Teaser: Bill Tung on the Global Sales Mentor Podcast

4 Jul 2021 · 2 min

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1:42

In this teaser for the Global Sales Mentor Podcast, host Zach Selch interviews Bill Tung, who recounts his 13‑year tenure at Columbia Sportswear and the company’s partnership to open a flagship store in Dubai Mall. Despite Dubai’s hot climate, the store was stocked with Columbia’s heritage cold‑weather outdoor gear, displayed on mannequins to showcase the brand’s extreme‑cold identity. Because Columbia was the only retailer in the city offering genuine winter apparel, the limited stock sold quickly, especially to residents traveling to colder destinations like London. Tung highlights the irony of selling ski jackets in a desert market, the role of Dubai’s indoor ski facilities, and how customers often over‑compensate by buying heavy coats before flights. The conversation is light‑hearted and illustrates the challenges and humor of marketing cold‑weather products in a warm, luxury‑shopping environment.

You must have some pretty funny stories about, you know, talking to people about a sport that they're not really interested in. And they're, you know, I imagine that happened to you quite a bit at one point or another.
Yes. You know, certainly, you know, I spent 13 years at Columbia Sportswear. And, you know, we started a partnership with a company in Dubai. And so you're wondering, what on earth are you selling outdoor cold winter weather They have that indoor ski place, right? They do. You're absolutely right. And, you know, they have fabulous retail there. I mean, some of the most beautiful shopping malls in the world. And, you know, and the world shops in Dubai, of course. So, it's really, it's become a real crossroads there. But, yeah, no, it's interesting. When our partner opened the first Columbia Sportswear store in Dubai, it was in Dubai Mall. You know, they were expecting to sell a lot of sportswear, you know, fishing shirts, you know, not winter ski jackets. But it was interesting. interesting. They had decorated the store. They had set up the store with the mannequins to, you know, to show the heritage of the brand as extreme cold weather outdoor. And, you know, those particular products were actually sold off the mannequins because they really didn't have many in stock because they were the only ones in town that were selling cold winter weather apparel. Right. And, you know, if you're living in Dubai and you need to go to London in October, it's really cold for those folks. So, They tend to overcompensate. So, uh, yeah, that was, that was a bit funny because they rang up for more.
It's no fun to land and have to run to a store. So being able to get on the plane with a coat ready is, is a good idea sometimes. So