First Time Founders: This Former Trader Built A Luxury Clothing Brand

Welcome to First Time Founders. I'm Ed Elson. Twelve years ago, my next guest was a Wall Street trader with a problem, and it had nothing to do with markets. His problem was that his coat either kept him warm and looked terrible, or they looked nice, but they left him freezing. So he left finance behind to create coats that deliver style and performance in the cold. Fast forward to today, and those coats have become a staple in the business world. They are known as the coat to wear to Davos. They're sold in high end retailers like Saks and Bloomingdale's, and you might even recognize them from Succession, where they were one of the few brands to get a name drop on the show. Over time, these coats have gone. It's something of a cult following the quiet luxury world, and they're becoming big in the world of finance. This is my conversation with Michael Berkowitz, founder and CEO of Norwegian Wall. Michael Berkowitz, thank you for joining me on First Time Founders. It's a pleasure. So, I wanna go back to the beginning of Norwegian Wall starting this company. You were working on Wall Street. Is that right? That's right. Yeah. Tell us the story of how it all began. Sure. So, basically, I was a commodities trader, and I was actually one of the youngest guys in the firm. So I was probably extra concerned about how I was perceived. You know, I they I'd, we'll say I I don't know. Pull some strings, but, I had to work extra hard to get into that position. And, you know, I really always want to do a good job. And if I were to be walking into a room and making a presentation for something, I knew I was going to be scrutinized extra closely. Yep. And the way I dressed was, was a part of that. I I I've discussed this, a bunch of times that, you know, a lot of who you are, you're not in control of your height, certain aspects of how you look, but your clothing, you are in control of. And I always felt that I should dress in a way that would make people respect me and and take what I say seriously. And what happened was I would come in from outside of the city into Midtown Manhattan, and, my nice coats weren't warm and my warm coats weren't nice. So that that was the problem that I had that I always felt that, you know, in the in the workforce, I I wasn't putting on my best by the way I was dressed when it came to fall and winter. I was, like, coming to meetings and trying to quickly hide my coat behind my back so people wouldn't see me or check it in before we would get into a restaurant or something like that. And, so the the cock start to turn. Maybe maybe, you …