Brooklyn native Jerry Duitz of JDM Green Town was kind enough to share with us some very cool momentos from his collection of autographed Brooklyn Dodger pics.  Look for the album in the print version of our magazine.

On June 1^st, JDM Merchandise Group Ltd. and Green Town LLC merged their 100% scrubs companies. Both groups are from New York, within a few blocks of each other in the Garment District.

JDM has Cassandra O™ and Samantha Mara™ and Green Town has the Green Town and PA labels.  They will keep all the labels as they feel they have a great synergy together.  While JDM is known throughout the country for its bold eye-catching prints, Green Town is renowned for their more subdued, stylish scrub look.  The combination of the two groups is great news for the OFFPRICE industry.

“I did some sneak previews with some retailers and the response was ‘wow!’” said Jerry Duitz, founder of JDM.  “2 of them chose to give us a couple of major programs in advance of our announcement, because of the combination of the looks.”

Green Town will stay where they are for now at their production facilities and office, while JDM will be the showroom at 1384 Broadway.  They will be looking for a larger showroom to accommodate the enormity of the line.

“We expect to take a giant leap forward in developing new business and it has already come our way.  I took a trip 2 and a half weeks ago and came back with an order that was 3 times larger than the normal business we’ve done in the past.”

Rami Omidvar opened Green Town in 2005, after 20+ years of experience in apparel merchandising.  His background began in retailing as a manager of general merchandise stores in the New York City area.  He then went into the garment center working with Harvic International for 13 years as sales manager.  “His specialty was in school uniforms,” Jerry claims.  “He helped build that business.”

Jerry Duitz started out of high school with an old line discounter chain called S. Klein in New York – one of the original discounters, and a major retailer (who’s cited in Sam Walton’s book).  He started as an assistant in 1959, and worked his way up to buyer for children’s wear.  He worked for various chains throughout his career, including Pamida from Omaha, Nebraska.  He spent 30 years in retailing before going into jobbing in 1990.  After being a buyer and merchandising manager, it was his goal to go into jobbing.  The timing was right, because of the launch of the OFFPRICE Show, where Jerry would become an exhibitor soon after.

For the first 15 years, Jerry jobbed ladies, men’s, and kids.  He sold to major chains around the US.  In 2006, he bought several closeouts of scrubs.  In particular, he bought 3 tremendous lots over a 5 month period and sold them with “super speed.”

“And the people I sold them to were so successful with the products that they called me for more.”

Jerry devoted the next year researching the scrubs market, enlisting the help of a good friend who bought scrubs for his retail operation.

“I started putting together a line of 10 different prints, and before I knew it, I had a line of 125 different prints, colors and styles.  From then on, I focused only on scrubs.  They take up 120% of my time.”

Now that they are combining forces, Jerry can focus on what he does best – selling and merchandising.

“Rami is an expert in production.  He travels overseas on a constant basis to ensure our quality control for both ‘families’ of product lines.”

With the Green Town merger, Jerry can now focus his efforts on what he believes to be growth markets for scrubs.

“You see more kids in college dorms wearing scrubs.  They are going away from fleece into scrub bottoms.  Once they started wearing the bottoms, the tops found their way in.  In the spring and warmer seasons you’ll see a lot of scrubs walking around on college campuses.”

There is also the maternity vertical.  “Scrubs serve as a comfortable maternity top that’s also inexpensive, because you will pay a premium for fashionable maternity tops.”

But the mainstay for scrubs is still the health care industry.

“People look at that as hospitals and nurses, but we forget about the aides and health care workers who are the pre-dominant part of the healthcare workforce.  And those are the people who shop in stores that I sell.  The aides and other health care workers have to buy their own scrubs.”

JDM Green Town is well-positioned to serve a healthcare sector that is the fastest growing industry, which will continue to grow as the population continues to age.  Of equal importance to Jerry is the healthcare industry’s influence on pop culture.

“People are more aware of scrubs because of what they see on TV.  Shows like Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy impact people’s views of scrubs as a fashion item just like ER and MASH used to back in the day.  Those retailers who are not carrying scrubs are really missing out because they have become a basic commodity.  You can include scrubs in the same sentence as socks and underwear because it brings the feet into the store.”

With this in mind, the new combined company is going to introduce a lot more fashion into their lines.  And the name of their new organization will be “JDM Green Town Scrubs.”

JDM was already known as one of the dominant forces in the scrub vertical.  Green Town, like JDM, has labels that are seen in stores nationwide.  They are both known for quality “at promotional prices.”  The merger cements their position as industry leaders for many years to come.

“I’m really honored to be working with Rami.  He grew his business from scratch single-handedly.  He loves production and creating, and he’s good at styling.  I love selling and people and have a retailer’s mentality (which helps me a lot), so I think we work extremely well together.”

Visit JDM Green Town Scrubs at Booth #1228 to meet Jerry, Rami and their enormous line of scrubs.

JDM Celebrates its 20^th year in the Off Price industry.

JDM’s watershed merger with Green Town occurs at the same time as another landmark in the company’s history – their 20^th anniversary as an off price company.

Jerry Duitz started his jobbing business just five years before the launch of the OFFPRICE Show.

“The show gave me my jump start in jobbing,” said Jerry.  “I got a phone call from my friend Jacob (Shalit) at Pacific Teaze saying ‘you gotta get into the OFFPRICE Show.  It’s the greatest thing.’  I didn’t know anything about displaying at shows, but Jacob insisted on helping me.   He bought the racks, put them in his truck, drove them to the Debbie Reynolds and delivered them to my room.  He even showed me how to put them together.”

JDM and OFFPRICE grew up together in concert with the industry’s ongoing development.  He served on the shows’s Exhibitor Advisory Board for many years.  “I always took my position on the board to heart.  It’s a great show.”

Thus, it is with great pride that OFFPRICE celebrates Jerry’s new exhibition at our show under the expanded JDM Green Town Scrubs name.  “It will for sure be one of the jewels at our beautiful new venue in The Sands,” says David Lapidos, Executive Vice President of OFFPRICE and longtime colleague of Jerry’s.  While his partner Rami Omidvar chooses to work behind the scenes in production and design, Jerry’s colorful personality always shines through on the show floor.

A 1959 graduate of New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, Jerry started his career education as a child working for his family business.

“I’ve been working all my life.  I grew up in a retail store.  It wasn’t apparel, but I learned a lot about customer service and merchandising.  My parents had a radio and appliance store.  My dad died when I was 6, so my Mom took over and marketed TV sales and repair.  I would help by waiting on customers from behind the counter at a very young age.  I also learned how to fix toasters and flashlights.  At age 10, I would go to people’s houses to replace the old fuses that would blow out.”

Maurice Duitz & Company was the name of the store.  In the early days of television, most people didn’t have TVs, so Jerry’s family was ahead of the curve in marketing this new technology.

“Those were the days we put one TV in the window and a speaker on the outside of the store on Tuesdays at 8 PM sharp. Hundreds of people would come to watch Milton Berle.  The police would have to come and rope it off.    This was in the early 50s.”

Retailing and customer service are in Jerry’s blood, and the native of Brooklyn’s Boro Park neighborhood still bleeds Dodger Blue.

“ I was a crazy Dodgers fan!  My brother Richard and I would go get 75-cent bleacher seats at Ebbets (Field).”

He remembers watching Bobby Thompson’s heart-wrenching “shot heard ‘round the world” (a.k.a. “The Giants win the pennant!  The Giants win the pennant!  The Giants win the pennant!”) outside of the family store with a crowd of kids coming home from school.

“I knew a buyer back in the day who told me that he saw the famous game at our store.”

Fonder memories of Jerry’s Brooklyn Dodger fandom include meeting some of baseball’s all-time greats.

Jackie Robinson

“Jackie Robinson was so good!  After the games, us kids would hang out where the players parked their cars.  After one game, Jackie stayed in the lot for over an hour just to talk to us kids – and we were all white.  He was such a good man.  His courage and determination in breaking baseball’s racial barrier will never be forgotten, but people should also know that he was a very nice man.”

Willie Mays

“My brother and I were leaving Ebbets one day and we saw Willie Mays.  He took the time to talk with us for a while as we walked down the street.  He even put his arm around us both.  It was so different back then.”

Pee Wee Reese

“My uncle was a men’s suit manufacturer whose main client was S. Klein. He was friends with a famous UPI photographer who introduced him to Pee Wee Reese.  We went to see Ebbets Field to see St. Louis play.  We went on the field and had pics taken with the players, including Stan Musial.”

Sandy Koulfax

“It was Camera Day at Ebbets Field.  We would bring our Kodak cameras.  My friend Lenny and I came and took pictures.  Sandy Koulfax lived in our neighborhood and he was struggling with the Dodgers in those early days of his career.  We came to the house with pictures we took at the field.  He was so thrilled to meet us that he called us ‘his first fans.’ He signed the pics and kept one for himself.”