nwasianweekly.com
Oct. 7, 2006

Irene Reyes was a struggling single mom who was looking for a second job when she stumbled into the glove business.

By Lee Bedard
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

Most people do not think much about gloves. Except for that moment in the fall when it’s time to dig out those trusted old leather ones or woolies, gloves are rarely on anyone’s mind.

Unless you are Irene Reyes, also known as “The Glove Lady.”

Her business, Excel Supply Corporation, sold $2.25 million in gloves and other safety supplies — more than 25,000 different products — last year. Her clients range from Boeing to the states of Washington and Oregon. She now employs 11 people.

The move into the glove business was something Reyes stumbled into. She had been a struggling single mother in search of a second job.

But her new career was not an accident.

“I believe there is always a reason things happen,” she says.

That first search took her to a trade fair, where she approached a glove vendor for a job. He did not need an employee. She walked around for a time and went back to the man.

“Get me some samples and let me be another rep. Like you,” she suggested.
She soon sold a box of gloves. The next day, she sold another. A few days later, she sold 40 boxes in one day. Right then, she decided to set up a business.

Excel Supply was born with a small office in northeast Tacoma, some furniture bought on Reyes’ Sears credit card and $1,200 in samples from funds scraped together.

Reyes is an active supporter of programs that help minority and women entrepreneurs, because she has benefited from many of them.

At first she did not know she could qualify as a state-certified WMBE — Women and Minority Business Enterprise. She learned how fortunate she was from another of those lucky “accidents.”
“I was lost up near Harborview Medical Center one day. I needed to get somewhere, and I stopped in at Medic One,” she recalled.

Medic One is the Seattle Fire Department’s medic unit, which has a location near the entrance to Harborview. After getting directions, she got some advice from the man who helped her.

“‘Become a certified WMBE’ and you can sell to the fire department,” he told her.

He led her to someone who helped her learn about the program, and eventually she became a vendor to the City of Seattle.

Her biggest client is the University of Washington.

Even that handle, “The Glove Lady,” came by one of those strange “accidents.”

“When I started out, the O.J. Simpson case was all over the TV. ‘The glove’ was on everyone’s lips. The guys at one place I visited had taken to saying, ‘Here comes the glove lady,’” Reyes said.

Former Seattle Supersonic Gary Payton, aka “The Glove,” was also a local celebrity at the time. It all seemed to come together.

She decided that if “The Glove Lady” was how people knew her, she would call herself The Glove Lady.

Reyes believes she has underutilized potential in her catchy name, and one of her business goals is to make better use of The Globe Lady as a brand name.

With her children now grown, Reyes is long past having to scramble for money. She loves being in business and donates her time to promote some of those same programs that she learned about as sources for both customers and capital.

She recently appeared on a TVW cable program promoting the state’s Women and Minority Business Enterprise program, in effect doing what that Seattle firefighter did for her.

For more information, visit www.excelsupplystore.com.

Lee Bedard can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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