The Things Worth Passing Down

By Sara Dover, Director of Marketing, LEER

 

Sometimes the best ideas don't start in a conference room. This one started because I got a little irritated. 

A competitor launched a campaign with the line, “This ain't Grandpa's truck cap.” It was clearly meant to position their brand as newer, cooler, or somehow more relevant than ours. Maybe I took it personally because I'm the Director of Marketing at LEER. Or maybe I took it personally because it felt like more than a jab at a truck cap. It felt like a jab at Grandpa. And that didn't sit very well with me.

 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I wasn't thinking about marketing anymore. I was thinking about the people in my own life. My grandpa. My father-in-law. Even my grandma—who, trust me, was one of the toughest people I've ever known. These weren't perfect people, but they shared something that seems harder to find today. They believed your word meant something. They believed in working hard, standing behind what you built, and taking pride in doing a job the right way. Several of them served our country. All of them served their families. I can still picture my grandpa's garage. Everything had its place. His cars stayed clean long after they were new because he believed that if you took care of something, it would take care of you. As a kid, I loved pushing every button I could find, especially the lock button on the car door. Every time I did, Grandpa would smile and say, "There's only so many clicks to the button, Sara."

At the time, I thought he was talking about the button. Years later I realized he was teaching me to be intentional—to respect the things I had and understand that quality lasts longer when it's cared for. 

My grandma taught lessons too, my favorite came from the kitchen. She was an incredible cook, but whenever one of us wrinkled our nose at something she’d put on our plate, Grandpa was the one who convinced us to give everything a chance. He'd grin and say, "Just try one bite. That's all. And if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat anymore."

Looking back, it wasn't really about dinner. It was about keeping an open mind and being willing to try something before deciding it wasn't for me. It's a lesson that's stayed with me throughout my career. Try the idea. Listen to another perspective. Don't dismiss something before you've given it a fair chance. 

Looking back, those conversations around the dinner table and in Grandpa's garage probably shaped me more than I realized.

That's when I started asking myself a different question. What if "Grandpa's truck cap" isn't an insult? What if it's exactly the kind of product we should aspire to build—not because it's old, but because it reflects the values of the people who inspired it?

When I think about the products we build at LEER, I don't think about nostalgia. I think about responsibility. I think about earning someone's trust every time they choose our brand. I think about building products that work the way they're supposed to work, year after year, because that's what the people who taught us these values would expect.

Our trucks have changed dramatically over the years, and thankfully our products have evolved right alongside them. Innovation has always been part of LEER's story. But innovation doesn't require us to leave our values behind. If anything, it challenges us to live up to them.

Maybe the best products are the ones Grandpa would have appreciated—not because they remind him of the past, but because he'd recognize the care, craftsmanship, and integrity that went into building them. My grandparents have all passed away, and today my parents have become the grandparents in our family. It reminds me that every generation has the chance to pass something meaningful on.

No matter who taught you your values, I hope they'd be proud of the way you're carrying them forward. I'd like to believe my Grandma and Grandpa are proud of me. And I'd like to think they'd recognize those same values in the way we're building our brand. Either way, I'm grateful they taught them to me first.

 

Watch Our Heritage Film 
See how the values that shaped LEER continue to inspire everything we build today.

 

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