30 Fun Facts About Jag

Our year-long 30th anniversary celebration continues today, with a look at “30 Fun Facts About Jag.” Enjoy!

1. The name “Jag” comes from founder Jeff’s initials: Jeffrey Alan Gundell. JAG!

2. Jeff’s granddaughter (and Sara’s niece) Jocelynn shares these initials. (Yes, on purpose.)

This is the face of someone not happy that her Auntie Sara made her wear this stupid pink tutu.

3. Many of Jag’s clients & vendors have seen Jeff and Sara perform on stage. The Gundells performed in several family theater productions in the 1990s, including Peter Pan, Annie, Oliver, The Sound of Music, and the whitest version of The Wiz that ever existed.

4. Jeff and Sara dusted off their “performing skills” again for a choreographed father-daughter dance during her wedding in January 2014:

(Yeah, I know, it’s not THAT choreographed. We Gundells are not dancers.)

5. Jag’s longest-standing customer actually predates the company’s existence, and even Sara’s existence. Jeff has been doing business with The Salvation Army for longer than Sara has been alive!

6. T-Jag was purchased for $1 at Walmart while Sara was accompanying her mom on a grocery shopping trip. We didn’t originally plan for him to become a company mascot, but then, you can’t plan greatness. It just happens.

7. Jag’s farthest reaching customers are located roughly 8,400 miles apart; that’s the distance from Miami to Guam. Flight time is about 17 ½ hours.

8. Jeff founded Jag in 1986 — just months after his son, Brian (Sara’s younger brother) was born. Talk about a busy year!

9. Sara’s earliest memories of Jag are riding her bike around pallets of business forms in her dad’s warehouse, alongside her little brother. Jeff set up the pallets so that there was a clear path for them to ride.

10. Jeff and his wife Laurie used to hide all of the kids’ Christmas presents in Jag’s warehouse, and Jeff would sneak them home in his trunk on Christmas Eve every year.

11. One year, when Jeff’s son Brian started doubting, one of Jeff’s employees called Brian and pretended to be Santa, convincing the kid to keep on believing just a little bit longer. Parents of Brian’s classmates were equally pleased when their kids came home from school the next day & shared Brian’s big news!

12. When Sara was in high school, she and some friends started their own X-Files fan club, and convinced Jeff to use Jag vendors to make them custom t-shirts and pens.

13. Sara’s crazy red hair actually started with her X-Files days (Agent Scully, is that you?) despite having since moved on to her current hue, which is more Ariel-inspired.

14. Speaking of school days, Sara and Brian used to beg Mom & Dad to NOT shop for school clothes from Jag’s suppliers. But now that she’s all grown up, those same suppliers are some of Sara’s favorite shopping hot spots for she and her husband. The more things change . . .

15. At least half of Jag’s business is in the nonprofit world.

16. Though Jag once had a physical office, Jeff started working from home when Sara was in high school. He and Sara both now work out of their homes.

17. Sara and her brother used to “shop” for toys in Jeff’s drawers of promotional product samples, which he kept in their garage.

18. Sara now keeps similar bins of samples in her own garage. (For work. It’s totally for work.)

19. Both Jag’s current logo and our 30th anniversary logo were created by Jeff’s son & Sara’s brother, Brian. He is a graphic designer by trade, with a specialty in sports design.

20. While the kids were growing up, Jeff sometimes used business meetings in Southern California as the perfect excuse to squeeze in a trip to Disneyland. In early 2001, he tacked on a family trip to Disney World to an industry trade conference he was part of in Orlando:

21. Jag has customers in 32 states and U.S. territories (including Washington, D.C.)

22. Socks! When Jeff moved his office home (1999), Sara & Brian would check to see if he was wearing socks in the morning. That’s how they knew Dad was going out to see people that day.

23. Socks, part 2. Jeff’s collection of “crazy” socks has replaced his collection of crazy ties. But unless it’s below 40 degrees, he still only wears them when he has meetings. These are some of his socks (just some):

(And yes, that IS a pair of Star Trek socks with Mr. Spock ears!)

24. Jeff has two pairs of socks with dinosaurs on them in tribute to T-Jag. (Both are shown in the photo above.)

25. Jag was a finalist in the Excellence in Family Business Awards in 2014, after being nominated by a staff member at the Portland Business Alliance.

26. One of Jag’s vendors earned the nickname “Uncle Larry” after he brought a package of diapers to a meeting soon after granddaughter/niece Jocelynn was born.

27. On the flip side, some of Jag’s vendors still remember Sara when she was a little girl, having worked with Jeff for so many years!

28. Despite our company name, no one in the Gundell family has ever owned or driven a Jaguar.

29. Jeff actually flunked 7th grade print shop. It’s a good thing he’s a distributor, not the actual printer! (Although something tells us he probably wouldn’t flunk that class now …) Hmm. What if he had flunked chemistry?

30. For Jag’s 20th anniversary, Jeff gifted clients, vendors, and friends with custom labeled bottles of wine. For Jag’s 30th, we’ve created gifts themed around beer! (Thirsty for 40 and 50?)