This is where you’re probably expecting to read some deeply emotional and inspiring origin story.
“The founders remortgaged their house, sold all their earthly possessions and started the business with the last 50 pence in their bank account…”
“Portman Brockwell was founded in the 1930’s in the depths of the Great Depression, in a damp basement with no windows and a significant rodent problem …”
“Overcoming adversity and all the people who said it couldn’t be done, the founders threw off the shackles of society and dared to dream a dream about one day selling guitar pedals online…”
The best back story I’ve read so far is for the Walrus Audio Messner pedal. Apparently, it was inspired by Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb Mount Everest without extra oxygen.
Fair play to Reinhold. My most herculean achievement today is to climb out of bed and I’m slightly annoyed I wasn’t applauded for it by my wife. It does make for an awesome graphic on the front of the pedal, however.
The truth is, there’s not really much of an origin story. It’s more about the ‘why’ than the ‘how’.
The ‘how’ Portman Brockwell came to be about is fairly standard. There was a bloke, his name was Mike. He had been playing guitar – very badly – for about 20 years. This includes the usual period of about 10 years where most people put their guitar down and feel continual guilt.
He figured that it must be hard for the tiny boutique pedal creators to compete with the major manufacturers who have sales, distribution and publicity sewn up.
Ok, there is a bit of an origin story.
One afternoon, around 2007 or 2008, I was chatting (I’ll drop the third-person narrative) with the staff in Rockers guitar shop on Denmark Street, London. I was told that one of the biggest guitar brands had demanded that a neighbouring store commit to buying £250,000 stock per quarter and give over a huge chunk of their shop floor, if they wanted to stock them.
If the store agreed to this they’d have to put all for focus on selling this manufacturer’s stock to get their money back.
The major manufacturer was effectively shutting out their competitors by making sure the store could only afford their products, and would work to sell their products first. They were blocking their competitors from being sold in the shop.
(You know the brand. You’re probably thinking of two massive guitar brands now. Yes, it’s one of them.)
What chance did the boutique creators have when competing against firms such as this?
The world of guitar pedals may not be as savage as guitars, but it shows what the boutique creators can be up against. This is the ‘why’; why Portman Brockwell was set up.
Boutique pedal creators are often just one or two people. They have no marketing budget, no slick sales machine. They sometimes struggle to get noticed.
Yet their pedals are awesome. They’re some of the most inventive, innovative and imaginative pedals out there. These people are tone perverts and more power to them.
Portman Brockwell will work to promote and showcase the boutiques. We’ll help them get noticed. We’ll promise to promote the boutiques over the majors.
We’ll also help you find the hidden gems, the boutiques; the best pedals on the market.
Mike