Painted Pony Vintage

Painted Pony Vintage is a small independently owned company that originated in the heartland of America, the midwest, and even more specifically Wisconsin. It is ran and owned by Thomas Borges, or more casually known as Tom. I took it upon myself to figure out what was going on with this successful little company. I found out that things have been shaken up quite a bit for Thomas and his business — in relation to whats going on in the world. He said that he is has seen a decrease in sales and overall business productivity. I wanted to figure what his main issues were — there was one that was more apparent to the current situation and another that may exist long after COVID clears up. The first problem is that Thomas is having a hard time finding clothes and knick knacks for his business, and the second problem is that the articles he does find are downright stinky. Neither of those issues surprised me, but I was willing to help.

First and foremost I wanted to address Thomas’s business and try to promote is as much as possible. With that being said, I am writing this blog post, posting this to facebook, promoting on instagram, telling my friends about the business, telling my friends to tell their friends about the business, and even making a promotional video that will be uploaded to youtube. But, I wanted to get his good name out there first and use some theories based on economic context and rhetoric to understand what could help Thomas. I wanted to discuss the theories of Lanham, Zelizer, Bourdieu, Brandt, Gregg and do a rhetorical analysis and examine the occasions of the context.

Lanham is theorist who addresses the attention economy and this little business does indeed work its way into the economy; and the attention economy at that as well. The stuff that Thomas is dealing with is all of his merchandise; his clothing, collectibles, and knick knacks that he finds. That transcends into the fluff. The items Thomas are purchasing are items that the broad majority of people have turned their backs on. They are old items that they part ways with and give away. Then Thomas comes in, he does the dirty work of finding these old pieces and turning them into profit. Therefore, in this attention economy, people who are turning a blind eye to these items and not giving them attention only give people like Thomas a nice paycheck.

Another rhetorician I want to examine is Zelizer. Zelizer likes to examine the rhetoric of not only the situation, but the people at play in the rhetorical situation. With that being said, I will be taking a look into the rhetorical situation that is, “Tom and Painted Pony Vintage”. Thomas is a laid back dude that at the same time likes getting stuff done. I cant imagine what being locked up in quarantine is doing to him. Back to the rhetorical situation — Thomas isn’t trying to be persuasive or push any boundaries. He is trying to be genuine and give the people what they want. If any questions that were raised interpreting this situation some may include, “What effects do weekends of constant picking and scavenging have on your life?”, or the opposite now, “What effects of days of constantly being at home have on your business and your life?” The rhetorical situation is unique not only due to what type of person Thomas is, but the fact that he is not trying to push anyone’s buttons and rather button you up into some vintage clothing.

Bourdieu identifies different types of capital pertaining to economics and rhetoric. These three forms are Social, Cultural, and Economic Capital. In that order, I’ll go down the list of identifying the forms of capital Thomas has. To start, I would say Thomas has a lot of social capital, or in other words, he has a lot of connections. Ranging from the north east coast, all the way to sunny Los Angeles. He has made road trips across the country several times meeting with different people in the same field as him all while promoting his own brand. With his charismatic demeanor it is safe to say that Thomas has secured a lot of social capital. Onward in addressing his cultural capital. Thomas is a unique individual with a unique company. He is not located anywhere, meaning he doesn’t have his own shop or franchise that he runs, but simply a more personable business owner. He does have a space in Wisconsin that he rents out with some of his clothing and knick knacks, but thats about it. (https://www.instagram.com/localsonly_collective). Naturally he uses a website to list his items (https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintedPonyVntg). He does all of his own promotions and mails the items he sells himself. All of those speak on behalf of his cultural capital, that tells you what type of person he is. A person that is independently working hard to succeed at his craft. Furthermore, the culture revolving his business is that of what you may call, “vintage” or in layman’s terms, old. To conclude, the economic capital Thomas has is the very fact that at the end of the day, he is running a business. He is doing the work of finding items that people turn a blind-eye to and making them more accessible for people.

Deborah Brandt’s work revolves around the knowledge that goes into the economy. She addresses the notions of growing a knowledge-based economy and how writing is at the heart of that economy. Knowledge is a pivotal tool for successfully selling and marketing items. Brandt describes knowledge being the wealth obtained from this sort of economy. Now, tying this to Thomas. Thomas is very knowledgable about the products he is selling. He only buys stuff that he knows meets his criteria. Once he has selected items that he knows fit what he’s looking for, even more knowledge go into them. Thomas finds the history of the items and even finds images from where they have been in history. By exploring these realms of understanding his purchases, Thomas is gaining a sense of knowledgable wealth. This wealth allows him to understand what his product is. This entity of knowledge-based wealth transcends into actual wealth by Thomas being able to effectively sell his products.

In response to Melissa Gregg and diving into the workplace, Thomas’s workplace is very interesting. Traditionally, Gregg argues that the workplace has lost its authenticity, particularly speaking about an office job. Thomas’s job is far from an office job. He is out and about, and isn’t confined to the restraints of an employer nor the code of the office. She also does talk about the management of emotions within the work place. I can only imagine the emotions going through Thomas’s mind trying to run a business with what is going on right now. He said it is tough, but he is coping by going on with his day-to-day tasks. On top of that, Gregg argues that people are different at home versus work. That is not the case for Thomas, he stays grounded in reality while working and once he arrives home. He is a genuine person who takes traits from his own life and incorporating them into his own business.

With all of that being assessed, we have learned about Thomas and Painted Pony Vintage. We have a more thorough understanding of what he goes through and how he operates. To address the problems, I have two plans: 1) For those of you at home reading this, go through your old items that you don’t need anymore and put them aside for the one and only Painted Pony Vintage 2) In addressing the reoccurring stench of clothing Thomas’s runs into, we simply make his clothes smell more at home, by giving them a ‘homey’ feeling; that feeling being a sense of feeling warm and safe, and what better way than to reminiscing to the times you spent at Grandma’s house as a child, eating nice warm bowls of soup. — The plan: make Thomas’s smelly clothing more at home by washing and dunking them in Chicken Broth. I went this route because it is so outrageous, and it would create a lot of publicity and promotion for Thomas. There is an entire video dedicated to our process of getting to know Thomas, addressing his problems, and creating a business plan to fix his problems. With that being said, you can help in a variety of ways! You can do the first step by setting aside your clothing and old knick knacks you don’t want anymore, you could purchase your very own chicken-dunked clothing, and or visit his social media page and give him a follow or a few likes, and last but not least, by simply spreading the word of Thomas and Painted Pony Vintage.