Breaking Limits: The Unbelievable Rise of a Global Fitness Brand LSKD! | The Tiger Table | EP6

00:04 - today with us here at Target table um we've got Jason Daniel from LSD and dude I I am extremely excited to just know more about your story and you guys are popping off thanks for the gear by the
00:16 - way I feel dripped out you look fresh yeah dude the material I don't know what you guys do with the materials but I haven't felt materials like this before yeah we are I I mean yeah thank you I
00:26 - mean we are obsessed with fabric and fit for the athlete yeah I even noticed like these pants here cuz I used to when I used to work at World Gym I used to wear the Adidas pants but they always felt
00:35 - kind of like cheap and like flimsy and I'd always end up stretching them and yeah this you can just tell the quality is different man you guys time I mean we we we spent a lot of time and I mean our
00:46 - design and production team and and Dylan I had a design it like we're obsessed with fabric and fit and and just testing with with not only with our team but with our athletes as well and getting
00:56 - that feedback from the community so we do a lot of testing um to make sure sure we just get that fit right you know that's our energy stretch so it's almost developed so you can wear it every day
01:05 - but you know it's got that stretch in it that you know I've actually I've trained in them as well in our shorts in the energy stretch shorts which I'm wearing today so you're wearing the long ones
01:13 - I'm wearing the short ones so these are the same ones same ones short version of that okay cool and the even the shirt fabric cuz I used to work in a in a merch store we s a lot of as color and I
01:23 - don't know if you've ever tried on the Gilden shirt yes we that was our first t-shirts we made in 2007 with Gilden yes yeah yeah so I was working as a carpenter and I was wearing gild I'm
01:33 - like oh I'll just I'll Google that and they'll be our first ever t-shirts we make pretty much yeah um but there are Flex cotton so we develop our own fabric with this like four-way stretch it's
01:43 - it's like buttery soft oversized fit so you can almost train in it but you can wear it every day that's what I like about it it feels like it's kind of between the gym and like just Everyday
01:53 - Use and the Fabrics yeah they're just awesome man we're we're very we're a bit obsessed yeah so if we had to take it back to the the beginning dude cuz you were saying that you were a chippy yeah
02:03 - and um and I know you kind of um can't build much but what like what kind of stuff were you doing as a chipp and how long were you doing it for uh so I was a carpenter I I finished school in 2003
02:13 - and I became a carpenter around 2005 um and I was building so I started off doing stick frames anyone that's a carpenter knows what a stick frame is no idea what that is you put the put the
02:24 - lay the walls down and you put them together and then you get the nail gun and nail them off um so I started out doing that and uh enough my first year my my boss actually never let me use a
02:33 - nail gun uh I was the guy that would lay the walls out and then uh someone else would come along another apprentice and he'd nail it together but it actually taught me a lot of respect about an
02:41 - appreciating a appreciating a framing gun cuz obviously they're quite dangerous when you're shooting Nails um yeah and then I would do seits which is under the roofs and fix outs which is
02:50 - you know Windows aret Traves the skirting and yeah so I kind of did that it was a lot of new homes but I did that for four or five years while I was still trying to build the brand okay and then
03:01 - I guess yeah our team found this cool graphic and this is the interesting thing about the history of your brand is like we know lskd and I've seen your stuff D popping off everywhere I've seen
03:10 - it on Instagram I've seen influencers and celebrities wearing your hats and wearing your merch and all the rest of it and I had this impression before we had this conversation I'm like oh this
03:19 - is like a new brand yeah but when we were looking at it and having a conversation with you um when we were at Simon Beard's party together you were telling me the history of the brand like
03:30 - I didn't realize how long this brand had been around for CU originally it was called lose kid Industries then you rebranded in 2007 to lki but dude take us back to the beginning like how did
03:41 - this whole thing start why did you start a brand yeah so I mean I grew up riding BX um and I was 12 13 years old I rode with guys that were 18 so they were a lot older than me but they were
03:53 - professional athletes and one went off to win X Games wow and I was trying to jump this big jump uh as a 12 13-year-old and they were calling me the loose kid because I couldn't you know
04:05 - like I was bit crazy and and cuz you're so young and you're doing something I was the kid I was the youngest riding with these athletes and that's where it kind of all started um and you know I
04:13 - was obsessed with action sports my whole life uh you know and riding BMX I always wanted to race Motocross and to be honest the brand started as a high school nickname and it evolved into a
04:23 - brand from just a bunch of friends telling me I should turn it into something so from around 2002 to 2007 there was this period of time where we made hats and like to the point I
04:33 - actually um you know where we met in surface Paradise there used to be a shop under there that I bought I used to go buy 50 around 50 hats at a time was like three3 for $5 these trucker hats and I'd
04:42 - print the loose kid logo on it and then I'd sell them to people at the motorbike tracks and just just really Grassroots early days learning how to build the brand cuz I remember BMX kids wearing
04:51 - your stuff when I was a kid yeah cuz I went to Mountain Creek High School on the Sunshine Coast Y and um the skate park at Alexandra Headlands I don't know if you've ever been there yeah that was
05:00 - my stomping ground cuz I used to do BMX I was a BMX kid but I was never really good I I like building dirt jumps and stuff like that with my friends but I remember seeing the brand floating
05:08 - around the loose kid Brands occasionally yeah so then yeah it was that and we just made a lot of stickers and and and a bunch of clothes but I'd never really had committ it so it was just we've got
05:18 - this brand we were setting up at the motocross track cuz I'd got into Racing moto by then and stopped running BMX and we'd set up a little popup tent and there'd be 500 athletes so you know
05:27 - there's probably 2,000 people there and so a big Community which is part of what we do within Fitness communities today and you know we we we always I always thought it could be something but it was
05:38 - 2007 I was in a carpenter and I thought you know what I want to turn this into my career and the logo evolved in from loose kid Industries to L and when it had evolved to lki um that's when I
05:49 - knuckled down and I was you know working at you know you get up at 4:00 5 a.m. you'd work then I'd go to the job site at 6:30 my lunch break I would be uh you know ringing up retailers trying to sell
05:59 - off a onepage catalog and then I'd be back at work and then I'd be in the gym training to get ready for racing and Saturdays I'd show up at uh a retail store when you're not supposed to show
06:08 - up it was the only time I had on the way to a race meet in say gimpy and trying to sell to a local retailer in gimpy it took me two years to get that that account une Earth and yeah and it was
06:18 - just it was just like build the brand there was no strategy there was no why there was no there was no like oh we're going to we're going to sit in this market it was just we had a I just had a
06:26 - passion for being a part of something and and had no clue what I was doing um but just having fun with it and making product that we wanted to wear we weren't racing but we were in the gym we
06:35 - were hanging out do you think for you it was a community component I think a big part of it was because a lot of the friends I had a lot of pro athletes as friends and I sponsored a lot of pro
06:45 - athletes growing up um you know from those from that kind of 2007 2008 we ended up sponsoring some of the best athletes in Australia and I just ended up having this really good relationship
06:54 - with professional athletes and we have an amazing group of athletes today and what we do and I think it's those learnings from those times um that shaped us because it's all about a great
07:04 - relationship and uh yeah 2010 we we we're in my working from my mom's bedroom we had three 20 foot shipping containers um and we moved out of there into our first little office in
07:15 - Christenson Road uh which we still have today and what year was that that was 2010 that's 13 years ago and um I was like [ __ ] yeah like you know and and I actually quit my apprenticeship then so
07:26 - I I actually I was a Tradesman by then just made it as a Tradesman and and that was it never going back I've still got my nail bag I should bring it out so so before we go into more of the details of
07:36 - lki so when you were doing L kid you were doing popup stores at events uh basically to athletes and then maybe word would get around town and people were starting to wear your stuff and you
07:47 - say maybe the community aspect was really interesting do did you find joy out of seeing people wear your stuff and yeah well yeah and it was actually quite like it was I was like oh wow they like
07:57 - the Brand This was crazy like I didn't you know for me it was like oh cool they like what we're doing that's rad that you know and athletes would come up and want to buy the brand and excuse me and
08:06 - then we would you know then and next minute I'm signing Matt Moss who was number one in Australia because we just he liked the product and you know and then I would travel with athletes and
08:16 - you know put stickers on their helmets and put you know a towel on the podium and yeah and I think I think I did I liked being a part of it I mean my I mean if I go back like my 21st birthday
08:25 - cuz we were I think I was 19 you know I was quite young I was 19 maybe when we really started to give the brand a crack yeah uh in 2007 and my 21st birthday like I think I had a ministry as sound
08:35 - DJ and I had like 10 maybe 30 or 50 different athletes come to my you know my mom's place back then and and we had property and I just Mom chuffed she loved it you know had a lot of fun and
08:46 - you know we we and it was just all these athletes getting together so my 21st was like you know Ministry of Sound was a big thing back then remember and and it was like if we you know we'd all have
08:55 - fun and and and you know but we were all athletes trying to you know make it in our career career so yeah it was I think that Community aspect have always been with us since I was a kid um but not
09:07 - realizing what that meant until I'd kind of got into my personal development journey and you know we went through a lot of struggles with lki where it wasn't doing well for a good five years
09:16 - to be honest so 2007 you made the pivot to lki Y and then that's when you had the shipping containers and you were staying with your mom and and um was was this where you were getting contracts
09:26 - through retailers is that how you predominately moving the product yeah so we we would sell off like I've still got the catalogs today which is really special in the first t-shirts in our
09:35 - office but I would yeah essentially like I wasn't a designer so I didn't know how to design so I had to find people to help like I had my strengths and I had my weakness I knew my weaknesses as well
09:43 - and I would take a onepage catalog that I had one of you know someone designed because we didn't have any team members then yeah um and I'd get you know freelance done up and I'd go on the road
09:53 - and I would literally physically be cold calling in front of motorbik retailers surf stores uh you know we ended up getting into City Beach at around 2011 then yeah um so that was kind of a major
10:04 - retail which was huge for usug man I remember seeing lki in City Beach yeah that was massive and I just you know those times like I I actually remember when I first got in there I actually got
10:13 - stood up um by the buyer you know it was a men's buyer and he didn't show up and I'm standing there going oh [ __ ] [ __ ] all right like he just didn't show up want to meet me and I was like all right
10:23 - well I'll just instead of trying to call them and meet them I'll just keep posting catalogs every season like I'll find a way to get yeah um well that's an important lesson right because I think
10:33 - you know we are constantly meeting kids and people starting a power Brands and their only strategy really is launch a Shopify store but what you're saying is you put in the real elbow grease you
10:44 - were at the events you were sending out cataloges C calling retailers and saying get me in there I'll send you a catalog at what point did things start to stick doing that kind of old school sales
10:55 - tactic well I didn't really know that it was old school even then like it was just what you want do it was the shop of fire I don't even think it started then and and you know Instagram wasn't around
11:04 - Facebook hadn't started really so for me it was like you you you grow in wholesale that was the thing and if you had an Ecom business it was like what platform do you use we used to be on
11:13 - Magento and and you made a lot of mistakes on that um the Simon was telling me about it as well yeah we've had our fair share there and i' it was probably one of the best good part of my
11:23 - learnings back in 2015 but I mean it was it was just I don't really know I was just it was just like it was like I want this to be a job I don't want to be a chippy I want to I want to run this
11:34 - brand I want to go to work like to do I want this to be my job it was never a okay this Market can be this big and we're going to make this much money and this is our product we're going to you
11:43 - know like there was no strategy it was like I just want this to be my job I love it I didn't know why I loved it and I I was obsessed with Fitness I was obsessed with racing um you just
11:53 - committed and married the idea this is happening I'm going to force it and I was like I'm going to make sure it works you know and I'll do whatever it takes um and made a lot of mistakes on the way
12:03 - and and and and I don't when I look back on I'm like yeah it was for me it was never a no it was just a when like that was my always like kind of motto back then was and even now it's like you know
12:12 - if you really want to achieve something if it's a no now it's just a well it's not a no it's a when and we're obviously doing something wrong and why where do you think that comes from do you think
12:19 - like like at what point did you start doing personal development because you've we talked a lot about this previously yeah was that when you were 19 or later on no no oh like no I didn't
12:29 - really do much personal development until I probably hit what 30 you know six years ago so I wasn't really interested in personal development yeah um do you know my my parents my mom
12:40 - worked really hard we had a nursery my grandparents from uh you know from Italy my Nonono mon is from Italy and they worked really hard so I think you know and and they'd been very successful in
12:51 - what they'd achieved so maybe there was a bit of you know when I was working in my mom's nursery plant nursery and I was selling at the local markets okay you know like uh you know whether you know
12:60 - she used to sell at the markets at uh uh what's it called where Simon actually started you know Culture Kings which is kind of cool you we had a market there in Cleveland and I would go and help and
13:09 - sell maret what's happening at that market bro it's creating these well yeah she was selling she was selling you know we had a plant nursery and we'd be selling local PL like our plants from
13:16 - there and we' go to like to local like um you know this place Nursery Traders where as a wholesaler so I would help before school i' be working for you kind of grew up around like this I GRE I grew
13:26 - up around a working culture and I don't I think that's proba where it came from and we didn't have a lot growing up um you know I never even owned a shirt from everyone want to own a shirt from say
13:34 - like a a surf store or like City Beach I never even owned a shirt from there because we couldn't afford it so I remember I remember like remember free dress day in high school you had to be
13:42 - like I got to get the best drip I got to get a bong shirt or a human or or New York shirt and if I'm honest I had to borrow a friend's Fox tea because my mom couldn't you know my parents put up when
13:52 - I was quite young and I was 13 so I couldn't I couldn't afford one so I had to I actually borrowed one so I've always has been brought up around that like you know like you got to work for
14:01 - what you you know if you want something and and you know for me it was I just wanted it to succeed but it wasn't about like making it the biggest thing ever I always knew it could be something big um
14:12 - but i' never to be honest I never really did it it was never about the money okay it was about having a career yeah um and and I think to be honest I think that's a part of it you don't I think if you do
14:23 - something just all about money yeah you can make a lot of money and you can do well right but if you do it with a stronger y it can be far greater than that I agree with that man cuz even like
14:30 - when I started the agency people like what's the goal I'm like I don't know I just want to build an agency like it was the most fun thing in the world to me and I think yeah it's it's almost like
14:40 - you just find something that you love and you enjoy the process and yeah so many people I think look at entrepreneurship as it's about pursuit of the money pursuit of the dollar but I
14:50 - think in your case it's just you fell in love with something and you wanted to see how far you could take it yeah and and and it had its Fair shares of mistakes struggles you know so you know
14:60 - from from that period from 2010 to when I really went full-time to 20 kind of 17 2018 before we changed the brand it was it it was just a lot of good learnings okay and still today I'm
15:13 - learning a lot but like a lot of mistakes a lot of learnings to doing too many products for everybody um you know and when I mean that it was we made life jackets Motocross gloves we made um you
15:24 - know some sports where we made some street we we we were selling to a lot of different channels which that's when you were so did so lki kind of took off you were
15:32 - getting into retail people were um hosting your stuff and you were in Motocross stores you were in City Beach um at what point did you start to maybe line extend too hard you know and line
15:44 - extension for those that don't know what that means it's like you're doing too many things and they're kind of diluting the impact of the brand potentially yeah so I think I started to realized when I
15:54 - I think I to be honest I think I hit 30 and was like and my wife felt pregnant and I'm like okay like I'm in the real world now um and you know every year I was like
16:02 - this Brand's going to it's going to get better next year and when I mean that it was like we were kind of stuck on about $3 million a year for 5 years yeah so you're kind of like in the end you're
16:10 - like okay I'm doing something wrong here like you weren't seeing grow and you wanted to grow because that's what keeps you know you keep growing the team you keep you know building new products and
16:19 - so I was like okay I'm doing something wrong here this is not working like something it's I'm doing something wrong um and that's what I really that's when I I actually um I went to a call called
16:29 - landmark forum in 2015 dud Landmark yeah yes love that place it's brutal but it's awesome it is it it's lifechanging and we I mean we we you know we our team does the The Landmark as well and and uh
16:41 - it's a very powerful full on I got to take these guys along yeah everyone's been he about it like what's Landmark I'm like wait it's life changing and uh so what year did you go to Landmark I
16:51 - went 2015 okay so it was and then that was kind of the start of my kind of I suppose if you say personal development journey and I wasn't really really interested in it if that makes sense did
17:00 - someone invite you to the event yeah someone invited me yeah yeah so I actually went because we were my mom and I were kind of arguing in the business a little bit about like wanting different
17:09 - systems and and then somebody actually um said to me oh I I uh someone in our business that was kind of chasing our debt as Amanda she was amazing she said to me because we obviously wholesale
17:20 - account yeah so we would wait to get paid by the retailers um so we'd have sometimes they didn't pay for 60 to 90 days which was very hard um stressful too cuz you're like I got to get the
17:30 - next order in for the next client you yeah and and and um lot of good learnings there but it was tough and yeah and and she just recommended for me said you should go to this course I I
17:40 - did it when my uh she said I did it when my son was 12 and my son's 21 and I have an amazing relationship with him U and that course really helped me and I was like you know what [ __ ] sign me up like
17:49 - I didn't know what I was getting myself into I was like sign me up and day one was tough but day two I was like wow I'm loving this and uh and then yeah and and that was kind of the start I then joined
17:58 - a toast Masters Club to learn kind of how to public speak wow because I just I couldn't get up and share and every everyone gets nervous before they start to you know whether they're going to
18:07 - share and even today but that really taught me a lot and then I ended up just somehow like over time uh I found a mentor um and when I say a mentor a lot of my kind of people I kind of would
18:19 - look up to or talk to were kind of from the building industry so I ended up meeting the founder of Penny skateboards uh who build the plastic skateboard company he grew up in Logan where I was
18:28 - grew uping pennies yeah man cool where's he from uh he's from Logan as well so and and I took me about I know nine months to get a coffee with him six and a half months and uh he finally caught
18:38 - up with me and I just learned a lot from Ben he was an absolute Legend and that's where I started to learn about brand and and and that was about 2016 and then I and then I just slowly so it doesn't it
18:47 - sounds like everything happened really fast but you know from 2015 to kind of 2017 it's you know it's a few years right yeah cuz the brand have been around for a while and and like you said
18:55 - you were doing you know 3 million in a year but you maybe were hitting a plat was it was the idea in your head like okay I'm doing something wrong was the immediate reaction to seek consult or to
19:06 - seek answers like what was what was happening once I kind of I suppose I probably I would say I wasn't really humble like I was like no no no it's going to get better next year we got to
19:15 - go harder but I wasn't really thinking of the why the strategy where where do we play in as a brand like who who are we um it was just kind of spread it everywhere and design everything and
19:25 - everything we thought was cool with design where it was like hang on is that us like you have your distinct kind of look as a brand who you are and and and at that
19:34 - time was it based around like the extreme sport like the X Games kind of energy cuz that was big at that time yes and no yeah yes and no I mean we we we loved sportsare and we l Street and we
19:46 - would do a bit of that but then we would go off and do all these other things that we thought would just get our sales for the wrong reasons okay so we kind of had a bunch of everything but not really
19:54 - distinctly focused on one kind of look as a brand you weren't really focused on branding per se it was more let's get attention let's get out in the market let's retail let's produce products yeah
20:04 - yeah and we did a lot of like stuff to get PR and different things to try and build awareness for the brand like I mean you know in the early day it so was 2017 and because we were still on that
20:14 - face of trying to figure it out uh and we um we put a blob on the side of an 84 super yacht so it's like a uh there's actually a video on it but um can we pull that up if you want um think it's
20:27 - like blood party never thought we'd use this and now we are um but we put a blob on on this super yard on the goal coast and you jump off one end and bounce off the
20:35 - other and we were just doing it to create this crazy content okay and you get viral views but there was really no why behind it right so we would make these videos and do these crazy events
20:46 - and parties but it really wasn't us like we were we were We Love Fitness and Inspire there was no inspiration to inspire someone uh you know if that if that makes sense right so this is a
20:56 - piece of content you were producing what year was this 2007 okay we we would host these events like there was a sky diver that jumped out and we ended up live on the Today show
21:06 - with that because the skydiver was meant to land on the blob and you know we just got a lot of this media attention all the time but there was no like why behind it so it's like okay we know how
21:14 - to get media attention like there was all these things we learned in marketing that you know which I've kind of funny never shared on a podcast but we learn about all these things around marketing
21:23 - by testing and trying which was really good cuz we got to make a lot of mistakes yeah and Le learning you were just trying yeah just giving everything a crack I
21:30 - mean we even rode a couch down a hill like we went and and Kirby actually shot the content uh you know and it was like uh it was okay couch racer or something like that so we you know we we we uh
21:45 - yeah can't remember lki couch racer or you um there it is um anyway uh not that one okay oh that that that was with like uh you know no the one below it the one
22:00 - below it we'll go back if you go to the one below it so that's that's actually that's actually me and friend of mine and Kirby actually shot it so we just do all this crazy stuff like yeah um and we
22:12 - kind of had as you can see yeah just being a loose kid yeah you know and wait how do you steer that thing with your
22:22 - feet so we just did like this you know and it had no breaks so you couldn't stop and and we would go like I don't know 60 70 K an hour maybe and we just created content and you know this looks
22:35 - incredibly dangerous yeah it is yep we do not encourage anyone to do this at home um and that and and that was kind of the stuff that like we were doing with the brand but there was this but we
22:46 - loved Fitness and I I don't think and and and we were doing it and we get views but really was there a real why behind it and and I think that's where in kind of when I started my book
22:58 - journey um I was kind of in this real low I was like man this is not working and you know I need to learn like what am I doing wrong I probably wasn't wasn't the
23:08 - greatest leader you know within terms I'd lost team members and you know I wasn't wasn't that good at the office um in terms of the way I treated feedback and and things like that that I just
23:18 - went through and then that's when these books came to play like you know it was good to Great the founder of L lemon I really resonated with chip story of what he went through within a brand his brand
23:27 - previously um and he'd done landmark and I was like wow like I can relate to this I didn't know he did Landmark yeah yeah so I just related to it all and was like hang on like what what what can we be
23:38 - you know what can we be known for and we're really passionate about being the best at Women's leggings and and then that's where we created like we want to be a you know a functional fitness brand
23:46 - with a you know with a street wear aesthetic and I was going to ask you that because it seems like quite a Quantum Leap from what I'm seeing with lki downhilling on couches and uh blood
23:57 - parties and skydiving and like kind of this maybe like extreme sports Suburban apparel Brands like what point did you go we're pivoting into into this now aesthetic that you have now was was it a
24:10 - jump from lki to what you're doing now was it a slow transition it was a slow transition um but when we did make the shift and when I mean we made the shift at LS KD what was really interesting is
24:21 - instead of it being my decision as you saw on some of that product there was lskd and lki so we almost had two Brands again so I'm like oh my gosh like I'm confused using the community again so
24:30 - you had an alternative logo at that point so if you see there there was two logos so we actually had our KY logo and then we had lki under it okay so we actually had we were kind of starting to
24:40 - confuse the community again right so that's when I actually went to our team and we were about a team of 12 and I said which logo do you like the most LKR or lskd and then I went to our community
24:50 - and our athletes and I said which logo do you like which one would you prefer as a brand and everyone picked lskd and Dylan I had a design actually developed the lskd logo back in 2016 so it
25:01 - actually had happened a while ago and I was like you know what like what do you guys think if we just Chang the brand and they loved it they're like let's do it and it was the most surreal moment
25:08 - because they all fell in love with the idea so it wasn't just my decision it was a team decision the community again kind of in our own team right and then uh and then a part of that with you know
25:18 - all the learnings I was like why do we come to work like what why and I was asking and we were just and we had this phrase then called chase the vibe and I was like if our mission could be to
25:29 - inspire people to chase the vibe could we go to work for that every day and that's where it kind of had Sport fitness and adventure and we create you know sportswar with a street aesthetic
25:37 - and we we worked on this one pair of women's leggings for 18 months and that was like the core of our core of our business and everyone just everyone was like yeah let's do it and I think that
25:47 - was really empowering because it wasn't just my decision I really got feedback from the team and got Buy in instead of it just being my decision and then I said to them like okay let's change the
25:56 - brand September 2018 we didn't party like you'd see we were like let's just change the brand by doing that we changed the logo we didn't even have ld.com because it was too expensive so
26:06 - we went doco there was no strategy we were like let's just go doco we have Doom now um and and and and when we did it we were like let's not throw a party let's just change everything um we still
26:15 - had lki tags like we you know but there was you know it was just like let's get the logo changed and let's start really slowly branding and part of that journey and and this is part of the probably the
26:25 - big learnings is like some of the biggest retailers in Australia turned us down and started canceling our orders because they didn't like the shift and a lot of people kind of thought we were
26:35 - crazy doing it because it was like you've had this for so long and now you flipped the whole thing on its head that's what I was going to ask you and I got a seven-month-old and you know it's
26:43 - like is this going to work or not but I was like you know what if we truly believe in this and we did it it's not it's let's take our time like it's it's let's take our time and build it with a
26:51 - why let's really protect the brand um and and the whole team and Dylan and our team is obsessed with brand and as well and and you know he's our head of design and today and and doing phenomenal and
27:02 - and we were like let's just really protect it let's not do what you know every wholesale account wants us to make because they got sell through that year and wanted it again let's do what our
27:10 - community wants so we kind of just flipped it on its head and said like let's do it with a why behind it instead of doing it what everybody else like all the you know essentially retailers want
27:19 - from you because then you go into this downward spiral of just making what's sold every year instead of thinking of what the community or the athlete wants do you thinking with a higher purpose
27:27 - rather than thinking about okay here's a retailer account that can make us money they can make us a lot of money immediately um I mean a lot of people and I meet a lot of people in that
27:37 - position and they're terrified to make the maneuver that they feel they want to make at the short-term loss of what they might immediately lose but the interesting thing with the maneuver you
27:46 - made was yeah maybe you had a short-term loss but you built something so much greater and it's a tradeoff almost well yeah we we we didn't expect it to be kind of where it is at today this you
27:56 - know essentially like if I'm honest it's grown a lot quicker than we expected and and I'm glad I had those of 10 15 years to of those learnings for where we're at today I wouldn't have been out of handle
28:06 - where we're at today um but I think when we you know when we made that decision it was just a it it wasn't like we we were prepared to decline if you know what I mean like we were prepared to go
28:17 - back in Revenue we were prepared I was like you know what and to be honest I was in that much of a low there were weeks where a couple of times where we didn't have enough cash flow to even pay
28:26 - myself my my salary out of you know and but we could just pay the team because we were waiting to be paid by retailers so I was in this point where I don't want to live this I I don't want to live
28:35 - this like I don't want to do this anymore like this is not fun like you know I want to build something and and enjoy the journey as well like I want to have part of enjoy the journey have fun
28:44 - be yourself was like I actually want to have fun on this journey too but I was taking it so seriously that I almost wasn't having fun because I wanted it so bad where when I stripped it back don't
28:54 - get me wrong we're super competitive and we're we're just getting started but like it was a it's this mindset shift where it's like let's do it with a purpose and it's it's it's it's harder
29:03 - to you know you you almost it's harder because you got to do almost try to do less because that becomes more right so you're saying like almost like if if if I'm just thinking about it you're you're
29:14 - running your business you're not paying yourself you're not finding joy in it and then rather than like trying to go how do I make this thing work and stressing about it you kind of zoomed
29:23 - out a little bit and said well why are we doing this in the first place and then started connecting a bit more emotionally to the greater purpose or and I and and and I actually went
29:32 - through these motions in my journey of going do I know what I'm doing do I know how to do this like do I like just more to really ask to confront the brutal facts and be like and and because I was
29:41 - like well why do I do it I was like I love being a part of something I love the community aspect I love creating things but I didn't do it with a purpose from the start it was just go go go cuz
29:50 - I was in my I was teenager like so it's you know it was it was just go so I knew I had the drive I'm like I've got the drive I'm like I can give anything a crack I'm not scared to give it a crack
30:00 - but if we did it with a strong why and on Bo and the team really believed in it too and really supported them on their Journey which is where we kind of started the book journey and personal
30:09 - development then we could create something really special and we could all come to work with a Common Language um do you know so that it was it was you know it was just a you know you you
30:18 - could say soul searching or just really asking deeply why because I think that really helped us to get clear and then once we were clear we were like okay let's go and then but not realizing we
30:28 - would you know kind of get to where we're at today and you know really truly believe you know we have a crazy beehag and and and and more from about because I'm really want to develop our team and
30:39 - their Futures and you know thinking future CEOs and where they can go it really excites me to create a global brand from Logan yeah um so yeah it was it it was it was crazy but very lucky to
30:50 - live it you know put Logan on the map man exactly big time so so with okay so Landmark you started developing yourself reading books books um and then when you so what was the guy uh's name who ran
31:02 - Penny uh Ben Ben okay so Ben like what what was Ben able to give you at that point when you were trying to figure out the next maneuver I think just having someone to talk to that had owned a
31:12 - brand okay um that was a Founder you know I think a lot of Founders go through you know it's it's a found it's it's a it's it is a lonely journey I think for most Founders if that you know
31:22 - and they would could probably you know you know it is a bit of a lonely Journey cuz you're like am I doing it right what am I doing and really try to find those people around you to that that are there
31:31 - to give you that direct feedback and help you and and to be honest he was it was a legend we just became friends and he loved skateboarding and Action Sports and yeah I was it was it was cool like I
31:43 - you know and and whatever it kind of was you know like if the thing I learned was is I was like he's got his own things going on but if if if I can spend time with him and he's free I'll go spend
31:53 - time with him yeah uh and I think that's you know now it's harder as you get busier um now but if you I think the my learnings is if you want to learn from someone you need to find any way to
32:04 - spend time with them even you know like to the point I was helping him concrete uh his boat ramp right so I can spend time with him to learn like I just wanted to learn like because I was like
32:14 - I the only way I'm going to get better is by spending time with people that have really achieved this and find things or that and not to just just to find those gold nuggets of like of
32:24 - learnings from other people that have been through those tough times or they've grown really fast and they're like don't make that mistake and I'm like okay thanks like if we ever get
32:32 - there maybe I'll know that you know at that time um you know it's like books do so yeah he he just played a big part in the journey he was a Legend um how did you get his attention like you said you
32:41 - were trying to reach out to him for months uh I just met him through a friend of mine Nathan uh it was his brother-in-law and he cced me in an email and then I kind of just kept
32:48 - emailing him and he said he was busy uh yeah he was probably fishing um you know like I want to catch up with this weird founder uh you know but it it kind of we ended up catching up yeah yeah and then
32:59 - building a friendship and then obviously yeah I haven't spoken to him for a while but like in you know up until like kind of 2019 we we you know we we spoke a lot and then things just got really busy
33:09 - like yeah um to be honest because we we launched our rep tight in July 2019 so took us about 18 months we launched that product and that really was kind of the Tipping Point of where it really started
33:20 - the feedback started coming from you know um the community and that really started to grow and then obviously we had a you know kind of really suc uccessful Black Friday and we're like
33:28 - okay wow we need to you we need to hire a warehouse manager and we really need to start knuckling down like we've got something special here yeah um and then obviously the following Co hit and you
33:39 - know we just kind of kept reinvesting back into the brand back into the team back into personal development product development um yeah so would you say like like a lot of that initial Ecom
33:49 - success was based on that that first product yep that and uh yeah that and some other products okay but that was the main one I mean if you walk me through the product development I mean
33:59 - Loosely without giving too much away um yeah because you know I meet a lot of people and they're like oh I'm starting an Ecom brand I found the supplier and they're sending me the product slaping
34:08 - my logo on it I'm going to sell it you're saying you actually went out and created a new product essentially yeah yeah so I mean I I took my first trip actually to China in 2011 yeah so was a
34:19 - long time ago and I was really lucky to learn that you know and relationships and you know production and product development and um yeah it takes time you know I think when you because you
34:29 - know when you when you're starting out you can't get the minimum quantities that some of the suppliers need because you know getting and finding the right machines because these machines are the
34:39 - things that have you know whether it's a smaller needle or you know have the right Fabrics so you know so so things don't pull apart Etc like there's so much in it um so it just takes time and
34:49 - making kind of lots of mistakes yeah um but I mean when I look back on our product Journey like the early days we were talking about Gilden like we were using local t-shirts we didn't know
34:57 - where to go to really kind of create more technical product yeah um but it can take I mean we we we've been developing product like we're launching this uh you know women's and men's
35:06 - underwear um this this year oh I'm excited about that man cool I'm so pumped and it's been two three years you know essentially close to three years to find the right supplier uh spend time
35:17 - with them the fabric the fit test so it's been a journey for this one product some products you know 12 18 up to 3 years development to come out and I think for us it's about trying to you
35:27 - know we want to really get it right for the community so you know not only is it going to last them a long time creates hopefully great word of mouth but it's uh yeah it takes time product
35:36 - development takes time so the the shift between lki being I guess I don't know when I looked at The Branding it did feel like more of that kind of motocross scene yeah and then the lskd has this
35:48 - really clean minimal aesthetic the community voted they're like we like this logo more did it organically shift into the community you have now cuz theity Community you have now is quite
35:58 - different to where where it kind of originated yeah and I think yes and no um we've had a ton of new community join our brand but what's been really inspiring is the community that was
36:09 - wearing lki I've noticed have come on that Journey okay they haven't left yeah like we have a community group with 70,000 in Facebook and they're like posting stuff for the old lki products
36:17 - and it's so cool to watch so there's a community that has really come on board and love the shift in the journey and I noticed a lot of athletes in Motocross um you know have got into other sports
36:27 - you know they they finish Racing moto they you know they either get into running marathons or you know they're getting into functional fitness or they're getting into other training
36:34 - athletes will just keep doing athletic things right you got to stay fit and and I think you know racing motocross is a tough sport like you you know broke a lot of Bones surgeries um do you know
36:43 - you're in the gym training trying to recover if you have an injury you you got 40 bikes going into one turn there's a lot of adrenaline going so you kind of you know I think now I kind of do you
36:53 - know I've just finished the go Coast Marathon um you had a goal to go sub three and I was stoked to get it yeah saw that man it looks brutal yeah it was fun and and a six Monon of training for
37:03 - it and it was about the Journey of training for it not so much about the event but it's that I suppose like what I've saying is a lot of athletes in Motocross kind of looking for that I
37:10 - think next kind of not adrenaline but that kind of fix um so that's kind of naturally evolved into different you know with into fitness yeah um and we still sponsor athletes I mean we have a
37:21 - you know we have a pro bmxer uh you know Logan Martin who W X Games uh the Olympics um and he wears our product when he's in the gym you know he just he he doesn't wear it when he's competing
37:32 - he wears it when he's training in the gym when he's with his family um you know and that's what we have you know he's a part of our team in that he's an amazing athlete and very inspiring so
37:40 - kind of organically happening you guys and I guess like if someone's trying to look at the marketplace you guys weren't looking at what's going to make the cash where is the biggest um you know
37:52 - paycheck you were looking at hey what does our community love and how do we better serve them and do you feel like the brands evolved by being very Community Centric and trying to serve
37:60 - them versus looking for the next paycheck yeah and we really focused on functional fitness yeah communities that's where we really honed in um you know I I I actually you know I grew up
38:10 - um racing motocross with the founder of Fit Stop uh they have about 130 locations in Australia now and doing amazing Pete and you know we grew up together so we were like around that so
38:20 - we kind of you know and that's functional fitness and what we would like I was doing and we've kind of been on our own Journeys together uh which has been really cool so it's kind of
38:27 - that's he created a community of Fitness within functional fitness and we kind of work really we we we have a collection launching with them this week so oh wow you know there's this real tiing of
38:36 - athletes and moving in and within Fitness communities and being a part of something so that's where we really found ourselves and that's where the messaging starting to come out like 1%
38:43 - better every day like I notic you have these mantras that you're um building into your company culture and that's also not just internal but you're using that externally as well to kind of align
38:53 - with the Brand's why and its purpose yeah yeah and what's crazy I mean we I've only been talking like it's kind of interesting now we've been really toning in on our Manifesto um you know I got
39:01 - these like believe and dream tattooed on me back in 2009 yeah so it's kind of crazy to think we've kind of always had this within us of who we were within our values and our mission that we've you
39:11 - know we've evolved our mission to inspire people to be 1% better every day which is which is really exciting of How It's where we're pushing it to um but yeah it's something that we live in
39:20 - breathe every day and and what's special about that is I didn't create the values we created as a team yeah um and you know and and and and when the brand really evolved 2018 we changed the brand
39:31 - we created our mission 2020 is end of 2020 is when we created our values yeah so it's kind of like a stepping stone within the brand it was felt right um and once we changed it once we once we
39:43 - decid went to create our values we did an anonymous form to a team of we had about 35 then and they filled out Anonymous form what their values would mean to the brand okay and then we just
39:51 - printed it out and you know collated suppose the data and started just having a lot of fun with it we like well would we go to work for that value would we make a decision of that value and it
40:01 - took us about six months and that's how we came down to our six core values so what what kind of questions were you asking the team to have them think about what the values might be well what's
40:09 - crazy is I I I kind of gave uh like Keith Co and Jade head of CX I was they kind of ran it all to be honest so I actually wasn't daily in I wasn't which was really special this is kind of
40:20 - special man cuz it's so rare that teams will do that stuff without yeah so they they they created it uh their form um and put in slack and then we just collated all everything that was said
40:30 - into I suppose a spreadsheet and then popped out the data and just looked at it and just was like okay like there was a you know there was just this formation and because we'd all been listening to
40:39 - the books there was just like you know sweep the sheds comes from the book Legacy right like so there was some things and themes that we all were like we love this we we we really believe in
40:48 - this like were you guys like reading the same books together yeah okay so how does that work is that the whole company or the seite or a whole company yeah your whole company all read yeah the
40:57 - same book how does that work man that's inspiring I mean we just do I mean yeah um a lot of work I mean and and you know we pay for our team's audible account um and you know the the the journey started
41:11 - with a few books and it's evolved to a lot of books but we have our certain books that we we love to give to our teammates to read to understand our brand um and and and kind of resignated
41:20 - with us and we really you know it took us on a journey and why we do what we do but yeah we we I mean we're very passionate about it like and just that constant learning I mean I'll go back to
41:29 - a book you know three four five I've I've done one book 10 times and I constantly learn because I'm constantly growing every six months um you go back to it it hits different yeah massively
41:38 - different and yeah it's been very special and I'm very lucky to be a part of it and and I think when I go back to sweep the sheds right when we did that um you know when we were in Christenson
41:47 - Road I made the conscious effort to remove my office and not have an office okay and uh that was in 2018 after you know a couple of one different book um and I was like you know what I don't
41:57 - need an office I'm never even there anyway ripped it out open plan and then when sweep the sheds was created we were like okay you know part of that value is like no one has an office we have
42:07 - meeting rooms open work plan uh I don't have one I just kind of take team members desks and hope can find a desk you know because if I need to work somewhere I'll just take a meeting room
42:16 - or go in the quiet room uh or work from home you know if I need to so and then no one gets a car park it's first in best dress you know so that was just like you know and if I'm late I'm on the
42:24 - street or on you know on the other side of the road on the grass you know so yeah there's a lot of times I am off droing my daughter you know so it that that that that value relates all the way
42:34 - down to like where we park yeah you know it's that important to us that we have to live and breathe because if I change that then we're not living the values right so you're like I need to lead by
42:45 - example and so does the team and you guys I mean it's quite interesting because I meet a lot of like CEOs that talk about having a good workplace culture and rarely do you see it right
42:57 - like one of my favorite quotes from Richard Branson someone ask him why is he so successful and he says to them um what is a company it's a group of people that's about it and they either go home
43:08 - and boast about you or they [ __ ] about you yeah and there's like nothing in between right so I I I'm with you man like I think culture is so power mount to the success of a company so like when
43:19 - you went to Landmark and you started reading these books and these materials at what point were you like I need to start sharing this with the crew I need to start you know getting them onto this
43:27 - material it took time because you know I remember coming back from landmark and going everyone needs to do this and they're like you're weird man like like they were like you're weird like no yeah
43:38 - you know because I was a well I was a bit of a bad out of hell like I was always finding something to you know just chop and changing all the time so it it I had to lead by example in I
43:48 - think in terms of the mistakes I was making and not listening and already always listening and and you know not actually hearing what the team was saying to really support them and things
43:57 - they needed or how I could help so it just it took time and and what I realized was like I if I didn't lead by example they're not going to want to listen to the book yeah so or they're
44:07 - not going to want to do a course and and and I think you know that was the special thing about it it just happened authentically like I didn't go the strategy is we do this and this and this
44:15 - we're going to be this so you didn't like force it upon the culture to to read books and to do this stuff you just started embodying it yourself and then maybe people found it magnetic and
44:23 - wanted to emulate it or I mean I was always like telling people about like this a book that I've read and be like hey check out this book I'd love your feedback um and they'd read it and give
44:31 - me feedback and friends as well and you know it's just like hey what do you think of this um and you know I I I met my CFO um Matt in 2018 through funny enough Ben mcky he was you know Matt was
44:45 - working another business and uh he came on a day a week and uh he was like oh I don't really want to help this weird dude but this crazy founder I'll help him um and uh we laugh about it today
44:55 - but he he came came on a day a week and I had a government Grand pay for him and uh you know they gave me 20,000 and help pay cuz we you know we didn't even really have enough money to to hire
45:05 - anybody uh extra and he kind of came on a journey he came on in August and we'd actually changed the brand in September he had no relation to this he just joined and he's probably like what the
45:13 - [ __ ] have I got myself into yeah um and uh funny enough he kind of came on the book journey with me like I was like hey do you want to listen to this and like tell me what you think I'm trying to
45:22 - figure things out and you know and he just kind of came on the journey um and then we just started pass and and to be honest we were just having conversations about it it was just fun like it wasn't
45:31 - do you know what I mean like it's just like you're constantly learning and I think if you create a learning environment you learn once you learn you don't you go [ __ ] I don't know anything
45:38 - you really know you don't know nothing yeah and you're like okay I've got so much to learn when am I going to find those times to learn um so I can get better um well there's a bunch but I
45:48 - would say good to Great by Jim Collins uh delivering happiness uh tribal leadership um uh what's another one I mean I love the founder of lemon I love the Nike
45:59 - story and just the like what went on in the early days of the drive um Legacy there's a bunch of I mean there's so many now like there's just so much more once you start on that Journey because I
46:11 - think what I learned is these books they recommend books do you have one that you go back to um I go back to good to great a lot okay yeah I go back to that book I'm
46:20 - actually listening to that again at the moment I really I haven't listened to that one yet yeah it's it's an amazing book and uh he's got a bunch of different books like B 2.0 um great by
46:29 - choice okay uh yeah so he yeah Jim Jim Jim Collins is amazing you talks about the Hedgehog concept and your flywheel and how you really build like what your economic engine is and what you want to
46:38 - be best in the world at and what are you passionate about and you know that that helps you to think a little bit differently um so I love that book it's it's quite in depth but I think I was
46:47 - just right place right time ready to listen to it yeah um when I did start that book yeah but I I I'm actually listening to that right now I was on it this morning before I'll join you on it
46:55 - man I'll give you feedback if you like yeah and um like one of the points you said there which which really resonates with me is like leading by example and you know like whenever I've done this
47:03 - stuff like going to Tony Robin's event or whatever I'm like you got to come and then people like yeah yeah cool you know um but they start to see this and night shift in you and I think some people
47:12 - find that curious and um even here uh here at rival like um we go to a lot of events together I tell a team like hey there's an event after hours I'll buy a ticket and people like oh come check it
47:24 - out you know and then they go along they're like this is great and they really want to come to the next one that we go to together so we put a library out there and people started to just
47:31 - pick books up and start reading themselves and I think it's so it's so important for for a culture for a company to self-improve and I think that even just to find joy out of
47:41 - challenging yourself with new things so what else do you guys do for culture because we have the culture up on the screen before if you want to pull that back up again um but yeah if you could
47:50 - unpack this for me man cuz like enjoy the journey create a community sweep the sh I don't know what sweep the sheds means so I'd love to know a little bit more about that but for you guys like
47:58 - what what's what what's happened because having these ezy values I mean look I'll be clear like we're not perfect either right like I'm not boasting we have the greatest culture either like we got
48:07 - we're we're we're always constantly improving but you focused on it and you put energy into it yeah yeah I mean I want to come to work and have fun too you know as much as it has you know it's
48:15 - where we're right in it and stuff you still want to you want to enjoy the journey I think when when I look at our six core values I mean you know enjoy the journey have fun be yourself and
48:22 - embrace diversity I mean you know when you're in the thick of it right like you make it's it's you know there's you know you're deep in it there's things going on where you're trying to figure
48:32 - different things out you got to make sure you can be yourself right you can have fun like I mean the team love to take the piss out of me a lot uh which I like I think it's fun you know like
48:41 - you're always it happens here all the time yeah see how me and slack it's out of control and I just think enjoy the journey as like you you know like yes we do events and we do things as a team and
48:52 - we're doing different things we have the good times club and we do different things together present but I think there's also the part of uh being a good human um you know create a community our
49:02 - community is why we here who we work for like that's you know we're always learning from our community from all different channels and uh you know whenever we are doing something we're
49:11 - like is it helping us create a community um with any decisions you know like we're opening um you know we're opening our eth store this weekend at Caren and you know you know we we get a lineup of
49:22 - uh you know 500 plus Community waiting a it's so cool and we're always like an Apple store opening it's wild and it's so cool and it's like how do we make sure we're creating Community here like
49:32 - what do we do here to help make a decision um sweep the sheds um you know no one is bigger than the team and no one is too big to do the small things I mean that that value is essentially like
49:42 - oh I get it so like no one's holier than than that job you know dishes need to get done FL hand you know yeah like it's just what we're all in it together um you there's a better way to do it find
49:53 - it innovate set the standard do more with less like that's you know that's to you know when you're when you when you're creating when you're making decisions every day whether it's
49:59 - marketing or product or Community like Community experience whatever it is like you've got to find that there's always going to be a better way so it's always this like when you're in an environment
50:08 - you're like can we do it better like we did that yeah you have your model of success but can we do better like just prompts you to ask that um move fast break [ __ ] like that's a fun one uh you
50:18 - know foul forward and deare to think differently and nothing is impossible I think you know that one is is uh fun because we're constantly learning and testing um you know and and and I think
50:28 - it's like failure is a good thing because you're so much better from it and when I mean failure it's like you make mistakes every day like small mistakes you know like even down to a
50:37 - teammate they might make a spelling mistake and they feel like but it's like hey what did you learn from that like you're not you know you're going to be better from that like it's the small
50:45 - things and there's Parts you can't you're not physically breaking stuff you're just actually like okay let's just get it done yeah because sometimes you sit on stuff too long and not
50:53 - release it and I think someone sent me a quote someone said something something to me um Mark Zuckerberg when he released the first Facebook app he didn't even approve it they just
51:02 - released it he didn't even like proove it you know like that was the whole manra was like go hard and when they released the first Facebook app they didn't apparently didn't even he didn't
51:09 - even approve it it just went out didn't know that yeah and they I think was that a part of their culture he's just like go for it yeah yeah I think they had like they used I think they had
51:18 - something around m f break stuff and then it said at the end like move fast um think strategically cuz I remember seeing a video when he was like I think think he
51:26 - was in his early 20s and he's walking around his office and there's a bunch of dudes without shirts on drinking beers and then they had like move fast break [ __ ] on the wall yeah you see this C
51:36 - where came from well yeah and I think they ended up someone I I haven't I probably could Google it but it was like they ended up changing it to like move fast think strategically you know that
51:44 - so big but um yeah you know and then 1% better every day you know Embrace change reflect and grow uh leaders of teachers um you know that one has been a real special one that's resignated with
51:55 - everyone so so much um that it's now become a mission for us our mission and really how are we going to help inspire you know people to be 1% better every day through every decision we make
52:05 - through content through community Through Community experience through product through storytelling just you know try and Inspire because you know we want to be inspired to come to work and
52:13 - we need to create that internally too yeah every day so yeah they're very special to us and and it's something that you know I think for us to keep growing as a brand we need to keep
52:22 - living breathing by them um you know I think that's the most important part do you think like um because you've had such a good set of values are you finding yourself attracting a different
52:33 - crowd to want to come work with you um yeah I mean I mean we we recruit on these values so we're very passionate about like if a teammate you know if you don't resonate to those values maybe
52:44 - this isn't the place for you yeah um you know so maybe you're trying to unconsciously maybe see if they're this kind of person by nature and yeah like I mean you you know if you know you want
52:53 - if if if it's you know because I think if we resignate with a certain value you you're going to want to come to work to to make you know be a part of those values so I think that's a really
53:02 - important part for any business if you have your core values you want if your team resignate with them yeah then it makes it you have a Common Language yeah so I could say yes but it's a you know
53:12 - like it's it's one of those things that it's you can't force it so it's yeah you but we want we want to live and breathe and make decisions which means our team can move at speed you know they can make
53:20 - decisions quick yeah um you know because you just they just need to look at those values if they need to make a decision so if someone's looking to do this for themselves it's it's just you know not
53:29 - trying to be perfect like you said it's just maybe this is the third or fourth iteration of maybe your company's values and you've just worked on them over time and just let it kind of slowly bake
53:37 - itself in or um well I mean I think values take time I mean we I tried to create a set of values back in 2015 and I failed rightly because the person I was like I don't even know what that
53:47 - means like I was like what is a core value yeah is it you know friends is it like fun is it what what is like I didn't understand the concept yeah so I think it's really deeply understanding
53:57 - what the concept means because it's it's almost a buzz word it's just you make the decision based off it like it's almost like do you think it's like something that happens you're like oh
54:06 - like that should happen more often like yeah I think I think when you you know everyone has something that they believe in or they think about that they go oh yeah I actually do that well shouldn't
54:16 - that be a value like it's a collective you're like well we actually make a decision that shouldn't could be a value yeah um and I think they think the values evolve I mean you know we we
54:24 - haven't been perfect with changed our brand three times uh and and and but um you know and but it but we were really trying to refine find who we were um and it's been that long a journey and our
54:36 - values got refined in 2020 got you know like we started in 2002 and 18 years L you know how many years later 18 years later they finally got refined you know like it didn't and
54:47 - I was 13 then but I didn't know what they meant at the start so I think when you're trying to find your values it's it's truly finding why are you doing it and what what are what what what are you
54:58 - selling like what is your brand or business or what is it and yeah you know and how do you relate it back to what you do as a team because I think it's more important internally first it's not
55:07 - because like you said it's you know what Richard Branson said is so true people um yeah you're a sports team yeah I find I find sometimes like values are really good especially for new people to kind
55:17 - of get a climatized to how to behave and what what's kind of the culture of the workplace like we had a value um it's called play the field so you know um if you've crushed your task that day and
55:29 - you pop your head up you're like man some people are kind of struggling today it's like how can I place support for them and what this has started to do is people start to feel in the workplace
55:37 - like oh people have my back you know if I'm struggling or stressed out people will come over and take work off my plate and help help tackle it together with me and it's really great for new
55:45 - people because they're like oh that's that's how I need to operate in this it just helps a climatize new people I think a little bit yeah you need to make sure everyone yeah and everyone does it
55:54 - together so it becomes Collective suppor each other and I think as a brand gets bigger and bigger it gets harder and harder so you've really got to make sure you're living that every day have you
56:03 - found that like as as your company's grown how many how many people do you have now uh we have over 100 full-time and close 200 with casual team the retail stores yeah how have you found
56:14 - that leap because obviously e-commerce is one thing like running distribution running a warehouse that's its own uh its own I guess mountain of challenges in and of itself yeah and then retail is
56:26 - a whole separate Beast alt together yeah so at what point were you like okay we're doing really well in e-commerce what made you dive into retail cuz a lot of people don't want to do that a lot of
56:35 - people are terrified of retail yeah I mean great question we we we built our office and moved in at the end of at the start of 2021 and when we built the office we obviously had our distribution
56:47 - center where we ship our orders from we have our you know Fitness club we train in and we wanted to put a retail store in there for the community um so we could learn and we're so passionate
56:55 - about fabrics and the fit we're like if our Comm Community can touch and feel the fabric we can learn more and get better um quite quickly when we open that in end of January last year it kind
57:05 - of started to grow quite quickly in store and we're like wow this is amazing like we're learning we're being a like are you in a retail area or is this kind of like a warehouse kind of area we're
57:13 - like kind of we're on the side of the highway in in Logan so we're easy entrance from the highway but we're not in like a shopping district it's it's people going out of their way to go
57:21 - shopping yeah they go out of the way to come to our to our HQ and we shop there and we do host a lot of community events on our rooftop with the gym and and it really and and and that really sparked
57:32 - us to be like you know I've obviously sold to retailers for a very long time with our wholesale side when we had Loki and we don't we we did close our wholesale business down so you went
57:41 - doing wholesale at all with lskd no not no not by 2020 no okay and so that maneuver was basically you were having problems with with retailers not wanting maybe St we wanted to we with LK LSD we
57:53 - really wanted to make sure we you know we do we do do some wholesale internationally but really trying to partner with the where our communities at yeah um but we wanted to really to
58:03 - begin with to really control the brand message okay um of our why and yeah so then when we went into retail we opened our first door we thought well let's start learning and we you know the next
58:14 - minute we're touring centers and learning around shopping centers you know and then we uh open chadstone in October last year yeah and um and and to be honest you know it's like you know
58:24 - learning and trying to meet different people and trying to learn from different you know you know from you know people that have done amazing in retail and really just trying to learn
58:33 - very quickly um but yeah we have a great team I mean we you know we've gone from one store to you know now we have eight uh by the end of the weekend and we have one more in Melbourne opening up in
58:44 - November and one mobile one yes we'll have 10 because we'll have the bus uh which is super cool so you got to tell us the story behind the bus so apparently there's a bit of nostalgia a
58:53 - bit of History and um K our video guy has has some uh experience with this growing up as well so we're chatting before we got on today and you've uh essentially renovated uh a bus and yeah
59:06 - take us through what you're doing I mean this go this bus has been a goal for close to 5 years so uh Dylan and our head of design had an idea to do a bus and uh it's um we wanted to do this bus
59:18 - and to be honest it was just a perfect timing because CO's kind of been out you know like kind of ended last year and we were just in this perfect timing to to to do this bus so we went on the hunt
59:26 - for a bus and uh Keith um I see he he's an absolute Legend his dad's building the bus Jeff the our B bus Builder and he's done a great job it wouldn't happen without them too and um yeah double
59:39 - decker yeah I don't know if that's is that it no it's a different one it's the love bus the love bus just type in the love bus byon Bay and uh so so yeah so yeah that's it yep on the top left
59:52 - yeah that's that's our bus okay so that's the bus you bought yeah so we we went on the hunt we found it the guy that owned is an absolute Legend uh top speed of 85k it's epic and uh we wanted
01:00:02 - to build a create a community with it so we uh we stripped it we stripped it back and at our old office in christansen row we still have it so we've used that space to build the bath bus um and it's
01:00:12 - going on Chase the vibe tour so we caught it the biggest [ __ ] bus and uh and it's going on on the chase the vibe tour and yeah we we stripped it out we've turned the bottom down it's bottom
01:00:21 - level into half kind of a retail store we've got an exclusive tea that you can the bath bus tea that you can only get out of that bus um and uh it's got a hangout area upstairs there like a full
01:00:32 - recovery area air condition for like you can go up there and you know the guns and like different recovery stations up there and just hang out um and then Ryan our uh he he's running he's the bath bus
01:00:44 - driver like he's he's planned this whole trip and we're just going down the East Coast are you going to be on the whole trip I won't no i' love to at a fomo watching it I'll be following it every
01:00:53 - day so yeah it's uh it's pretty much next week it's finished so where's the bus going to it's been it's been a over 4mon build this so yeah yeah you were showing some of the photos before us
01:01:02 - look it incredible painted it black and why did you want a retr bus that's interesting yeah um I mean yeah I it's got cool it's got edge around it right and it's just kind of fit us and uh it's
01:01:15 - got like the bus has history to it it's a 50-year old bus it's got that kind of Storytelling around been doing weddings for 50 years yeah yeah I actually literally went to my cousin's wedding
01:01:24 - and that was the bus they took the uh took the took us in so it's was kind of cool I'm like oh we're looking at that bus um yeah and to be honest like we you know you can you can train off it so you
01:01:34 - can do wall balls off it uh battle ropes and you can use TRX ropes so you can use it as a workout as well off the side of the bus um and it's literally going to travel up and down to local gyms events
01:01:44 - run clubs and just create a community okay and uh it's going to be heaps of fun it's um yeah so it's on the road for about 3 months straight and then and then obviously Christmas and then it's
01:01:53 - back on the road again that's incredible man so it's it's going to be fun yeah it's a good question the value for us uh I mean it goes back to our values create a community you know I
01:02:06 - think like we're we don't you're not just saying it cuz it's fun you're like we genuinely are building it let's go yeah yeah and every piece in the bus has a y like we really you I only got to see
01:02:14 - the bus this week to be honest I hadn't seen it since it was painted uh and it was it was so cool um yeah and I think to be have our community through it they can get to know our brand a little bit
01:02:23 - more you know we can talk about our why like it's bunch of Storytelling in the bus and you know our values you know this just all quotes around that stand for us and to be honest it's like we can
01:02:33 - we can we can show up in communities and be a part of it um with this bus and you know you can go hang out in this bus at different events and you know and and it ties back to you know functional fitness
01:02:45 - and you know athletes need to recover you can hang out there and yeah the why wasn't the why is actually not to try and sell product out of the bus our core products will be in there and we've got
01:02:53 - an exclusive like you know B bus chase the vibe to a te um but it's really about just creating a community and having really authentic conversations with the bus um so yeah it's yeah so
01:03:05 - it's it's going to be in Queens for a couple weeks and then it hits the road down down south down to Sydney um I got to get my bath bus tea yeah I'm in man I'll let you know where it is we have a
01:03:14 - little tour dates and uh yeah how can I track where the bus is is it going to be on the website it will be on the website we hav we Haven we haven't figured out whether we could put a tracker on it to
01:03:22 - be honest love that um but yeah but there's like a full tour stop you just end up with like rupes like following the bus the whole way like that would be pretty cool that would be cool doing
01:03:30 - workouts every day with it yeah yeah yeah really cool man and I guess like um when it comes to your why like like where are you setting your SES now like how are you finding joy in this
01:03:43 - expanding into retail doing more Stores um I know you guys are looking at bringing you some more stores in next year like what what's keeping you fired up and excited about it I think you know
01:03:54 - uh you know when I when I say enjoy the journey I think it's a real process about what we're doing and I I do really enjoy the process you know like stuff that we're working on two three four
01:04:03 - years in advance yeah so I do really enjoy that um the building side of things I love really wondering of how we're going to step by- step build this out and watching it grow you know and
01:04:13 - and and creating those communities through functional fitness um yeah we have huge goals but I think I mean I genuinely love Fitness like I'm obsessed so for me as well I love setting goals
01:04:25 - and you know within Fitness I want to do a half Iron Man and an Iron Man uh you know I'm going to do the new Tri at the end of the year and and uh I think you know that ties in like I I live and
01:04:35 - breathe those Mission and values every day so for me I you know that's what keeps me going and you know I've obviously got my you know my amazing wife and and two young kids as well that
01:04:44 - you know hopefully I can Inspire them um you know I I I genuinely I don't know I just genuinely love the process and I love what I do um you know it's it's not it's it's definitely full on and there's
01:04:55 - lots to learn and you're on you're like a pro athlete and you're just on and you got to be on you got to have your downtime but you're on right and but yeah I mean I'm excited to where the
01:05:04 - brand can really go globally I think that's what's exciting and I think some you know building a building a Global brand out of Logan uh really excites me because we can create Global careers
01:05:13 - from Logan and and really build this um you know from where we are in Australia and I think that's cool you know I I I really do I think you could we do this and really put you know our hometown on
01:05:24 - the map but also Australia on the map and create and really integrate with global communities um yeah we've got our us office now in San Diego in Pacific Beach and we're really building the
01:05:33 - brand there and that's just the start um you know so yeah it I I do I I it's there's a lot to think about but it's you it's really staying focused and and I I I I kind of love that like because
01:05:44 - you're constantly you don't want to slow down you keep moving forward right like because it's how you keep getting better yeah um you can't stop so yeah yeah there's lots of I mean there's so much
01:05:53 - but it's yeah it's exciting what what were some of the challenges if anything when you went into retail cuz obviously e-commerce there's a certain consumer experience you know you got to make sure
01:06:02 - things look good and the photography is nice but then retail you got lighting you've got space and you got to like be clever with a tight space you've got the counter the C the traffic coming in and
01:06:13 - out and the positioning where the counter is like what were the lessons there in retail that you started to learn quickly in that experience um I mean I was yeah I mean we when we opened
01:06:22 - our first store um yeah we've been think about we use that as a learning testing ground yeah to understand and then our second one you know is kind of helped us it's kind of that that's kind of a popup
01:06:33 - like it's not it's that that that isn't a like a long-term lease so that almost as crazy it sound almost helped us to learn and we you know I would say we made mistakes but you wouldn't know
01:06:43 - about it because we wanted to keep improving and they're both amazing stores but we've kept tweaking them and then we've actually repaint we've actually repainted two of our stores
01:06:51 - okay so like we had a certain color and then since we've opened our third store we've actually gone back and painted the other two stores from the learnings and said actually we need
01:06:59 - to paint them white so what was the reason for changing the paint what really made our product pop yeah it really made our product pop so we and we just spent time like to be honest like I
01:07:08 - I you spent time in stores and really found what was our brand aesthetic of you know who were we like functional fitness and try to really create something that aligned to us yeah um and
01:07:19 - you yes you get inspiration but it was like who are we like who you know what what and and working with the team on that our designer and you know you constantly cuz you want to you're
01:07:27 - constantly tweaking as well and how you localize within the communities where your stores are um but yeah I mean that's probably one example that um you know we we we went back and painted our
01:07:38 - other two stores because of that journey of learning that we you know we had this kind of gray yeah and we're like sh let's just go white yeah it just has a a different feeling and yeah it just helps
01:07:47 - out product you know and like you said localizing is so important in retail because I worked in retail for a long time and different um different places have different culture and different
01:07:55 - geography have you felt like there's been learnings there as well like maybe where the stores perform better than others what you have to be conscious of yeah for sure and I think we're more
01:08:04 - we're known in certain locations than others okay so it's allowed us to really focus on how we're going to localize into those communities more to build the brand because yes we're growing in
01:08:13 - ecomist but when you start really localizing in with retail you might not be you know you may not be as known in a certain area so it's kind of exciting because of the opportunity for our brand
01:08:22 - yeah you know nationally and then obviously what we're doing New Zealand as well okay and are you picking areas you're not as known in and opening stores there I would say a bit of both
01:08:30 - okay testing both and you're finding it has has good results either way or um well it's a great question I mean yes and no yeah yeah like it well yeah there's so much
01:08:43 - there's so many different attributes to it to think about and would you say like um have you gone back to e-commerce from the lessons from retail and kind of cross-pollinated ideas yeah I think the
01:08:54 - best thing about it is it's made us better in e-commerce really I think so because it's made you better within and when I when I when I kind of you know to to share one example would be we were
01:09:05 - going to remove our swing tags so we hadn't planned to go into retail really until we opened our first we open our HQ store so we were going to remove our swing tags you know because it's online
01:09:14 - you don't probably don't need them um but then once we move into retail we were like hang on a minute we need to give education to our community on our swing tags we need to actually improve
01:09:22 - them and make them better for our community to get educ of the why behind this product so we've been on this journey to really improve them um you know and and and you know it it'll take
01:09:31 - about a year and a half for that to happen so it's a it's a it's a process so we're going that way and we're like hang on a minute within retail we need to improve it for our community so we
01:09:40 - can give them education on why we developed this and why this fabric is this and right so that's just kind of examples that you know we've had to do uh or learned from that so you're just
01:09:49 - learning you have to do maybe a bit more education in retail for sure I mean I mean yeah product education is really important and then you're realizing maybe people don't know this if they're
01:09:57 - ordering online so let's well you cuz you got a new product description yeah you know you have it on your you'll have it on a product description where in store it's you're not looking at it
01:10:06 - online so there's like where is the where is the product and you have our team in store supporting the community but do that education is just as important and having someone there to
01:10:14 - speak to them is is probably powerful for the brand too because if you walk into a store and you get a great person behind the counter having you know build that relationship build a relationship
01:10:23 - and then you get to learn about the brand off that person then you have an idea in your head as to as to you know why the Brand's great and do you think that um looking at retail and Ecom like
01:10:34 - products that sell is there a difference there as well what sells digitally versus what sells physically or is it about the same yeah it's about the same yeah Y and then is has there any been
01:10:44 - has there been any other lessons from retail that you've implemented into the e-com store yep yeah so sh so we're working on like where you can like stock in store
01:10:55 - so you can check I suppose this is more of an implementation into our Ecom store that um from retail where our community can check if we have it in store if it's not online um and then the next stage
01:11:06 - will be shipped from store yeah so if there's something we might be out of stock of online we can ship it from store to the community M so they can get it online so creating that like true
01:11:13 - Omni Channel yeah so we have like they can check stock levels now um if the store's near them but the next stage of that is is Shi from store wow man so and then now you guys are going to the US
01:11:24 - into New Zealand yeah so I mean we we've really kind of we've been growing in the NZ Community for a while now so we definitely have plans to open over there um and then also in the US with um we've
01:11:36 - got our it's it's our office HQ sorry HQ retail store I said both at once but yeah yeah so that that that's been exciting I mean we um we have a a team of four over there at the moment
01:11:49 - and really building the brand like just building the community couple are here right now yeah um you know over here at the moment um working with the team so to learn and keep traveling back and
01:11:58 - forth to you know understand our brand and then going back over as well so yeah it's it's exciting I mean I I I get to go I go over probably every three to four months to work with the team so
01:12:07 - yeah and the team's obviously growing over there and have you found the difference in the maybe the market in New Zealand versus Australia and the US I think uh what I've learned in the US
01:12:18 - is uh you could say it's like very literal in terms of product descriptions where sometimes a we're we're a little bit loose yeah um and to put examples like what does the
01:12:28 - product perform um so we we met this just bit funny but we made mistakes where we were like it's red like tomato sauce you know in Ecom you have fun with it right like this color is red and
01:12:38 - they're like what is it is it actually tomato sauce and you're like oh no sorry like we just made some mistakes so we're just like constantly improving right and that's the best thing is like we our
01:12:46 - team really helps us over there to to localize with the US Community yeah and to sorry to example it's like it's leggings in the US tights in Australia oh yeah simple language differ things
01:12:56 - like that right yeah even like slang like when we were working with Culture Kings and Simon beard we noticed that even the language in the US market versus the Australian Market was so
01:13:05 - different you know they were using at that time the word drip but we weren't using that word at all yes you know we were using the word lit so then we were like trying to figure out you know the
01:13:13 - differences in the language and the nuances so yeah it is and it's and it's understanding that Nuance to localize yeah and what's happening now with the athletes cuz I know we were having a
01:13:23 - great conversation about kind of like Nike and how they became prominent and you can read about it in shoe dog and like you know Matt pcel our friend Matt was talking about how Nike strategy is
01:13:34 - they essentially maintain their relevancy in the marketplace by you know partnering up with athletes that are up and coming and doing incredible things they're credible because they're you
01:13:44 - know able to manufacture these incredible shoes and then they're memorable just with their marketing campaigns and all the rest of it like what lessons have you absorbed from you
01:13:53 - know people like like Phil Knight or um what happened with Lululemon and all the rest of that what are you constantly trying to implement with the athletic side of the brands yeah it's a great
01:14:01 - question I mean I think those Brands aside that are super inspiring I think my personal history was before even understanding those Brands was I worked with athletes yeah and you were one yeah
01:14:11 - yeah and I was lucky enough to have a lot of sponsors racing motocross um didn't make it to be a professional uh you know did definitely didn't get to there but I was lucky you know made it
01:14:19 - to State Pro and had a lot of sponsors so I learned spending time with athletes and work with athletes and how inspiring they were in the early days of my career in my early you know you know as a
01:14:29 - teenager in early 20s so my personal Journey with athletes has been really to you know how do we find athletes that align to our mission and values and how do we help Elevate and story tell them
01:14:40 - you know through our different series whether it's set the standard or you know the 1% better series through you know a lot of our different athletes and really work with them to share their
01:14:48 - stories and find athletes that love communities and and what they do so I think you know the journey what you know what what those brands do are really inspiring but I think just from how we
01:14:59 - work with athletes has been a real understanding of what we did growing up and getting to work with athletes through lki and and the cool thing is a lot of those athletes that used to be
01:15:06 - sponsored by lki days they still wear L KD today uh which is really cool they've evolved with the brand even if they're not you know if they're retired as an athlete um so yeah that's something that
01:15:16 - we you know consciously we're we're we're so focused on how we can storytelling their journey and and you know whoever that athlete is and and kind of share who they are that's
01:15:27 - something we're really working on and then how it ties back to whether it's you know 1% better every day or the to them with with our values yeah um yeah so I mean we're going things about it a
01:15:37 - little bit differently with what we do as a brand um but we're very passionate about athletes and I mean I think we like to treat ourselves like we're all the Everyday Athlete uh you know yeah so
01:15:46 - we we kind of put ourselves in the athlete shoes and and I have I have so much respect for athletes and what they do I'm I'm a huge fan I mean we we have one of our teammates uh you know who she
01:15:54 - as an athlete as well Bri Masters um you know she got four third at the Commonwealth Games in 100 meter Reay she's incredible man she smashed it yeah and she's in our team looking after PR
01:16:04 - so you know doing three days a week and she so she you know she just gets back from the worlds and she's back in the office tomorrow um so she's a pro athlete and she's also working with NR
01:16:13 - te doing PR know that yeah yeah so it's really cool because we really want to help athletes in their Journeys and thinking about their careers post you know when they're a pro athlete as well
01:16:22 - um so that and and I think that you know is a is is a testament of how much we're really inspired by athletes as well yeah and that's one thing that's really obvious with what you're saying man like
01:16:30 - even the language you're using it's like you genuinely care about others and you care about their stories and I think you know oftentimes you know I've seen brands that look at influences just as a
01:16:40 - means to an end or athletes as a means to an end but you're like I want to invest in them and I want to see them do well and I want to share their story it's a genuine Community where it's not
01:16:49 - just take but you're trying to you're really trying to give stuff outwardly as well yeah yeah yeah we're definitely passionate about that I mean we have a collection coming out with Georgie
01:16:57 - Stevenson uh at the end of this month it'll be our second collection and uh you know she we started working with her she's a very influential female very inspiring into fitness has a business
01:17:07 - you know podcast super inspiring and we started working with her in July 2019 and 3 years later we did our first collection so it's all about that long-term relationship yeah um you know
01:17:18 - we were only talking the other day like it's you know been over four years now we been working together so it's that longterm thinking as well with them yeah and do you guys get offers for like
01:17:27 - collabs so people always trying to collab with you guys because you're this upand cominging brand they're trying to partner up in some way yeah yeah I mean yeah all the time um and depending I
01:17:37 - mean we love working with local brands in terms of potentially if we can work things out to sort you know if the values align and what we do and it doesn't mean to be a product either just
01:17:45 - how can we support each other um as Brands I mean we have a collab coming out with blender's eyear okay this month which is really exciting an American iway brand so um that's really exciting
01:17:56 - we got a a you know two styles of iway one for training and one for street so kind of ties back um so that's super exciting that comes out in a few weeks time yeah what what kind of glasses are
01:18:05 - you guys doing uh so we're doing two styles with them yeah uh I actually been wearing a pair at the moment give man yeah so they they're fresh sorry mate so yeah so and that and that's been working
01:18:18 - we've been working yeah oh yeah you wear these when you dude these are fly man so we've been working on that for about 12 months with them um and they come out this year and we made them a you know a
01:18:27 - sweater um cuz they're coming into winter in the US and and we did a pair of iware and they're at a phenomenal brand and we have similar athletes and I don't know if they're me
01:18:37 - man we get you the the running ones the training ones yeah look fresh in there I like the shape too man they're really cool yeah so they're kind of like a unisex style and then we have another
01:18:46 - style coming with them and that's their logo on the side yes yeah yeah so they've done an amazing job um in the US and they're based out of San Diego as well yeah so we're doing stuff like that
01:18:55 - as well um but it's making sure there's that values alignment if we ever if we do things like that um and we won't make eyewear like that's not our place but but you'll collab and you'll do
01:19:04 - something it kind of worked really well and uh like I I've been I did some triathlons in the sunnies already in May this year testing them so like I wear them you know training as well the other
01:19:14 - pair not these ones but um yeah so that that stuff is kind of happening but those you can't force them they kind of have to come to life with authenticity would you say you kind of navigate
01:19:24 - things by feeling and gut check often times in lskd and what decisions you make like how often are you like checking in on your gut and like does this feel like a good move uh both I
01:19:34 - think like values for values alignment and and then does it does it feel right and the brand does the connection if you're doing a collab of the brands yeah you know really feel authentic and you
01:19:45 - can really it'll blend well together and thinking long term too cuz you don't do a I don't think you do a collab to like make money no you know I think you do a collab to build brand
01:19:53 - and and and help each other build brand and really try and story tell the why behind it yeah I think that's a big part of a collab yeah and and earli you were saying like one of the biggest maneuvers
01:20:03 - you made into lskd was to protect the brands right and you were seeing how um yeah retailers weren't necessarily happy with it but that was something you learned early on was like I got to
01:20:13 - protect the brand I have to invest in the brand Equity I have to build our reputation what is what was that at the beginning versus what it is now and how do you find yourself navigating that
01:20:24 - making sure you guys stick to it I think we're a lot more to be honest more refined now which is really cool because as that Journey was going when we shifted to lskd in 2018 we were still in
01:20:35 - that tweaking stage of like really finding and defining who we were we knew the product we knew all that but we were really defining it so I think now we're even more refined on who we are and we
01:20:45 - know you know we know you know who we are and who we're not yeah um which is really exciting just become clearer over time and I think constantly Discerning that
01:20:55 - and understanding that of the why and and having those conversations with the team because things evolve too you know like the world things are moving at speed around the world but also don't
01:21:04 - get distracted by that yeah um you know it's easy to get distracted but yeah I think we're more refined as a brand than we've ever been and especially I think going into retail helped that yeah
01:21:13 - because when you walk into a store you have to have your distinct logo and you have to have those little areas that give you that distinct look as a brand and have that consistency which we were
01:21:22 - talking about for so that's something that's really helped us to deeply think about as we've opened stores to make sure we have that consistency yeah Y and then I know you guys have been
01:21:31 - experimenting with content as well like um obviously sharing a lot of these values sharing the why storytelling for different athletes and all the rest of it um you know because when you're
01:21:41 - juggling retail Logistics shipment International expansions hiring scaling a team hiring retail stuff how how do you find um how do you find ways to kind of balance everything out or are you
01:21:55 - really relying on your team at this point have they kind of come along and helped you create structure behind us and like how do you stay excited like how do you maintain your energy levels
01:22:03 - to keep focusing on the next battle I mean we have a great team like I'm you know very very thankful we and I spent a lot of time with the team you know I I I spent a lot of time in the office you
01:22:12 - know if if I'm not traveling or with the family or training I'm at the office yeah um but we have a great team that's really passionate and and it always goes back to the why and you know which our
01:22:23 - mission and values and that's where a lot of our content comes from like this you know our set the standard series Like You Know M kby I had a Content the team like
01:22:32 - they'll go ahead and create these storytelling pieces and they'll show us as a group when it's pretty much finished and I haven't seen it and I get inspired because it all goes back to a
01:22:41 - why yeah is that is that this here what you're talking about uh yeah so there's different set the standard series that we've creating and rolling out with different athletes and it really
01:22:53 - athlete or something you know or you know or you know an athlete that so yeah like that has it that's not doing it for a full-time job essentially you know we have both so so really highlighting
01:23:02 - people that are enjoying their Journey yeah yeah yeah and and really showing how they set the standard within their Sport and how it can Inspire so yeah and then we're building out LS KD TV um
01:23:15 - which is over time we know that that you know that's something we really want to build out but it's going to take time so that kind of ties back to lskd TV yeah within our blog and just really sharing
01:23:24 - those stories and it's just a long-term thinking we think longterm for that yeah um when we're doing these uh storytelling pieces so when are you're talking about the TV thing are you
01:23:33 - talking about like short form series of like documentaries that you're going to be building about athletes or are you talking about even something on television down to the point I mean
01:23:40 - we've done things with um if you go to Ellis if you scroll up there's uh don't wait so we did uh you know Matt and Elliott worked on uh a storytelling piece called Don't Wait For Men's Mental
01:23:52 - Health and um if try figure maybe we'll type it in it might be uh no don't wait LS KD yeah there it is L it's a 20-minute video documentary we had four athletes talk about their
01:24:10 - mental health men's mental health journey and we hosted an event you know we had a facilitator there at our office um it's a really inspiring video of what they went through with their struggles
01:24:20 - being a professional athlete with their Mental Health highly recommend watching it um you know I kind of get you spum to seeing about it now like it's a very inspiring V clip and and what those guys
01:24:31 - did sharing their stories is really inspiring what they went through and then we hosted an event at our HQ one night on a Monday night where we had a facilitator and there was about a
01:24:39 - hundred it was a very low-key Community event that was like team athletes family friends uh and Community could come but we just we kept it really tied and we had a facilitator put on an event and
01:24:51 - really help us to create conversation of how to open up you know when we struggle to have those conversations and this is what you know four professional athletes Shar their why and their story so we we
01:25:01 - we do a lot of those things and we don't even really do it to it's not about selling product it's not it's really about you know how can we Inspire and how can we create movements it's an
01:25:11 - important message because I you know the athletes I know um just hearing some of the stuff they've gone through or things that were said to them and it's a high press environment where there quite a
01:25:21 - lot is expected of them they have to sacrifice quite a lot so yeah capturing that that and talking about it it's a powerful message yeah yeah so I it is a phenomenal story and what they went
01:25:31 - through um and it was an amazing night to be honest and and and and you know what mattin Elliott created um so we do a lot of stuff like there's long form and there's short form and to be honest
01:25:41 - that project that took over six months yeah so and and it was kind of happening in the inim of everything else yeah so we didn't go oh we had a release date we almost it was ready for a month before
01:25:51 - we even did it cuz we really we were so focused on how we delivered it for this event that we could have this tight Community to launch it and then we launched it on YouTube and just things
01:25:59 - like that that we're always trying to do that have a stronger meaning than just uh you know our product we want to be best in the world and we want to create the best Fabrics but we also want to
01:26:08 - inspire at the same time that ties it all ties in together um so yeah so that's a super cool super cool video that one of these only happened about a month ago so um they things that we do
01:26:17 - whether it's short form or long form yeah content yeah it's powerful and it's you know and branding is so emotional too like if you look at why people love Nike or why people love harleydavidson
01:26:28 - it's it's there's so much storytelling there and I think um stories build communities and and some of the pivotal moments in my life have been from stories I've heard from others and you
01:26:38 - heard stories from Ben I'm sure from from Penny and um you know I think it's it's it's so awesome to see someone like yourself giving back to the community and trying trying to give back to others
01:26:49 - as well man it's really cool yeah thanks man I appreciate it um and and dude thanks so much for being here I know you're busy as all hell you've travel in the world you got a lot going on um if
01:26:58 - anyone wanted to connect with you and the team um where could they go and how could they reach out to you guys uh so I mean our our brand socials at LSD and then we have our HQ at ls. HQ on
01:27:09 - Instagram my personal is just Jason Daniel couldn't get the actual just the Jason might be able to help with that there you go you can hook me up um yeah and then yeah but yeah you can check us
01:27:21 - out there we have a bunch of different we have a bunch of different channels for our retail stores as well and our us Channel as well yeah you got a big heart man you got a lot of passion your crew
01:27:28 - are incredible whenever I've met anyone from your team they've been very lovely and um yeah I'm really grateful for your time and thanks so much for sharing your story with me man appreciate it thank
01:27:35 - you appreciate it awesome man thanks so much thanks brother thanks dude