This is an ironic statement to me, and I know where it comes from, but I laughed when I read
it. If you had to list the most widely-acclaimed tobacco men in the world, ones who have seen
and done everything at least twice, the Oliva family is in the top three. I read Sam's online "resume'",
and he has not even been in tobacco for more than a hiccup of time. Read the part below the Nub
time in his life, pre-2005. (it's all fairly interesting, really)

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sam-leccia/27/7a7/33a

There is something to be said for a lifetime tobacco family going back 3-4 generations not being able
to see the nub forest for the trees and missing out on something a liquor distributor keys in on by some
kind of doofus accident "Why don't we make the whole cigar be the "good" part", lol, but I thought Adam's
statement was funny after I read his online bio. If you want to get an indication of the Oliva legacy,
read the story of the early US life of Orlando Padron. It's very illuminating.
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BTW, I wish there was a smaller RG in the lineup as well, but there is NO doubt that the bigger sticks sell well (quite a bit better then smaller RG, by all accounts)...I am betting he is introducing these sizes first, then will continue to introduce smaller sizes (Corona PLEASE Sam!) as the line gets to be better known...

~brooks
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I am sure I can't edit my post, so just to be clear again, I have no argument against
Mr. Leccia. I like the way he goes out and rolls his own cigars and you can tell that
with him, he seems to take the love of the business manifested in say, Jon Drew,
but to a much more personal level. I am sure that Drew can roll a cigar, but to take
your act on the road and roll up your cigart, and do it for 3 straight years with very
little break, I DO admire his intensity and apparent love of the business. Maybe a cat
like that DOES need to break loose. I am sure he learned a $hi+load from the Olivas.

I KNOW J. Drew has been on long tours, but to ME, these were cocktail parties for him.
I was surprised to see that Leccia mostly sat down and rolled while he did HIS talking.
These two major upstarts DO seem to represent a new era of cigars and cigar marketing.
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Brad,

:-)
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I think it's cool he responded to the buzz. Good or bad. I hear nothing but good things about the guy being "down to earth"....... but luxury cars, private jets and designer clothes? Come back down, Sam. You've already got a huge following. I'd hate to see you lose some fans.

I heard the photo shoot was all impromptu and last minute, but it still came off as a little self-indulgent to me.

I, for one, will be trying The Debut when it's released. I'm not gonna pre-order any, though. I'll wait till they're in the B&Ms or on one of the catalog sites. I like the figurado size. Sounds good.
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Hehe, NO YOU are :-)....

For what it's worth, I think he figured...OK, everything about nub and cain PR was over the top,
if I am going to break out, I am going to have to take it to the next uhhh....place.
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:-)
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Why don't you try it.........:-) hehehe


there has to be a better smilie for this situation.
I wanted to use the red guy, but he's not a DEVIL, he's "angry"
We need a devilish devil.
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I Like my pic of him better, personally :-)
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It'll be interesting to see how someone stands on their own when they think they're bigger than Oliva. He seemed to forget about everyone else in the hobby as it become more and more about him. It seems Oliva made it clear that Nub/Cain/Sam weren't bigger than they were and now has to start all over for something he spent the past 3 years of his life building.
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I have met and talked with Sam a few times, i found him to be a stand up guy... He never tried to sell me anything or talk me into any cigars, simply handed me a few cigars and said thanks for coming out to the events... I have nothing for respect for the guy... I hope he does very well... Good Luck Sam!!!
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Yo,

Just wanted to pass a note and let you in on a few things. I don't feel I have to, but I want to because quite frankly I think some of you have the wrong perception. Like I said before, I don't care if you don't like me, my cigars, or both, but I'd rather you like/not like me for who I am rather than what I am not.

"down to Earth"? I don't know man, I cut my grass and take out the trash just like I would imagine most of you do. I am certainly not made of money or consider myself any sort of celebrity. There has never been paparazzi on my lawn, and I certainly don't get bothered at the grocery store or the mall. I also doubt anyone tells Kid Rock that he looks like Sam Leccia. I'm just being real, guys.

The photo-shoot/Press-release/ads they are just that. The photo shoot was an absolute blast. I wish it was video-taped because you would have enjoyed it. We did this on Sunday, 3 days ago. it was unplanned, unorganized and unprofessional. It was 4 guys, a camera and a mission. The shoot looks like a $10,000 shoot and all it cost was the beers we drank afterwards. They were taken in my home town of Elizabeth, Pa. I have been fishing under that bridge in one of the shots for over 30 years. The car was a buddy's 53 chevy and the 2 engine prop plane (not a private jet) we basically "borrowed" without permission. One of the guys at the mini airport really hooked us up. We probably broke all kinds of TSA and FAA laws, but we got it done. I really wanted a classic car in the shoot because I am a classic car freak. My dad used to take me to cars shows all the time as a kid, and I have been fortunate to have owned some classics over the years. The plane? Well besides looking totally badass, I live half my life on a plane, so it was only fitting.

I have sacrificed and struggled through this industry. I have missed so many of my 3 kids birthdays, school plays, soccer games, and sadly some hospital visits. Why? To provide brother. My passion runs deeper than the leaf. I have a team at home counting on me, and I am not about to let them down.

I get to do what I love for a living. I make cigars. How cool is that? I do not profess to be "bigger" or "better" than anybody. I'm still a rookie compared to most of the guys in this business, and I respect every single one of them. I still get star struck around some of them. They are my idols. Sure I am different and do things different. That's who I am. I am a nonconformist by nature. I like to do things with my approach to them. I turned my hobby into my life and there is no turning back. I just launched my first company in any format, and I couldn't be more excited. There will be more struggles, more sacrifices and hopefully more reward. I want my 3 kids to be taken care of. I hope that someday my work will help their kids to be taken care of. That's my ultimate goal anyway. My family is the most important thing to me and having the past 6 months to spend with them has been awesome and really helped me realize that even more.

I don't mind dropping my guard and "letting you in" that's who I am. I am not petitioning for your dollar or your friendship, just showing you what I am about. I'm as real as it gets.

I am not going to come on here every time someone makes a post that's not in my favor either. I do listen though. I have been playing with some smaller ring sizes as well. I actually enjoy the smack-talking, and trust me I can dish it out with the best of them.

As smokers we have so many things against us, I would much rather focus on what unites us, rather than what tears us down.

But it's time to get back to work.

Smoke On.


Sam
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I agree, let the cigar speak for itself. :-):-)
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Amen brother. Amen.
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Well played! :-)

M
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Best of luck to you, Sam!
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I have to say too that my first response in this thread was directed at the odd statement about the industry regarding you as
a rock star. I found that a hell of a statement, especially given that you almost certainly had a part in it's wording. But because
I am an inteLLECTUAL blowhard, I thought, "you had better look into this person you are in the process of tearing down with
mockery". The more I read and poked around, the less I could point to as potential rocks to throw. The only thing I could
put my finger on was that you had basically jumped into the cigar business 5 years ago and were now a 'legend". And while
I wanted to have something smart-a$$ to say about it, I continued to find evidence that you had spent that time busting
your a$$ in promoting a product or products you had to apply maximum pressure on to overcome the reactions to their "oddity".
Certainly a max ligero cigar was not "new", but the Nub was different, and it has to be hard to overcome the thinking that this
cigar is over before it's barely moved an inch or two.

Then I see all these pub shots of you taking your rolling table to places and rolling and preaching. If you read my posts in this
thread, it is clear that I was trying to back out of most of the sarcasm i had taken time to write into the record. A lot of effort
for a person who doesn't even smoke NC cigars. What stock do I have in the game? Nothing. So here's to you, I was not
entirely surprised to see you post in this thread; this board is hands down the best web forum dedicated to cigars that can
be found, in my opinion. I am also not surprised to see you have only 7 posts. I think cigar makers and vendors can get
themselves in trouble by being too active or chummy in web forums. Drew in Mexicco comes to mind. But of course, you
are not a known scumbag. But it seems like they can never say the right thing in just the right way, which is fine for a
person like me. But for you, it can have long term and haunting consequences. I'll say that your statement above was
certainly welcome and had what I think was your desired effect. People who tear down your new venture and even your
marketing efforts are usually idiots who have an axe to grind or just like to make fun of everything. I am the latter.
But they were lining up to hack on Domino's new (then) marketing plan of basically saying their pizza sucked and was
going to be better, was a bad idea. It seemed I was the only one that predicted it would work, and very well. Point
being, what the hell do THEY know. My only disclaimer is that I have never had any of your products or any Oliva product.
I won't be buying your NEW product either, but I think you will have no trouble selling all you can roll. Good luck with your
plans, and if you could add my name to the list of people you will be supporting in 20-30 years through this new venture,
I would appreciate it. I will be needing it. And if you ever plan a trip to Memphis, let me know.
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Send that idea over to Sam with a suggestion on a filler and binder, and you, too, can be a rock star, my man.
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I don't know, Duane, I think that's likely inaccurate. Granted, you can be sure there was some
friction there, Sam certainly believes that without Nub and Cain, Oliva would not be anywhere near
where they are today. Anyone that knows anything at all about the last 40+ years of the industry
knows that the Oliva's are close to being the smartest leaf people in the business, but even from
my position far outside the NC circle, I know that it's not how much you know about raw materials, it's
how much people know about your product. Their cigars were good, but not a HUGE name in the market
necessarily. I think that any negative feelings they may both have are FAR outweighed by what they
BOTH learned from the OTHER. I would be willing to bet they were both glad to be rid of each other.
Just like all of the characters I create for my boss' commercials become his property when I leave,
Sam really couldn't take his lines with him. but I am sure he feels like he has everything he needs to be
just as successfull in his new venture. Let's hope he has the LEAF, though. Great ideas, great names and
great reputations don't go INSIDE the wrapper. You need tobacco for that.
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I guess Sam forgets where we came from. He was reliable over there to answer questions for about 2 seconds and then the Nub took off, for some unGodly reason, then he never came back. :-)

This sums up my interest:
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