Bill Jordan (outdoorsman)

Bill Jordan is the creator of the Realtree and Advantage brands of camouflage. He is also the host of the "Monster Bucks" video series and the "Realtree Outdoors" television show.

Biography

Jordan grew up in a rural home outside of Columbus, Georgia where he was the youngest of three other siblingsclarifyme|he had three other siblings, or he is the youngest of three siblings?. Jordan's father, Leon, owned a boat dealership close to Lake Oliver. The lake provided plenty of fishing for Jordan, and his father also owned a farm where the two would hunt. This is where Jordan's love and passion for the outdoors came from. Jordan's mother remembers when he used to go out fishing before the sun came up and would quit just in time to make it to school.

Jordan went to Columbus High School where he was a star athlete in track, basketball, and football. In fact he received a scholarship from the University of Mississippi for football. Ole Miss appealed to him the most because good hunting and fishing was a short drive away. Jordan graduated college in 1973, but injuries kept him from going into the NFL. So he decided to return to Columbus to work at the family boat business. Being in the boat business made it easy for him to get into fishing tournaments. Jordan did quite well in local tournaments gaining him a reputation as a top bass angler. Then in 1983 he decided to start a business of his own, Spartan Archery Products. Although now a business owner, he continued to fish tournaments to earn enough money to pay his employees.

Jordan first got his feet wet in the hunting industry in 1983 when he started Spartan Archery Products in a room at his dad's boat dealership in Columbus, Georgia. He was not making much revenue and had to fish in tournaments to keep his single-employee company running.

Camouflage business

In 1986 Jordan decided to try to design his own camouflage patterns, and did so by trying to mock the bark from a giant oak tree in his parent's front lawn. His breakthrough came at a SHOT show where his new camouflage patterns were recognized by well-renowned figures in the hunting industry. They all wanted to know if he could send them a shipment of his products but Jordan had no money or real licensing agreement. The men from these well-renowned hunting companies and Jordan sat in his booth for hours trying to figure out how to begin producing his camouflage patterns. Finally they worked out an agreement with Walls and Jordan's textile industry that he used. Jordan changed the name of his company, signed an agreement, and Realtree was born.

Although this was a step forward, Jordan realized that the companies using his camouflage pattern were only promoting their garments and not his camouflage pattern so he put every effort and every last penny into promoting Realtree. Jordan's vision in promoting his company paid off and over the years Realtree has grown to be one of the most highly recognized and successful companies in the hunting industry today.

External links

* [http://www.realtree.com/about/billJordan.php Realtree page about Bill Jordan]
* [http://www.advantagecamo.com/history/index.php AdvantageCamo page about Bill Jordan]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tv/news/story?page=g_tv_desc_realtree ESPN page on Realtree Outdoors show]