Chief Brand Curator

Steve Elton tells the story of Brown Jordan

BY WAYNETTE GOODSON

Back in 1990, before any sleek marketing executives had uttered the words “brand ambassador,” Steve Elton became one. He knew a good story when he heard one, and he began telling the world about Brown Jordan, a brand that he unabashedly believes in nearly three decades later. “I’m 63 years old, and when I’m talking with you about Brown Jordan, I’m getting goose bumps,” Elton reveals. “That’s how it still affects me to this day.” Having just received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Casual Furnishings Association, the self-proclaimed “Mr. Brown Jordan” still has a tale to tell.

How does Brown Jordan connect with the design community?

Brown Jordan is classic elegance, with lines in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, all the way into the 2000s. One of our best-selling collections, Venetian—one of the many that Richard Frinier did for us—came out in 1986. We just put it at the Ritz in Paris. Still to this day it’s relevant because we’ve done more forward-thinking finishes. For the design community, it’s not just about the product. We think we’re a fashion brand, so we’re looking at what’s the new color, what’s the color of the year. We spend hours and talk to major people about what we’re going to introduce as far as color. And we’re fortunate to have the relationship that we have with Sunbrella. It’s about pushing the envelope on what we do, looking at what the next innovation is and what the quality is, and what the experience of Brown Jordan is.

Brown Jordan is arguably the only outdoor furniture with consumer brand-name recognition. How did you help accomplish that?

Back in the ’40s, one of Robert Brown’s first hires was outside the factory: a PR firm in New York. He said, ‘We’re a West Coast brand that sells to the design community, and if we want to build a brand, then we have to make the East Coast want what the West Coast has.’ So we got fortunate with an article that The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker and The New York Times got hold of, and they wrote about how this cool little West Coast company was really design-oriented selling to Hollywood stars and doing salvage material, the Walter Lamb line made from salvaged brass tubing taken from sunken ships in Pearl Harbor. So when I got hired as the rep in 1990, I said, ‘This is a great story.’ And that’s how I’m going to make this market the biggest. I embraced the story of our rich history, our legacy, our design and innovations, and our brand. That’s what I did.

What is it about Brown Jordan—what makes it so different and so special for you?

I was an experiment. I was the first guy coming from retail. I was on a one-year probation. It was like, ‘This guy won’t stop asking, so we’re going to put him in one of the worst territories. He can’t mess it up more than it already is.’ And that’s basically how I got hired. Over the years, I’ve formed lifetime friendships with people I’ve grown up with in this company. And we’ve been through some diffcult times and some great times, and in a weird way I have formed a relationship with the Brown Jordan brand—it’s part of my being. I’m fortunate for the opportunity that Brown Jordan has given me, and I’ve done everything in my time to always put the brand first and to do everything for the brand.

What does earning the ICFA Lifetime Achievement Award mean to you?

I remember sitting as a younger man and seeing the first one awarded, and I was so touched by it. Today I’m overwhelmed by the honor, and I will make sure that I’m a great ambassador to what it means. And I want the industry to understand the gratefulness that I feel and that my relationships are what got me here. And it’s all because of work ethic, passion and believing in something. I believe in Brown Jordan. I believe in our history. I believe in our legacy. I believe in our people. And I’m not done yet. □