“Money finds a way to find its way to you if you are being honest and have integrity in what you’re doing.”

— Josh Olschewski, known fraudster and crook

By Jim Mundorf

I am fascinated by frauds, and Josh Olschewski is a fascinating character. I first came across Josh, and his 7/o saddle shop in 2016, when he asked how much one of my Longhorn Mounts would cost. I was wanting to get some new gear, so I checked out his work and suggested a trade. One Longhorn mount for a headstall(bridle) and hobbles. He loved the idea. I had the mount done and shipped out to him in about a week, but like most of Josh’s customers, I had no idea what I was in for.

The Instagram Obsession

After following him on Instagram, it quickly became obvious that he was obsessed with social media. That obsession apparently lead to a huge following. The thing about Josh’s personality is that he seemed like a real good guy. As soon as he received the Longhorns he posted a picture of himself with them saying how great they were and how great I was. He told everyone to follow me and buy my stuff. As it turned out that was part of the operation, kill them with kindness, promote them and their work, say wonderful things about them, and hopefully when you don’t send them what you owe them they will stay silent. That was how he operated, and for awhile it worked, but like all frauds it has to end sometime and it seems that time has come.

The picture Josh posted after receiving the Longhorns I sent him.

I knew saddle makers usually had a waiting list so I wasn’t in huge hurry to get my stuff, but after a couple months and no word from Josh, I asked when I could expect it. He said he’d have it done in the next couple of weeks. That went on for months. I would ask when it was coming and he would tell me he’ll ship it out soon. I kept at it. I knew if I showed him how pissed I was, I would probably end up with nothing, so I stayed friendly. I started messaging him almost daily, occasionally he would get back to me with an excuse. It got to the point where all I could do was laugh.

The maddening thing about the wait was his Instagram page. He would post pictures and videos of himself multiple times throughout the day to the point where it was obvious he was spending hours on Instagram instead of doing the work that he owed me. The truly unbelievable part was that he would post pictures with my Longhorns in them and tag my account. So when I looked at Instagram I was shown my product that he was quite proud of owning, but had yet to pay for. That is when I realized there was something missing upstairs with this guy.

Imagine taking the time to post stuff like this knowing you are years behind on your work and owing customers thousands of dollars.

Finally, after about 10 months of constant hounding, a package arrived , inside a headstall and a ball cap with his logo on it, NO HOBBLES. “The balls on this guy,” I thought, “sending me his promotional crap instead of what he owes me.” I went back to messaging him for the hobbles and a month later they showed up. I was finally done with 7o Saddle Shop. 11 months to get two items that a skilled leather worker could make in a day. I thought at the time that there’s no way he would stay in business long if he treated everybody like that. I assumed since mine was a trade, and I couldn’t ask for a refund, that I got put on the back burner. I assumed he must treat his cash customers better. I was wrong. As it turned out, I was lucky to come away with anything at all.

My 7o headstall and hobbles. The headstall is alright, but I had to punch 3 extra holes in the hobbles to get them to fit right and the engraved brand hangs upside down.

The Facebook page

Last week I caught wind of a Facebook group page put together, “For those affected by 7/o saddle shop, Joshua Olschewski.” It was a place for people to post their stories of how Josh screwed them over, and the stories just keep coming. Right now there are 138 members of this group and it is growing daily. People from all over the country telling how they paid Josh to make them something and have received nothing in return. The most common story is of paying a down payment for a saddle of between $1,700 and $2,500 and getting nothing back. The total of what has been stolen is in the tens of thousands. One guy was given the run around for 4 years and in the end had to sue Josh to get his saddle. Another young lady and aspiring horse trainer, sold her only saddle so she could afford her down payment. She was told she’d have a saddle in 3 months. It has now been 13 months and he and his wife have blocked her phone calls. She has had to borrow saddles from a number of people and even ride bareback at times.

Its not just his customers either. Over the years Josh made it a point to befriend many influential people in the western lifestyle world. He convinced those people to trust him and they recommended him to their friends and followers. Artists, photographers, hat makers, horse trainers, hunting guides, even a nonprofit for Veterans. For those who have recommended Josh over the years, there is no dollar figure that you can put on the damage he has done to their business and relationships.

This is not someone who got in over his head and took in too many orders that he couldn’t keep up with. On the Facebook page there is someone who gave a down payment just a few weeks ago. If he is still taking down payments and has customers who’ve been waiting years, he knows exactly what he is doing. His first business was called Dusty Chaps Leather(website is still up) There was a comment that he changed to 7o after word got out about him doing the same thing back then. I believe he has done this his whole career. He has advertised that he worked for a well known saddle maker, but the maker has denied that ever happened. He has told people he used certain products in his saddle and it was proven that he did not. It seems he has lied about pretty much everything he could when it comes to growing his business.

A special place in hell

What is as disturbing as the amount of fraud, is the way he did it. The one thing he loved most was posting pictures and videos of himself on Instagram. He would always be talking about working hard, cowboy ethics and preaching the word of God. People who followed him probably figured he did nothing but work his fingers to the bones and read the Bible. On his new website it states, “Our brand is built on our faith in God, heritage and the Cowboy lifestyle.” and there is a Bible verse at the bottom of each page. I’ve always thought there was a special place in hell for folks who use religion to take peoples money. If Josh doesn’t change his ways quick there maybe a special seat down there for him.

All of his social media is gone now. After being harassed for payments with every post he apparently got tired of blocking everyone and deleted it. Knowing how much he loved posting on there, it must have killed him to do that. For now the below video remains. (update: video has been deleted) It kind of sums up what all of his social media posts were about. It is simply rambling about cowboy ethics and how if you work hard and trust in God you might be able to be as successful as he is. It is actually a little disturbing to watch knowing what we now know. Especially the line at the end where he says, “Money finds a way to find its way to you if you’re being honest and have integrity in what you’re doing.”

Lessons Learned

I wanted to write this to apologize for not sharing my horrible experience of dealing with Josh sooner. I not only wanted to warn people, but also to share the lessons learned from Josh. The one thing he has came through with is a lesson for all of us. Its a lesson in trusting people. It’s about how a persons social media and their number of followers should mean absolutely nothing. It’s about how the most arrogant among us are often the most worthless. It’s a lesson about how sometimes when people overwhelm you with their kindness it is not from the goodness in their heart, but from the darkness of their soul. I am hopeful Josh will be learning his lesson too, but I doubt he will.

I felt the lesson was a good one for my 10 year old daughter, so I told her all about Josh and why I and others trusted him. I told her about how he lied and stole and how many people he hurt. I told her about how I should have spoken up about my difficult dealings with Josh and I might have saved some others a lot of time and money if I had. I even pulled out the old ball cap with his logo on it. I told her I would never wear it because I never want to be associated with that brand. She simply had one response, “You should burn it.” Here endeth the lesson.