice as this. Sometimes Listen, my first day, my first day volunteering there I walk in and this this guy he looked amazing, very sharp. He was a volunteer jesting others. At the end of the day, I found that he himself just three weeks prior was one of the people that we trust and he was so inspired by it that he wasn’t coming every Wednesday to volunteer his time. Although I
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:50
have a question if Chris were here right now. I’m working with a group called there goes my hero. They help save my wife’s life and Michelle on the other day. I don’t I’m looking at Dave Grohl. We see Dave back there. There’s Dave has CT either Well, he’s dead. He didn’t know but that was a picture of Chris I often wonder it’s a goal of mine to buckle down to say this out loud to you because you you keep track of my dreams and visions. This
Bill Cole 12:18
is already on the record. You’ve already gone public with this but go ahead. Dave
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:23
Grohl to know about there goes my hero because he wrote the song there. Right so I’m wondering does Billy Gibbons know about Sharp Dressed Man?
Doug Shea 12:36
How can you help us make that happen? There you go I want met Billy Gibbons my life there you go. Send me his email address.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:41
I just that would be the ultimate it Billy Gibbons new event and saying, Man, he balls up Memorial. I’m gonna shoot you do? Oh, my song. You know, I would just think it would be really good. I’ll say this. I don’t say this out loud. I’ve interviewed hundreds and hundreds of rock stars. Right. I was a music critic back in the day. And my wife, you know, we were courting and we’re talking about my pet. She’s who are the nicest guys. And I’m like, and the guys in ZZ Top were like, the nicest guys I ever interviewed. You know what I mean? And oh taught me last dusty, but I thought they were the nicest guys. They they refuse to have me do the interview ahead of time. And I remember their publicist was the same publicist seemed rave on. And he was an Irish guy. And he’s like, the boys wants to meet you. They will not do you know the advance that you must come after the show? And I’m like, All right, so they left me backstage passes and I thought they blew me up. When I was dating the girl they invited us back into their dressing room. They offered me cheap sunglasses, because they were getting a prescription. They were the nicest guys in the world. So if I had a hold of Billy Gibbons, I have a feeling he would think it’s cool
Doug Shea 13:49
Sharp Dressed Man he would always think it’s good if you Google Sharp Dressed Man ZZ Top shows up so if you’re gonna Google us dude Sharp Dressed Man Baltimore like this,
13:57
like that.
Bill Cole 13:59
Baltimore I feel like this is gonna happen. Well, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:03
just gave me an idea that’s like this idea. Maybe you want to jam with Chris.
Doug Shea 14:07
One other thing we do there I want to throw this in just another thing about how all of us coming together and community makes such a difference. Jason toll of Charm City Barber has been coming for over six years. Two hours, given free haircuts. We actually have a barber shop in our new location. And Jordan Jason comes every Wednesday and gives so we put them in the suit. Give them a nice haircut, shave them up. It’s all part of it’s saying
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:31
I need a haircut. So
Bill Cole 14:32
how long? How long turtle has this been happening?
Doug Shea 14:39
Sharp Dressed Man has been over about 10 years now. 10 years? Yeah.
Bill Cole 14:44
So you if you don’t think that supporting a man’s dignity, right or ability to be self confident. If you don’t think that is there is substance to that, like there’s no way this sort of thing goes on for 10
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:59
years. clients make the man but sometimes they make the job man. Like they make it happen for somebody.
Doug Shea 15:05
It gives them the competence and self respect and dignity they need to feel are worthy.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:11
I didn’t know I didn’t today. And right now, this is
Bill Cole 15:18
a conversation that as men were even, like, allowed to have, right, right. This is Do I look good? Or like, am I self confident? Feel dignity, you know, I thought he was making I don’t even have this sort of conversation and just to be able to reinforce the fact that if you think it isn’t powerful, right for 10 years, the barber, everything, I mean, it’s just as powerful.
Doug Shea 15:41
We’re talking about veterans who have served their country that need that, you know, that little bit of nudge and help to get back in so
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:49
duckface here is structures man Bill calls here for coal roofing. What’s the ask what can people do skip skip jackets? Right, let me find the three or four I have in my rack. I’m
Doug Shea 15:57
sure he did. So I’m Chris Rock. band.org Our addresses on there we have a weatherproof shed where you can make donations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re also we also accept you know, just shirts. Any business attire businesses were in need of belts and shoes. Do suspenders man we have some there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:18
I was at an event last week and a dude was there and I saw the tabs I have some I don’t have many more because I lost weight my old pants back in the 90s thing I liked that look I mean I yeah, I just do I like that look I would bring you suspenders look back for
Doug Shea 16:34
me. One of the things we have is called the sharp dress van. And so we actually have imagine a van the size of Amazon delivery van and we go out and we have mobile events where we go out into the community and justice people so if anyone wants to send us a gift card for Exxon that’s a tangible donation that will fuel the vehicle this vehicle fueled by x y you know can be world farms to any place anyplace. So you know at this point
Bill Cole 16:59
there’s a couple people we know in that in that category Yeah. So good connections obviously.
Doug Shea 17:03
It does take some a few dollars to gas up the van and some other you know administrative things but yes, the clothing the shoes, belts shirts, like gift cards to you know nearest gas station for our mobile van we have an event there’s a rumor
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:19
shape smoking a cigar and ride a skateboard and Santa Monica right now
Doug Shea 17:23
the the I just took his call a few minutes ago he’s you said looking at Venice Beach with a cigar
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:28
Okay, that’s blue skies. So spot I’ll send him up in up in Santa masa.
Doug Shea 17:34
All right, I said don’t worry. I’ll you know, I’ll go on this show and
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:38
you did a good job. He did do a good job. Ah man. Man died or buco here I am this everyone we’re hanging. I have to get him out here but three go. What are we doing next time to a National Kidney Foundation. You’re doing sisters Academy of Ottawa sisters Academy Baltimore. Alright. Bill’s gonna be here to at least four o’clock or until I give him some free soup. I am Nestor. We are wn st come see us and stay fair. bring you some canned goods and have a cup of soup or bowl
