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Speaker 1: Last day of All Star Man, it's been a fun weekend, sir.

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Speaker 1: Good weekend man. Shout out to everyone who's participated from Uh.

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Speaker 2: We got what doctor j and Game. We got a

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Speaker 2: guest here.

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Speaker 1: We'll introduce him in a second, but great day at

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Speaker 1: a lighthouse yesterday. Shoutout Lighthouse. Yeah, Max Jr. Simba came

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Speaker 1: through Wawler Craig Hodges shout out DraftKings for the partnership

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Speaker 1: during the weekend. Yeah, there was a lot of stuff

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Speaker 1: going on. Money Line. This episode is present you by

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Speaker 1: money Line. Download the money Line app. Visit moneyline dot

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Speaker 1: com to learn more money Line Make money Easy. The

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Speaker 1: gentlemen I'm about to introduce. I was in disbelief when

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Speaker 1: we jumped on a call. What was that two months ago?

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Speaker 1: It was it about two months ago, because they told

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Speaker 1: me we were meeting with this particular person, and I'm thinking, like,

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Speaker 1: you're always gonna do do collapse with our merch. I'm like, yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: So I googled to see if there's another one of

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Speaker 1: this person and there's only him. So when I jumped

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Speaker 1: on and saw his face too, I'm like, there's no

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Speaker 1: way we're about to collab. But this is one of

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Speaker 1: the most influential people behind the scenes sneaker culture fashion.

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Speaker 1: The Kanye Whisperer had a hand in the Yeasy brand

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Speaker 1: at Adidas. Alongside with Yeay, He's worked with the likes

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Speaker 1: of Kobe Bryant, Tracey McGrady, O g Sonny Kerrol Reill,

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, Luca Beyonce. The name and the names continue

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Speaker 1: to go on. We're hoping he has story for days

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Speaker 1: and he's going to share some of those with us.

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, he recently collabed through DraftKings with

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Speaker 1: our drop our capsule for All Star twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Without further ado, let's welcome to the show, John Wexler.

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Speaker 3: Crazy.

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Speaker 4: Appreciate what an intro that I need to bring everywhere.

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Speaker 1: We've had a long as of guest. That was the

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Speaker 1: longest introduction I think I've I.

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Speaker 4: Appreciate you getting through. Yeah, no, for real, that was

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Speaker 4: I'm honored just to be here. Like I said, I'm

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Speaker 4: a huge fan of the content that you guys have

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Speaker 4: been creating, and uh, you know, just to be sitting

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Speaker 4: here I think I told you earlier. Yeah, it feels surreal.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate thank you for what would you say, obviously

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Speaker 1: a man of many hats and have helped a lot

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Speaker 1: of influential people in our culture, what would you say

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Speaker 1: your gift is.

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Speaker 4: I'm still trying to figure that out. I think I

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Speaker 4: just listened to what people are saying and try to

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Speaker 4: tell them the truth to what is happening and what

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Speaker 4: the consequences outcomes need to be when they asked me

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Speaker 4: a question, So instead of blowing smoke up their ass,

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Speaker 4: I just kind of shoot them straight and helps people

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Speaker 4: save time. And so a lot of those people you

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Speaker 4: listed in that intro, I can remember instances where they

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Speaker 4: would you know. For instance, with Pharrell Arthur Holding Now,

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Speaker 4: we're backstage at the Voice kind of just talking to

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Speaker 4: him about what we're going to do for the following year,

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Speaker 4: and he mentioned someone that he wanted to bring back

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Speaker 4: to the brand and I was like, actually, we're not

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Speaker 4: going to do that. And he was like, I've been

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Speaker 4: bringing this person up for six months and other meetings

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Speaker 4: and it's just been people getting quiet. And I go, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 4: that's the corporate way of people saying no. That's the

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Speaker 4: silent no in corporate. I'm like, I'm just shooting you

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Speaker 4: straight man. We're not going to do it. Everyone with

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Speaker 4: that person before and it's like we can't get it done.

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Speaker 4: And he was like I love you, right, and I

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Speaker 4: was like yeah, okay, you know, and it just was

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Speaker 4: like normal part of doing business.

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Speaker 1: But I also think too, because when you get to

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Speaker 1: that level of work in brands and caliber of people,

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Speaker 1: they don't hear a ton of nos you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean. They don't hear a ton of nose from

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Speaker 1: people that they can trust and lean on. And if

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Speaker 1: you're one of those truth tellers type people, I mean

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Speaker 1: I get I give that a lot of respect as well.

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Speaker 4: True, yeah, my job.

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Speaker 3: I mean.

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Speaker 4: I remember in twenty four thirteen, right after Kanye signed

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Speaker 4: the deal and actually announced it on that Angie Martinez show.

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Speaker 4: It was like the morning he interviewed with Charlemagne and

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Speaker 4: called me and was like, I didn't leak it, And

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Speaker 4: then he went on Angie in the afternoon.

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Speaker 2: And it leaked it.

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Speaker 4: He leaked it, but it was great. I was like

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Speaker 4: the world finally heard. But then he set up at

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Speaker 4: our New York office and there was like a line

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Speaker 4: of reporters out the door, and it kind of shut

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Speaker 4: down the team's ability to work in our new York office.

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Speaker 4: So the office called me and said, hey, can you

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Speaker 4: find another studio for him? And this was like the

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Speaker 4: first week of the partnership, and so I found another

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Speaker 4: studio for him. My friend Teddy Luliakis came to the rescue.

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Speaker 4: Shout out Teddy, and I called Kanye and I was like, hey, man,

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Speaker 4: how's it going in there? Actually, first I called Nick

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Speaker 4: Allain and I was like, how's the vibe in there?

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Speaker 4: He goes, Oh my god, I've never seen anything like this.

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Speaker 4: Kanye turned this whole office into this amazing, like multi

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Speaker 4: like creative space, and it's this amazing studio and the

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Speaker 4: energy here it's amazing. We have these sewing machines. It

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Speaker 4: was a beautiful moment. And I was like, okay, cool,

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Speaker 4: I have to call him right now and ask him

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Speaker 4: to leave. He's like, oh, he's not going to do that.

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Speaker 4: And I hung up the phone and I called Kanye

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Speaker 4: and I remember my leg like twitching while I'm calling him,

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Speaker 4: because you know, it's like an uncomfortable Calmo, And I'm like,

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Speaker 4: hey man, it's not just my job to tell you

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Speaker 4: to get news house. I got to tell you the

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Speaker 4: bad I need you to get out of there. And

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Speaker 4: I have another place for you to go to. It's

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Speaker 4: like a couple of blocks away. We set up at

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Speaker 4: eight am and he said, oh, no way, this place

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Speaker 4: is amazing. You don't understand. He talked for another ten minutes,

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Speaker 4: and I got dude, I just gotta shoot you straight.

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Speaker 4: I got to get you the fuck out of there.

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Speaker 4: And he goes, all right, fuck it, and he handed

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Speaker 4: the phone to Virgil, and so that I was like, Virgil,

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Speaker 4: don't worry, I got the studio. We're moving all this

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Speaker 4: stuff out.

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Speaker 3: It'll be there tomorrow.

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Speaker 4: And sure enough it was all set the next day.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, my job was also that no guy, I'm

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Speaker 4: telling people the hard news. And I've had many of

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Speaker 4: those convos. I'm a firm believer that when you have

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Speaker 4: those discussions that they if you have in the right

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Speaker 4: way and a way where mutual respect is shown, that

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Speaker 4: you can actually get closer through those moments then create

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Speaker 4: more distance. And I think that that is the sort

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Speaker 4: of the one of the things that was the key

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Speaker 4: to my sauce. Kanye would say that my secret ability

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Speaker 4: was getting him to He would always say to like

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Speaker 4: the senior executive Vida's hit, my job was to get

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Speaker 4: him to approve shoes and say yes to our ideas

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Speaker 4: and figure out how and sometimes that would happen in

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Speaker 4: a minute, and sometimes that would happen over a course.

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Speaker 2: Of a year and a half.

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Speaker 4: But you know, I was also the uh he told

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Speaker 4: Ronnie fig once it was his uh white boy skinny

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Speaker 4: approved news. Unless I wore the shoe, I would not

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Speaker 4: get get made.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, that's funny.

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Speaker 4: Ronnie called me. He goes, bro, you're not gonna believe this.

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Speaker 4: I was like, he said to me his thing, and

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Speaker 4: he goes yeah.

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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, yeah, I heard it.

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Speaker 3: Can't be surprised with what he said. Let's stuff with Kanye,

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Speaker 3: all right. Read this tweet from five years ago, Yay wrote,

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Speaker 3: after you left Adidas, God speak to my brother John Wesley.

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Speaker 3: This man changed the game with the Adidas deal and

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Speaker 3: helped bring Adidas to a to a sixty two billion

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Speaker 3: dollar market camp and made me a multi a multi billionaire.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, John, you changed my life. How do you

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Speaker 3: feel when you hear that?

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's a it's a real nice acknowledgment of

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Speaker 4: of what what went down and what we were able

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Speaker 4: to accomplish. You know, as a as a kid, who

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Speaker 4: grew up in Chicago suburbs during the era of the

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Speaker 4: Bulls and their their heyday and watching the Jordan brand

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Speaker 4: blow up and being one of those kids who bought

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Speaker 4: him at Athlete's Foot when that was in the mall

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Speaker 4: at the Northbrook Court. You know, like literally five different

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Speaker 4: sneaker shops that could compete at a thing called malls,

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Speaker 4: which are now on your phone. So anyway, but yeah,

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Speaker 4: I mean so I've always loved that brand and sort

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Speaker 4: of be able to build something with the cultural equivalent

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Speaker 4: at that moment in time. You know, it was lightning

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Speaker 4: in a bottle and we captured a very special thing.

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Speaker 4: So for me, it's almost impossible to put into words,

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Speaker 4: but that tweet when it came was special to me

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Speaker 4: because I'd already left the brand. Oh that was just

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Speaker 4: an acknowledgment of the announcement when it finally went out.

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Speaker 4: I was living in Cody, Wyoming in twenty twenty working

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Speaker 4: on the building the space out there, and I had

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Speaker 4: a ranch, he had a ranch. The whole team was

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Speaker 4: out there. We built up this factory ish space that

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Speaker 4: was like a more of a sample lab where he

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Speaker 4: built those first phone runners that shipped with his Gap launch,

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Speaker 4: But so I was living out there and it was

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Speaker 4: like a week before COVID and my brother called me

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Speaker 4: and told me that he had gotten ill with cancer

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Speaker 4: stayed four brain cancer. So I actually pulled out right then.

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Speaker 4: It was like two days before Rudy touched all the mics,

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Speaker 4: so I was in New York for that, and so

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Speaker 4: when that tweet hit, actually not spoken to him for

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Speaker 4: a couple of months at that point because I was

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Speaker 4: like already with caregiving and stuff like that. So it

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Speaker 4: was just really nice that that went out. You know,

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Speaker 4: it's kind of didn't expect it and totally out of

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Speaker 4: the blue. I remember as I started at Shopify though,

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Speaker 4: it was really funny because they were like, yo, the

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Speaker 4: announcement went great. It was the most Google searches you've

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Speaker 4: had for your name in a long time. And I

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Speaker 4: was like, that could because Kanye tweeted John Lexo changed

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Speaker 4: my life or something.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 4: They were like, oh, yeah, sorry, because you know, he

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Speaker 4: didn't at me, he just put my name in there.

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Speaker 4: Someone was like, who's this John Wexley guy. You know,

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Speaker 4: I thought that was kind of funny, but yeah, the

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Speaker 4: guy was. It was a special moment in time those

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Speaker 4: eight years, and you know, we built that business. When

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Speaker 4: I left it was one point eight billion, and then launching,

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Speaker 4: oh sorry, launching twenty fifteen February, Adida's market cap was

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Speaker 4: twelve and their stock was like twenty seven. And at

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Speaker 4: the point of that tweet, when I officially was gone,

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Speaker 4: their market cap was sixty. So that's whatever that difference

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Speaker 4: is in billions and value to a brand, And you know,

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Speaker 4: Yeezy was one point eight of that, but the halo

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Speaker 4: that it had on that brand even today, the perception

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Speaker 4: of people is based on that moment. And the truth

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Speaker 4: is is that in twenty twelve, when I was given

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Speaker 4: the green light to attempt to sign him, which took

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Speaker 4: about a year, Adidas was it was Nike one, Jordan

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Speaker 4: two or I'm sorry, Nike under Armour, Sketchers Jordan Adidas Wow.

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Speaker 4: So we're the fifth largest sneaker brand at that time,

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Speaker 4: and the brand's business would go in the wrong direction.

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Speaker 4: We were reporting in euros to the stock market where

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Speaker 4: our market cap was twelve. I'm still I'm still surprised

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Speaker 4: that like a VC didn't come in and strip the

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Speaker 4: company down and do what they've done to other sneaker companies. Recently,

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Speaker 4: so we got very lucky. Oh look at you guys.

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Speaker 3: Pull it up. Let's see, what was it. Fifteen?

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Speaker 4: You were twelve? Twenty fifteen was the day we launched.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's thirty and nine. And then okay, five

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Speaker 3: years later when you leave.

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Speaker 4: Whatever that data that tweet was yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like yeah five times.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, the market cap went from twelve to sixty. So

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Speaker 4: I sailed out to say Kanye was the first guy

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Speaker 4: that wore the boos shoes ultra booze, and that was

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Speaker 4: obviously a huge thing for Adidas in twenty fifteen, and

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Speaker 4: it blew up. But I remember being on a phone

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Speaker 4: call with the presidents of foot Locker worldwide two weeks

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Speaker 4: before that launch because I was the only one who

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Speaker 4: knew the plan for Easy. I was the one who

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Speaker 4: was saying to Kanye, we're going to launch the app,

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Speaker 4: You're to come out from behind the curtain. You're gonna

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Speaker 4: have the shoes to kids, because in that era, you know,

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Speaker 4: kind of like how Nike just restored the feeling out

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Speaker 4: here this weekend with like those I mean, you know,

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Speaker 4: sneaker fights were always a bad thing then now it's

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Speaker 4: kind of like, oh, sneaker lines are back, kids are fighting,

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Speaker 4: and it's like sneaker love is back. So it's kind

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Speaker 4: of weird industry.

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Speaker 1: But take us back to that initial phone call with

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Speaker 1: him in August of twenty twelve, when you said you

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Speaker 1: attempted to sign him. What was the backstory to that?

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Speaker 1: Was something you shot to the brand they shot to.

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Speaker 1: You wered the idea of, so let's try to get him.

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Speaker 4: I'm glad you asked that. Shay Pope, who was running

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Speaker 4: Good Music, called Todd Krinsky, who was at Reebokadada's own

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Speaker 4: Reebok at the time, their partners before ABG took him.

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Speaker 4: And Todd called me and said, I've known Shaye all

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Speaker 4: my life. He said, Kanye is frustrated at Nike. He's

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Speaker 4: ready to leave. And I was like, ah, we need

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Speaker 4: to work with him, like we need that, and Todd

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Speaker 4: was like, all right, let me talk to Shae. And

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Speaker 4: then Todd talked to Shay and sure enough, my phone

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Speaker 4: rang a couple like a month later, and it was

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Speaker 4: Kanye and it was that phone call you're talking about.

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Speaker 4: And he talked for about an hour about his vision

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Speaker 4: and about everything he wanted to do, and you know,

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Speaker 4: kind of laid out the plan, and it was such

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Speaker 4: a scattered call I couldn't really take notes. So then

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Speaker 4: the next day we got it back on the phone.

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Speaker 4: That time I was ready kind of like had a

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Speaker 4: piece of paper with like, all right, these are the

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Speaker 4: topics he said yesterday when he talks about him again,

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Speaker 4: kind of put that in phone in an organized way

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Speaker 4: so I can get the team understand it. And we

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Speaker 4: put the deal together and then he passed, so he

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Speaker 4: said no. And so now fast forward to June twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 4: He's now on tour with Jesus. He's done all that stuff,

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Speaker 4: and we're shooting an ad out here in La for

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Speaker 4: Derek ros Shoe and I actually have a cameo in it,

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Speaker 4: and it's with Common Big Sean uh Tiva Jefferson shot

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Speaker 4: the photos for it. Dom Kennedy is in it, and

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Speaker 4: two Chains is in it. And I remember saying to

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Speaker 4: my lawyer that night, I go, I bet Kanye calls

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Speaker 4: me tomorrow morning, because all these good music dudes are

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Speaker 4: going to go to his house tonight and he's to say,

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Speaker 4: why are you here, And he's gonna say, I met

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Speaker 4: this Adidas ad and he's going to think about the deal,

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Speaker 4: and sure enough, the next day I woke up to

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Speaker 4: eight miss phone calls from him and we n spoken

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Speaker 4: in a couple of months, and that was when he says,

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Speaker 4: John Wexler saved my life. The phone call he's talking

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Speaker 4: about is that call, because on that call, he's like, John,

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Speaker 4: I cannot sleep, I can't eat, Like this deal is

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Speaker 4: affecting my life, Like we have to get this done.

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Speaker 4: I cannot like function. I have all these designs in

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Speaker 4: my head. I can't get my ideas to the world,

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Speaker 4: like imagine how you would feel if you were that

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Speaker 4: guy and you knew what like if only people listen

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Speaker 4: to you sooner kind of thing. And so I was like, look, man,

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Speaker 4: perfect timing. Look at that, Look man, perfect timing. Like

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Speaker 4: let's go get it. And so we put the deal

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Speaker 4: back together and that was June, So Fashion Week New

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Speaker 4: York Fashion Week. In September, I go from the Y

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Speaker 4: three show to Jimmy Fallon where he's rehearsing for Bound,

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Speaker 4: and we kind of like drafted up the deal at all.

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Speaker 4: The German execs already come into town for Y three

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Speaker 4: for that show.

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Speaker 2: How did you sell that real quick?

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Speaker 1: Not to cut you off that that the German, I

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Speaker 1: mean German company, the leadership, How did you sell the

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Speaker 1: black cultural side where they kind of just hey, we

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Speaker 1: need something?

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Speaker 2: What was what was the cell there?

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Speaker 4: So to win in the sneaker market, you have to

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Speaker 4: win in North America and all things start here. So

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Speaker 4: that was like step one. The the CMO of Adidas

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Speaker 4: at the time, this guy named Hermann Dininger and he

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Speaker 4: came to my office and he said, should we sign

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Speaker 4: Kanye And I said yes, And then he brought in

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Speaker 4: two other people and they fence sat and he said

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Speaker 4: we can either sign him, we can let him keep

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Speaker 4: killing us at Nike, or we can shoot him. And

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Speaker 4: I was like, well, we're clearly not going to shoot him,

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Speaker 4: so let me go sign him. And then he said, okay,

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Speaker 4: go sign them or you're fired. And I said, all right, Herman,

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Speaker 4: I understand what I get if I don't sign them,

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Speaker 4: But what do I get if I do? Right, Because

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Speaker 4: two years prior to that he said the same thing

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Speaker 4: to me about Justin Bieber. I went and signed him

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Speaker 4: and all it did was create more work for me,

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Speaker 4: and the brand we put Justin on went from two

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Speaker 4: undred and fifty million to a billion. So we knew

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Speaker 4: that there was an opportunity to work with folks of

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Speaker 4: that community that have controversy, but also an audience that's

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Speaker 4: super locked in audience. And so Germany the team out there, Herman,

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Speaker 4: that crew, there was no resistance to any of that.

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Speaker 4: And truth be told, with the run DMC legacy, Adidas

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Speaker 4: was the only brand that really had the legitimate.

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Speaker 2: Sort of got it, they understood it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so and all those guys were there. Then it's

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Speaker 4: like it's a un company in Germany where you never leave.

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Speaker 4: It's not like America. Yeah, yeah, my first Oh they

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Speaker 4: opened the door. And so like that was the thing

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Speaker 4: with culture. Like in two thousand and eight, I went

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Speaker 4: to my boss and said, look, we're investing in all

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Speaker 4: these athletes. We have two point two billion dollars and

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Speaker 4: fixed assets against all these sports teams and whatever, and

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Speaker 4: we're gonna lay out money on like nine different NBA

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Speaker 4: draftees or NFL draft's, but we're not going to do

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Speaker 4: the same thing in the cultural space. I called run

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Speaker 4: DMC for an ad Eric Blam hung up the phone.

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Speaker 4: He goes, let me call you back, call me back.

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Speaker 4: Ten minutes later, he goes John no One from the

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Speaker 4: brand's called me in twenty years, I had to make

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Speaker 4: sure you really worked there. So anyway, fix that in

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Speaker 4: two thousand and eight. Yeah, So, like the cultural thing

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Speaker 4: was always like Adido's had a deep legacy in there

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Speaker 4: and uh so fortunately run DMC was in the first

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Speaker 4: ad we did for originals since they got out of

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Speaker 4: the helicopter with the y vintage stuff in the eighties.

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Speaker 1: What does what's the definition of culture for you? Because

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Speaker 1: you've been entrenched in it.

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Speaker 4: This the swirl of just rebellious attitude. I remember, like

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Speaker 4: the thing that triggered me with hip hop, it got

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Speaker 4: me to love it and wanted DJ as a kid

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Speaker 4: was like just it sounded like all the influences in

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Speaker 4: my life callide from punk to like R and B.

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Speaker 4: You know, I was listening to you know, radio music,

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Speaker 4: so at that time in the eighties, it was all

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Speaker 4: these different things happening. And then run DMC came out

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Speaker 4: and it was like rock meets punk meets like heavy

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Speaker 4: metal all at once, you know, King of Rock. So

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Speaker 4: I was immediately hooked. And you know, if you were

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Speaker 4: to look at pictures of me from growing up, like

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Speaker 4: you used to have a flat top, I mean you'd

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Speaker 4: crack up. I thought I was. I thought I was

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Speaker 4: like the fourth.

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Speaker 1: DC or something. So yeah, funny. Yeah, Kanye mentioned he

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Speaker 1: was unhappy and Nike. Did he mention the reason why

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Speaker 1: because the easy ones and twos were unbelievably popular, successful

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Speaker 1: for a lot of money. Yeah, was there a reason

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Speaker 1: he pointed out that he wasn't happy.

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Speaker 4: So the thing that was funny about him is that

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Speaker 4: the first time he went there, according to the stories

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Speaker 4: he's told me from memory, is that they kicked him

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Speaker 4: off campus because they just wanted to put like lyrics

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Speaker 4: inside of a shoe, and he commented negatively about the shoes,

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Speaker 4: so they kicked him out. And then he was on

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Speaker 4: some private out with Mark Parker, who ran the company,

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Speaker 4: and started showing his designs, and that's how those Nike

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Speaker 4: projects came out. The thing that frustrated him, though, I

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Speaker 4: think was the fact that those at that point in time,

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Speaker 4: there was no financial benefit to him and there was

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Speaker 4: no equitable reciprocity for the effort and energy that he

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Speaker 4: was giving them or cachet to his audience and culture.

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Speaker 4: And so there was that, and then there was also

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Speaker 4: sort of the sandbox aspect. So like the first Nike Easies,

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Speaker 4: he did were based off of existing outsols, not to

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Speaker 4: get into the sausage making, but it wasn't a totally

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Speaker 4: new shoe for instance, like they would take the bottom

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Speaker 4: of that Air Force one and put his shoe on top.

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Speaker 4: But it was like I think an air raid from

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Speaker 4: like one of the tennis shoes, if I'm not mistaken.

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Speaker 4: So for us, we gave him the full sandbox. We

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Speaker 4: gave him the full creative leeway. In fact, when I

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Speaker 4: took him to the Germany office, he grabbed me and goes,

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Speaker 4: it was right after this Way thing, And I took

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Speaker 4: him in our materials library and he goes, see, these

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Speaker 4: are the answers Sway does not have, and I would

403
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Speaker 4: this is to that. So I always made sure people

404
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 4: were riding next to me when you come to the office,

405
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,919
Speaker 4: because it was like we knew what we were doing

406
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Speaker 4: was history in the making, every minute of it, and

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Speaker 4: that's why we treated it so carefully. And it was

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Speaker 4: like precious, you know, to us, and still is really

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Speaker 4: like me and Jim and Rachel, we're all still in touch.

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Speaker 4: I haven't spoken to Nick too much, but like that

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Speaker 4: initial crew and the rest of the team from it

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Speaker 4: on the Adida side obviously, and then on the Easy

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Speaker 4: Crew you know, rest in peace Virgil for sure, and

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Speaker 4: then like Jerry and Ivan. I mean I just saw

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Speaker 4: Ivan the other night, and Don I've been texting with

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Speaker 4: still recently. But you know, it's just all dope people.

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously Kanye the artists, incredible, Kanye the man, complicated, misunderstood.

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Speaker 1: You've got to see kind of all aspects of him.

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Speaker 1: What is some things that you don't mind sharing about

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Speaker 1: his genius, his greatness him that we wouldn't get to

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Speaker 1: see on the outside.

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Speaker 4: I think everybody sees everything from that. No, I'm just kidding.

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Speaker 4: There was a lot of things that happened that were like,

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Speaker 4: for instance, you get to hear everything evolving over time

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Speaker 4: on the music side while we were having discussions in

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Speaker 4: the same room about sneaker stuff and the boards everywhere.

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Speaker 4: And I always thought that, like you know, swirl of

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Speaker 4: the energy to it was what made it so cool

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Speaker 4: because it added to the overall Like I don't know

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Speaker 4: if it's competitive nature, just like people just pushing each

431
00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:30,640
Speaker 4: other further. So like you hear him going so hard

432
00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,720
Speaker 4: on the music you want, like that dre Eminem remix

433
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:35,919
Speaker 4: of that album that he made with the Blue what

434
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 4: was it the God album? That was the gospel album,

435
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,240
Speaker 4: Like we heard that in the car and Cody five

436
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:43,440
Speaker 4: thousand times, you know, I'm full blast. And then two

437
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 4: years later he lets it go. Or I remember when

438
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,200
Speaker 4: we were listening to the Yandy album that never came

439
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:53,879
Speaker 4: out in Chicago, you know, and then that same album

440
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:55,639
Speaker 4: that came out when we were in Cody comes out

441
00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 4: and I remember one of the songs on the album

442
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,120
Speaker 4: and when the drums came out, he looked at me

443
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,159
Speaker 4: and he saw me like waiting for the drums that

444
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,040
Speaker 4: never came and he goes, yeah, we took those out,

445
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:06,000
Speaker 4: but like so you know what I mean. It was

446
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaker 4: like we were so like sort of in those moments

447
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,960
Speaker 4: with him flying to the Bahamas after the hurricane with

448
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 4: Rick Fox, crazy memory, just kind of to see the

449
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,680
Speaker 4: world over there because Rick Fox is like Elvis Presley

450
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 4: over there, which I had no idea. Just the behind

451
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,679
Speaker 4: the scenes of MSG season three. That was another epic memory.

452
00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 4: And then you know, obviously like going to this house

453
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 4: in January and unveiling what we're going to do from

454
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,200
Speaker 4: a marketing standpoint to help him support first season and

455
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:34,840
Speaker 4: seeing that thing go out with such power and then

456
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 4: standing next to the president foot locker in our CMO

457
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 4: and him turn to Adidas and say, this will never

458
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,560
Speaker 4: help my consumer And then he looked at me and

459
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 4: I'm like, it's gonna work, man. So you know, even

460
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,639
Speaker 4: in that moment, people were doubting it. So it's just

461
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 4: nice to always.

462
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:54,480
Speaker 3: This was the launch of Easy three.

463
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:56,600
Speaker 4: That was Easy season three. Yeah, that's where the three

464
00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 4: fifty v two came out, and that was the select

465
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,919
Speaker 4: He twenty four hours a night painting the boot that

466
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,479
Speaker 4: never came out, the Grail, the ten fifty Pablo listening session.

467
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 4: So we gave out seats through our store. Tickets sold

468
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:19,880
Speaker 4: out all of MSG, and Kanye unveiled all the apparel

469
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,440
Speaker 4: for season three. Vanessa bee Croft died the show and

470
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 4: it was lamar Odom's first day kind of back in

471
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 4: the real world. He was there, it was his whole family.

472
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 4: Was probably the happiest I ever saw Kanye man. It was

473
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 4: like him and Dancie couldn't find the door to the venue.

474
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,639
Speaker 4: They were like running around the outside. Have you ever

475
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,720
Speaker 4: tried to get an MSG? You know what I'm talking about.

476
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:42,639
Speaker 4: It's like you can on the door. He was like

477
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 4: almost late to his own listening session and like his

478
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:49,679
Speaker 4: pants weren't done.

479
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 3: Expense.

480
00:22:56,440 --> 00:23:02,480
Speaker 4: So yeah, absolutely, I mean ultimately we dropped. We did

481
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 4: a single drop with one point four million pairs of

482
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 4: one of the shoes in twenty September twenty first, twenty eighteen.

483
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 4: I believe we had all those dancers on the covers

484
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 4: of New York Times wearing the triple Why Easy did

485
00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:22,719
Speaker 4: three hundred and fifty million twenty four hours two websites

486
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 4: Adda's dot com, Backslash Easy, and easysupply dot Com. Yeah,

487
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 4: so that was the ultimate goal. But you know, to

488
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 4: get to that point in time and to sometimes you

489
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 4: have to like pull back the spring to build that

490
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 4: demand before or not. Sometimes if you want to do

491
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,360
Speaker 4: that business right, the point of that is to always

492
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,719
Speaker 4: have a little bit of unrecoided love that people have

493
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 4: to keep chasing. I mean, even with one point four

494
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:51,719
Speaker 4: million pairs of that shoe going out that day, there

495
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,879
Speaker 4: are still people to this day that couldn't get that shoe,

496
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,719
Speaker 4: you know. And that was also the third time we

497
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 4: restocked that dope, so it's pretty fun. Yeah, that was

498
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,120
Speaker 4: a year. So anyway, like lots of moments that are

499
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,880
Speaker 4: like business but also the personal side. Actually, the funnest

500
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 4: thing was this was the funnest moment I had it easy.

501
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,880
Speaker 4: Rachel and I got to go to the Footwear News

502
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 4: Awards with Arthur and Kanye and eighty eight Keys and

503
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 4: his team. We got You with the Year. Kanye gave

504
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 4: me this beautiful shout out after he just kind of

505
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 4: like looked over his shoulder and I was like, oh, yeah,

506
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,159
Speaker 4: I got to do this real quick. And then we

507
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 4: went to dinner with them, and then he's like, let's

508
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,199
Speaker 4: go to the studio. And we went to the studio

509
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,200
Speaker 4: and listened to the Pablo like beginnings of the album

510
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 4: for the first time. It was just cool to see that, like,

511
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 4: all in a twenty four hour period.

512
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,359
Speaker 2: I made an appearance on that album accidentally.

513
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 4: How how some shit I had done? Oh okay, I

514
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 4: didn't know that. I didn't mean to anybody. Yeah, back

515
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,400
Speaker 4: in the day, it was probably worth it.

516
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was cool.

517
00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:58,200
Speaker 3: Yeah.

518
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 4: I didn't make any appearances on any of us. No,

519
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:02,639
Speaker 4: But for real, I think that, like there was just

520
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,400
Speaker 4: such a surreal twist to every single moment of that

521
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 4: and you know, can't it'll It'll live sometime at some

522
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 4: point in a movie somewhere.

523
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 3: Absolutely a lot of people say Easy laid the groundwork

524
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 3: for at a lot of brands aesthetic and style the

525
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 3: same colorways and with the minimalist logo hits. What do

526
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 3: you think about that?

527
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 4: I think those people are pretty spot on. I think

528
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 4: the color palette of the last twelve years and the

529
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 4: brands that have taken that and run with it have

530
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 4: all done exceptionally well. And the sort of nature of

531
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,200
Speaker 4: how he built a peril in the design language of

532
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,919
Speaker 4: what he did, for sure, and apparel has continued. I

533
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 4: think it's sneakers though it's definitely like gone the other direction,

534
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 4: like he kind of that that spring with sneakers is

535
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:50,440
Speaker 4: kind of like the trend of the rubber band and

536
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 4: kind of snapped back past it to like sort of

537
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 4: course stuff again. So you know, like getting accessible things

538
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 4: are cool now versus getting the limited like futuristic crazy

539
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 4: design that whole thing has. You kind of need people

540
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 4: who can legitimize that authentically, and so now the brands

541
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 4: are going a little safer, I think. But he disrupted

542
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:14,400
Speaker 4: the whole industry and uh oh yeah, and it needs

543
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 4: it again. I mean I think that like right now,

544
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 4: you know you're seeing a lot of sort of like

545
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,399
Speaker 4: switching of people and brands they're with and stuff. But

546
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 4: that's just like more of the same. I think someone

547
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 4: needs to like shake it up.

548
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,199
Speaker 1: Is there a person you think that's not in the

549
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 1: mix right now? Do you think has that kind of

550
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 1: star power and everything? Do you feel like to really

551
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: disrupt this space right now?

552
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 4: Definitely? But brands pay me for that. No, I'm just kidding.

553
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 4: I'm not kidding, but I know I would say Playboy

554
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 4: CARDI is like if he isn't already signed by someone,

555
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 4: that's like I don't know who's asleep at the wheel

556
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 4: on that really. I mean I know that like the

557
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 4: dude has some stuff with under armor, might have something

558
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,399
Speaker 4: there or there, but like that he hasn't had a

559
00:26:58,200 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 4: brand make a play with him.

560
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 2: That that's not our like we're not in that space.

561
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 4: He would have the kids like, Yeah, I mean I

562
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 4: think so interesting.

563
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:09,880
Speaker 2: I think so I wouldn't let against you.

564
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wouldn't bet against She's just shocking to me, though, it's.

565
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,440
Speaker 4: Surprising to me that I think he's got that same

566
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 4: thing that well whatever, I don't want to Yeah, yeah,

567
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 4: I was in a brand right now and I wasn't

568
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 4: making that happen, or I would also look at for Zerta.

569
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 4: But anyway, because they you know, seeing like Payso go

570
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:37,199
Speaker 4: from Nike to Adidas and then it's like Adidas has

571
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 4: bad Bunny working with them too. So I'm assuming Paso

572
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 4: is going to work with a channel for them, or

573
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 4: with a certain retailer or with a certain product. But

574
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:51,680
Speaker 4: other brands are seating that whole market to Adidas and

575
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 4: it's a great demo for them too.

576
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 5: There's a lot of it, like there's been a lot

577
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 5: of people. Independent people aren't will to do this, like Kai.

578
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 5: You know, how hard is it for an individual person

579
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:08,919
Speaker 5: in the shoe game to bring a shoe to market,

580
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 5: Like I'm just gonna ring.

581
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,360
Speaker 4: It's the biggest pirit. That's That's the thing why most

582
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 4: people start with soft goods sneakers with every half size,

583
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:18,960
Speaker 4: it's like you're pouring fifty thousand dollars worth of steal

584
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 4: into a mold to get That's why you guys probably

585
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 4: have dealt with like why isn't this in the size

586
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,120
Speaker 4: fourteen and up from the brands I played for or with,

587
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 4: you know, And it's because those shoes cost exponentially more

588
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 4: to make because they don't end up it's it's sausage making.

589
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 4: Sorry I got a little too into that, but sneakers

590
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 4: have the highest barrier of entry of any product class.

591
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 4: It's it's definitely, I mean other than a car or something.

592
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 4: That's it. It's difficult to uh, yeah, you have to

593
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 4: have a few successes in a row for sure to

594
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 4: keep it going. And mostly sneaker companies. I mean, that

595
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 4: was the thing that Kanye was we had to help

596
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 4: him understand, was that, like the sneaker companies don't own

597
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 4: their own factories. They just work around the world and

598
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 4: find production where they find the best, you know, people

599
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 4: with the skill set for what needs to be made,

600
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 4: and so you know, that's that's no different for any industry. So, like,

601
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 4: those costs are somewhat fixed and unless you can serve

602
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 4: them up great volume, you know, you will have a

603
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 4: lot of costs. Yeah, it's like fifty K perhap size.

604
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 4: So that's why like when Adidas would do like a

605
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 4: fashion shoe or even I think maybe even with the

606
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 4: seven to fifty when it came out, I can't recall

607
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 4: we did full sizes only. So it's just like a

608
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 4: cost efficiency thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. They're

609
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 4: used to for they were usually four to fourteen. That's

610
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 4: why like certain brands like air Force, they might go

611
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 4: to twenty or a superstar might go to twenty that

612
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 4: you're gonna be hard pressed to get like the shoes

613
00:29:54,800 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 4: that you like a Travis you know, right right, That's

614
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Yeah, because it's super costly for the

615
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 4: even for a major to do that, so let alone

616
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 4: an independent.

617
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's take it back to you to young Wicks. Yeah,

618
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 3: I was in the league as well. Yeah, yes, got

619
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 3: a chance to work with Kobe and Trason McGrady for Shure.

620
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,719
Speaker 3: I actually wore these nice in the Star Rookie All

621
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 3: Star Games. Yes, ye, those were the All Star colors.

622
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,520
Speaker 3: How was it working with those guys? So I was

623
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 3: the That was my first job at Adida. This is crazy.

624
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 3: It's two thousand. Were you under Sonny?

625
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 4: Sonny? My first order given to me from Jimmy Gaddo

626
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 4: and uh, who else is running it? Jimmy was obviously

627
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 4: Sonny is like dude, we were like in basketball, person

628
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 4: and the whole team rivers. I was told to send

629
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 4: twelve hundred jackets to Sonny's house, and then of course,

630
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 4: like I was at the NCAAs and all that stuff

631
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 4: because Sonny was like running ABCD ab CD jackets. So yeah, Sonny,

632
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 4: for sure. We had a trophy that got handed around

633
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 4: to the team for best member, called the Tut Tut

634
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 4: Best So yeah, the fan is great, Thank those guys. Actually,

635
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 4: uh so this shoe. I think we did like two

636
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 4: thousand pairs of these for All Star, if I'm not mistaken.

637
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 4: I was the guy who keyed these in, like literally

638
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 4: created the samples, like shipped them to reps, like that

639
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 4: was my job. I was the guy going on Saturday

640
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 4: to be like, what was the unsold? How do we

641
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 4: sell more of them? My first shoe before this, though,

642
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 4: is actually called the Mad Handle, which was made of

643
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 4: the same material that. Yeah, they re released it this

644
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 4: year with like a big piece in the middle to

645
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 4: make it more like bulbous to that whole trend that

646
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 4: was going on. But yeah, the Mad Handle, And that

647
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 4: was t Mac's first like unreleased signature or unsignature signature.

648
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 4: But uh, Kobe was like eighteen league this or nineteen,

649
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 4: and I remember we went and met with him for

650
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 4: an apparel meeting and it was like on the hood

651
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 4: of Rob Polinka's car ar because Polenka was his agent

652
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 4: at the time and like it was in his garage.

653
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 4: He didn't want to come to the office and Kobe

654
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 4: was like trying to. He was telling us about the

655
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 4: coast Guard like sharks, and so that's where this. I

656
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 4: think this color was like something about a shark or something.

657
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 4: I remember correct, but John Nakel would remember that way

658
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 4: better than me. But yeah, this shoe special man. I

659
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 4: still have the Sunshine one. The metal mesh one was

660
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 4: my favorite, and I think Lawrence Norman gave me the red,

661
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 4: white and blue ones to mail him for the All

662
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 4: Star and then he gave a pair to Lebron. I

663
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 4: think because Laura Mary or high school Lebron is that

664
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 4: we were doing his high school too. I also do

665
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:42,719
Speaker 4: those pro models with like the patent leathers.

666
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, those that was my brief toe like the Age

667
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 3: of Centers, A Gang of Ship too, your Family, your

668
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 3: home boy and I missed.

669
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: They gave me the spending on on the website too.

670
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had those of U C.

671
00:32:58,440 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 3: L A.

672
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: So we went from Reebok to UCLA. We had a

673
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: chance to be a Jordan brand school, but then we

674
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: became the biggest Adidas school in the country, I think

675
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: our sophomore year, so we started getting all the Kobe's

676
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: and all that kind of Yeah.

677
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,200
Speaker 4: I still have a huge ARKive of it, like Kobe

678
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 4: and t mac like actually more Kobe stuff though, like

679
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 4: photos of him at ABCD that he autographed, like hard photos.

680
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 4: You know, it's like you can't money can't buy type level.

681
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 4: It's crazy.

682
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 2: What is it like working with though?

683
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: I mean those guys were really young in the space,

684
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: and obviously you know you're just getting your start in

685
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: the space, like where where's the balance from what they

686
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: want and being able to actually put something together.

687
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 4: Well, the Kobe too, is a good case that I

688
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 4: think that like, which you know, that was kind of

689
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 4: like the end of the Kobe with Adida's relationship. So

690
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 4: I'm not sure who won or who lost on that

691
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 4: design part, because again, I was like the guy who

692
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 4: was like running reports and making sure. I remember when

693
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 4: I brought the Tracy McGrady for shoot to the to

694
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 4: the I'm seeing they were like, oh my god, we

695
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 4: actually have shoes for the person to wearing the ad.

696
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 4: We've never had this before. Yeah, that one mm hmm.

697
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 4: I forecasted that one. Yeah, we were Yeah, yeah, that

698
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:10,399
Speaker 4: was my favorite one.

699
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,280
Speaker 5: I got the other ones when I was with Kobe.

700
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 5: I think the Kobby too is the lower top ones

701
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 5: black white. They was black and white. So when he

702
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 5: when you come in when the office, I was like,

703
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:21,839
Speaker 5: that was are dope. But he only had him in

704
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,919
Speaker 5: black and white, and I was like, bro, you got

705
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:25,800
Speaker 5: to get some purple some like you gotta get some

706
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 5: Laker colors on those that I swear. Two weeks later,

707
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 5: boom boom, the autumn yellow and purple ones came out.

708
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,560
Speaker 5: I said, I still have like six pair in the garage.

709
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 4: I mean, I started wear testing Anita's with the Kobe

710
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 4: ninety sevens. That's how I got in there. I was

711
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 4: like playing basketball at the office with the design team,

712
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 4: my buddy who designed for them, and I was wear

713
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 4: testing the basketball shoes like Kobe's shoes, not that one

714
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 4: that didn't come out yet, but yeah, I mean so.

715
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 5: From wear testing to designing.

716
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 4: Oh, I never designed. I was a product marketing guy.

717
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 4: So I was like, here's what's influencing kids, Here's what

718
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 4: they're wearing, here's the p is the shopping and then

719
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 4: I'd sit with the design team and development team and

720
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:08,360
Speaker 4: they would concept products and we'd give feedback or whatnot.

721
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 4: But the designer of that shoe, I think it was

722
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 4: Boris Berdacon, I think did that. If I'm not mistaken.

723
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 3: Can you give me a little a little story bond

724
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 3: the Crazy Eights? You know anything about the Crazy Eights

725
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:19,879
Speaker 3: with them?

726
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:23,000
Speaker 4: Why it's called that? Yeah, I mean I do.

727
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:23,399
Speaker 3: I don't.

728
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 4: I don't want to wear that story.

729
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 3: Okay, I know why it's called.

730
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 4: That, but it has to do with the with the

731
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 4: breakup and just the you know the fact that it

732
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,240
Speaker 4: was such an iconic model for the for the brand

733
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 4: and associated so heavily with Kobe, but then they broke up,

734
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 4: and I believe it was a bit of trolling, but

735
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 4: I'm not sure. And it's I gotta say, if you

736
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,359
Speaker 4: see what is happening right now with Steph, and you

737
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 4: saw what was happening with Kobe, then during that breakup period,

738
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,440
Speaker 4: it's very identical. It's like different brand every other night.

739
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:04,399
Speaker 4: It's like so textbook like.

740
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: Interesting you bring that up because we we've been kind

741
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,279
Speaker 1: of talking. Obviously this is just we shoot the ship

742
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: as friends. But if you're in Steph's corner. What what

743
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 1: what would your would you tell him to go to

744
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 1: one of these Chinese brands and build something or would

745
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: you jump on and and do the Nike like?

746
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 2: What are those? What's the word? I'm looking for? Legacy

747
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 2: brands type things? What if you were?

748
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: I know you get paid for this kind of information, but.

749
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:43,239
Speaker 4: Out to him, I I think my opinion would go

750
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,280
Speaker 4: against the grain a little bit on this. I definitely

751
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 4: don't think what I'm about to say would earn me

752
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:53,920
Speaker 4: any business from s C thirty brand, But I think

753
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:58,479
Speaker 4: there's a way they could well how did it say? Yeah,

754
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:00,240
Speaker 4: I think they could do a lot of different things

755
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 4: with them what they're doing now, and I would love

756
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 4: to help them.

757
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 2: Man.

758
00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: Man, I was wondering because I mean we kind of

759
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: felt like in this this can be us saying it

760
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to come out of your mouth.

761
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: But I mean to think that's with the right play

762
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: and strategy, there's no reason to me Steph doesn't have

763
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: a top two or three selling shoe of all time.

764
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,399
Speaker 1: The type of player he is, the career he's had,

765
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 1: the like, the likeness, the safe, the safe, the safeness

766
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,399
Speaker 1: around who he is, and I feel like they kind

767
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 1: of respectfully missed the ball with the under armour things

768
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: they were doing.

769
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,279
Speaker 4: I'm not hating anything they've done. I'm just going forward.

770
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:38,439
Speaker 4: I think I could help them. No, I I would

771
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 4: just say, Stony, we got you. If you want to

772
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 4: tap in there, you heard hearing all seriousness, though, I

773
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,400
Speaker 4: think this stuff is obviously like everything he said, and

774
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:52,759
Speaker 4: he's legendary and should have a or could have a massive,

775
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 4: self sustaining, future proof business that does not rely on

776
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 4: him playing basketball. And I think that that is what

777
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,640
Speaker 4: if I was working with them, would be focused on.

778
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 4: But as I said earlier, I am not working with them,

779
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 4: so I don't know what they're focused on. But I

780
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 4: think they could do great things. And honestly, like with

781
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:20,400
Speaker 4: his golf, his personality and his bad like just the

782
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 4: everything of him and the Goat film, they just put

783
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 4: out all that stuff. I mean, there's a myriad of

784
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 4: things that you could do to bring more to that.

785
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 4: But you know, we're fortunate enough that we have a

786
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 4: lot like what I'm doing now, just to kind of

787
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 4: throw that out. There is a lot of this sort

788
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 4: of like brand consulting and building things for people, products, brands, launches,

789
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 4: et cetera. And so I do work with a host

790
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 4: of brands that we're not allowed to name and athletes

791
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:47,759
Speaker 4: that I don't think we're allowed to name. But we've

792
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:52,760
Speaker 4: worked on some stuff recently that just dropped this weekend,

793
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 4: and we're very thrilled with all the partners that we've

794
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 4: been able to work with us far from the music space,

795
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,040
Speaker 4: the sports space, and brand space, and we think that

796
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 4: the sort of like foresight, we have anticipatory marketing. Plus,

797
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:05,920
Speaker 4: like a lot of the stuff I do isn't just

798
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 4: like from the hip. We're actually listening to through the

799
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 4: internet to see what people are asking for in order

800
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,280
Speaker 4: to build those things. So this weekend we had a

801
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 4: host of collectibles that we launched with one of our

802
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 4: partners that we were working with because we had been

803
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 4: scouring the internet years ago and found that adults were

804
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 4: searching for these things that made them feel more that

805
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 4: sense of heritage and tradition, and so like collectibles were

806
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:36,919
Speaker 4: blowing up with adults trading cards, weighted stuffed animals, vinyl toys, etc.

807
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 4: And so that's like part of the consideration set for

808
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:41,880
Speaker 4: some of the things that we're doing with certain artists

809
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 4: and then with other artists. It's that traditional merch stuff.

810
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 4: We are doing that now, and yeah, it's been fun

811
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:50,399
Speaker 4: for the last year.

812
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,359
Speaker 3: Is it any surprise that Kobe shoes and his line

813
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 3: remains still at the top of basketball. Yeah.

814
00:39:56,120 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 4: I think. You know, when you walk the talk, you know,

815
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 4: people respond to that. And he walked the talk like

816
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,760
Speaker 4: I think that if Kobe, I mean, rest in peace. Obviously,

817
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:13,759
Speaker 4: if Kobe were here right now, if Kobe were coming

818
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:15,880
Speaker 4: up right now, it would be really interesting too, Like

819
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 4: I would love to see a guy with his like

820
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 4: vision for on court and for off court and his

821
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 4: sort of like interests as a person with the Internet today,

822
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 4: I mean, and if he had been like one of

823
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 4: the younger players coming up, I would have been curious

824
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,439
Speaker 4: how he'd be able to like maintain the focus he has,

825
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 4: you know, because there's so much more distraction.

826
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 3: But he Uh.

827
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 4: I think that, like, you know, everyone with the Kobe

828
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 4: to the garbage everything like that thing is in our DNA. Yeah, exactly.

829
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 2: How did the partnership with Pharrell come about?

830
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 4: Pharrell, we were working with Nego. Nego told Farrell we

831
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 4: were treating him really nice. I got invited to a

832
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:04,959
Speaker 4: room at the Jaine Hotel with him. We talked it out.

833
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 4: I said, why do you want to work with Adidas?

834
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 4: He said, I'm hearing you guys are really cool to

835
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 4: work with. I love Adidas. I said, I know you

836
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,440
Speaker 4: don't love Adidas, fell because I've seen you give away

837
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 4: every pair of shoes I sent you for the last

838
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:20,080
Speaker 4: eight years. And he cracked up and he's like, come on, man,

839
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 4: I love Adidas. I'm like, come on, man, I've seen

840
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,080
Speaker 4: you give them away Push everybody you've been given them to,

841
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 4: and I send stuff to Push already, so I know

842
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 4: you're giving him And so he cracked up and then

843
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,400
Speaker 4: we uh, but he was like, non, I love Adidas,

844
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,880
Speaker 4: and we talked it out and then he was super

845
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,360
Speaker 4: cool obviously and super creative. And actually we signed that

846
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 4: deal well after we signed Kanye's deal, but we launched

847
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 4: his products well before. Oh, so it was like he

848
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 4: was moving in his cohort with Nego as he still

849
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,840
Speaker 4: operates today, and Adidas, fortunately through the Tokyo office, established

850
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 4: a great relationship with Nego. And then actually Paul Middleman

851
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 4: I forgot that, came to work with us in Germany

852
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 4: and he had a great relationship with EGO and already

853
00:41:57,640 --> 00:41:59,960
Speaker 4: knew Ferrell as well. So yeah, Paul played a center.

854
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 2: What's that? I mean?

855
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 1: He again, outside looking in, he looks like a super creative,

856
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 1: a non aging human. His his touch on culture and

857
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 1: music has been incredible. So is it similar? Obviously different

858
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 1: than Kanye, but as far as just the creativity and

859
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 1: vision similar, I.

860
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:21,799
Speaker 4: Would say that it's funny like Pharrell's business savvy and

861
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 4: his understanding of humanity and just way trends operate and

862
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:31,439
Speaker 4: and and all that and Kanye they're very analogous for sure,

863
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 4: but obviously just being independent and individuals as they are,

864
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 4: they're just totally different and how they how they move

865
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 4: and talk and stuff like that, but prolific and every

866
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 4: which way. We we didn't get as much exposure with

867
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 4: Farrell's music side as we did on the Kanye side.

868
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 4: It's like most of the air meetings with him were

869
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 4: design session meetings, and where I you know, obviously, like

870
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 4: I said, I'm not a designer. I would sit in

871
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 4: the room while Rachel and Nick and the team or

872
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 4: whoever was working with him at the time would kind

873
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:00,960
Speaker 4: of present stuff to him, and he would reach out

874
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:02,640
Speaker 4: to me if things were frustrating him or if he

875
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 4: felt like he wasn't being heard or and we would go,

876
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:08,839
Speaker 4: just stay in constant contact through those types of things.

877
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 4: Just make sure everything's running smoothly in boilth directions, which

878
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,239
Speaker 4: is really my thing. Was just like communicating to make

879
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,279
Speaker 4: sure everyone's like hearing everyone's point of view.

880
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: It's important the nmds. Then the Ultra Boos era talked

881
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 1: to us about that.

882
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,919
Speaker 4: Well, that was Adidas heyday. I think right now they're

883
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 4: having a similar run with like what's happened with Super

884
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 4: Bowl and just the overall aura of what they've been

885
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 4: able to accomplish. But twenty sixteen when those shoes hit

886
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 4: was a special moment, and it was like the beginning

887
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 4: of Adida's market share, not just mind share because it

888
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:46,839
Speaker 4: was signing Kanye, we were already like talked about a lot,

889
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 4: people were starting to think about Adidas. But the growth,

890
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 4: you know, from those stock prices earlier that film pulled up,

891
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 4: like that really hit from those products because those were

892
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 4: widely accessible. So that was how we kind of commercialized

893
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:01,439
Speaker 4: Boos you know, going back to that first call foot

894
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 4: Locker when I told him Yeezy he was coming in

895
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 4: two weeks. I listened for forty five minutes while the

896
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:07,880
Speaker 4: foot locker management from all over the world said, we

897
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 4: never want to see another box cover with the word

898
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 4: Boost on it. We have enough inventory to last us

899
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:16,919
Speaker 4: two years. And I'm hearing that the whole time, being like, shit,

900
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 4: we have Boost in our shoe. And then I get

901
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:24,080
Speaker 4: on and I'm like, hey, guys, what's up? And you know,

902
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,200
Speaker 4: everyone at full Locker came up through the store, and

903
00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 4: so we've all been showing shoes to these guys for

904
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 4: ten years and they've been chucking them at us when

905
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 4: they don't like us. It's a whole other story. But

906
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 4: now they're in senior manager's like, wax, what's up. And

907
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 4: I'm like, all right, here's a plant for Kanye. We're

908
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:39,040
Speaker 4: doing these special pop ups at your stores. He's going

909
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 4: to come out from behind the curtain with the confirmed

910
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 4: app when people win and the shoe says seven to

911
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 4: fifty Boost, and they're like, oh my god, this is

912
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,240
Speaker 4: going to be like when Lebron wore that one shoe.

913
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,720
Speaker 4: I can't remember. It was like a Nike running shoe,

914
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 4: Roachie like Roaschie's were sitting Lebron wore it, and then

915
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:57,960
Speaker 4: Roachi became the shoe this will help boost sell. So

916
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:01,640
Speaker 4: when I think of Ultra Boost and I think of

917
00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 4: that phone call, because there was two years worth of

918
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 4: Energy Boost inventory sitting on a shelf when those launched,

919
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 4: and had the seven to fifty not come out, what

920
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 4: five thousand pairs we dropped maybe and we had twelve

921
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:17,200
Speaker 4: of them those shoes, Yeah, and then those shoes never

922
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 4: would have been allowed in. So it's kind of like

923
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:22,319
Speaker 4: this weird ricochet that Easy had on that stuff that

924
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,319
Speaker 4: I draw a connection to, and that the guys who

925
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 4: worked and running at the time that I worked close

926
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 4: to that also drew the connection to. Because I don't

927
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:31,800
Speaker 4: know if you remember when he went to that Bulls

928
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 4: game performed at halftime in those Boosts, he like just

929
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 4: called me on the way. He's like, yeah, I'm going

930
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:36,879
Speaker 4: to perform, and at halftime and he did a thing

931
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,839
Speaker 4: and he wore this shoe called Solar Boost. You could

932
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 4: see a picture of him. He's wearing like a Jeff

933
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 4: Hamilton jacket and he's got him on the floor. And

934
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 4: that next Monday, there was a line of people outside

935
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 4: of foot locker for a shoe that had been sitting

936
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 4: for four and a half weeks with dust to get

937
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 4: that shoe. So it was like just and that's when

938
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:56,839
Speaker 4: it was like, Okay, this is a different thing. Then

939
00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 4: my cousin ran Nike's website. He was actual pretty up

940
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 4: over there, and uh, I remember when we signed Kanye.

941
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 4: He goes, oh, you have no idea, Like, you have

942
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 4: no idea, what's going to happen to your website? You're

943
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 4: going to crash your website. And I was like, ah, sick,

944
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:11,120
Speaker 4: I can't wait. And then the second that happened, it

945
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:14,880
Speaker 4: was like not sick at all. It was really bad,

946
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 4: and I learned that that is not something you want

947
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 4: to have happened as a marketing guy.

948
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 3: Good but bad, good, good but bad.

949
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:22,879
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but yeah it was.

950
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 3: It was.

951
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 4: It was a time. But yeah, this like NMD and

952
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 4: Ultra Boost to me, were like if you were to

953
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 4: look at a demand bubble as data for easy at

954
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:37,400
Speaker 4: Nike because they only sold three thousand pairs of the

955
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 4: shoe they made, and then you were to look at

956
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:44,080
Speaker 4: that demand bubble ad Adidas after our seven to fifty,

957
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:46,880
Speaker 4: and then you were to look at that demand bubble

958
00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 4: on the Ultra Boost in the NMD, you would see

959
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:54,319
Speaker 4: a clear path of that trend. So you know, those

960
00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 4: things didn't happen in the vacuum. They happened as a

961
00:46:56,320 --> 00:47:00,480
Speaker 4: result of lots of hard work and even some thankful

962
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 4: that Nike didn't release them in broader fashion. I remember

963
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:06,439
Speaker 4: calling him the day the Red Octobers came out, because

964
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 4: it was actually this weekend, twenty what thirteen fourteen, and

965
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:13,160
Speaker 4: I had him under contract already, and I was like, dude,

966
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 4: can they do this? And he was like, who cares?

967
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 4: If they sell out, it's great marketing for us, and

968
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:19,719
Speaker 4: if they don't, fuck them. I was like, all right, cool,

969
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 4: but like I was spasing for a second, I was like,

970
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:25,960
Speaker 4: so yeah.

971
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 2: Working with Push.

972
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 4: The best Push, It's the greatest guy, just quality human,

973
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,960
Speaker 4: so selective this is with his words, and you know,

974
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:42,000
Speaker 4: wish I wish those guys, Like I mean, that album

975
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,319
Speaker 4: and the run they were on just now, like all

976
00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 4: that was all that energy and effort they've been building

977
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 4: for ten years again and love seeing him back with

978
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 4: his brother, you know, having lost my brother two years

979
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:55,760
Speaker 4: ago and knowing that that first song on the album

980
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,440
Speaker 4: about losing their parents, and I also lost my father

981
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 4: in the last couple of years, so it was just like,

982
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 4: you know, I texted him and was like, Bro, that

983
00:48:03,239 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 4: album just like meant so much to me. You don't

984
00:48:05,719 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 4: even know. And I just recently got reconnected with him,

985
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 4: by the way, I don't mean to be like A

986
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:13,799
Speaker 4: texted him that's sounded really corny, but yeah, so it

987
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,959
Speaker 4: was great. And I love Push and and and yeah,

988
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:20,800
Speaker 4: I love everything that he stands for, honest individual, always

989
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 4: stream me right. Work with Push since twenty twelve, it's

990
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 4: working with him a minute for quite a while.

991
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:30,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've really caught eye on the creativity because when

992
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: I came up, I remember shoe commercials were everything with

993
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: the athlete, and I really liked what Anthony Edwards has

994
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: been able to do with his shoe and the campaigns

995
00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: around that.

996
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:40,920
Speaker 2: What do you what have been your thoughts with that?

997
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 4: I love the energy too, and I think it's cool,

998
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,759
Speaker 4: like the it's funny to see you can almost see

999
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 4: like who's in management at the time, Like based on

1000
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:52,360
Speaker 4: the boundaries they're willing to push into you too on

1001
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 4: these commercials. Yeah, it's great, it's great. They're being very

1002
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 4: contemporary and in the moment, and you know, whereas like

1003
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,520
Speaker 4: that's the thing. I like how they're leaning into that heavily.

1004
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:04,319
Speaker 4: Whereas with the stuff. Stuff I wouldn't you know, lean

1005
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 4: into like swapping brands out every second, you know, like

1006
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff. I think that muddies your waters.

1007
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 4: I think that's great to like go harden the paint

1008
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 4: and have a very defined position, like what they're doing

1009
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:16,560
Speaker 4: with the ant and like even the ant farm they

1010
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:19,840
Speaker 4: built out here. I thought that was really well concepted.

1011
00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:21,719
Speaker 4: I don't know if you had a chance to check

1012
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,920
Speaker 4: that out. They had an activation with the team at

1013
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 4: Adidas and he was down there and it looked cool.

1014
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:30,160
Speaker 4: It looked like, you know, it was really dope.

1015
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:30,439
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1016
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like they match. They match his intensity,

1017
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:37,959
Speaker 1: his energy and who he is and how win of late,

1018
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 1: it seems that Nike's been struggling. People haven't really been

1019
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,880
Speaker 1: able to innovate as much as we've seen in the past.

1020
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:46,439
Speaker 1: What's kind of your thought on their state and where

1021
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 1: do you feel like they've lost ground at.

1022
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:52,440
Speaker 4: I think I have a Nike for the last two

1023
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 4: years they went through there. You know, the sneaker industry

1024
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 4: is tough to turn on a nine it's eighteen month

1025
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,960
Speaker 4: product cycle, So decisions made that are coming out now

1026
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 4: are from whatever they could jam in too. Fill a

1027
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 4: gap for whatever they were lacking to that decision they

1028
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:11,839
Speaker 4: made in year twenty four. So Nike's an aircraft carrier.

1029
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 4: They're not a speedboat, you know what I mean. They

1030
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 4: can't just like turn the corner on a dime. But

1031
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,279
Speaker 4: I actually think what they just pulled off here it

1032
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 4: reminded me somewhat of Complex Con in twenty sixteen when

1033
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 4: they did the V loans every day and they were

1034
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 4: even those out and they had shoot Broccoli, you know

1035
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 4: that track Broccoli. They had him in there doing the mcene.

1036
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 4: I can't remember his name, the guy that Drake took

1037
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:37,400
Speaker 4: the Broccoli song from.

1038
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:41,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, you know you're talking about Yeah Yeah.

1039
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,279
Speaker 4: They had him doing the m scene. But they had

1040
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 4: those V loans there, and we had a Pharrell set up,

1041
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:50,600
Speaker 4: but Kanye had been sick and so we didn't have

1042
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 4: like product, you know, because we didn't have him approved

1043
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 4: stuff while he was coming out of the hospital after

1044
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 4: that event in twenty sixteen, so we didn't have product

1045
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 4: for right then. And uh, they kind of brought energy

1046
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 4: to that moment and I kind of feel like what

1047
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:13,719
Speaker 4: foot Locker and the brands are doing here and all

1048
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,239
Speaker 4: the people who activated League Luka Donci et cetera did

1049
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 4: amazing things. But I kind of feel like Nike had

1050
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 4: had a nice brand Jordan too. They had a nice weekend,

1051
00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:27,920
Speaker 4: and I, you know, not to say that, like, you know,

1052
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,839
Speaker 4: basketball's game of momentum. Like I feel like they kind

1053
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 4: of did some nice stuff here and and if they

1054
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:40,040
Speaker 4: continue to play to the new era, then they can perform.

1055
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 4: I think what has happened is there's maybe I don't

1056
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 4: want to I don't want to get any trouble. I

1057
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 4: obviously don't I respect what everyone is doing, but I

1058
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:52,880
Speaker 4: think there's just like the game has changed, and you

1059
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:54,840
Speaker 4: can't launch a brand and just stick a bunch of

1060
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 4: money on it now and think that product will sell.

1061
00:51:57,080 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 4: You have to actually develop a community and then start

1062
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:04,240
Speaker 4: offering that community access points that include product but also experiences.

1063
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 4: And I think Nike, better than anyone has the has

1064
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:09,960
Speaker 4: the infrastructure for that, so they're set up for success.

1065
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: So you're saying authenticity now is more important, you feel

1066
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:14,279
Speaker 1: than it's ever been.

1067
00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:20,320
Speaker 4: Community access and authenticity absolutely because kids are so savvy

1068
00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:22,319
Speaker 4: now with all the tools available, and they know the

1069
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:25,799
Speaker 4: followers are fake, and like, also, you know, there's no

1070
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:29,399
Speaker 4: way to grow your audience anymore because the algorithm will

1071
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 4: just cap you. So the only thing that people really

1072
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 4: share is stuff that is authentically cool to them. So it's, uh, yeah,

1073
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:37,359
Speaker 4: I think that that's like step one. But yeah, ten

1074
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 4: years ago, you could drop a brand like here's the product,

1075
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 4: here's TV it will sell. Now it's interesting.

1076
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 3: What do you can say your biggest failure for your

1077
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:47,879
Speaker 3: creat and your creative life.

1078
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:53,719
Speaker 4: I think trying to man So I think that in

1079
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:58,720
Speaker 4: the last four years, instead of taking the right time

1080
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 4: to more family members who were passing, I tried to

1081
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:06,960
Speaker 4: manage too much at once. I was always one of

1082
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,080
Speaker 4: those God, I'll never give me something I can't handletize,

1083
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 4: and it was something I couldn't handle, and so I

1084
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:16,880
Speaker 4: think that I should have just been mad enough to

1085
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:19,440
Speaker 4: accept I couldn't handle it, instead of trying to like

1086
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:22,120
Speaker 4: tough my way through my dad dying and just power

1087
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:26,600
Speaker 4: into my brother's situation and not you know, appropriately respect

1088
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,480
Speaker 4: the time. I don't know if that's really my creative

1089
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 4: life or just my life, but at a certain point

1090
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 4: they kind of intertwine anyway. But I'd say about a

1091
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:37,960
Speaker 4: year ago, my head kind of cleared and I was

1092
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:42,000
Speaker 4: able to, you know, after taking time because you know,

1093
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:44,680
Speaker 4: you got to give yourself. If you don't take care

1094
00:53:44,680 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 4: of yourself, no one else will kind of thing right,

1095
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:53,359
Speaker 4: And so I think that, you know, obviously, and then

1096
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,200
Speaker 4: also with whatever happened to Kanye recently, like it's obviously

1097
00:53:56,280 --> 00:53:59,279
Speaker 4: super unfortunate to break up with Adidas and having sacrificed

1098
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 4: so much of my life, my kids time, like spending

1099
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:03,759
Speaker 4: time with my family to build that thing, you know,

1100
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 4: moving to Cody, or being on the road for thirty

1101
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:10,080
Speaker 4: days a month and missing every weekend for a long time,

1102
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 4: and you know, you look back at that and you're like, man,

1103
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:16,000
Speaker 4: I wish that it stayed intact because that should have

1104
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:19,879
Speaker 4: lived forever. But yeah, I think that, you know, those

1105
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:22,279
Speaker 4: are my only real like feelings. I think that every

1106
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 4: failure is and learning and every missed up is just

1107
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:27,280
Speaker 4: another chance to kind of get up to us yourself

1108
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:28,080
Speaker 4: off and keep going.

1109
00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:31,560
Speaker 3: You know, I'm failing too because I've I've had a

1110
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 3: lot of loss to it and I'm still dealing with

1111
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:37,399
Speaker 3: it the same way. Yeah, I haven't found another way

1112
00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:38,480
Speaker 3: to deal with It's only one way.

1113
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,799
Speaker 4: There's amazing situation.

1114
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:43,319
Speaker 1: Well, I feel like most of the time we lost

1115
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,399
Speaker 1: because we've all had it. We try to fill our

1116
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 1: plate with more to do to take our mind off

1117
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,040
Speaker 1: the loss, instead of taking the proper time to digest it,

1118
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:53,200
Speaker 1: understand it, more in it, talk about it.

1119
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:55,359
Speaker 2: I think that's something we all do.

1120
00:54:55,520 --> 00:54:55,880
Speaker 3: Get you.

1121
00:54:56,040 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, heavy, totally, absolutely condolences by the way.

1122
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 3: I appreciate your loss.

1123
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's crazy. Actually, when we were putting

1124
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:09,320
Speaker 4: some product together, one of the vendors sent the burnished

1125
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 4: image of my brother to us, and it fell into

1126
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 4: my hands when we were talking about him. So I

1127
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:16,279
Speaker 4: was like, oh, meant to be He's right here.

1128
00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:16,880
Speaker 3: There you go.

1129
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:20,960
Speaker 4: But like, yeah, the uh, the l's are just wins.

1130
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 4: I was at Converse actually for two years from two

1131
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 4: thousand and four to two thousand and six. After Night

1132
00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:27,600
Speaker 4: You bought them and they sent me out there and

1133
00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:29,960
Speaker 4: I was running life Style marketing for them, and we

1134
00:55:30,160 --> 00:55:32,719
Speaker 4: had the Dwayne Wade for shoot and that was when

1135
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:36,439
Speaker 4: we did this Knockdown seven times stand up eight that. Yeah,

1136
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:41,359
Speaker 4: it's fun and the was it flash stuff too, Yeah,

1137
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:43,480
Speaker 4: the Knockdown seven stand up. But I've always believed in

1138
00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:45,600
Speaker 4: that just got to get up. This is the people

1139
00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:49,279
Speaker 4: who keep going that end up in those spots like

1140
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:51,399
Speaker 4: everyone just gives up on themselves. Listen to that voice

1141
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 4: in their head says you can't do it, You're not

1142
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:57,640
Speaker 4: good enough. That's all. That's just seeds a doubt. You

1143
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 4: shouldn't ever self doubt yourself.

1144
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,279
Speaker 3: You know. What's something every creative goes through that they

1145
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:05,480
Speaker 3: never talk about.

1146
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 4: Fear, fear of release, not you know, the world having

1147
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 4: its opinion on your point of view. And that's why

1148
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 4: a lot of these artists, like it's very difficult to

1149
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 4: get them to approve a final product because once you

1150
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 4: put it out in the world, it's out there. And

1151
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:30,960
Speaker 4: that's also why Virgil was so special, because he was

1152
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 4: also one of those people who's like, I actually am

1153
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:35,279
Speaker 4: cool with this going out there to get the opinions,

1154
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 4: even if it's slightly unfinished or intentionally slightly unfinished, to

1155
00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:42,960
Speaker 4: give the final person that chance to put their peace

1156
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 4: on it. You know. But I think fear goes through

1157
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:48,279
Speaker 4: a lot of people, like especially the hire these people

1158
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:52,600
Speaker 4: ascending status of creativity. They have to be teflon, you know.

1159
00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 4: You hear these stories of like terabytes of albums on

1160
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:59,720
Speaker 4: hard drives that will never be released by the biggest

1161
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:05,040
Speaker 4: of the artists. And you know, I mean, I'm sure

1162
00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 4: Cowboy Carter was from a year ago and she was

1163
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:08,960
Speaker 4: just waiting, you know, because obviously there's a place in

1164
00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:12,759
Speaker 4: time factor too, so it's like you got Cowboy Carter, Okay,

1165
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 4: this is the time, and then it's like the biggest

1166
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:17,200
Speaker 4: thing in the world, you know. But I you know,

1167
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:19,000
Speaker 4: I think that leave By song was there when we

1168
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:19,480
Speaker 4: worked with her.

1169
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,720
Speaker 1: Pretty sure, question real quick, We haven't didn't. We haven't

1170
00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:25,720
Speaker 1: really got a chance to discuss them. But talk to

1171
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 1: us a little bit about Virgil and what he was

1172
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 1: like in your.

1173
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:31,880
Speaker 4: So I respect Virgil is the close guy for sure.

1174
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:34,320
Speaker 4: I didn't. I was not as close to the Donda

1175
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 4: guys as the so Justin Saunders, Virgil, all the team

1176
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 4: for the Donda crew. I got to know them better

1177
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 4: through the partnership. But you know, I'm from the Chicago suburbs.

1178
00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:54,440
Speaker 4: Virgils from the Rockford or whatever, and like Jerry was

1179
00:57:54,480 --> 00:57:57,800
Speaker 4: promoting shows in Chicago, like I'd known who all those

1180
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:00,400
Speaker 4: dudes were, and obviously Ivan was in there. But I

1181
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:02,360
Speaker 4: would get on a Donde call here there, and it

1182
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:05,880
Speaker 4: was sort of like the discussions were related to our business,

1183
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 4: and then I wasn't really adding any value. But Virgie

1184
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:10,360
Speaker 4: would speak a lot on those calls. He was just

1185
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:11,960
Speaker 4: like an uber creative guy, and he was there to

1186
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:15,520
Speaker 4: encourage others to like share their opinions. And then when

1187
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 4: he would come to the office, I would just check

1188
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:19,960
Speaker 4: in with him to make sure I was reading the

1189
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 4: room right and hearing what I was supposed to be hearing,

1190
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:26,080
Speaker 4: because he was the best at sort of. I remember

1191
00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 4: I called him so Kanye called me two weeks before

1192
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:32,840
Speaker 4: season one, and that was supposed to be New York,

1193
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:35,920
Speaker 4: and you know, New York, twenty fifteen February, it's negative

1194
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:38,520
Speaker 4: thirty degrees and he says to me, forget the show.

1195
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:39,800
Speaker 4: We've been planning for a month and a half. I

1196
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 4: want to tear it all up. I want to build

1197
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,760
Speaker 4: a roller coaster five stories high, and it's gonna be

1198
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:45,440
Speaker 4: me and my friends and we're gonna ride around. It's

1199
00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:47,200
Speaker 4: gonna be me, Virgil in the front. We're gonna wear

1200
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 4: all the clothes we have, all the models in the

1201
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:51,960
Speaker 4: roller coaster. And instead of like getting into a discussion

1202
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:53,400
Speaker 4: with him, I was like, all right, cool, let me

1203
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 4: go talk to the team. And I hung up the

1204
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 4: phone and I just called Virgil and I was like,

1205
00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:58,920
Speaker 4: is this like his creative process, Like what's going on?

1206
00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:00,720
Speaker 4: He goes, yeah, I just let him work through it.

1207
00:59:00,720 --> 00:59:02,400
Speaker 4: So it's always like the guy that I'll just kind

1208
00:59:02,440 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 4: of check in with to be like how volatile? Is

1209
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:10,240
Speaker 4: this really versatile? Like creative? Like where is this on

1210
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:14,120
Speaker 4: that bracketing? And uh, it was all good. Like an

1211
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:16,240
Speaker 4: hour later we're back doing the show and it came

1212
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 4: out so great roller coaster.

1213
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:20,440
Speaker 5: What about his website because you know he has the

1214
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:24,000
Speaker 5: website with every website, free game, everything is on there.

1215
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:26,240
Speaker 4: Yes, they started Shopify.

1216
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 5: I remember it, well, is that a true Is that

1217
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:34,160
Speaker 5: a creator's true test? Like at the highest level of creator? Like,

1218
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:36,040
Speaker 5: fuck it, I'm gonna just give it all the way.

1219
00:59:36,400 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 4: So that that whole thing about building in public was

1220
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:45,040
Speaker 4: like the secret sauce, you know, like easy Virgil all

1221
00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:50,280
Speaker 4: those guys. There was no marketing budget. So it's step

1222
00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:52,280
Speaker 4: eight at a Shopify. It is Wow, my memory is

1223
00:59:52,360 --> 00:59:55,600
Speaker 4: really good. So I was at Shopify when this happened.

1224
00:59:56,960 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 4: So anyway, the uh, at this moment in time, the

1225
01:00:01,160 --> 01:00:04,440
Speaker 4: whole way to create this was his way of creating community.

1226
01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:07,440
Speaker 4: He was building public. He'd invite creatives into his house

1227
01:00:07,800 --> 01:00:11,480
Speaker 4: here's tools for you to use. Here's here's what I did.

1228
01:00:11,680 --> 01:00:15,800
Speaker 4: Go take it further, you know, and so going to

1229
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:18,760
Speaker 4: it again. This was his community and how they people

1230
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,200
Speaker 4: still refer to this. High school kids still use this

1231
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:25,040
Speaker 4: business professionals still to this day because those are the codes.

1232
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 4: And like for him, this was a profuse thank you

1233
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 4: from me for saying Shopify there at the time. And yeah,

1234
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:36,800
Speaker 4: I was definitely trying to build some special things with him,

1235
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:39,280
Speaker 4: and when he obviously got sick, it was terrible. And

1236
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:41,680
Speaker 4: I remember calling Kanye to be like is this real

1237
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:46,080
Speaker 4: because we were like mid stream at that point in

1238
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:48,560
Speaker 4: time after leaving Adidas, I was now at Shopify and

1239
01:00:48,560 --> 01:00:51,160
Speaker 4: we were launching easy gap stuff form. I was doing

1240
01:00:51,200 --> 01:00:54,360
Speaker 4: that for him then and Virgil I didn't even know

1241
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 4: he was sick, and he was like in our meetings

1242
01:00:56,640 --> 01:01:00,480
Speaker 4: or in calls with me, not Kanye. So obviously all

1243
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:02,480
Speaker 4: his real close friends didn't know them, That's what I mean.

1244
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:05,280
Speaker 4: Like I knew Virgil, but I wasn't like nucleus with him,

1245
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. But yeah, this thing like

1246
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:10,800
Speaker 4: if you ever follow this right now, you know you

1247
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:14,800
Speaker 4: can build you can build it. And uh, that was

1248
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:17,480
Speaker 4: you know, easy at zero marketing too. The only marketing

1249
01:01:17,520 --> 01:01:19,120
Speaker 4: was people wearing the stuff that we gave it to

1250
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:22,840
Speaker 4: and sharing these codes with people through that Like dog

1251
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:26,360
Speaker 4: Whistle stuff. Virgil was just more overt. But yeah, I

1252
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 4: love the site. I forgot about it, but yeah I

1253
01:01:29,400 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 4: had death by paper cut at him for that mentioned

1254
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,640
Speaker 4: a shopify. Yeah, it's all good.

1255
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 3: What is the secret to developing trust with your partners?

1256
01:01:38,440 --> 01:01:41,680
Speaker 4: I mean, I you know, I I think just telling

1257
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:45,080
Speaker 4: the truth and also being willing to take the l

1258
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:50,360
Speaker 4: for your word, you know what I mean. Like Kanye,

1259
01:01:50,440 --> 01:01:52,320
Speaker 4: I think that was the real trust factor with him,

1260
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:54,680
Speaker 4: was like if I gave him my word even if

1261
01:01:54,680 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 4: it was going to cost me pain to execute it.

1262
01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:01,439
Speaker 4: I mean not physical ba, but like you know, going

1263
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:04,000
Speaker 4: back internal and saying dates change, or going back internal

1264
01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:07,160
Speaker 4: and saying here's what we're doing now, and like no

1265
01:02:07,320 --> 01:02:10,480
Speaker 4: disrespect intended whatsoever. All these brands are the same. They're

1266
01:02:10,520 --> 01:02:12,640
Speaker 4: all set up as for lack of a better term,

1267
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:15,120
Speaker 4: their factories can make what they make. They're cookie cutters,

1268
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:17,760
Speaker 4: and you know, you bring these creative people in their milkshakes,

1269
01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:20,080
Speaker 4: they don't work that way. So it's like you have

1270
01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:23,360
Speaker 4: to be able to take those same infrastructural pieces and

1271
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:25,440
Speaker 4: sort of set them up in a different order to

1272
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:29,000
Speaker 4: satisfy the thing coming in. And so that takes just

1273
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:31,400
Speaker 4: a bit of like Kanye used to say, Man, I

1274
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:33,720
Speaker 4: know you're getting killed internally for me, thank you, you know,

1275
01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 4: like that kind of stuff, because it was a lot

1276
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:38,880
Speaker 4: of like asking for more. Like the beginning was sort

1277
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:40,800
Speaker 4: of like energetic, right, we didn't know what we had.

1278
01:02:40,880 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 4: It was exciting, everything was working, it was great. We

1279
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:46,920
Speaker 4: couldn't go wrong. But then it like turned after season

1280
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:51,240
Speaker 4: three where he was almost larger than the world pr wise,

1281
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:53,880
Speaker 4: like forget a deal, he was bigger than Reik, he

1282
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:56,200
Speaker 4: was all of them combined, and then it was like

1283
01:02:57,040 --> 01:02:59,560
Speaker 4: a different level of pressure to do more biz, you

1284
01:02:59,600 --> 01:03:01,840
Speaker 4: know what I mean. And that was where that really

1285
01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:05,240
Speaker 4: pair of thing really got going. So but yeah, just

1286
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:10,360
Speaker 4: you know, maybe sacrificing my own ego. Kanye has said,

1287
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:11,560
Speaker 4: you know, going back to the first thing you asked me,

1288
01:03:11,600 --> 01:03:13,680
Speaker 4: your superpower is that you know how to be loud

1289
01:03:13,720 --> 01:03:15,240
Speaker 4: in a room and you know how to be small

1290
01:03:15,280 --> 01:03:17,880
Speaker 4: in a room. And so when you speak, people listen

1291
01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 4: because they know you're being selective with what your offering.

1292
01:03:21,040 --> 01:03:24,400
Speaker 4: You're not just john about stuff that you know nothing about.

1293
01:03:25,160 --> 01:03:27,320
Speaker 4: And the other thing that he also said was I

1294
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:30,400
Speaker 4: was the adult in the room. So it's a funny story. Instance.

1295
01:03:30,440 --> 01:03:32,840
Speaker 4: This is somewhat is adjacent to like what we're talking about.

1296
01:03:33,120 --> 01:03:35,840
Speaker 4: We're out in Aspen and we're watching NBA game and

1297
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:38,360
Speaker 4: it was one of the ball Brothers was his rookie

1298
01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:40,160
Speaker 4: year and he just had it. He was like playing

1299
01:03:40,160 --> 01:03:41,880
Speaker 4: and I think he was on the Bulls and everyone

1300
01:03:41,880 --> 01:03:43,520
Speaker 4: on Kanye's team was this, and now he was playing,

1301
01:03:43,520 --> 01:03:44,600
Speaker 4: And then it got to me and I was like,

1302
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:47,000
Speaker 4: didn't you just have a triple double last week? He

1303
01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:48,320
Speaker 4: was like the youngest player in the league to ever

1304
01:03:48,400 --> 01:03:50,720
Speaker 4: have one. And he's like, That's what I love about you, dude.

1305
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:52,600
Speaker 4: You're always the adult in the room, Like you only

1306
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:54,600
Speaker 4: speak with the facts, Like these dudes are like, look

1307
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:57,439
Speaker 4: at all he moves and stuff like that. So it's

1308
01:03:57,480 --> 01:04:01,280
Speaker 4: like kind of just reason and being straight up and

1309
01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:04,040
Speaker 4: you being who you are, Yeah, just being comfortable with

1310
01:04:04,080 --> 01:04:07,840
Speaker 4: yourself and just everything flows and you're being honest right,

1311
01:04:07,880 --> 01:04:10,080
Speaker 4: like you don't have to make shit up.

1312
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:11,960
Speaker 3: Is ego necessary for greatness?

1313
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:18,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you have to almost be willing to create

1314
01:04:18,800 --> 01:04:22,760
Speaker 4: a reality distortion field around yourself and believe in what

1315
01:04:22,800 --> 01:04:27,200
Speaker 4: you're doing so fully that no matter how many people

1316
01:04:27,280 --> 01:04:30,920
Speaker 4: tell you it will not work, you have to keep going.

1317
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:34,800
Speaker 4: And I don't know how you do that. Maybe it's

1318
01:04:34,840 --> 01:04:37,240
Speaker 4: not ego as much as passion, but I think there's

1319
01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:40,280
Speaker 4: a bit of both there, because when everyone's telling you

1320
01:04:40,280 --> 01:04:42,160
Speaker 4: you're wrong and you're the only one in the room

1321
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:45,080
Speaker 4: saying you're right, you know you gotta believe in yourself.

1322
01:04:45,160 --> 01:04:47,240
Speaker 3: The next two questions I brought to you by stock X,

1323
01:04:47,440 --> 01:04:50,160
Speaker 3: your trusted source for the most covered drops, top five

1324
01:04:50,200 --> 01:04:52,600
Speaker 3: basketball sniggas all the time, And you're a good question.

1325
01:04:54,040 --> 01:04:58,040
Speaker 4: You guys want me to answer that? Wow, this one

1326
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:01,720
Speaker 4: I would have loved up front. He's joking. Top five

1327
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:05,439
Speaker 4: basketball sneakers all time. I gotta go with uh Kobe one,

1328
01:05:06,920 --> 01:05:08,680
Speaker 4: t mac one, just because I worked on him.

1329
01:05:09,320 --> 01:05:09,919
Speaker 2: It's your list.

1330
01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:14,040
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go with the Kobe protro, and then I'm

1331
01:05:14,040 --> 01:05:18,040
Speaker 4: gonna go with the d Wade one because I also

1332
01:05:18,200 --> 01:05:21,000
Speaker 4: was over there. Then I don't know the Jordan one,

1333
01:05:21,360 --> 01:05:23,560
Speaker 4: Jordan three, Jordan two. I can't take it. I can't

1334
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:30,120
Speaker 4: two three one one of the first three Jordan's Dwayne Warren, Dwayn,

1335
01:05:30,160 --> 01:05:33,200
Speaker 4: Lawrence yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And Eric Miller, yep,

1336
01:05:33,360 --> 01:05:36,680
Speaker 4: for sure. Dwayne is uh. I think he just retired

1337
01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 4: from the game. Really, Yeah, he's been over in China.

1338
01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:41,920
Speaker 4: He's like rapping and stuff. He's the man. Yeah, he's

1339
01:05:41,960 --> 01:05:44,080
Speaker 4: a sweetheart. I used to bring him Chinese food and

1340
01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:45,520
Speaker 4: maybe working late me.

1341
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:46,120
Speaker 3: And my wife.

1342
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:48,520
Speaker 4: For sure, I stayed in touch with those guys. Eric

1343
01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:51,440
Speaker 4: Miller is back in Portland, I think too. Yeah they're

1344
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:55,920
Speaker 4: the best. But yeah, I basketball sneakers are so tough because,

1345
01:05:56,160 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 4: like my god just wants to say, Chuck Taylor pro

1346
01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:00,400
Speaker 4: leather like the Air Force one, you know, like the

1347
01:06:00,400 --> 01:06:02,880
Speaker 4: stuff I grew up with. But they've evolved so much

1348
01:06:02,960 --> 01:06:05,960
Speaker 4: and like that Kobe protro to this day. You know,

1349
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:10,040
Speaker 4: it's like, so it's tough. It's tough to say. There's

1350
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:12,760
Speaker 4: so much competition there. Oh what am I saying? Aunt,

1351
01:06:13,520 --> 01:06:15,680
Speaker 4: I should have shout it out of dita this too. Jesus,

1352
01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:18,320
Speaker 4: all those guys are gonna fucking stop being my friends now,

1353
01:06:19,720 --> 01:06:20,960
Speaker 4: Oh God, do.

1354
01:06:21,040 --> 01:06:23,960
Speaker 3: You do you have a goat fashion designer?

1355
01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:26,600
Speaker 4: I just honestly that I like blanks. I like the

1356
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:29,640
Speaker 4: stuff that we're doing. I like the simplest things fashion

1357
01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:32,960
Speaker 4: to me, is like it's almost like a decorative.

1358
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:34,120
Speaker 3: Uh.

1359
01:06:34,360 --> 01:06:36,800
Speaker 4: You know that the way that fashion is supposed to

1360
01:06:37,880 --> 01:06:40,760
Speaker 4: work is that it's almost like it's called ready to

1361
01:06:40,760 --> 01:06:42,440
Speaker 4: wear for a reason. You almost can't wear it. It's

1362
01:06:42,480 --> 01:06:44,520
Speaker 4: like not you can't purchase it at the moment, it's

1363
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:47,800
Speaker 4: not available, you have to wait whatever, it's super expensive.

1364
01:06:47,880 --> 01:06:50,880
Speaker 4: So I like things that are actually accessible, and so,

1365
01:06:51,400 --> 01:06:53,919
Speaker 4: you know, obviously the stuff we did for season one

1366
01:06:54,040 --> 01:06:56,080
Speaker 4: was my favorite thing that I was ever a part of.

1367
01:06:57,480 --> 01:06:59,520
Speaker 4: I think that that there's a lot of like young

1368
01:06:59,600 --> 01:07:01,720
Speaker 4: Up and co in brands right now and designers right

1369
01:07:01,760 --> 01:07:04,640
Speaker 4: now that are that are starting to do cool and

1370
01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 4: amazing stuff. But for the life of me, I can't

1371
01:07:06,440 --> 01:07:08,800
Speaker 4: think of any of them. All Star weekends got me

1372
01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 4: on fumes right now. No, it's really bad. And the

1373
01:07:12,400 --> 01:07:14,320
Speaker 4: problem is they're all going to fucking kill me. Oh

1374
01:07:14,440 --> 01:07:16,800
Speaker 4: Eta La. I would definitely say eu Ta is doing

1375
01:07:16,800 --> 01:07:19,400
Speaker 4: some really cool stuff. You showed me this crazy three

1376
01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:22,280
Speaker 4: D printed T shirt design that he's doing. Our company

1377
01:07:22,320 --> 01:07:25,040
Speaker 4: is test Lab. We are doing some amazing stuff as well.

1378
01:07:25,960 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 4: We are just building for others though, And yeah, I

1379
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:31,600
Speaker 4: think that like right now, fashion is kind of like

1380
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:35,200
Speaker 4: moving away from streetwear it's going back to that really

1381
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 4: formal fashion performance for performative like costume me stuff, And

1382
01:07:42,560 --> 01:07:46,920
Speaker 4: so I think that like hopefully Skate is going to

1383
01:07:46,960 --> 01:07:49,640
Speaker 4: start seeing that come back. I love that basketball shoes

1384
01:07:49,680 --> 01:07:53,280
Speaker 4: started to sell again. It feels like that that, like

1385
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:56,200
Speaker 4: you know, that baggy jeans thing in that early nineties

1386
01:07:56,880 --> 01:07:58,880
Speaker 4: thing that's been going on for a while starting to

1387
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:02,080
Speaker 4: turn too. So yeah, I think that a lot of

1388
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:04,320
Speaker 4: young brands have an opportunity to disrupt stuff. It's just like,

1389
01:08:04,360 --> 01:08:05,480
Speaker 4: who's going to take the risk?

1390
01:08:06,080 --> 01:08:08,280
Speaker 3: What do you think about? This statement? Is not what

1391
01:08:08,320 --> 01:08:09,960
Speaker 3: you have on? Is who has it on?

1392
01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:13,680
Speaker 4: I would completely agree with that because the world is

1393
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 4: flat now. So it's like, if you have a lot

1394
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:17,760
Speaker 4: of money, you can buy cool stuff and you can

1395
01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 4: stunt like you're actually cool. But there's a lot of

1396
01:08:21,920 --> 01:08:24,639
Speaker 4: style too. I mean, like these sweats are like why

1397
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:29,160
Speaker 4: three two thousand and four right, like, but people will

1398
01:08:29,160 --> 01:08:31,000
Speaker 4: come up to and be like, who can you style me?

1399
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:33,639
Speaker 4: And it's just because I'm wearing some like ratty sweats

1400
01:08:33,640 --> 01:08:36,519
Speaker 4: from twelve years ago, but they're the most comfortable sweats

1401
01:08:36,520 --> 01:08:39,559
Speaker 4: I have, and people like I need those, you know.

1402
01:08:39,680 --> 01:08:43,320
Speaker 4: So it's like the uh, but if you look at them,

1403
01:08:43,360 --> 01:08:45,439
Speaker 4: you just think they're like golf wear, you know, for

1404
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:47,800
Speaker 4: like rain you know what I mean. But it's like

1405
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:49,320
Speaker 4: dudes that know this shit and know this shit, and

1406
01:08:49,320 --> 01:08:51,120
Speaker 4: even like Travis he's got a full deal with Nike,

1407
01:08:51,280 --> 01:08:54,040
Speaker 4: goes to a world cut or what was that f

1408
01:08:54,080 --> 01:08:55,800
Speaker 4: one thing in that y three Jackie, you know what

1409
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:59,040
Speaker 4: I mean. It's like it isn't how you how you

1410
01:08:59,080 --> 01:09:02,880
Speaker 4: wear stuff and how you how you combine things and

1411
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:06,720
Speaker 4: your personal attitude toward it, yep, Because like if you're wealthy, yeah,

1412
01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:08,000
Speaker 4: you can buy all those fresh.

1413
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:10,879
Speaker 2: Things, but it'll still be corny, corny way yeah.

1414
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:14,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, facts, I know a lot of them. One piece

1415
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:16,720
Speaker 3: of advice you can give a young creative trying to

1416
01:09:16,760 --> 01:09:17,559
Speaker 3: break through.

1417
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:22,800
Speaker 4: No self down talk, trust yourself, keep going even when

1418
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:28,719
Speaker 4: everyone tells you you can't, and be willing to take

1419
01:09:28,760 --> 01:09:33,120
Speaker 4: a few losses in order to find the right path,

1420
01:09:33,800 --> 01:09:36,600
Speaker 4: because a loss is just a turning point. It's not

1421
01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:39,680
Speaker 4: that dead end. I mean, my first hip hop show

1422
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:42,559
Speaker 4: I promoted, I lost thirteen thousand dollars trib call quest

1423
01:09:42,840 --> 01:09:45,519
Speaker 4: or No Sorry. It was cypercal Funk, Dubious and the

1424
01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:48,519
Speaker 4: labeled through an artist because they're ripped my head off,

1425
01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:50,400
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. We sold out the place

1426
01:09:50,400 --> 01:09:52,720
Speaker 4: and lost everything. The second show we did trib Call

1427
01:09:52,800 --> 01:09:55,040
Speaker 4: Quest that sold sold Some Mischief in nineteen ninety three,

1428
01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:58,559
Speaker 4: sold out the place. My partner bought a Harley Davidson afterward,

1429
01:09:58,600 --> 01:09:59,920
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, because we got the equation,

1430
01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:02,680
Speaker 4: But like you got to learn and like when you're

1431
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:05,519
Speaker 4: trying Oh that's the other thing. When you're trying something new,

1432
01:10:06,040 --> 01:10:08,400
Speaker 4: you are always going to be the dumbest person in

1433
01:10:08,439 --> 01:10:11,200
Speaker 4: the room. So be willing to listen to the others

1434
01:10:11,240 --> 01:10:13,559
Speaker 4: in the room while you're in it, and soak up

1435
01:10:13,560 --> 01:10:16,160
Speaker 4: all that information and get exposure to it so that

1436
01:10:16,240 --> 01:10:18,320
Speaker 4: you can actually do the thing that you've read about

1437
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:21,280
Speaker 4: on the internet, because reading about something on the internet

1438
01:10:21,320 --> 01:10:22,640
Speaker 4: does not create expertise.

1439
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:28,840
Speaker 3: One album you can listen to on repeat besides Super Solid.

1440
01:10:30,400 --> 01:10:33,799
Speaker 4: I what if I've been listening to and repeat lately?

1441
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:39,040
Speaker 4: I think I've been going on like Wu Tang thirty

1442
01:10:39,080 --> 01:10:44,280
Speaker 4: six Chambers lately, Sampa, I've been listening to a lot

1443
01:10:44,280 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 4: of I just listened to Vsop on repeat a lot lately.

1444
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:49,680
Speaker 4: I don't know why that song has just been like

1445
01:10:50,160 --> 01:10:52,680
Speaker 4: in my head a lot. I can't remember the name

1446
01:10:52,680 --> 01:10:54,479
Speaker 4: of the artist right now for some reason. It's tip

1447
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:57,240
Speaker 4: of my tongue. But yeah, I've just been going through

1448
01:10:57,240 --> 01:10:59,320
Speaker 4: a lot of nineties hip hop recently. And then I've

1449
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:01,240
Speaker 4: had that New Dell album on repeat, and the Clips

1450
01:11:01,280 --> 01:11:05,400
Speaker 4: album on repeat NonStop, and obviously also the Freddy Gibbs

1451
01:11:05,479 --> 01:11:09,800
Speaker 4: most recent on repeat, Freddy Gibbs and and actually Dela

1452
01:11:10,000 --> 01:11:12,080
Speaker 4: and all those guys. I mean ship every single one

1453
01:11:12,080 --> 01:11:14,760
Speaker 4: of those albums. I love all those guys. When I

1454
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:17,479
Speaker 4: was at Adidas, we're supporting Freddy Gibbs football team and Gary,

1455
01:11:17,560 --> 01:11:19,000
Speaker 4: we were sending them all the stuff. That's why you

1456
01:11:19,040 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 4: always were the stuff on the on the album covers. Yeah,

1457
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:26,679
Speaker 4: but those are the albums. I'm just like, it depends

1458
01:11:26,680 --> 01:11:27,120
Speaker 4: on the mood.

1459
01:11:28,360 --> 01:11:30,439
Speaker 3: If you could see one guest on our show, who

1460
01:11:30,439 --> 01:11:32,479
Speaker 3: would it be? But you have to help us get

1461
01:11:32,520 --> 01:11:33,760
Speaker 3: your answer on the show.

1462
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:36,400
Speaker 4: If I could see one guest on the show, who

1463
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:36,840
Speaker 4: would it be?

1464
01:11:36,960 --> 01:11:38,280
Speaker 1: But you got to help us. It's got to be

1465
01:11:38,280 --> 01:11:39,640
Speaker 1: in your roller decks. I know that's the hell of

1466
01:11:39,680 --> 01:11:40,200
Speaker 1: a roller desck.

1467
01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:44,559
Speaker 4: You said, no, Yes, I would love to see have

1468
01:11:44,640 --> 01:11:46,680
Speaker 4: you got you guys having that push on the show right? Well,

1469
01:11:47,720 --> 01:11:52,800
Speaker 4: would be sick also, I mean obviously, I mean you

1470
01:11:52,800 --> 01:11:57,599
Speaker 4: guys had snoops, so whatever. Yeah, he's the best. He's

1471
01:11:57,640 --> 01:12:01,519
Speaker 4: obviously the coolest in the room. But like Push, just

1472
01:12:01,560 --> 01:12:03,840
Speaker 4: the way he is so thoughtful and the way that

1473
01:12:03,920 --> 01:12:07,799
Speaker 4: he really shares information, and he's got so many stories.

1474
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:10,080
Speaker 4: I mean, that whole thing with the Drake thing with

1475
01:12:10,160 --> 01:12:12,760
Speaker 4: the Vidas and how that went down, and you know,

1476
01:12:12,880 --> 01:12:15,160
Speaker 4: like his beef with Drake at that time and that

1477
01:12:15,720 --> 01:12:18,400
Speaker 4: which you just had nothing to do with the time

1478
01:12:18,800 --> 01:12:21,560
Speaker 4: save for the record. Yeah, I think Push would be

1479
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:21,840
Speaker 4: the man.

1480
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:24,439
Speaker 1: Well, John, thank you for your time and obviously your

1481
01:12:24,479 --> 01:12:26,439
Speaker 1: contribution to culture.

1482
01:12:26,840 --> 01:12:27,479
Speaker 4: Appreciate it and.

1483
01:12:27,800 --> 01:12:29,879
Speaker 1: Always kind of be into behind the scenes guy obviously,

1484
01:12:30,360 --> 01:12:32,360
Speaker 1: you know, being willing to do a little you know,

1485
01:12:32,439 --> 01:12:35,400
Speaker 1: collapse capsule with us for All Star. Hopefully that's just

1486
01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:39,080
Speaker 1: the beginning of our partnership. Hopefully after this interview, we'll

1487
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:40,559
Speaker 1: see you in Steph Curry's corner.

1488
01:12:43,200 --> 01:12:43,800
Speaker 4: Get any close.

1489
01:12:43,880 --> 01:12:47,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, from our mouth to Guy's ears, we're.

1490
01:12:47,320 --> 01:12:49,639
Speaker 4: Here to help everyone, to be honest, it's not just stuff.

1491
01:12:49,640 --> 01:12:50,200
Speaker 4: We're agnostic.

1492
01:12:50,360 --> 01:12:51,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, and shout out to the shout out to the

1493
01:12:51,920 --> 01:12:53,760
Speaker 1: team that's in here that it helps you helps you

1494
01:12:53,800 --> 01:12:56,479
Speaker 1: all your greatness. We appreciate you guys too, Man, but again,

1495
01:12:56,520 --> 01:12:58,120
Speaker 1: thank you for your time. Hope you enjoyed All Star

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01:12:58,160 --> 01:12:59,000
Speaker 1: and thanks for stopping by.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 4: I can't appreci siate you guys in a huge fan

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Speaker 4: of show and thank you for this opportunity.

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01:13:03,320 --> 01:13:04,679
Speaker 2: To appreciate so Wexler.

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01:13:05,080 --> 01:13:07,160
Speaker 3: Thanks. Thanks.

1502
01:13:10,680 --> 01:13:13,479
Speaker 1: You can catch this on All the Smoke YouTube and

1503
01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:15,080
Speaker 1: the Draft Kings Network.

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01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,040
Speaker 2: That's a wrap on All Star. Let's go uh, Let's

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01:13:18,040 --> 01:13:18,599
Speaker 2: go Medicaid