History of the Eastbay Sneaker Catalog

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Hey, what's going on guys? My name's Chris. Welcome back to the official wear testers.com YouTube channel. Today we've got something a little bit different where we are going over the history of EastBay and yes, I mean the catalog.

[00:00:17]Recently, I was able to sit down with the two founders of Eastbay, two friends that go by the name of Art Yetus and Rick Garing. And what you're about to see is that conversation. And I will say just be prepared. The phone call or what do you call it? Zoom obviously doesn't have this level of video and audio quality, but we make do with what we've got. It's just kind of what happens when everybody's remote. You know what I mean? Like none of us were in the same room together. But the conversation that we had was totally awesome. For those of you guys that don't know, East Bay was founded in 1980 by these two friends.

[00:00:46]They actually raised capital to buy their first set of inventory and then they went around to different schools in a van and sold these items to the teams.

[00:00:55]Now, this worked well for the beginning, but they were growing and obviously things changed. So, by 1983, that's when the catalog was introduced, but it wasn't quite the catalog that we all know and love. It was basically a little slip of paper that they would send out and it would just have the list of what their inventory items were. Once again, things changed. They were growing, and that's when these bad boys started happening. Oo, full-blown color pictures, a free eBay catalog, a budding sneaker head's dream. And if you're someone like me, this is exactly where I learned most of what I know now. Now, obviously we all know how the story goes, but getting to sit down and talk with the two founders, in my opinion at least, was super informative and very fun. So, with that being said, I really hope that you enjoy. And if you wanted to support these two, they have a brand new book that is available right now.

[00:01:40]Links are going to be down below in the description box. Not only is this a full-blown book about Yeay, but all of the proceeds, and I mean all of them, will be going to the Childhood Cancer Fund Little Warrior. So you can grab something cool, learn something interesting, and yes, there are pictures in there. I mean, I like pictures. It was a catalog after all, and you can help do a good deed on top of that. So, with that being said, >> so just to jump things off, first off, your your guys's story, uh, surprisingly or maybe coincidentally, I'm not sure if it was on purpose or just like a happy accident, but your your beginnings is very similar to Nikes where uh you guys are selling like track spikes essentially out of a car. Is that is that true? And and how does things go from that to what we know today as like the East Bay catalog?

[00:02:31]>> Well, we did start selling out of the car. We we had more than track spikes.

[00:02:35]Our first clinic that we ever did was probably about 80% track spikes and we did have some training shoes because we went to the school that the college that I had been running at and and living. So, I knew that they didn't need a lot of training shoes and we didn't have the money to buy them anyway. But so we started out of the back of the car at going directly to the kids. And that was our our goal.

[00:02:58]We wanted to be different than a retail store. And the best way to do that we thought was go to directly to the kids and put on clinics at school where you had their attention a little bit. And they got to try things on and test them out and see what they like and what feels good. And then it just it grew from listening to the coaches and uh listening to the kids and everybody started asking for pictures because not everybody could be at a clinic that we came to. So it it just evolved from that one one one step at a time. Like I I was just telling you guys off of the recording, but I when I went and um had uh toured your guys' headquarters uh a number of years ago, they had a hallway where it was every catalog framed and it was super cool for me to see just cuz it was a blast from my past. But your your original cataloges were little slips of paper.

[00:03:48]And so like how how does that even start? Like how did you keep track of inventory? Like where where was everything? Like it's so interesting because there was no uh pictures or images or anything like that. It was just a flip with what your small amount of inventory was and and how did that grow into like something as awesome as what this is?

[00:04:10]>> It was, you know, the mission and I think Rick set the mission up for us was we wanted to get the best athletic footwear possible to young athletes. We we had both been coaches and that's what we started to do in northern Wisconsin and then with uh later with a van the next year we covered a lot of Wisconsin.

[00:04:32]Um but we only started with $4,000. We had to grow pretty pretty slowly and um the coaches would always after a couple years the coaches would say well you know my basketball player couldn't be here. He's a high jumper. Um, so when we fit up the track, people say, "Can you send a maybe a picture of a of a shoe or something with a price list and stuff like that?" So that's kind of how it started out, you know, like it kind of hit you over the head like a picture.

[00:04:58]What do you know? So we started pretty much with that. It was a took took a few years. Uh, 83 Rick >> 83 84. Yep. 83 84 track season picture >> and you know only one sport at a time start with track and field and then we do basketball by the end of 84 we were doing maybe 10% of the schools in Wisconsin but traveling to them and we kind of decided well how could we take this store on wheels uh and make it expand it so we started making a little bit more of a catalog and then suddenly in 85 and 86 I mean so we go to to a color catalog in ' 85 just at the same time the Dunks and the Air Jordans are hitting good time for color.

[00:05:44]>> So I mean a lot of happen stance and then suddenly in 86 you know we' just been sending coaches all this time and suddenly we started getting hundreds of thousands of catalog requests from young young athletes to send them a catalog and that's that's where it all blossomed right there. the coaches passed it on and they they they got tired of taking orders and fitting and every so they they and you rightfully so they spend so much time because Art and I were both coaches they spent so much time uh teaching and training and and uh um they didn't want to be shoe salesmen and you can't blame them. So they pushed they they were kind enough to say send us some some pictures and cataloges and we'll try to get them out to the kids and and we'll let the kids call and order the shoes. And from there it just as Art said it just grew but one step at a time. And back then you know there wasn't the internet so we could grow more slowly >> because we were dominating in Wisconsin and then we went out to three states.

[00:06:46]>> Then we were dominating in those three states. Then we went out to whatif 15 I think. Then we went out to everything but the coast. And then we eventually in 87 or 86 87 I think we went out to the to the east coast and the west coast when we felt comfortable enough that we had enough inventory because that that's what when you're under capitalized like we are that's what kind of kept us in reality check because we we knew we had to grow the inventory uh because we were building the trust with the athletes that when you call we have it. Um, and at the same time we wanted to grow the catalog and we didn't have enough capital to do both uh expansively all at once. So we had to pick and choose what years we grew inventory and what years we could add to the catalog and kept working.

[00:07:34]>> As we went, we added more sports, too.

[00:07:36]>> Yep. And more sports.

[00:07:38]>> So it was running, then basketball. And it sounds like team sport was really like the primary focus. And I remember even as a kid that the catalog was heavily focused especially from what I was interested in which is basketball in uh school specific colors. And that's something that was really unique to East Bay even back then where you wouldn't be able to find these team makeups in the stores. You would only be able to get them from East Bay. Is that something that you would have to work with directly with the brands to kind of create? Cuz I know that they started that kind of with the Dunk way back then, but uh it was still not like a major focus of these companies. They were still in like the player edition colors, you know, like whatever their uniform would be on the NBA hardwood. So uh so how how did you work with brands to be able to get your own like lineups of special makeups on these models?

[00:08:34]Because it wasn't just Nike. Like I remember seeing Iverson's shoes in multiple colors that were just not available in store and they were only through you guys the Air Jordan 15. You guys had what we call East Bay exclusives where there were these high top white and reds or white and green, white and purple and they're only available through East Bay. They were never seen on the store shelf. So it's like how did you get those deals done?

[00:09:00]Like was that a specific sales team? Was that always the intent?

[00:09:03]>> Well, well the early years I think and it started a lot with maybe the Air Force Ones. Um there were a couple other shoes, Adidas had one, but the team the like Nike did have team colors and they had a team bank, but because of your store, you couldn't carry that much. You couldn't carry like if maybe the local team was white and red, you might carry that, but you couldn't carry white and maroon, white green. We just wanted to get everything out to the kids. So, we we carried everything we could and uh that's probably how we really really got going because someone would call and say, "Boy, I'd like a a white and green Air Force or white and orange Air Jordan." Because the first year they were made in team colors and we they say, you know, everyone says the they don't exist. I said, "Well, we can get we'll get you one in three days." And that's Yeah. That's how that's how it grew. And you know this during the the early 80s is when the athletic companies really grew up and the the whole sneaker wars started and so Adidas was number one in the world. Nike kind of like that number one. Phil Knight was used to winning on the track. He he wanted to win in in business as well. Um and so you know there was the fight between all of the companies to see who could open the most stores and who could get the most brand who could get the most selection of shoes out there. And so um they had a most store most of the companies had a team bank. So if you wanted a white and purple, white and green, white and maroon, white and orange, anybody could do it. They could call up from the teen bank and get an order. So if they if they I don't know what school you went to, but um what was your high school?

[00:10:44]>> I went to a couple, but the colors were the same at both of them. They were just >> NL NIL athlete.

[00:10:50]>> No, no, I was a troublemaker.

[00:10:53]But but a retailer could call up and say and and go to your school and and take an order or have the coach call and he could get those shoes. But most of the retailers didn't want to go to all that work. And that's what we started doing.

[00:11:06]So it was natural for us of dealing with all the team colors. And the the companies had had uh excess inventory.

[00:11:14]They had a teen bank that you could call up and get extras if you wanted to. So we devised a system that would that would allow we knew how many schools we were going to go to every day. And so we kind of cheated the system a little bit because we didn't have the capital to build a big inventory. But we could call the teen bank and knew that we were going to two red schools, three blue schools, two orange, and a green. So we could order all those a week ahead of time. We get 30 days dating to pay for it. So we figured we'd be able to sell them easily in 30 days. So, we actually used the team the the team banks and the company's inventory to help fuel our growth uh because we devised a system of planning ahead and and knowing keeping track on paper by hand what we sold. Uh and so we we uh we were we were just really fortunate that it was uh I'm making too long of a story, but this this was the year these were the years that the companies were growing up. They don't have team banks anymore. They don't have excess inventory anymore for the most part. Um, so we were just lucky to start during those years when they did have and they allowed us to grow.

[00:12:23]>> We always stayed this far ahead of the bank.

[00:12:25]>> Yep. Yeah.

[00:12:28]>> Sometimes it was only this far.

[00:12:29]>> Yeah. Usually >> I'm I'm right there with you.

[00:12:33]We're we're a very small operation here.

[00:12:36]Um, so uh l luckily we don't have to where we do have to buy inventory, but it's not to to resell. It's just to test and review and stuff, but um I understand completely. Yeah. Was a storefront ever >> uh like I've been to your store. You only had one and it was attached to the headquarters, but um was a storefront and then a nationwide like Foot Locker style storefront ever in your guys's future plans or was it just something where the catalog and the warehouse, you know, suited what your business needs were?

[00:13:10]>> So Rick would say we sucked at retail.

[00:13:12]We had a few stores at one time, three or four, and uh we had to kind of just cut those back because we just were we were just were not very good at it.

[00:13:20]>> Were they all local like in Wisconsin?

[00:13:22]>> Oh man, in Wisconsin. Yes.

[00:13:24]>> Yeah.

[00:13:24]>> Okay. Okay.

[00:13:25]>> We learned by testing the retail um platform that you got a shoe sitting in in one of the retail stores and you're low on your inventory and you got three people calling in for a white and blue uh Air Jordan team shoe. um and they're sitting in two other stores instead of in your own warehouse that you could quick ship them out. And so we we decided early on that retail wasn't our forte. And and you get to, you know, when you do retail, it seems it's tough to get good people to work in the retail stores. And it's not their fault.

[00:14:00]They're kids. They're they're not they haven't chosen retail to be their life's passion yet, but they want a part-time job. and and so that that's what they do because their friends can come in and they can hang and everything else, but um some people, you know, some some get passionate, but most are there just for the money and and and to have fun. So, they never it was always tough to find really good salespeople that would fit your foot and know what your foot works like and match that up to what you want to get. And then ultimately though, most kids just buy what they want anyway. So you can fit them all day long. And we were Art was really good. The the parents the parents loved me because I I always try to fit the kids foot. Art just Art just cared about well what do you really want? And and the kids loved art and the parents loved me and and uh it eventually worked out to be a good deal. But re retail just took it was too hard to plan inventory for all those stores when you're selling so fast and growing so fast as we were. So, that actually brings me up to uh we would get these.

[00:15:06]>> Oh, >> and yeah, like like how did you deal with excess inventory? I I can see some of this stuff gets marked down to what the prices that we're seeing now is insane um in this in this catalog, but like at the time, this is how a lot of and I've talked to a lot of NBA players too, like this was the version of the magazine that they could afford, especially with how fast their feet were growing and things like that. And so like was the summer sale the only way that you dumped excess inventory or or were wholesale buyer buyers like a thing back then as well like a Ross or or some sort of discount store? Like how did you plan for that and how quickly were you trying to get rid of these inventory items?

[00:15:49]>> It was actually two-pronged because we realized that not everyone could afford the expensive ones. So we actually the final score catalog which probably how many we put out Rick? Four or five a year?

[00:16:02]>> Four.

[00:16:03]>> Four. Um it was excess inventory. But then if the dealers they they they got to know us if they had if they couldn't get rid of a shoe let's say Nike had too made too much of this or that eventually they'd call us and say what do you guys think? We you know you can buy it for this and sell that. And so we used to actually buy closeouts from them too. My favorite story of that was Kevin Durant whose I think first shoe out of the East Bay catalog was out on the final score and it was a Cheryl Swoop size 16 I think >> 13 >> 13 women's shoe >> women >> but that's all his mom could afford and he always said they always gave me trouble because a woman's shoe says I never I I had new Nike Airs I was thrilled that was pretty amazing that you could get that to everybody >> and the final scores be became important important for us too because when we first started in in 80 you you'd get basketball introduced in in midepptember to late September and then they wouldn't really introduce they maybe introduce one new model in spring and that was it.

[00:17:10]Um and by the time we left they were introducing shoes every month. So it's so important for us to keep inventory moving. Um and as Art's uncle used to always say cash is king. So you're you're we we always felt we were better off getting rid of inventory so we could buy new stuff because it was coming down the pipeline.

[00:17:28]>> Yeah. You guys were one of the first places where I saw women's versions of basketball shoes, which is something that these brands are heavily trying to push now. Um which I think is always kind of interesting how full full circle things can be. Um, but uh, one of the other really cool aspects that you guys had in, and this was one of the things that was probably my favorite during my visit, uh, to your headquarters. I don't believe you guys work there at the time, but um, I remember being in one of the offices and they were getting ready to do a photo shoot on like new inventory that was coming out. And uh one of the shoes that was in the boxes was an Air Jordan, but it was labeled as something very specific, some weird name. And uh months later, the shoe comes out like to actual retailers. And it ended up being Russell Westbrook's first signature shoe, which it was not originally. So like they, you know, these brands have have things like this is one of my favorites. This is a lot of people's favorite actually, but um it's going to be hard to see, but right in here there's a Air Penny 2. Oh yeah, >> with a a white bottom that never released. That shoe came out with a blue bottom >> and people are like, "When are you going to drop the sample?" You know what I mean? And so like it's it's so cool to see that like you guys kind of had first dibs without even knowing what you had.

[00:18:48]And is there a specific shoe maybe that you remember seeing that that maybe you never even saw again? Or um do you did you keep anything? That that's something too is like do you do you have anything special that that maybe flew through your uh maybe an Air Jordan 1 from 85? I don't know. But like what what is it like to be one of you guys?

[00:19:11]>> We've got what three train loh train carts full of of Air Jordan 1 ones. I think >> that that'd be awesome.

[00:19:18]>> Yeah. As soon as as soon as we invent the time machine, we'll go back and get those.

[00:19:22]>> Art's got a great story.

[00:19:23]>> Oh, about the coach.

[00:19:24]>> Yeah.

[00:19:25]>> Yeah. I I did have I I I love the Air Jordan and we really it was the only only shoe that we bought so many of that if that certain product didn't sell we were gone, you know, and at the time not everyone was big Air Jordan. So it was one of the few shoes I actually pulled out and I I was wearing it around and I you know and then a coach from where I kind of where I used to be um his son needed a pair and couldn't find him and you know that was it. Luckily, it was size 11 my size. So, I just took him off and send him to the send him to him and says, "Tell your tell your son to have a good year." So, that's as close as I had to to having an Air Jordan.

[00:20:05]>> Yeah. Yeah. We were I don't know if I don't know if you call it smart or whatever, but we never were were smart enough to >> We were always looking forward and and to We used to collect baseball cards.

[00:20:15]So, why we didn't collect shoes, I have no idea. But we didn't collect shoes. We we had we had a whole ware warehouse full of the shoes. So I mean we our excitement was getting getting them to the to young athletes, getting them to kids, people that that really liked it the footwear as much as we did. We like that more than just having it ourselves.

[00:20:36]So a shoe. So >> yeah, I think that's one of the more interesting parts about what maybe like you guys do. And same thing with Nike.

[00:20:43]I' I've been to their um headquarters numerous times. I've been in their what they call a DNA lab or it's not the lab but just their DNA area which is their their archive warehouse and there's stuff that even they don't have uh that you know what I mean like they have to borrow it and source it from fans and uh customers which is really interesting.

[00:21:02]So, uh, so to know that you guys had a warehouse full of some of the most, I guess, prized possessions of today and you were just churning through them is so like like hindsight is 2020, I know.

[00:21:14]But like it's so it's so interesting how because that's what I always think too is like who's the first guy that bought an Air Jordan 1 in 85 and just forgot about them in their closet. You know what I mean? Like like I would never. So So that's one of those things where it's uh, you know, I couldn't wait to lace them up. So, um, so it's just so weird to know that like you had so many pieces of history go through your hands, but during the moment you don't know what it is or or how important it will be to somebody at a later date. So, yeah, it's it's just so interesting to think about it. Well, the sneakerheads came along um so a fair amount after we started and and so we were just so focused on the athletes who actually put them on and warm worm to play the sport. So yeah, we it wasn't a part of our DNA of thinking, oh boy, we should save some of these or not save some of these, but order extra because people are going to buy them as as momentos uh or or way to raise, you know, a way to to create businesses.

[00:22:19]>> We weren't called sneaker heads back then, but we had just a whole staff of people that loved athletic footwear. The cooler the better. you know, you'd you I I still remember one of my favorites, track spikes. Some of the track spikes were some of the coolest shoes we had.

[00:22:36]And um everybody was like that and you just, you know, when the the companies would come or you go to the companies to the shows and they'd show you the new products, it was like Christmas all the time. So, I mean, sneaker heads, they have a name for it now, but it was just people who loved athletic footwear, love the look of it.

[00:22:53]>> Yeah. that that's something that I think is very interesting is is the culture aspect of all of this. And everybody likes to try and uh claim that they built that culture, but it's really the collective because we we weren't all connected like we are now.

[00:23:10]>> And so the the culture for me started on a basketball court. Uh but for somebody that was maybe in an inner city, it started on the street at the corner or somebody else in a bodega or wherever.

[00:23:23]So like it's it's so fascinating to know that we all had kind of like that interconnectedness, >> but without ever knowing that we existed.

[00:23:35]>> Yep.

[00:23:35]>> And everyone just knew what they thought was cool. And that's what they, you know, like what's going on today. I mean, you just you probably wanted to buy all these things from the catalog and now you can finally afford some of them. So, it's kind of fun. No, >> you have no no idea.

[00:23:54]>> And that was one of the interesting parts about the Air Jordan is that when the Air Jordan came out, there was so much that's the first time because we went to school, so we got to see see the kids and fit them. It was the first time that we saw the kids talking to each other and and and with with with um what's the best way to say it that they weren't afraid to express their opinion and and so they they that was that was really unique and so we knew that something was changing. We knew that that there was a passion there that really had been hidden uh and really just started coming out after the air air forces and the Dunks and the Air Jordans came out. It was really a shift from um sorry really a shift from looking at athletic footwear as equipment to start became more of identity.

[00:24:43]>> Identity. Yep.

[00:24:44]>> When you got the right ones on.

[00:24:46]>> So you guys have experienced this firsthand from the beginning of at least from the beginning of what we consider the beginning like the Air Jordans and so on. But like like what was that like seeing kids want something so badly firsthand and not for the sport? because that's got to be weird to an athlete, you know what I mean? Like to be like, well, you want this for what? And so like almost like a status symbol, you know what I mean?

[00:25:10]Like what was it like seeing that for the first time? Was it was it something that you notice or is it something again like you look back and be like, "Oh, that's crazy."

[00:25:17]>> What we kind of saw because a lot of the kids that we started when we were still going directly to the kids at the schools, a lot of the kids bought one pair of shoes and that was their practice shoe, that was their game shoe, and most likely that's what they knocked around in. Um, but once the colors started hitting and the Air Jordans and the Dunks started hitting, then then you'd see kids who would buy they would they would buy two shoes and there'd be they'd buy maybe an Air Force and then they buy a superstar to knock around in or something like that. Um, but it we never really had a lot of people, maybe you remember Art, but we never really had a lot of people at those clinics, so the early years that were that weren't athletes. So, it really started for us watching the athletes buying more than one pair of shoes if they could afford them. Um, and then once we got bigger and started sending out the catalog and you could hear the because we we were l able uh lucky enough to be able to uh listen into the phone calls. So, we always spent a fair amount of our week listening to the phone calls coming in because that's where we learned the demand, what kids were looking for, what was important to them. Um, and that's where you really started hearing people say, "Well, do you have a size 12 Air Jordan?" No, we're out of that. Well, what size do you have? And so, they didn't care the size. They just wanted an Air Jordan because they knew they could resell it or or save it or or do whatever. And and that that's when it really hit home to us anyway that that uh we were not just doing athletes anymore, but um but doing people in >> the first uh Air Max came out, running shoe.

[00:26:51]>> Oh, yeah. We we uh we realized there wasn't suddenly that many more runners.

[00:26:56]They just wanted that shoe. They were going to they were going to walk around in that one.

[00:27:00]>> That visible there was hot stuff. Wow.

[00:27:02]Yeah.

[00:27:02]>> That's that's what hooked me uh was the visible bubble. Um I was just I was fascinated by it. Uh it wasn't as comfortable as I thought it would be, but it it was it sure sounds cool looking. Um, but uh that actually makes me like think like this is something that we had talked about in a recent video as well, but at the bottom of this page here, you guys had just restocked essentially on the Air Jordan.

[00:27:29]It said, uh, check it out. We received an unexpected shipment of Air Jordan 12 shoes. We apologize to customers who missed them earlier. So, what was it like? Like were you constantly in uh discussion with these brands being like, "Hey, we need more of these." And they were literally making them much different than now where there's there's literally the run and then that's it and then they're on to the next colorway because there's so many shoes dropping.

[00:27:54]Um so like what was a retail cycle like what was the normal retail cycle looking like back then?

[00:28:01]>> I'm not sure what you're what you're asking. So we we ordered the shoes six months in advance.

[00:28:07]>> So in June we we ordered b the new baseball shoes and the new track spikes for the following um season in January.

[00:28:16]And I don't remember what happened with those Air Jordans, why we got them in, but there were times when somebody didn't take their aotment or there were times when sometimes they got an extra container or two of of shoes in unexpectedly. Nike did, I mean. And so they they had special they would call in dealers and say, "Hey, we got you can have an extra thousand pair if you want them because we got more than we than we thought were coming in." Um do you remember how some of the what other >> I I think um so you have to remember we were there was no mail order when we started, no catalog. Um we kind of came up with everything as we went. And one of the things that Rick, I think you were big and your your brother Jimmy um we started doing what's called uh loss capture loss demand. So as soon as a catalog would hit if we we would see how many calls were coming in for a certain product and by that by the within two days we could tell how many possible we could sell.

[00:29:22]And so we would try to put in a re reorder as soon as possible probably before anybody else you know had a chance to do it and we'd put in large orders and if if someone like Rick said some other company suddenly wouldn't take their alignotment maybe that Jordan wasn't selling for them can't believe it uh we would we would snap them up because we we we knew what what the demand was immediately >> that's pretty similar to today's kind of like retail game which is kind of interesting.

[00:29:52]uh where certain accounts get held in higher priority. Um but then some shoes do struggle in certain areas and so there's like almost like a backfill.

[00:30:02]>> Yep.

[00:30:02]>> And so you can put in your request.

[00:30:04]Doesn't mean that you're going to be guaranteed to get the item, but all of a sudden you get a few boxes of random sizes and whatever this popular shoe is and now you have it. And so it's pretty it's pretty interesting to hear that even that has not changed too much um despite the landscape being a lot bigger. Uh as far as the catalog goes, one of the things that I even remember thinking back as a kid was like how how are they free? Like I remember when the internet first started >> does art look as stupid as I do to you were free.

[00:30:36]>> Yeah. I I could just sign up and they just started showing up. You know what I mean? I didn't have to order anything or anything. So, it's like like how were you able to make these catalogs so nice and for free? It's like the the mystery of the Costco hot dog. Like, it's like what is this thing, you know? So, like >> is is the catalog?

[00:30:57]>> Yeah. Is the is the catalog what brought people back all the time or like like how did you know that the catalog was it? It was it was really just an extension of going directly to the kids at school. Instead of going to the instead of see get getting to see them at school, we got to saw them at the at their mailbox.

[00:31:17]Um and and and we knew that we had to in fact we once when was this Schaefer was there. John Schaefer was our CFO. um had to be 93 94 went down to a company because they were in the mail order business ahead of us, but they were called it's called Lans's End.

[00:31:36]>> They they used to be a a sailing uh clothing wear company and now they're mostly just clothing, but they really make great stuff and it's all private label and so it's a good price and good quality. But anyway, um they went down there and uh because we were trying to figure out other kind of mailing solutions because we were getting huge response rates. And so we went um as they were down talking to them um the guy who uh I won't give names or anything, but the the gentleman that they were talking to said, "How do you get these huge response rates?" And they told us what we how many we mailed and how what our response rate was. and he said, "You guys aren't mailing enough cataloges. Our response rate is is is one is is what was it 100th?"

[00:32:24]>> 1.9%. Ours was ours was 10% on every catalog we sent out.

[00:32:29]>> So he said, "You just aren't mailing enough cataloges."

[00:32:33]And so we started mailing more cataloges. Made it >> and we we made one every month by then.

[00:32:39]And you know, it was like, you know, now they have all the drops, shoe drops.

[00:32:44]That was back before the internet took over and everything became somewhat ubiquitous. That was pretty much the shoe drop for most kids. So, >> we just lucky found out.

[00:32:55]>> Yeah, we were just lucky that our response rates were so high with the ones with the people who were buying that they helped finance the kids who just wanted a catalog to to look at the product and hope that someday they can get one. Now, I don't know how many times someone would call up and say, "My my teacher took my catalog away, or my mom, could you can you send me a new one?" So, >> so was the catalog spreading just from word of mouth? Because I mean, I'm in I'm in California, so it's like how did you how did you branch out? Like, like I just don't It's something that's like so insane to think about. Like, how did everybody know that there was an Eastbay catalog to obtain?

[00:33:32]>> So, you remember as we go back, there's no list, there's no mail order. And Rick talked earlier about we we spread from Wisconsin to four states around another eight states, 10 more and then the coasts. First time through we'd only we would only send to the coaches. So the first time we sent to California was just to the different coaches basketball and track and from there word of mouth somehow the kids would get a hold of it and like I said suddenly rather than just teams we were just doing well we went from zero names to 7 million by the time we left.

[00:34:10]>> Wow. I I mean and just word of mouth and and for different things like Australia, they used to have pitchers um fast pitch softball was really really big in Wisconsin and somehow some Australian players would come over particularly the pitchers. They took it back to Australia at one time. I think it was 10%. It's might be might have been 10% of our business.

[00:34:30]>> It's winter there. Our summer is their winter. So they they couldn't play in Australia and so they came to America and it was a great exchange program. It was kind of it was great to see. Yeah.

[00:34:40]You're going you go out to the bars and you hear some of these guys talking with a great accent that they have. It was pretty darn cool because they were great players. They were really good softball players. Wow.

[00:34:51]>> Big team. In fact, they did a movie called the Marksman and and that was a team from Wasa.

[00:34:56]>> That's awesome.

[00:34:57]>> Yeah. Pretty cool.

[00:34:59]>> Yeah. You you you guys were one of the first ones to ship internationally. So, I always thought that that was pretty uh cool, too, is that like people would be like, "Yeah, I'd be able to order this from uh like East Bay and stuff like that." So, I always thought that that was really interesting. I just have a a couple more questions. The the first one is how did the Foot Locker acquisition come about? And then I guess the last question to kind of like end things off is do you feel that that they did the brand of Eastbay justice uh now that East Bay technically doesn't really exist anymore which I was devastated by personally but uh you know I know at this point you guys were probably removed from the business but like like how did this happen and then like what are your overall thoughts or even are you allowed to discuss that? So, as you read the book, you'll you'll see that in 88, Nike closed off their air product to us to mail order. They just didn't know what mail order was and we weren't real.

[00:35:58]So, that was 40% of our business. A couple years later, Tiger held back gel product from us. So, that was another 10%. So, after we went public and just and we went public to to to raise money, Foot Locker immediately wanted to buy us. They had asked earlier. And one of the things we thought about was teaming up with them just to you they're stores more of a togetherness a team team uh work. So when they really wanted to buy us after you go through these things with uh your vendors saying they can shut you off and and you we kind of got the feeling that they wanted to go some of them wanted to go direct and get rid of we said it might be the best we we felt it was the best way to ensure that East Bay would continue to exist and for 20 years it was fantastic. We had talked to the NBA cataloges. We had talked to the NHL cataloges, NFL, everything.

[00:36:48]Really didn't get too far. Once you got Foot Locker in there, you do. And they got a hold of, you know, got to be representatives for all those things that uh we probably would have never gotten in Little Was, Wisconsin otherwise. So, did a great job. But, you know, the internet just be everything became so easy to find. You know, access to product wasn't a problem anymore. It was just a matter of probably time. What do you think, Rick?

[00:37:13]>> Yep. Absolutely. It's all about timing.

[00:37:16]>> So, do you >> be interested to see if somebody would bring something like East Bay back because there's there's there's a there's And not so much that you'd have to ship product, but you'd be a reference point for product because it's it's not easy to to shop these days. I mean, >> that that was that was my compounding thought was like, do you think something like Espay could still exist maybe in the future? Well, catalogs are coming back. Let me know. Amazon had their first toy catalog this year. My little letters you can get where you you you get a a story and you can send it to your grandkids or your own kids. So, they get something with their name on it in the mail. Gee, that sounds familiar to East Bay. Uh so, the the direct marketing, the the hands-on stuff is really starting to come back. And maybe we're maybe we're just old or or uh so used to it, but but we we both think that it's it's hard shopping these days because you you can pull up Nike, you can pull up Adidas, you can pull up Reebok, but then you got to shift back and forth rather than just turning a page. Um but you can't take the cataloges everywhere you go like you can your phone. So there's that something to be said for that. But if there it just seems that there there's a place that would make shopping easier and give the purchasing power back to the consumer rather than having it in in the the brand's hands.

[00:38:36]>> Rick and I were joking that when East Bay shut down what everybody, you know, LeBron, James, Steph Curry, all these podcasters and announcers all came and talked about how great East Bay was and how how much they enjoyed it and that.

[00:38:52]And Rick and I were able to say, well, somehow we reached them as, you know, junior high and and high school kids before they were stars. If you want to do that nowadays, if you want to hit someone that you'd have to hit somebody who doesn't have internet access, you probably start start marketing to kindergarten kids.

[00:39:10]So, you know, you never know.

[00:39:12]>> And even then, they probably have their iPads, so you never know.

[00:39:16]>> Yeah.

[00:39:16]>> Yeah. No, I I I would love to see a resurgence of the brand at some point in some way. I just don't know. Like, does does Foot Locker still own the name and the logos? Do you do you happen to know that?

[00:39:27]>> Sporting Goods does.

[00:39:29]>> Really?

[00:39:30]>> Yeah. So, when they bought Foot Locker, they have it now.

[00:39:32]>> Oh, they bought Foot Locker. I forgot about that.

[00:39:34]>> Yes.

[00:39:34]>> Um, >> wow. Okay. So, there's a chance.

[00:39:39]>> Um, could I know?

[00:39:40]>> And now you have Now you have a whole bunch of stores to go with it, which would be pretty pretty phenomenal.

[00:39:46]opened one big store in Wasa which probably which we were trying to get everything we had in you know all the starter jackets and gloves >> and baseball bats on us it would have been a lot like Dicks and that was back a long time ago when Dicks was probably just starting out too so you never know we might have gone that way too >> my first thought is to go back to when I was a kid when there was like sports chalet and sports authority and stuff and and inside of those stores there were batting cages and sometimes basketball hoops and wouldn't that be cool if all dicks were rebranded to the yellow East Bay >> and then and then inside you >> of everything.

[00:40:25]>> They are. They are. But Dicks is a weird name.

[00:40:28]>> So, uh it's definitely not it's not YouTube friendly. If you title a video that I'll tell you that we got flagged for that one time. That was bad. So, Eastbay would just, you know, I just think that that has a certain ring to it. Um but I am >> So, what's your future like?

[00:40:43]>> My future?

[00:40:44]>> Yeah. What do you think your future's like?

[00:40:46]>> I have no idea. My my my saying is that I ju I just wing it. Um so I I like to >> we we live to see where like takes. So um because without that I wouldn't be here. And then eventually it led me to speaking to really cool people like you and uh meeting athletes and you know this is what I do for a living which is um uh really rare and very cool. Um, so I don't take it for granted, but yeah, I have no idea what my future holds. I just hope that it's something good.

[00:41:18]>> Congratulations. Good.

[00:41:19]>> What do you think of the the future of like an East Bay or catalog?

[00:41:23]>> Like I said, I was devastated when it went away. Um, like one of my highlights of doing what I do was working with East Bay. Just I mean, I can't even tell you how cool it was to see my logo in your catalog. So, that that was one thing.

[00:41:38]Second thing, like we even like sold uh performance appro. You guys had I don't think people understand the Eastbay warehouse wasn't just um a shipping like place like it it was you guys had a full-on uh studio inside where you did all of the imagery and the video um all the editing. You guys had your own making jerseys and uniforms and all kinds of stuff. So, we sold apparel that was exclusive like wear testers and Eastbay apparel that was sold through the catalog and stuff. It was such a cool thing that is so unique uh even now like it just doesn't really exist. And so, I I would love somebody to somehow, you know, pick this up, but like I just don't know who to talk to or whatever.

[00:42:22]But like that that maybe would be my my next phase in life is to try and bring I guess the integrity back to things. You know what I mean? Like I feel like things are too I don't even know what the word is. It's just things are grimy.

[00:42:33]I like when things were grassroots and organic.

[00:42:37]>> That I love that story so much because there were so like we well we had so many people come in like Kevin playing from Under Armour and with a string shoe. They come in and pitch East Bay and say this is really a great product.

[00:42:51]We we should carry this. And uh we're retail maybe wouldn't have the room to do that. We did. Hopefully we helped a few people get get going. Uh, you definitely inspired me. That's the one thing that I tell to other content creators that are just starting out is like like you might think that you're the one weirdo, but there's a lot of people like you. So, the internet is the way to connect to to all of those people. I can't even that's that's how East Bay found us as a channel was that I just decided I had these magazines and I was like, I'm just going to make a video on East Bay magazines. So, I made I made Yeah, I made one and then all of a sudden I got an email from one of you guys and I was like, "Oh, wow. That was weird." So, um, so yeah, so it was just, you know, it was one of those things where, um, just being passionate about the one thing that you're interested in, whether it's sport or footwear, combining the two, like it could, you never know where it'll take you. So, um, good for you. So, yeah. So, thank thank you guys so much for being here. Um, I I really can't tell you that enough. I think that this is really cool and um, I'm just very appreciative. So, thank you so much. Is is there anywhere where um I know you guys might not be on social media, but is there anything that you guys would like to plug uh yourselves besid besides the book >> the book of East Bay just just so everybody knows everything any profits from a go-to childhood cancer fund called the little warriors. So which is um kind of dear for both of us. And uh anything else Rick?

[00:44:17]>> No, I just uh it was great to talk to you. It's great to see the younger generation doing great stuff. Doing great stuff. Yeah. Good for you. Yep.

[00:44:26]Thank you.

[00:44:26]>> Consider considering me the younger generation. It's funny.

[00:44:29]>> Yeah.

[00:44:30]>> I'm one of the older ones now.

[00:44:32]>> So, yeah, you should hear the names.

[00:44:35]They call me in the gym. I'm I'm the OG somehow.

[00:44:39]>> You're the guy standing outside. Feed me the ball so I can shoot. Yeah. It's a good guy.

[00:44:44]>> Yes. Yes. So, um but thank you guys for everything. I really appreciate it and um I'll make sure to link everything for the book and everything like that in the description box and so if anybody's interested >> definitely go check it out. It's it's awesome. So thank you once again.

[00:44:58]>> Thank you shorty for us too.

[00:45:00]>> Yeah, >> we'll do. We'll do.

[00:45:01]>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.