But this post is about the rather strange encounter we had there. First let me bring you back a year.

On February 1st of 2009, I was out enjoying a rather memorable Superbowl XLIII where my Pittsburgh Steelers picked up their 6th Superbowl ring. Much eating, drinking, and general merriment was had by all.

As per usual, I had booked the Monday off, as did my friend Ed. At around lunch time when we were finally able to stand vertically, we decided a pigout was in order, so we made our way to the local Mandarin buffet, with a plan to hit the couch after to watch a movie.

During what must have been the 2nd or 3rd plate, Ed got my attention. Please bear in mind that this was a Monday afternoon, so the restaurant wasn’t very busy. I turn around to see a slightly overweight grown man (in his 50’s), dressed in a bright green dress that flared out in an outrageous tutu, a giant green hat, a black purse and black combat boots. The shade of green we are talking about reminds me of a leprechaun.  As a matter of fact looking at the image I found on Google Image Search, the hat was also very similar.

Now this gentleman was by himself, and was absolutely mesmerizing. It was such a ridiculous outfit and situation, everyone in the restaurant was snickering.

Adding to the intregue, he was completely serious, never cracking a smile, and completely engulfed in his food. It was this seriousness in his demeanor that made us doubt the only reason he was in this outfit was that he had placed a wager on the Arizona Cardinals, and was serving out his punishment.

Although I’ve only told this story to a few select people, I would have told MANY more had I had a camera on me at the time to accompany this story. It was a story that only Ed and I could truly relish.

Now, almost a full year later, I find myself working our booth at the bridal show. Beside us we have a great lady named Deniz, a true entrepreneur, and owner of Designs by Deniz.

During a time in the show where traffic was light, Deniz called me over rather hurriedly. Upon rounding the corner, my jaw dropped as I set my eyes on the very same gentleman making his way around the show.  The exact same guy, in nearly the exact same outfit, 58.3 kilometers away from his original sighting. The only variance I could find was that he was wearing some black ballet slippers.

I will apologize for the poor image quality, I was trying to be somewhat discreet, and was using my iPhone. You can only imagine what creative words Ed used when I sent him a text with those images.

I don’t think there’s really much I can add to this posting, please feel free to comment if you’ve encountered him!

To prove that a picture is worth a thousand words, I present you the man in the green dress:

Nick pack!

Hopside down

As I was going to take my own advice (for once) and prepare to chill for tonight’s game with a cold beer, I wanted to post a review on one of the products we feature at King’s Crate called the “Hopside Down“. We have this awesome beer glass in our Oh Canada! crate, and it really is the centrepiece to the gift.

One thing to note immediately is that this glass is hand-blown, and sort of confuses the eye for a moment. People aren’t sure what to make of it at first. It fits a 350mL bottle of beer perfectly, so a beer can won’t fit.

One thing I didn’t expect was how cool it keeps your beer. Because the beer sits in the internal “funnel”, your hand is never directly palming the beer! Really cool!

Well, ends up I’ve had to open a beer about 3 hours before gametime, but it was all in the name of SCIENCE!!

• Gift baskets have, almost entirely, been geared towards the female population, often filled with chocolates, soaps, and potpourri (not overly proud that I know that word).
• While a large majority of men would GLADLY receive a bottle of their favorite liquor or even a case of beer, perception is that it would be cheesy to give just that.
• My business partner, being in the construction industry, found it very difficult to purchase quality items to show appreciation to his suppliers, vendors and contractors.
• Finally, and maybe most importantly, the phrase “Guys are so difficult to buy for!”

It was out of these ideas that King’s Crate was formulated. Since our inception, we’ve been happily busy filling orders for mostly friends and family for the holiday season. A couple of key corporate gifts (a market we’re eagerly trying to penetrate for 2010) have shown that the idea of luxury gift crates for men in a reusable handmade crate is a real, viable gift option.

We were also fortunate enough to have an article written about our high end crate The Havana in Luxist online magazine. This has created quite a buzz for our company and its products.

Feedback of the received gifts is slowly coming in, and will help to fuel the direction of our business in the upcoming months.

All this said, outside of the obvious holiday season, our goal is to provide quality gift ideas and reviews to gift givers year round.

To further reach that goal, I’ve picked up a great book by David Meerman Scott called The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. Before reading the book, I was somewhat hesitant to create a blog, but the potential to reach buyers who are looking for ideas – and perhaps what we are selling – became pretty obvious right away. While I’m personally familiar with social networking sites like Facebook (our Facebook page is here), this book is opening my eyes to other potential opportunities.

We look forward to opening discussions and maybe even debates with readers of this blog. Our purpose at this blog will be to highlight gift ideas that men will appreciate, and hopefully help consumers make informed decisions for their purchases.