Earlier this month, I did a channel presentation where we shared our direct distributor and end customer research for the Watson Gloves team at their 2025 AGM event. What struck David Gordon and I was how engaged the Watson team was, and the questions they had for us after the session were top- notch.
That great meeting started an idea for us to highlight more ISA member stories in a series of profiles in Industrial Supply Trends. What we hope to share is how each company is facing the challenges and opportunities in the Industrial Supply Channel in their own unique way. Our goal is that you may be able to gather some insight that you can use for your business from our profile series.
Let’s start with a little history on Watson Gloves
Watson Gloves started as a two-person shop selling gloves to Vancouver’s dock workers when they opened their doors in 1918 (the final year of World War when Canadian soldiers were in the trenches in France). They have steadily grown over the last 107 years and now offer over 2,000 different styles of gloves in the industrial, construction, welding, oil and gas, automotive industries. The serve the industrial and retail markets across North America and are Independently owned, 4th generation working at Watson Gloves.
We asked the Watson Gloves team to answer a few questions for us, and they gave us some great answers. So, I just edited them below and added some commentary as the teams’ answers were compelling.
Q. Thinking about your manufacturer / distributor relationships, how have they changed over the past 5 years? What do you see as key to these relationships in the next couple of years?
We find that Compliance has been a big topic of conversation in the industrial market and growing in importance over the last 5 years, which is not new to us, as in the retail market our customers are very strict with regulations. In terms of the future, we see continuous thought leadership is key for our partners keeping them up to date on regulations like Ie prop 65, PFSA, REACH complaint, etc. A big area of focus will be keeping our partner up to date with excellent supply chain visibility, total cost of ownership and having a focus on pricing excellence.
Q. What do you see as your top 3 end-user segments over the next 18 months. Why? What should distributors consider to best support these customer segments
Manufacturing, oil and gas, construction, and mining. We are consistently surveying our USA and Canadian partners to ask where they see the most opportunity and what market segments they are focusing on and Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Construction, and Mining are the top 4 segments they are targeting and excelling in right now.
We really try to use our Voice of Customer and Voice of Distributor feedback to help lead our business decisions. We pride ourselves on being glove experts (we only make and sell gloves), and everything in our business begins and ends with what our customers need.
Q. AI, people, consolidation, industrial reshoring / growth, eCommerce, role of salespeople, product innovation … what do you see as the greatest opportunity, and the greatest challenge, to the industry? Why?
- Quality Control can be a challenge in our industry – especially with price pressure and longer lead-times from emerging markets. Reshoring has it’s challenges as well – labor is expensive, materials are expensive. What price are our customers willing to pay? Even with tariffs some product will be cheaper to be manufactured overseas still. Plus, If you are reshoring – you have to have product that is differentiated.
- Ai – is an opportunity we see – what we say at Watson is “grow for free” through using Ai. Companies need to simplify to scale through consolidation (focus on the core) as well as streamlines processes and procedures to find efficiencies through Ai.
- Supply chain: Especially now with not knowing what way tariffs are going – you have to be nimble
.We are thankful that we can diversify our supply chain quickly – but have also been working on this for last 5 years as Canadian based company. - Being strategic and forward thinking is a must but also the ability to be agile and be quick on your toes to pivot or adjust strategy is going to be imperative. Problem solving is a must have skill for business leaders.
- Challenge to industry – The tariff “hangover” for the next little while – residual effects from the missed sales or low margins companies have had to overcome. We saw it happen with retail markets and industrial markets after covid, and it will be interesting to see what happens after these tariff fluctuations. Because of tariffs manufacturers are moving to more favorable countries – but most are emerging markets that lack a skilled workforce.
Q. What one question would you like every distributor to answer for you?
What is your end user strategic customer focus is so we can align goals better and share data that matters to you. Because if they aren’t sharing what they are going after and what their priorities are, that is where we can waste time together.
One other key tidbit that I took away from the interview that was notable is that Watson Gloves opening up their first USA branch in Mesa, Arizona. Which will help serve their USA customers, and may help with any future tariff and regulatory issues.
Key Takeaways for Industrial Channel Leaders
I was struck by two key takeaways from the interview and presentation to the Watson Gloves team –
- Focus – They make and sell gloves, and only gloves, for now 107 years… and they are manically passionate about that singular category. They eat, sleep, and drink – Gloves and Hand Protection.
- Voice of End Customer (VOC) Voice of Distributor (VOD) and Voice of Associate (VOA) research and surveys – These are a foundational element of the Watson Gloves business and strategy. e.g. New Product and Innovation development starts with their end customer research. VOD research on what do our distributors partners want and need from us to grow, etc. In our session, we shared our CMG and Industrial Supply Trends market research and ongoing surveys we do in the channel, and compared our results to their ongoing research and feedback. We also surveyed for them what the Watson Gloves team thinks about why their customers buy and what they think is important their customers. This 360 survey approach helps them identify potential gaps (in messaging, selling, and support) to be able to meet their customer’s needs.
If the market conditions change (and they always do) or their distributors’ needs change, with a relentless focus on consistent surveys and direct customer feedback Watson Gloves is positioning itself to pivot to where its customers need them to go.
That 360-degree foundation of research is something that I would recommend every Industrial Channel Leader (Distributor, Manufacturer, and Manufacturer Rep) makes part of their organized business planning and process.
P.S. On a fun editor’s note: Canadians love to put the letter “U” in places that American editors like myself can’t understand… in words like “Labour and Favourable”…so I edited it out the U’s to the versions my high school English teacher in Northern Wisconsin taught me was correct.
As always, we appreciate the comments and support. jgunderson@channelmkt.com
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