On today’s episode of Pro Files: Well Seasoned - E Stone. He got his start as an aspiring pro with a number of flow sponsorships. Upon graduating high school he promptly moved to colorado - in no small part to watching the seminal Mack Dawg film The Hard, The Hungry and the Homeless. And in his first season out West he started what many would consider one of the important brands in the history of the sport Tech 9. In this episode we hear all about the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur in the sport of snowboarding.
Indeed, starting a brand is no get rich quick scheme as many might expect - it is in fact lon g hours, empty bank accounts - and doing something you believe in.
During his time running Tech 9 Ethan picked up another skill - becoming a photographer - then senior photographer for snowboarder Magazine.
But riders want to ride - and E Stone is a rider, starting The Bombhole podcast with pro snowboarder Chris Grenier.
This is an interesting episode - the backstory of a legend in the sport, lessons from playing multiple positions across the industry and healthy passion for the fun of snowboarding.
Today's episode brought to you by
Artilect
Cardiff Snowcraft
Tow Pro Lifts
Owner Operator
United Shapes
686 Outerwear
Electrovoice Microphones
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M
Mark_sullivan00:03
Yeah, I got. I got a few good ones that tookck this one out theres. one got sponsored for this one.
E
Ethan00:08
Really?
M
Mark_sullivan00:09
This is uh, electro voice
M
Mark_sullivan00:12
y. That's a good mike. too.
M
Mark_sullivan00:14
this is the Mac Daddy. Though,
E
Ethan00:16
that thing looks dude.
M
Mark_sullivan00:19
Yeah, so too ki. what you got? Yeah,
E
Ethan00:20
Yes, sorry, it took me a minute to get this all figured out.
M
Mark_sullivan00:25
worries that worries.
E
Ethan00:26
Not used to talking to about myself. You know what I mean. so it's uh,
M
Mark_sullivan00:29
I know we're going to change that right here. It looks like you got some sound padding on the walls there behind you, too.
E
Ethan00:36
that's not what it
M
Mark_sullivan00:36
that's
E
Ethan00:37
is. It's some mirrors or something,
E
Ethan00:40
and I got a dog next to me.
M
Mark_sullivan00:43
nice. nice.
M
Mark_sullivan00:45
right on. Well, uh, you know, maybe we should kick this thing off Interview with E. Ste, normally a guy who's behind a Mike. asking people questions today. I' get to ask him some questions. How you doing today? Ethan,
E
Ethan00:57
I'm doing good a little nervous.
M
Mark_sullivan01:00
Little nervous. Why are you nervous today?
E
Ethan01:02
I don't know, dude. I'm not used to talking about myself' chilling here with
M
Mark_sullivan01:08
Okay?
E
Ethan01:08
the O. Know,
M
Mark_sullivan01:10
Oh nice.
E
Ethan01:12
he doesn't talk though
M
Mark_sullivan01:13
Oh yeah.
E
Ethan01:13
he's not order of the interview.
M
Mark_sullivan01:15
yeah.
E
Ethan01:16
You just want to laugh.
M
Mark_sullivan01:16
you always got to have a dog as part of the interview. Though
E
Ethan01:19
Yeah, true.
M
Mark_sullivan01:19
that always makes sense.
E
Ethan01:21
Yeah, so I'm
M
Mark_sullivan01:22
So
E
Ethan01:22
a little nervous, but I'm hyy. to talk with you.
M
Mark_sullivan01:26
right on. Well, I'll make it pretty easy on you because I'll just roll back to right in the beginning of your snowboarding career. Um. Arizona Snowball. How did you get there and what were you doing snowboarding in Arizona?
E
Ethan01:38
How did you know I was in Arizona?
M
Mark_sullivan01:41
I know these things.
E
Ethan01:42
You know these things. you know. I went there with Bloto. Um. he grew up there,
E
Ethan01:48
So I was living with him in Vail at the time and we kind of had a bunch of similar sponsors and uh, oh no, let me trace this back. Actually, I went. I, I met Bloto there. I'm I'm actually wrong. I'm a little. uh. I got some memory issues so that's where I met Bloto. I was traveling around with. Uh,
E
Ethan02:09
I think they were called Hollywood films at the time,
M
Mark_sullivan02:12
Mhm.
E
Ethan02:13
and Uh,
E
Ethan02:15
kind of working on my first time filming snowboarding
E
Ethan02:19
And it was Uh, Rick and Tillion was the filmer and uh, I think I just jumped in the car with these guys that went on a filming trip.
E
Ethan02:29
I think that was when I got my first photo in East Infection
E
Ethan02:33
with your magazine, was actually on that same trip. But yeah, we stopped in Snowball, and uh Bloto just happened to be there and started shooting with us.
E
Ethan02:43
And uh, that place was awesome.
E
Ethan02:47
I think Uh,
M
Mark_sullivan02:48
I would say. actually, that mag that mag was play or mag, because I got a copy of it right here.
E
Ethan02:52
Player magazine, not East infection. Yeah, it was your magazine All right.
M
Mark_sullivan02:57
Yeah, Yeah, that was my mag back in the day.
M
Mark_sullivan03:00
You know that that's how I got started. But you were actually one of the writers we featured in that mag.
E
Ethan03:05
That was probably my first published photo anywhere.
E
Ethan03:09
It was like a seven twenty sequence or something. I don't think it was
M
Mark_sullivan03:13
Yup,
E
Ethan03:13
at. Uh in Arizona. I was on the way to Arizona, somewhere in Utah, I think,
E
Ethan03:18
but uh, yeah, that was awesome.
M
Mark_sullivan03:19
So you had dreams, though of being like a pro writer, being filming movie parts doing the whole thing.
E
Ethan03:24
Yeah, I moved out from Vermont, Kinda got fueled by the hard, Go hungry and the Homeless. That movie I think that came out when I was in eleventh grade
E
Ethan03:35
and uh, kinda just made me want to move to where those guys were And that was Bracken Ridge, and uh, right when I graduated from high school, I just made the move. I actually graduated a half year early, so I could get out there even sooner, and uh, I remember when I told my mom she straight up cried 'cause I wasn't going to go to college.
E
Ethan03:56
and uh, she just thought I was throwing away my life and there was no future,
E
Ethan04:00
but I did it anyways and just uh made the move to. We couldn't get to Brack and Ridge where we wanted to move 'cause all the housing was filled up, so we uh, moved to Vale, which actually ended up being dove because we kind of met a really good community with people like ▁j two and Nj, Adam Merriman, um Tarquin, And uh, yes, I was just kind of following that dream of trying to become a pro snowboarder,
M
Mark_sullivan04:29
So what kind of job did you work in Vail when you first arrived?
E
Ethan04:33
all dishwashing,
E
Ethan04:35
and
M
Mark_sullivan04:35
All dishwashing.
E
Ethan04:35
Uh, Hydro ceramic technician was the uh, official term, but uh yet,
M
Mark_sullivan04:41
Okay,
E
Ethan04:41
basically you know in Vale there there's a lot of tourism. Obviously, this, it's a lot different than it was. Uh than it is. Now you know, now it's even crazier. but back then I mean the only jobs were really working for the mountain or working for Uh, a restaurant
E
Ethan04:57
and I lived, Uh, moved out there with all Egu lay, and then a couple of other good friends from Vermont, and we all just got dishwashing jobbs. I think we had eight of us in a two almos, seven of us in a two bedroom in Uh, Avon, Colorado, which is just right next to Vale,
E
Ethan05:14
and Uh,
M
Mark_sullivan05:14
and were you a sponsored writer at the time? do you like sponsored?
E
Ethan05:17
when I moved out there, No sponsors. Um,
E
Ethan05:21
but quickly
E
Ethan05:23
through meeting people like ▁j two and all that you got introduced to a lot of different raps and picked up some sponsors. Um, I got picked up by six, eight, six pretty early, and that's how Uh. Bloto was riding for them as well, so I think that's why we met him at Snowball Snowball and Uh, Scott boards, and
E
Ethan05:44
Um,
E
Ethan05:46
I was kind of like a rap rider for Original Sin, but I wouldn't consider that sponsored. like when I moved out from Vermont, Just like a little bit of board flow. You know,
M
Mark_sullivan05:56
Okay? So you're in Colorado. You're starting to shoot video. You are starting to take photos. You know. I mean, at what point did you decide that like? Okay, Actually, I'm going to start a binding company Because
E
Ethan06:10
you know that.
M
Mark_sullivan06:10
you started that pretty early on in Vail.
E
Ethan06:12
Yeah, we actually started that our first year living in Vale, and uh, what we were doing was go in the Home Depot and getting metal brackets, and my buddy from high school. ▁j, three would kind of cut them into the parts we needed to make the first baseless bindings, and uh, we would use straps from just whatever available binding was out there, and the highbas as well, And then at the Uh, he worked at the Beaver Creek. Uh, he was a snowmaker and W had access to like the shop at Beaver Creek, the workshop, and was able to use like a metal bender to. We would just cut like diamond plate metal into uh heel cups and then bend themem on this uh bending machine they had up there, And so we had kind of the first baseless bindings going, And he made Paris for myself and for Tarquin and forer all, Lee and uh, My dad came out and saw what we were doing and he was like, Oh, I could help you guys get these made, actually manufactured for real, and uh, so we made some samples and then we went to Uh, the trade show that year, which I was eighteen. So this was like nineteen ninety four. We went to the trade show in San Diego,
E
Ethan07:27
and Uh didn't have a booth or anything. We were just kind of walking around and we met a uh, Japanese distributor and they saw what we had, and Uh instantly made a giant order and all of a sudden we were just a company and they ended up being our distributor for the the whole time we were a company, too, which was pretty cool. So like twenty three years or something,
M
Mark_sullivan07:47
Okay, so how long did you like try to wear two hats in that you were trying to be a team rider for different brands and then you were starting your own brand? How long did you keep both of those balls in the air?
E
Ethan07:57
I would say until uh, around ninety nine two thousand, I moved out to Co, to Utah from Colorado, and Uh, the mountains out here were a bit different than Colorado, As as people know, they're a little bit more aggressive. The jumps got a little bit bigger and snowboarding got a little more serious. I was riding with Marco a lot, kind of following him off jumps and he was just so good and I would end up, you know, trying to go as big as him and then just eating shit. End up worked after the day, like barely able to walk. trying to follow Marco. You know, so I kind of realized I just wasn't on this dues level and maybe I should start focusing on Uh, Tech Nine a little bit more, and at the same time, Bloto kind of uh, gave me a camera, so I started shooting photos as well, which got me to be able to still be out with guys like Marco, but not, uh, didn't work.
M
Mark_sullivan08:53
Was that his nice way of being like your riding is and cutting it?
E
Ethan08:57
No, he. it was actually, he. Uh, He had gone to the East coast. He was working for Tech Nine at the time as our team manager and he kind of snuck off to the East Coast for a meeting with Burton, and uh, I think he felt bad that he was taking the job and leaving Tech Nine, so he just handed me down his camera. But yeah, maybe it was a kind of a nice way to say, Maybe maybe you're not uh as good as the rest of the te.
M
Mark_sullivan09:21
Okay So so now you're running Tech nine and you are starting to learn how to be a photographer? Take us through that of like what it was like to, actually, you know, get your chops developed for taking photos of. People, how long did that take?
E
Ethan09:33
You know, I was pretty blessed. In that sense, I was able to uh, go out with guys like Kevin ▁zacher, and Nate Christensson, who were top photographers at the time. I used to shoot with them on the other side of the camera, so they let me come out, and uh, kinda just stand right next to him and ask him any question I wanted And why they were doing what they were doing and what their settings were.
E
Ethan09:59
And and Ah, they basically topy the ropes, and I think both of them went to photo school, so they're pretty well trained at what they were doing. I know, ▁zacher did for sure. Um, so yeah, I just got to stand there and and was able to ask them anything, and and learn pretty fast and shoot the top talent that they uh were shooting. so uh, eventually they were kind of like man, you gotta. you're getting better shots than we are. You gotta kinda get off on your own. now you know that eventually they, they sent me away, But at first they were as cool as it, kids, and taught me everything I needed to know about flashes and light. It was filmed too, so it was a little bit harder than digy. and uh, yeah, they really gave me everything I needed to know, And's why when photographers asked me questions now I'm always really nice about answering them. because Uh, those guys did that for me, you know, 'cause some guys
M
Mark_sullivan10:51
Yeah,
E
Ethan10:51
like Andy Wright was a little more competitive. He would never let me come out with them.
M
Mark_sullivan10:56
Okay, so
M
Mark_sullivan10:55
no, okay, but you're still friends with Andy Wright, Correct.
E
Ethan10:58
Yeah, no, Andy's the man he was. He was kind of the top top photographer in the streets for all those years, so it was uh, always shooting with the people I wanted to be shooting with too, so I kind of got his scraps for for years, which uh
M
Mark_sullivan11:12
Oh yes,
E
Ethan11:12
ended up working out.
M
Mark_sullivan11:14
so what was that like? Like? If you were going to go go to a spot to shoot photos Andy Rightr was already there. Did you have to kind of turn tail and go go home?
E
Ethan11:23
Yeah, it was pretty competitive and then, even as they got more competitive with, uh, I think in Utah, back then there was like ten photographers living here. Um, so you had to have your crew like lined up, or else you wouldn't have anyone to shoot. And Uh, obviously the Ridrs wanted the most established photographers they could have. So for a new photographer it was always pretty hard. Um, but you just had to keep fning.
M
Mark_sullivan11:47
So so who was that crew? Who were the guys that you would shoot with regularly?
E
Ethan11:51
Um. You know what one one thing I had that a lot of people didn't have is they had access to the Tech Nine team, so that did help me out a bit of. If Andy was out with a bunch of yii' crew, let's say, or, uh, robot food or something, then I would always have whatever tech Nine Ridrs were hanging around, and then at the same time Cole kind of started f o d t. So that was always a crew for me to to kind of join up with no matter what, and he was always kind of grabbing new riders that no one had heard of at at the time, like Daryl Mathis or Justin Habble, who ended up becoming big pros. so no one knew who they were at that time when I was shooting them. During the time they were kind of cutting their teeth and figuring it out, so it kind of just all worked out. I
M
Mark_sullivan12:39
right? So who? who was your first photo published? And how long did it take From the time you picked up a camera Ti, the time you actually got a photo published.
E
Ethan12:37
guesse I think it was pretty quick and uh, my memories is horrible. but I want to say it might have been Bobby Meeks at Brighton, and uh, it was like the first year I was shooting. Um. He was my roommate at the time, so I had access to like him in blue, Montgomery and Cody Dresser, and and people like that, But yeah, I think uh, it happened that first year. Um in snowboarder
M
Mark_sullivan13:09
Okay, Okay,
E
Ethan13:09
magazine. Imagine you were working there at the time.
M
Mark_sullivan13:13
I probably was. If it was around two thousand, two thousand One was there.
E
Ethan13:17
Yeah, I can't
M
Mark_sullivan13:18
So
E
Ethan13:18
remember who the photo editor might have beent Baker, But no, it, George
M
Mark_sullivan13:22
Mhm,
E
Ethan13:22
Cavala, Actually,
M
Mark_sullivan13:23
Okay, then I was. I was there.
E
Ethan13:24
and I knew him from back in Vermont, too, so I think that kind of helped when I sent in my stack. You know,
M
Mark_sullivan13:30
Okay. so let me ask you about this. Like going back to the Tech nine days, You know, Techn had like a pretty, um, unique image in the sport when that kind of stood apart. Where did that come from? How did you guys kind of get this like ▁urban image to go with? Like Tech Nine Binding? And maybe where did the name Te nine even come from?
E
Ethan13:50
you know we were really into music growing up in Burlington, Vermont, Um, a lot of people wouldn't believe it, but there wass like a huge Jamaican dance hall, Reggae, the music scene, and uh,
M
Mark_sullivan14:02
Flextonone?
E
Ethan14:04
yeah, yeah, there's just I don't know why Burlington's liked that, but just a huge scene. And uh, so I kind of grew up listening to that type of music and they're always talking about techniying the gun. And since the bindings were all metal like that, the first ones were made out of metal. Um, I just mentioned that name and everyone's hyped on it, so it kind of stuck. So that's how we got the name. but I'd say the image really just came from
E
Ethan14:30
from music. as. well. You know, we're big into a lot of us, Like Tarquin was a d. ▁j. At the time, Ali was a t. ▁j. Um, so the riders were all super in the music, so we just tried to really bring what was going on in cities like the style that you would see too snowboarding. 'cause no one has really done that yet.
E
Ethan14:52
And uh, it really all just came from listening to music.
M
Mark_sullivan14:57
It seems like you know, like that image is something that is really stuck with snowboarding to this day and a lot of people still kind of have that like Tech Nine looking fi. I mean, how does it feel to like? look back on the sport and be like Wow, Nine really had a lasting influence here.
E
Ethan15:13
It's pretty sweet. Um, I, I've heard baggy stuff coming back too, so hopefully we'll start seeing seeing it even more, 'cause I think it always makes people the. S. not. I mean, you can go too baggy. Obviously it looks a little ridiculous and that did happen. you know, I think we saw certain writers go that way, but when tastefully done, I think it looks pretty good when you're snowboarding, So yeah, it's awesome to see. I still see people riding the old tech diy outerwe like all the time That actually up Brighton.
M
Mark_sullivan15:40
What? What team writer like embodied the tech style for you the most?
E
Ethan15:45
Jeeze, that's a tough call. Um, I think a lot of them took it too far eventually, but
M
Mark_sullivan15:52
Yeah, like whats too far? Like where's take it too far?
E
Ethan15:55
too far. Just when the the triple excel. I don't know Gooer and Bradshaw and them were definitely taking the bagginess a step too far, but now they rock it all tastefully, so I think it was just uh. I mean, I don't know what it was. The bright colors and the bagginess came in with logos everywhere. I think that's when it went too far for me,
M
Mark_sullivan16:19
Yeah, Okay, So what are like the accomplishments that you had during Tech Nine that you are like proud of, most proud of today. looking back on it.
E
Ethan16:26
man, just uh, I still see so many people with techline tattoos. I think that's pretty crazy to see a logo that Um. we created up just people so hyped they're goingnna tattoo it on themselves. Um,
E
Ethan16:40
just the excitement around the brand and what we were able to do with bringing up different team writers, and I think with f o d t, we made uh, I wa, to say almost twenty movies. So we werere super proud of that and uh, actually, I'm probably way off. Probably ten movies. I think it was only ten movies.
M
Mark_sullivan16:59
Ten, twenty, whatever.
E
Ethan17:00
Whatever. I only worked on like the first five, so I start to
M
Mark_sullivan17:05
Yeah,
E
Ethan17:05
lose lose, Uh, lose track of it. Cole would have to straighten me out on that, but uh yeah, with the movies, Um, bringing up riders, And you know, having the first baseless binding out there was pretty pretty cool. Just being on the forefront of a technology. it ended up not sticking. But it lasted for some years and was kind of on the forefront of like new school snowboarding, Um, and then when we got into boards and outer, where it made us kind of more of a competition or more competitive to other brands. So things got a little bit more real and it was a little bit harder with team writers 'cause we had to get 'em like head to toe and and uh, we would bring up new riders and have other brands kind of swoop 'em after we got a breako part with f o d t or something, So that was kinda hard,
E
Ethan17:52
but it was all lot,
M
Mark_sullivan17:52
it seems like a lot of writedrs like started with Tech Nine and then moved on to other larger brands. Like who were some of those team writers who are like, kind of still. to this day a little bit sore that they left Tech Nine and kind of left the fold. If you will,
E
Ethan18:06
you know, I was never too sore about it. Coal would kind of get sore about it, but I was always just like Man, make the money while you could make it, because most of them they wouldn't leave just for a little bit of money. It would be like tripleling their pay or something and getting a budget to be able to travel around the world. Um, like Aaron Bitner, when he went to D. C. I mean that was like a big change in how he was going to be able to to uh, tackle pro snowboarding to be able to travel everywhere with Macog, So for me I was always kind of just like man, Do it. Do what you gotta do. So I was uh, never really that sore about it.
E
Ethan18:43
We also had eighteen.
M
Mark_sullivan18:43
who are your favorite writers? Like the whole history of Tech Nine be cause you had everyone from Tarquin through Gruner. So like who are your favorite guys who embodied Tech Nine for you?
E
Ethan18:54
Jeeze, man I, They were all. I was able to spend so much time traveling around and going on trips with them because I have oy. T that a lot of them? Uh, hold a special place you know, like tarkinn. Obviously, in the early days Evan Whitlake on Um, he did that first one, black one white binding, which was Uh. no one had ever done two different color binding. So that always is something pretty cool and was cool to have Whitlake be part of the program and then, in the later years, definitely Gooner and Bradaw, where some of my favorites deadlong was always sick to cruise and shoot. Um. Just if Benny was Ra to, I mean, everybody was was sick to have on the program. We tried to kind of sponsor our friends. You know, so it was always uh. They just happened to be good at snowboarding too, so it all kind of just worked together.
M
Mark_sullivan19:42
So you say you sponsored your friends? Did any of them become enemies when the business got involved? Do like not get along with someone that you used to get along with based on them working for you Now Instead
E
Ethan19:54
Um.
M
Mark_sullivan19:54
of just being a friend,
E
Ethan19:56
I was always chilll. If Cole maybe had some issues like that, Um, when we did have to make some cuts, it always sucked,
E
Ethan20:04
but
E
Ethan20:06
now there's nobody on the team that I'm not friendly with. You know everybody
E
Ethan20:10
is, Uh, is still still chill. but you know, sometimes, yeah, we would have to make hard decisions and cut a team rider that we didn't want to cut, And that did suck. And Um, I always tried to maintain a a friendly disposition with Themem, and Cole would have been the guy hand. he. He was a team manager, you know, so he had to kind of deal with that a little bit more than I did. and uh, I think they understood that it. Nes wasn't necessarily his call. It was budgets and ever changing budgets and snowboarding. as as things change, you know, Um, I know, maybe for a short time there was some riders that maybe were bumms if they got cut,
E
Ethan20:50
but shit happens. I guess they got over it,
M
Mark_sullivan20:54
you know, it seems like the snowboard industry is pretty tough to deal with. I mean, you had this image and people have this like image of Tech Ninee from the outside. Look in. What is it actually like running a brand and maintaining that cool factor for all those years and trying to keep everyone happy?
E
Ethan21:10
dude. it was narly, Especially as our team got bigger. it was. Uh, there's a lot of mouths to feed. and as we'd put out a f o d T movie, and everyone would work hard and get a good part. You know, then you got like ten riders that you gotta try to look after and take care of, and they all worked hard the season before. But then there'd only be so much money to go around. I think people also thought we were a lot bigger than we were, because we were definitely seen kind of worldwide and around the mountain. And I think it was just 'cause the product was pretty pretty noticeable, so people thought we were larger than we were, But it was always a struggle to try to take care of everybody, and and do what we needed to do. And then when you're dealing with uh, binding moulds to make new binding moless, it's so expensive. It's uh, it'snrly and then when you throw in we minimums and trying to do board moulds and all the graphics and the artists he need. It's pretty much was just endless enough to spend money on, and not a lot of money to be made at the end of the day, and the the winter cycle is so hard, too, When you're only getting paid one time a year, and then shops don't even pay you sometimes, um, I mean, a lot of times on time, so that was a struggle trying to collect the money. They're They're usually paying the bigger brands first to make sure they can still carry Burton in the future, so the smaller brands would get paid last. So it was just a constant struggle. And uh,
E
Ethan22:34
I think a lot of people don't realize that, but maintaining the cool factor wasn't that hard 'cause we had so many minds to kind of help help us with that when with all the team writers and all that, so it was kinda that was kind of the easier part. I guess just all the creativity between all the different writers.
M
Mark_sullivan22:52
Okay, so you mentioned the creativity? Like? what? What are like? Some of the favorite products that you developed over the years. The things that you would like look back on today with pride
E
Ethan23:03
Um, you know who was awesome to work with on boards was Lucas Macgoon. All of his graphics were kinda just straight from the mind of Lucas, and he just had to kinda. s, kind of take notes on his ideas and then translate that to Dave, Dom and the artist, and when done right, they just came out insane, And those are some of my favorite board graphics. Still today. Like Lucas had, his first one was like a Gremlin's Gremlin's take off, which was pretty sick. And just every different one of his art pieces that he'd come come straight from his mind was just insane. Um. On the technical side, we just tried to make products that made sense. So just trying to always make bindings better and better. Um, we came up with the first tow strap that went over the front of the toe of the boot, and uh,
M
Mark_sullivan23:54
was that Marco's idea?
E
Ethan23:54
so that was always pretty. It was actually just in Hebble, and Mark O
M
Mark_sullivan23:58
Okay?
E
Ethan23:58
Po adopted it to binding, so they called it the Baltimore Toastrap, and uh, we knew here on the Something Rad. When all of a sudden Burton hit us with like a simultaneous invention and they showed up at the trade show like a handmade one. When we had one that was already molded. You know theyd caught wind of what we were doing, so uh, there was like a little bit of a a weird lawsuit there, but we kind of all just squashed it and move forward and that's why you see the strap on everybody's uh findings now,
M
Mark_sullivan24:28
I mean, you talk about lawsuits. I mean, what are the most challenging parts about running a business and
M
Mark_sullivan24:34
keeping keeping it rubberide down?
E
Ethan24:36
Um, you know we had good insurance, so
E
Ethan24:40
when the lawsuit does happen, they kind of it's all handled with insurance, but we never had any like injury suits or anything like that, which is dope. Um, but yeah, you have to make sure your products are, are are on point, or else that stuff can happen. you know, but I guess the the trick is to just get insurance right away if you're a company that's being uh, ridden like snowboards are ridden. You know,
M
Mark_sullivan25:04
Yeah, okay, so like how did like Tech Nine come undone? As far as like I know, you guys were an independent brand for a number of years and then you became part of this collective or the collective, I want to say, And you are part of Likeoms and Tech Nine and a few other brands. What was the thing? though, really, kind of like was the thread that you pulled on that kind of unwound. the whole thing
E
Ethan25:29
you know, the biggest issue we always had was cash flow. Um,
E
Ethan25:35
even when we got that first order our first year in business, you know all of a sudden. If you get like a five hundred thousand dollar order, you need like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to make a product, And uh,
E
Ethan25:48
we did not have that. Um. I actually found out later that Uh, my dad took credit cards out of my name, and that's how we funded the first
E
Ethan26:00
Tech Nine products And I found that out, actually, like a couple of years after the fact, when I was at his house and a very large credit card bill showed up and I was like I
M
Mark_sullivan26:09
with's. Your name on it
E
Ethan26:09
don't have an American Express. What's that?
M
Mark_sullivan26:12
with your name on it.
E
Ethan26:13
Yeah, with my name on it and I opened it up. I was at his house like. Oh, this is weird and just like a couple
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