Midwest to the Big Apple

Mundi Westport is a leading distributor and manufacturer of mens and women accessories and has been around since the late 1960's. Mundi collaborates with brands to produce belts, wallets, handbags, totes, personal leather goods and electronic device cases. These brands include:
-Timberland
-Steve Madden
-J.fold
-Andrew Marc
-Greg Norman
-Kenneth Cole
-Kooba 
-Sportsman
-Stella & Max 
-Jessica McClintock

Watch this video to learn more about Mundi Westport Group

Joshua Hall

Joshua Hall is the Vice President of sales in the men's division at Mundi Westport Corporation. Hall went to the University of Michigan and graduated in 2002. A friend from college who was a few years older than him invited him out to dinner and informed him of a job as a business analyst at Target. After graduation, he got the job at Target and worked there for a few years. At target he was more working with mostly numbers and realized he wanted something more. He set a goal to work in NY because of all the different opportunities there are in the big apple. At Target he made a lot of relationships with different vendors. This helped him with having connections to different business opportunities in NY. Eventually, Josh moved to NY and worked for companies such as Randa Accessories, Max Leather Accessories, Foundry Accessories and eventually winded up at Mundi Accessories where he has now worked for 5 years. 

At Mundi, Hall is responsible for working with other brands on producing products and helping the product get into the stores. When he worked for Target he would travel 2-4 times a year, mostly to Las Vegas where they have a lot of trade shows. Now at Mundi, he travels to companies they work with that aren't based out of NYC. Such as Seattle, where Nordstrom's headquarters are. 

He explained to us how brick and mortar stores are struggling because of the shift of consumers using online shopping instead. Hall would love to see brick and mortar stores succeed online and in stores but that's not the reality of both happening together. He has seen brick and mortar stores using stores in more of a non-traditional way which he thinks may succeed. For instance, there have been stores that you can go into and try things on and the items you want to keep, you have to order them through the store and can't physically take home with you. An issue that Mundi runs into with online shopping is sizing. This is because, besides belts, men's accessory products don't do sizing, which makes it more difficult for the consumer to want to purchase online.

Overall, meeting someone from the midwest who became a successful businessmen in New York was a very inspiring and knowledgable experience. Joshua's experience in retail really showed how making connections with people can really go a long way and can really help you get to where you want to be in your career. I personally enjoyed hearing what he had to say about brick and mortar stores and how stores are starting to change the way they sell in stores in order to adjust to the popularity of online shopping.