“I've worn vests for literally the last 20 years. It's just kind of my thing. The ORORO brand in particular, the whole concept of a heated vest was intriguing to me and I was able to wear it for one of the lessons.”
Matt Stelter has been building his small business of better dog breeding up over the last few years. He’s been fascinated by the conservation of animals of certain breeds since he was a kid, which evolved into a passion to do it as a small business and help others like him.
“I started Better Breeder Institute, a startup company focused on support and education of conservationist purebred dog breeders. My entire life I've raised collies. I've been a professional handler, as well. The whole company was designed to support them, providing a need. I mean really providing support for things that just don't exist today. Which is why I decided to create several digital classes, which obviously after COVID, became a very popular way to provide education and knowledge sharing.”
Like all start-ups, the Institute is still in its grassroots phase, offering online classes (where his vests come into play as part of his brand) and getting the word out in the breeder community.
A big part of Matt’s brand is wearing vests for his videos and he started incorporating ORORO heated vests into his rotation of vests for his online lessons. “I want to be authentic to who I am and I'm going to wear a vest. I'm a marketing person by profession and it's a really neat opportunity to actually represent certain companies with quality clothing. I started expanding my research into different vest manufacturers that I was aware of that I either owned or had seen and identified a couple of them that were of interest to me, reached out to them and heard back.”
With ORORO’s vests in particular, he was always an outdoors enthusiast, so heated apparel appealed to him. “I'm originally from Northern Wisconsin. I do a lot of things in cold weather. So the concept of a heated vest was intriguing and I was able to wear it for one of my lessons. Since then, I think I've worn it hunting. I've worn it to snowmobile races. I wore it to a Green Bay Packer game.” (ORORO is the Official Heated Apparel of the Green Bay Packers!)
Matt has had a love for the Collie breed that started with his family. “My mother had one in Southern Ontario, as a child in the late forties, and set out to make money. At age 12, I bought my first collie and basically started a lifelong path in the collie breed. I met my wife, she's originally from southern California through collies. I mean to this day, collies are a part of our everyday life. Whether it's breeding, showing, grooming, or doing a lot of thought leadership, and writing articles. We're very involved in the pure breed collie world.”
This love for Collies led him to his start-up business he works hard on every day. Matt’s very passionate about the ethical breeding community he works with. “The puppies that we place, we are very careful in our evaluation of potential homes. They only go into homes where we understand the family completely and their financial stability and ability to provide good quality care, veterinary care.The last thing we're looking to do is make a profit on our puppies. We aren't even having a litter unless we're looking for something in that litter to move our breeding program forward or to move the breed forward.”
The Better Breeder Institute is part of that overall vision and helping other breeders be educated in the work they’re doing. “We're breeding for a higher purpose. The true purpose of the Better Breeder Institute is supporting all of these highly-accomplished, highly-skilled, devoted, expert breeders. Though, a lot of them aren’t business-savvy people. They need help marketing and promoting themselves and using the appropriate tech.”
Matt’s Institute was created to provide that support for those breeders. Educating them in how they can tell a better story, how they can more accurately explain who they are, what they do and “help them differentiate themselves from the backyard for profit and commercial breeders that are simply breeding dogs to sell,” he continued.
As Matt continues to turn his passion into a thriving business, he builds his brand recognition through consistency in his approach and style, which includes the ORORO heated vest!
