Jon Buscemi | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 84

well we are back huh we're back at the nine club everybody we got a special special guest hell yeah mr. John Buscemi who the hell's that is here have you seen the same thing are you kidding me dude John Buscemi I feel like this is the this is the part of the trajectory of the of the show like the first you know the first year or two where it's like you know the F the oddball episode that exactly I'm like the one like what like I betrayed you and then people start to question it a bit you know like I don't know about the show anymore meanwhile your episode has like 300,000 views no that's the best thing about skateboarding and go it's it's a it's a tree yeah right that's right the core is the trunk yeah but there's a lot of lot of branches a lot of things out there yeah totaling up you know you get up to 500 500 episodes here there's gonna be a lot of randos I do uh listen we're gonna find out you know [ __ ] John Bush and he grew up in New York City right grew up with an enigma of the skateboard engine yeah you'd never really chase the dream but you were there with everybody right Gino I wasn't me I was a dream chaser yeah I was I was chasing other people's dreams you know the stories probably the same for most people you know that got a skateboarding in like the late 80s 87 88 whenever I started right but we were talking about this before the amount of skateboarders that don't make it too I mean it's 99% you know I'm something like they're the your you guys are the you know more than one percenter were the one percenters yeah right I wish I was a one percenter in a different category that's true I think I'm the second 1% yeah I got so lucky to be able to be you know for what Geno did in his career like we were all brought we we were brought along for that ride Keenan Huff yeah you know yeah that was like we were a part of that it's like the whole team won you know yeah we we were along for that ride right I'm saying but a lot of other people too I mean I mean like Harold hunter probably you're sure I mean that was like the extended Fant like then the New York skateboard scene was tiny man yeah like tiny right you know you saw everyone at every demo every contest whatever every NSA contest any new BAM was gonna win it and his dad was filming it be buying sandwiches for everyone you know I I never entered the contest was like Gino or Keenan and - entering the contest just because it was like that like like sponsored am contest NSA [ __ ] yeah and it was like you'd get to the contest BAM would be there with his dad he'd enter Street vert and mini ramp and win all three all three just annihilate everyone serious no seriously and he was you know four feet four feet tall but you know like you've talked to genome before yeah he's not a contest skater Keenan wasn't a contest skater they tried and they like they'd have their moment during the minute and a half dude a minute and a half [ __ ] or whatever it was it was insane I mean you see Steven the Street League now it's completely insane to have that type of consistency oh for sure it's ridiculous right but back then like there was dudes like BAM and I forget the guys names but that had that back then yeah it was psycho but then in the in the parking lot like Andy stone and Scott Johnson and [ __ ] Gino or whoever was like they were crushing people's lives you know yeah you grew up in such a great [ __ ] era a great time out there you know with those dudes and everything yeah it was uh it was amazing to be a part of that ride you know and film helping film these guys and being a part of you know just seeing the first box come like the tracker box Oh like we all want thicker back then we'd have any money like to have a board you know you had your not as many for like six months with [ __ ] duct tape all over it and then like your boys getting like four boards you're like what the [ __ ] yeah and like to be able to have one back then it was it was it was insane yeah bad you know what I mean for sure having a new book do you remember I mean it's so amateur to talk about this book to remember like getting a board like just and getting a new board was like the best feeling and didn't happen often well what was your favorite company back then did you have did you guys have well I started in 80s like back half at 87 early oh the summer of 87 or 88 was really I think when I got my first board it was it was so terrible I had a Duane Peter skull skates board oh wow it was like a [ __ ] like pool killer pool deck why did you get that what do you I'll tell you why okay the skate shop in my town was called east meadow mower and bike okay bike shop okay bike shops and mower do lawn mowers bro like the sickest lawn mowers and then bikes so kid man any East Coast kid has the same type of thing it was a bike shop yeah with the shitty you know the shitty board wall and then like one little sliver of like next to the cranks or whatever or the bear trap pedals it was like wheels and trucks okay maybe yeah or they were already set up which was like no it wasn't great no and then you had hair oh okay I don't know if you remember herro herro made bikes so if you were in a bike shop they had the hair o of skateboards and they were actually pretty dope the herald flight deck right it was pretty dope board and then there was a bunch of pool skaters in Long Island I guess and there was like a bunch of pool Borg like big hunky nine-inch [ __ ] monsters and you gravitate I just grabbed I gravitated towards this black board it was black had the white skull on it it was just better than the rest of the crap that was in there I guess and it had some cachet to me yeah and I got it I just got it and I did a lot of power slides that yeah I mean though that was that era like go as fast as you can and do like back power slide possible and then maybe I up a curve were you measuring the power slide how many feet do you mean it was the longest at least 20 feet 20 feet probably a 20-footer no hills right I didn't like we'd have a little that would be on like a little berm you know a little hill yeah a little hill but the funny thing is skateboarding in New York was so I mean maybe in California I mean everyone has their own experience but we know the California experience yeah like it was a little bit different if you had a skateboard in 1987 it was like everyone on the Block had one probably for sure you know in New York it was like the banana board and then like nothing and then back in the mid 80s like with you know Gator Hosoi yeah it was like yeah and to have a board like they came along with this whole other thing it was like a let like it wasn't just like having the book it was like your life you were this alien person yeah and that's how we felt and then we were like in these little packs I remember I remember this guy Mike Janousek it's fun I hope he's listening because I haven't talked to this guy in like [ __ ] thirty years Wow I don't know who got you guys into skateboarding but we were we were getting into it a little bit but then it was this alien what I call him an alien he landed in our town straight up landed in our town with the [ __ ] flop the the blonde flop Opie shorts was from the west coast from the west coast and he was a military book military brat so in Uniondale Westbury area where we grew up in Long Island in New York there was a military base like Marines and Navy I think okay and this dude just like moved into our town went to our school showed up to school like like like those old like Tony Hawk vibes yeah you know the flop bright clothes and a skateboard and we were just like like this kid really just like gravitated it's like six seventh grade but we were already kind of into it my boy Alvin had like the very fact that Lex born hmm I had this like Dwayne Peters board and terrible no offense Dwayne but then he it was like the Oracle man it was like okay I gotta hang out with you and then it was like okay we saw you and now you're showing us what you can do just mind blown like the guys doing like I like like putting the board on its side and ollying over it was just like you guys weren't there yet no we power sliding yeah we're like power slide crew I think the name of our crew was powers like but it was kind of sad where well it was power slides hollowing up a curve and then straight to the launch ramp so so these kids were ollying over boards on the on the way sorry I'll give you your gifts in a second so they led us to this jump ramp which what the [ __ ] is that never even seen never seen a jump ramp it was all about power slides because we didn't have there was no point of reference it was like I can't even remember why I got I bought a skateboard no I think it was just because maybe my boy Alvin and that like that side of the crew they were just like bought a skateboard okay you know I get a lot more but it was no like video yes exactly but we were our crew did the BMX thing for a few years oh yeah I think not most I think I mean Gino and Eric and those guys were doing it and then it's got into skate I think like if you were a kid from Long Island bike was a transportation thing and then like the Freestyle we were doing like endows and though we had like I had like a Diamondback Mike Dominguez yeah with a rodertor gyro the gyro and you'd [ __ ] do like tail whips and [ __ ] we weren't great but that was part of the the vibe okay and that I think a lot of kids that got into skateboarding in the East Coast was because of BMX because of that they were related a bit okay I don't know what makes that door well you bought them at the same store for sure maybe that is it and then this kid shows up he takes us to his launch ramp in front of his house and it was just like I mean you guys remember I mean maybe I don't know if you did you ever I bet you never had a little right after yeah no no different days it took over your life yeah were you going off the jump ramp right away I was I was doing like you know like gorilla grab [ __ ] frontside air gorilla off the ramp a little bit okay you know off the edge off the edge and then it was like you know I I had a I had a little Arsenal yeah go bad meth my my method game was was pretty tight off the jump right eventually okay and then the jump ramp turned into you know over things whatever we'd put a Braille slide bar down the back of it so you jump off onto it slide down PVC coffee be Seco talking Rogers language we all it's parallel universe right we all did the same [ __ ] at the same time so anyway so the jump ramp and then it turned into this this guy's brother Chris built a [ __ ] mini ramp in the back of their military house oh and then that just became like the that's another alien that's the spaceship seriously think about a six foot perfectly built mini ramp like in the East Coast on Long Island yeah like maybe there was that was the only one maybe in the whole 50 mile radius I don't know right maybe I'm probably not maybe that's some more but that was our experience and that's where I met Geno and Eric and Ian Goldberg and all these dudes from Westbury that were like they were already a year ahead oh they were so you know back then like if you were a week ahead yeah you were just [ __ ] killing people right Yeah right so these guys are a year ahead so they're already like ollieing out of the the mini ramp you know they were just amazing so we just kind of and back then it was like like ten people skateboarding in a ten-mile radius so we just were instantly we're best friends right right that's it well cuz Long Island - I mean Gino and everything so you must live close - yeah just won the next town over next town and then we it's funny that summer we met the next year without knowing we're going to the same high school or in the same high school and then we just became we actually didn't like each other at first it was funny he was like this like I know Geno's watching we were both like class clown competition oh really and Gina was like this little good-looking little [ __ ] like a townie and like good-looking guy okay and he came from a we went to a Catholic High School mm-hmm he came from a Catholic like junior high and went to this high school so he already knew a bunch of [ __ ] sorry a bunch of girls a bunch of girls in the school right I came from a public school I didn't know no I knew no one there right but I was a skateboard or whatever and we kind of all were lashed together yeah and Gino used to like [ __ ] with like girls in the class isn't [ __ ] we were like who's this mother let's do it I saw him I remember I saw him at that ramp that one that was a ship I saw you at the speech and then it turned into like you know good friends yeah we were like yeah we're [ __ ] family now yeah brother so funny like the origins I love it yeah I mean it's funny because on the east a lot of people probably have these same type of stories on the East Coast because these were like moments that were happening you know and then you know throughout us working our way into the skateboard industry you know through people getting sponsored and da-da-da-da-da and also getting older we were like 15 14 15 we weren't going to the city yet and then once we're in ninth grade were like hitting the Train on the Saturday morning we're at the Brooklyn banks and then you like see this guy named Jeff pang oh right and you're like okay we're [ __ ] for ten years behind yeah you know the guys you know going Mach 10 up the big bank you know backside flip backside grab week back down the bank like they're 1989 and you guys are do just like whoa like I just I like learn to ollie down three stairs maybe I landed a kickflip plane after 45 tries right onto grass and you guys are kind of like this in a same age right you're absolutely all the same age see ya but so the city kids were so far advanced and you'll hear this story from from everybody you know we got to the city and then it's like you're at the banks and you see like you know you know Jeff and Mike Hernandez and then huh mm-hmm and then this kid rayma Tay who you know Raymond Tay moved to move from Brooklyn to Long Island into my town he's like I know all these dudes that live in Brooklyn and Canarsie and this guy Keith huh finagle I escaped and then it's like we're all kind of just like together in the city Wow to see how far had those guys were again was just like it was nuts yeah it was completely crazy and then you know we'd sleep over Huff's house and huff would come to Long Island Joaquin in and sleep at our house okay Hernandez would come to my house and you know it was like this kind of like it was so funny to see like it was like The Fresh Air Fund do you know what that is like you we get like take a kid from the urban environment and take him to the suburbs and like some like white mom cooks the pancakes for them like Kenan waking up at like my house and getting like pancakes and bacon sike it was like it was like but then like us taking the train to the city and like staying at their houses was like whoa you know I mean it was it was different world it was really sick it was I was sick crazy and it was just you know skate all day skate all night at home yeah you know no drugs Doritos and sprite and skateboarding that's what it was man yeah I'm just like going for it yeah and these dudes were good and what about you me not so much not so much and we talked about it the 99% man yeah there's a lot of good skateboarders out there I would say I was a good skateboard okay I could hang you know right I could I could do you know I could do a kickflip backside flip you know pop shuvit pretty high ollie down a few stairs but everybody else flow with my friends down the street I mean we'd skate the city together but then it's like this is getting too difficult difficult did I got quit we had we had a few break points we had pressure flips mm-hmm that was a shifty era does it change everything I fell behind there I was a remedial it lasts too long it didn't last too long and then straight into the switch switch straightens the switch so it was over switch came and you were done I was done you were done at time but I'd you know I put in some time I filmed a lot of Gino sponsor me video oh yes the for the various sponsors and you know I'd hold the camera for Kenan and really provide for a black label yeah yeah some things but you didn't really want to like film no you were just not a homey feeling no I was like you're around someone that's so talented and you know my dad had a cat I think like my dad had a camera and was like one of those was like I'm buying a camera for like a graduate my brother's graduation or something and it was just like [ __ ] sat there yeah but it was a pretty dope camera it was like the I don't remember that red JVC camera it came with the VHS mini yep and the tape oh yeah haha his funny thing was a high quality back and forth back then it was super high quality yeah what it was difficult to get it off there and to like whatever later mm-hmm and then we had some super 8 cameras or whatever I think and then after that it was just like Geno was so good like he sent like these [ __ ] box tapes to whoever said it was a wrap like let's go yeah done right and that's when you get there he was getting all the problems he's getting some product he was we were we were all getting late stuff yeah there was a lot of [ __ ] John Cardiel boards in my life for a few years yeah that's a funny story too when when when Geno got on black label like he was on some other things before like maybe like it was on tracker and we're going hmm I don't forget all the [ __ ] spawns yes but he was on a few but then was like once he got on black label that's like when it was like right cool we're going out to California oh so he would go out to California go with them he went out a few times obviously before and then it was like we're in high school man yeah and then the last like we graduated or whatever and then it was like the summer of whatever ninety-two okay we're 91 it was like you're going to California to stay at John Lucero's house huh I'm [ __ ] coming out like I'm skating so it was that was peak skateboard for time for me yeah right and I me and Ray went out a couple times and I'll never forget it was funny were talking about Jeff Grasso I flew out to California to John Wayne Airport and waiting for Gino to come pick me up okay so I'm sitting in the airport like this is before cell phones and [ __ ] you don't like it's like dude I'm coming tomorrow 12 o'clock bro please be there like you don't like these kids listening to this don't understand that Steve like that's a crazy steal I got a lot of tracking someone like you're putting trust into someone which you shouldn't because everyone I mean yeah we got the California in the [ __ ] know the that's when the weed habit started to get pretty out of him no it did yeah sure but anyway okay for then it was it was really the summer before or that time before but anyway so I get to John Wayne Airport no Gino no Gina didn't didn't come to get one no cell phone you bring numbers with you to call in case you I had one number one black label number to the office from a [ __ ] magazine dude was in the magazine so I call it no one answers I turn around I swear to God I turn around John Lucero is standing behind me he goes because I have a I'd look like a skateboarder yeah and I'm like I'm full skateboard yeah I had the full kit on and back then it was like you're later I think I had like [ __ ] up Caballero like it was easy very easy to picture me John yes and I'm like John dude John Lucero picked me up from the airport Judy you don't know like that's bananas it's completely Ben I was just like I mean it might have been it might as well been Barack Obama picking me up I mean because obviously we saw all the [ __ ] videos and you hear about them there's no like you know enemy and Gino skating for him no no yeah and that's what was happening he was out skating with someone and John was like I'll go pick him up you guys stay here and he picked me up from the airport and they're forgetting like a pickup truck really just like I died I'm in heaven at California the palm trees of sunny out there was like boards in the back of his truck it was like dude this is gonna be the best [ __ ] time ever how long were you staying out I think I stayed with them for like a week and a half something Wow what's vineyard but it was sick yeah so we get back to the we get back to the they're at the warehouse at that point I get back to the warehouse and it's like dill Max Evans I don't remember that so I got was [ __ ] amazing Wow and Jeff cross Oh Jeff cross oh yeah 1992 like you know I've known about this guy for like five years I didn't skate and skate time that's like 50 years perfect then you know any mean it's Jeff [ __ ] gross Oh was he wild he wasn't wild he he looked like he's had a couple of bad shoes I'm sure he's already knows like that type of [ __ ] yeah and it looked like he was he was like working for John boxes and [ __ ] okay anyway and then he was like hey you guys want to go get something to eat and we're like yeah dude like and we like jumping is like Honda like 1,500 remember that little tiny Honda car back it was before that the hatchback one we went to like some Italian shitty Italian like sandwich shop and but I didn't give a [ __ ] you could have took in me to anywhere I'm just like dude John let's hair just pick me up from the airport and I'm like whispering and [ __ ] we're in Jeff girls let's go like what the [ __ ] is happening what's next what it would I'll tell you what was nice okay I'm [ __ ] ate a sandwich and then we drove and I always get this mixed up - someone's gonna correct me okay you don't want the Kelly's or chicken's pool which are both very famous Yeah right very like low-key Fame this [ __ ] pool you can't but yeah you know it's like what the [ __ ] am i doing these pools were gnarly yeah I mean have you ever looked I mean you've seen the pools right like the real pool like the guy built in his backyard to skate yeah like it's not a joke it's not this [ __ ] supreme pool that's like did you take did you take a run so we did like the the pump it stopped it's on camera bill has it on video like oh it's like me like pumping and I'm like I think I I think I maybe got up to like do like a like a fakie like to like tail stall and then drop back in baby I got high maybe but Jeana was already like advanced I'm trying to get above things I think he did like rock fakie or something Wow but anyway but it's like Remi Stratton [ __ ] Eddie al Guerra like ripping this pool apart and then like Grasso with like [ __ ] you know a little overweight at the time just like he has like a [ __ ] 12 foot of 12-inch hoagie and he just strapped it on dude and just one apeshit oh did he sad plant perfect do you think about doing a sad plant with a 12-inch hero and you like fresh you just ate right like a 12-inch blimpy [ __ ] whatever you call it Subway sandwich yeah I have a hair blowing on Escobar dude oh absolutely yeah he'll bones there's a set dude look do you know what a sad plant is yeah just tweet said plant perfect 250 pounds no but anyway that was amazing and then like got dark and we went to John's house and then it was just what a time it was a [ __ ] crazy time gotta I owe it all to two new ch you weren't filming any of this no bring your camera it was someone no I think Ray I think at that point no there was a lot there's a lot of this on camera oh yeah this whole pool thing and then trying sadly to do switch tricks in the [ __ ] Black Label warehouse badly that deal was already like you know doing his thing that was fun like just meeting that dude oh yeah you know he was the spark plug it was like you know you had like the old the old those little those dudes were kind of like the older dudes at that point you know what I mean and then just do like let's go let's go to Huntington High and then like that was a whole other warp it was like a video game right like you've seen in that we've seen I think we saw at that point obviously you saw a little bit of Huntington high in video uh not even maybe maybe not even vide it maybe but more like in print or yeah in ads or whatever but to be there it's like I'm just getting like goosebumps I mean think about it was a little [ __ ] dope [ __ ] and you spend the whole day there with like 1992 summer of 1992 you felt like a kid that and exactly so we've I don't remember everything currently but yes those moments at all time and then it was like what's gonna happen tomorrow that's all in one [ __ ] day sorry that's like a day and a half so like all that should happen and then it's like go to Huntington High for the whole like next half of the day or whatever and then it's like alright we're taking a mission we're going on a mission to [ __ ] San Diego and then you're like at the school that dress in I mean you're all the schools that dress and used to just [ __ ] annihilate and like skating those schools and then it's like Oh Chris markavitch is like doing a like we were just like oh yeah it's over it was it was like overwhelming man's I mean California week they're probably seem like you know I yeah I'm like in day two and I'm like like hey what's up Chris like markavitch right all like you're a [ __ ] like you're the god dude like you were at that time God God took to us anyway in Encino and they're they're tripping to or both you know their trip there but I don't G know never really tripped like that it was more like kind a little bit we were more like me and Ray were like geek skate geeks you know was like talented skateboarder kind of like going for it and like a but not above it but more it's hard to explain he was he was psyched but he was like they're G know like people forget people don't understand like he's very competitive yeah yeah on the low right he won't like put it out there like that and like not that it's a secret well I think he's been I think we as growing up in New York everything was a competition fashion your car your [ __ ] sneakers even the board's we had it was always a cup it was always kind of like a fashion who had the best [ __ ] you look at that [ __ ] like that's not that's not cat that wasn't a very like a California thing yeah yeah yeah anyway but yeah we were geeking the [ __ ] out you know what I mean I mean there was other moments like we I think we went to like X X Y Z what was Danny shop XYZ going into XYZ and seeing Danny way fold the t-shirt we're just like okay stop you know I need to leave I need to go back to New York I can't take this anymore anyway folding it no no like he was in there for like he was just there oh yeah I mean I've member seen hensley at the [ __ ] first like Lakai premiere oh yeah even like recent like yeah I had these moments recently in my life like in the past when was that ten years ago which was the first look I first look yeah holy [ __ ] easy [ __ ] right I'm is moving yeah but anyway seen Hensley there was just like oh my god you know yeah dude I say this all the time it's like I'm friends with Mike Carroll right like that's my boy mm-hmm I don't see him often but like it's still [ __ ] tripped out to be like dude that's my Carroll right yeah he was like but you know right he was like the he was one of my favorites did you meet him later on I met him way later way way later cuz then like I mean the story keeps I mean you know after this you know went back to the East Coast and then we it was kind of all like part of Geno's journey like at the California part of it yeah cuz we were in New York so like we'd come out and like things would change like okay now I live in Huntington oh you leave moved and I'm saying gee no like after the summer I went to college moved he moved to California that next summer and he lived with Kenan and Eric Bhupati Huntington and then it would be like I mean the just the craziest [ __ ] like you'd be there and then like Drake would show up or you know not Drake the rapper you know or [ __ ] I'm trying to remember some of the people that came through justice just to be in that mix it was just like kind of magnetic and then it went from Huntington to they all moved up to Hollywood right nice but between then I'm leaving a big part out between he was on Black Label in Huntington then he bounced to go to 101 oh yeah but he still stayed there or maybe move back to the east coast for a minute and then like then you're in the world park like then you're at work like then it was like okay now I come to Cali and I'm not going to Huntington anymore I'm going to like El Segundo to like world yeah and just think about how many skateboarders in the world okay I'm still a geek [ __ ] skateboard dude I'm at world no one else is I'm here Matt Naylor and [ __ ] you know whoever the [ __ ] we were with Kenan and and then like rodney mullen is like talking to you and then you're just like push it exactly it's just we heard right but how did that feel when Geno moved and you know now your boys out the it was it wasn't great man it was like you're a twenty year it was like your brother moving away Geno has always been one of my favorites but like did you could you tell something stood out from him but his style always from the beginning yeah cuz always yeah back then obviously his tricks were good but you could tell back then the style was completely yeah always and everyone always noticed you always noticed something you didn't quite know what it was back then but it also came from like everything he does it's like a [ __ ] man like everything he does is like stylish yeah it's funny that as long as I've known you I don't think I've ever seen like skate clips of you I'm in chomp on this really did you were chop on this we did what I should edit my trickle to this [ __ ] thing I'm let's take a moment watch the second yeah is incredible so did you say I didn't even know you were in chump on this so what did you do I was in I was in LA okay putting the Fat Boys section I was in The Fat Boys actually I do I kick my board out you know the trick you go up a bank you kick your board out and then you throw it back under your feet got you I don't know the name of that trick I used to do that trick all the time huh just like one of my foot off one foot on kinda like a sweeper it's kind of like a sweeper to fakie Oh got you but I used to do it really well yeah I just had that trick down well you know maybe being at the banks looking around when I weigh so do you know what to do I think he does a big backside do you remember Gino's part and chomp on this is one trick he does a big sweeping back tray and through these bushes yeah up a bank in San Diego somewhere okay so I was there and I'm like dude tie let's go yeah I think it was second try it second second try real slow I love slow and fat there's like like it's like cooking bacon on Sunday morning real slow gotta go rewatch see what they don't remember what people forget is when you when you you get the 300 pounds okay okay and you're doing a aggressive sport like skateboarding which there's a lot of Moo quick movement your big body acts like a a gallon of milk a half full pushed across the table yeah you can get like this jerking motion so you can't do too much because you're over or under and so when you do a sweep you kind of it works with the heaviness that's a skateboard trick that works with my body that the heaviest you've you got 300 pet you know I'm 300 right now are you serious you don't look I've been three haneen to 90 and 305 for ten years really I don't look three hundredths all right I'm like a 250 guy yeah like a 250 right looker but even then like you you do the bones yeah I'm big I'm big bad you're big do but you're not you don't yeah I'm a sleeper they call it a I'm a sleeper oh that's what the yeah that's what they call it a sleeper sleeper let me give you your gift yeah oh we got here look at this Hey look listen do you drink Kelly uh-huh that's everyone Ellen them yeah we've heard that we've heard some things yeah maybe just maybe set bicep oh yeah what do we got okay what is this this is tequila top Tapatio okay okay this tequila is not sold in the United States no it's only available in Mexico okay and this is the number one tequila amongst most cartel bosses really this is what the bosses drink oh whoa and um I'm a boss bringing this to a couple of bosses Wow look at this man and the reason I'm giving you this is a regifter oh okay Yuri gifted okay I'm reek most people who read gift is like Yuri gift like a ShamWow for like a [ __ ] or Yuri gift like like a gift baskets the number one regifter thing is it like you get a [ __ ] [ __ ] cheese-and-cracker [ __ ] alone with like up yeah the summer sausage yeah bad wine that's a great gift okay this is I do the rege if of the opposite nature I take the best thing that I have in my home which is probably that and I gift it to you no way that's how am I ever you good thing right now let me ask you a question are we should we open this aurash is this a shelf thing no I think on the Shelf you were top shelf I think you should have it here and then maybe when there's a moment that you think you should be drinking it or a guest is like very you know as a drunk maybe give or should I take this home and put it on ebay well that's the thing it's the value is probably only a few hundred dollars oh okay it's only a few hundred dollars but that's not the point the point is the this is the liquid yeah you should you should drink it should we just try a shot which we all like take a little sip right now wants you to get shot of that which we crack it open you have a little party I'd partake Kelly will you grab a couple glasses for us to uh you know we're gonna mix it with Lacroix Pomplamoose Pamplemousse yeah it's my favorite it's good yeah and you got a board behind us yep yep yep Pamplemousse is that an actual chocolate board yeah yeah the krob that was a best-seller for that quarter they had to buy a couple pallets of it people are addicted to that whoa that's not a joke god damn these me your cup oh yeah these are clean too right I think so I'm uh he's got a literally clean house a little okay as it's got a little water day you know the bottom of it but I like it looks like a cocoon but it's okay all right there we go do you want to bet how much no there's just one a little bit one ounce I'm kind of dripping the Rajah give me give me a glass here we'll see what O'Kelly where's your glass you're gonna chug you know yeah second garage where's the lime install tough guy shot Thank You Kelly I don't think we should shoot it I think we should sip a sip gentlemen okay okay the next but we can cheers it up bro oh yeah guys there you go cheers thank you so Cheers take a little sip of this huh see what it's all about Wow butterscotch and very very smooth it's very and then you get a lot of it later mmm do you feel it that's not an issue that finishes later yeah yeah I'd love to take this home sorry sorry Kelly and if you if you like these Anejo there's extra añejo it tastes like a whiskey I feel drunk I think you just feel drunk immediately because of the feeling in the throat this is like the thing you sip on yeah you don't take a shot of this no no shoot this you're just you're an idiot this is great thank you so much my pleasure is amazing yeah thank you so uh let's go back to where what are we talking about before we all got drunk what was oh so you were you uh you didn't finish college we were all working odd jobs and [ __ ] you know like the life of a skateboarder you know I think it was working at like a yogurt shop or oh oh sorry we all worked at this bowling alley Oh realize it was night week because it was that night we were always looking for an innate job okay and the bowling alley was good because you got a bunch of tips we were like waiter slash like you always like working with the people in the lane and a party and [ __ ] which is a good job for a skateboarder okay a night job Oh our friends at our skater waiters we always say see you later yeah I think that's a color way at a s skater weight or black I used to design ski it was like they I was like we need we need we need a bunch of black shoes for the skater waders yeah like a black suede so it would you skate and then you can go to your valet job or your waiter job and you have to change your slack souls cater waiter yeah did I make that term up I also invented the term scurb in what's squirming skate urban skater bit which is a category of skate where I think it might have made urban you should look up you chamois in the urban dictionary should we do that right now yeah let's look it up right now how do I do this Jake oh no no no no no no go to go to urban dictionary oh I go to the search field okay urban and look up you Chevy and see what it's an urban diction it's probably one of the most amazing definitions of a blast name that you'll ever see Buscemi a bowl of pot marijuana with cocaine and or xanax sprinkled on top named after the god himself Steve Buscemi can you imagine that's insane white bowl of pot lace with xanax and cocaine thank you that's my last name in the streets hey man you trying to smoke a bush enemy what's good yo after the bar do you want to go home and smoke a fat Buscemi Jesus that Buscemi last night really [ __ ] me up amazing well you I mean because you had just mentioned your you know a designer shoe designer and all the stuff you started working for DC right was that your first gig in the actually skateboarding started to wind down for me and and i i i i got really kind of wrapped up in this like hip-hop scene in new york city and that came along with like you know just having like the odd job and like going out it was all about night night the night life okay like skating a little bit during the day whatever no one gave a [ __ ] about skating as much anymore it was like gino huff and and and and keenan were [ __ ] pro they were like big pros at this time it's like 95 okay i mean that 1992 to 95 one pretty quick for those guys right they were like shot out of a cannon 101 snuff 20 shots for real video whatever those guys were doing I think keen what a Keenan do I don't know he was 20 shot sequence yeah yeah and Huff was doing it those guys were just like who they were out of here and then like all of us were kind of just turned into it's not like they were making a skate button during those days we're all together and then once your crew breaks up it's kind of like yeah and what's happening here you know I go skate maybe here and there and it just wasn't the same anymore so we all kind of kind of went not our separate ways but I got interested in like I was sick of being broke yeah I was always the dude in the crew that was like I always had the best sneakers I had the best sweater that was out yeah you're [ __ ] you're right like I need well we talked a lot about skateboarding but back in you know literally fourth fifth and sixth grade forget about the way before skateboarding it was the hip-hop scene man it was like breakdancing and graffiti and all that kind of like that sub category of the hip-hop scene and we were all we were doing all of it but my part in that was I was actually designing clothes not sewing clothes but taking t-shirts and doing the flock letters like you know my name or like the crew whatever or taking a this is a long time ago we were taking New Era hats because New Era hats were popular in New York mm-hmm the fitted hats and like taking the Yankee logo and [ __ ] with it and putting like sequins on it or devouring it cut the dazzling it in a cool way and like or taking paint markers like actual paint markers and making a you know of navy blue fitted Yankee instead of just a simplest thing changing that white logo to yellow would [ __ ] people's minds up but we do it meticulously where someone be like I need one of those so we'd be like all right give me 30 bucks I'm talking I'm I'm 11 years old oh should take your thirty bucks I'd go buy a hat for 15 and I'd return you a hat I'd made 15 bucks right you're happy you have a hat that's a Yankee with a [ __ ] with pink rhinestones on or whatever yeah in 1985 like the whole thing it just went apeshit I mean in 1985 I'm 12 years old and like you have the first Jordan came out and you know the Air Trainer ones were out and whatever the flights came out the next year and then sneaker and then the shell toe and all the adidas [ __ ] we were just like that was part of the uniform of the hip hop [ __ ] and then I gravitated that that's when everything changed for me it was like designed [ __ ] to make money to buy sneakers or shovel [ __ ] snow to MIT to make money to buy sneakers I'm 12 years old or rake leaves to make money to me or do whatever it took to be the flyest dude in the neighborhood have the best sneakers the best sweatshirt the best hat the best sheepskin shearling in the winter yeah that was that was my whole mission to be like the flyest dude and then that was like part of our ethos okay that's always been a part of the thing yeah and the town that I grew up in in Uniondale in in the suburbs of Long Island what happened was you had you know like Italian Irish Jewish whatever families in this neighborhood but affluent or not affluent rich but well-to-do black and Latino families were moving from the borough's into Long Island into these neighborhoods in the 70s and the early 80s that was happening but would that doesn't bring like a race of people it brought style it brought the whole way of living a whole different mindset and me as this like I was just a sponge for all yeah it was just like I talked about when that spaceship landing right like I was influenced by that very you know but before that we were just he's like a little hip-hop like hip-hop breakdancing graffiti like weird kids okay no with would BMX bikes right anyway so with all that that's all a part of my DNA the whole fashion thing the whole fly being fly thing and college wasn't for me I was over it and again another summer thing I'm out of college it's the summer everyone's out of school like back from college or whatever and we're at my friend Eric Rosetti's house okay he it was so weird like it's funny like immigrant parents this would never happen to me like my family would never stand for this like his mother started dating she was divorcee she was dating a guy she's of immigrant like a Italian she's from Italy okay and she was dating this guy and she like left the house to Eric like a like a 18 year old school so we all just like base it was like it was like a skate out it was the [ __ ] skate house gravity bomb house mom was never home she was never there anyway it was the gathering point for our entire crew so anyway I'm in college for two years where I'm at this house was like a big party and one of our friends uh not like a friend from like like the immediate crew but like kind of from like the secondary like a dude that we knew he pulls up to this party in a [ __ ] Ferrari okay Dale another spaceship moment for me this guy gets out of the car and this guy was literally like one he was actually in one of my he was in my high school oh he was like one of the dumbest [ __ ] I've ever you'd ever meet really super like jock dumb [ __ ] mm-hmm very talented football lacrosse all that [ __ ] soccer but just you're a [ __ ] idiot yeah and I would never really [ __ ] with that dude but oh he had the Ferrari I had to talk to him he was at the like people were just gravitating like when you show up to a party and that and you're I think he would just turn 20 cuz I was I graduated when I was 17 I was 19 at time he was 20 but were the same kind of like like class yeah yeah yeah so everyone like ran through him and then at the end of the day I will at the end of the party I was like dude let me talk to you and he's like I've been working on Wall Street I'm like interesting I don't have a job I'm not going to college he goes Wall Street moment near that was a Wall Street man was like at that moment he goes you looking for a job no one asks him this the whole night because they look if he'd if they did he would have recruited like 50 people but I was the only one that kind of was like I don't have a job and like I like what I see yeah and I know that I won't have the Ferrari I'll probably have a Benz with like 500 pairs of sneakers that's what was going through my head okay so make a long story short he gets me an interview like that week later I show up to Wall Street 10 Wall Street that's where the interview was and the interview was this I'll never forget her name was Adrian mhm and she was like the kind of like the person who ran the office she asked me two questions did you fill out your application and then she goes if you if I told you to shovel [ __ ] against that wall for a year you'd be a millionaire would you do it I said yes she said you start on Monday seriously dude real Wall Street boiler room [ __ ] I was like [ __ ] blown away blown away I was like first of all I'm on Wall Street I mean I'm in an alien land like I'm like I have a bad suit on I'm 19 years old I'm like I might as well be like a puppy do you what was a job the [ __ ] room is you've seen the movie he was just going apeshit on the phone hundreds of dudes screens everywhere nice suits young dudes slicked back hair the whole nine yards so the job was to be they called it a cold caller oh so I would just actually take a stack of cards and cold calls guys and I'd say you know I had the little script hey basically you'd want to see if the guy had money and that will hit fee was interested in hearing something about like a stock oh right and it would be like you literally call 500 of these [ __ ] for 10 hours to get five dudes to say yes and then that thing BK tallied yeah I'm a lead and then you give it to the scumbag broker you work for he call him and be like hey you talked to my guy you're interested ba ba ba ba you know here's the stock do you want to buy it I'm obviously I'm not saying this the right way right it was actually a script yeah yeah and then literally a year later I I took they they put you through school actually once once you worked there for a year they're like okay you have a brain in your head you're you're a hard worker I'll pay probably like 10 grand or whatever you know to this school like three nights a week to take your series 7 was called okay is an exam it's like taking the bar exam yeah but the BU stockbroker hmm pass that [ __ ] 3040 days later I was like a broker like independent broker at this firm and like calling people up make you know you'd call someone up for literally five minutes yeah and they send you a hundred grand and you buy a stock with it and then it would go up down or stay the same then you call them five days later I got another [ __ ] stock that's gonna go through the [ __ ] roof and it's any another 200 grand and they send me a million sometimes it was crazy I'm 20 years old and these guys are sending I'm getting millions of dollars out I mean over throughout the year of course to just some [ __ ] nobody skateboarder hip hop kid that did that was pretty good on the phone I was good on the phone all right how are you getting these stock tips what do you know so he worked for a firm yeah so the firm had quote-unquote the firm had like analysts that were like coming up with ideas for you but what it really was is you'd call them up to by Walmart and Wells Fargo and we actually sold Marvel was big at the time Marvel Comics oh and then you'd get all their money and then you say okay we're gonna buy Universal auto parts stocks at four bucks it's going to ten you know what I mean and that was a stock that the firm like had a relationship with a company had a relationship with and it was kind of like it wasn't on the up-and-up right you know it was but it wasn't you know we made some guys some money but at the end of the day it wasn't for me the whole thing was kind of I made a bunch of money for the wrong reasons kind of it was like really it wasn't fulfilled it wasn't like from the movies where I was like a complete like illegal operation but it wasn't completely legal either okay it was like in that gray area I wasn't like I wasn't really like I wasn't calling people up to rob them I was actually thought you I was kind of brain washing away interesting because that firm takes you a bunch of 19 year-old and 20 year-old kids you think you're in Wall Street yeah you think you're like this you have a suit on every day you know people are bringing you coffee yeah you think you're like this big [ __ ] time brokerage ah so 95 96 97 98 for years the market crashes bubble the tech first tech bubble I lose basically every single client I get to lawsuits they're called arbitrations on Wall Street they're not lawsuits from to clients that lost so much money well I was just done complete I was finished [ __ ] finished and I was I actually had health problems at the time I had like [ __ ] anxiety and like heart palpitations a panic attacks anxiety I had to move back in with my parents it was [ __ ] uh-oh it was just like rollercoaster ride how much were you making do you think like a year doing that for years roughly probably a couple hundred grand a year yeah as a 21 year old wow yeah really good yeah so the cool thing is now if this isn't like parallel with my regular life you know I mean and like I was very connected to the skateboard industry still laughs you know Gina will come back to the city and it'd be like with like Kareem and [ __ ] guy or even before then it would be like with like the 101 guys and [ __ ] escape the banks with not us and [ __ ] yeah like those like but I was I'll never forget it was the first X Games was in the city on the Upper West Side X Games number one oh do you remember that does Ron maybe was gravity was one of those ones up on the Upper West Side 97 I'm like doing it dude at this point right I'm at the peak uh-huh the Lexus the [ __ ] the kid the gold front yeah I was I was off the charts this is like 1997 too so like I my dreams are coming true with the money the hip-hop fantasy is alive well you know I mean it's like coogee sweater the best jeans out Tim's Lexus so then it's like my skateboard life is still there too so it would be like you know I remember like Kareem coming to the like you know Geno's like you got to be my boy John and like I'd like show up and I'd be like who's this [ __ ] drug dealer or whatever like the Montero Sport and [ __ ] lazing you know I mean yeah anyway but that was funny to see like that intersection of like watching all these dudes come up as well and I was like already kind of like coming I was coming up in my own rights you're sure that's when skateboarders were getting rich right yeah that's when like you started to see like [ __ ] getting money 10 15 grand a month yeah that type of [ __ ] you know I mean like you know like I mean he was a couple years I mean you know when the activision checks started coming for people and that's every [ __ ] but this is like it was kind of cool like you know kareem had action you know he was making money for sure he was doing it you know and so yeah that Wall Street thing and then I'm I'm literally sitting in Long Island I'll never forget I was like the lowest point of my life man it was just [ __ ] when you have when you had that so that's type of success so fast so early so young to be back at your parents house you know bueno huge blow right no one yeah and then not even like depression it was more no it was more I was unhealthy I was sick because of I don't know if was the life change or a chemical imbalance or whatever was I never took the drugs they gave me like the the antidepressants and this I just I just [ __ ] chilled out right and then eventually as I got to do something man and I was at my Eric's again he was still over there and I saw Jones Keith Chris keeps brother yeah and Jones was like yo I got an apartment in Queens I need a still talked about this apartment yesterday about doing [ __ ] acid and and yeah Florence yeah okay so across the cross it was a it was like a apartment building across the way in the next building Jones got an apartment himself and I moved into that apartment oh wow anywho so I'm living in this apartment I'm working like an odd job I think it was like an old broker friend of mine started like a limousine come this is so good I was the dude at the airport with the [ __ ] sign with the last name really was that dude bro dude sucks being that dude when you don't want to be that dude is the worst dude a sign that said Buscemi now Buscemi now I see my [ __ ] oh my god anyway so I'm doing that and then like I obviously have hopes and dreams and aspirations I'm not gonna be sitting there so I meet my wife at now my wife of 12 years 13 years we start dating and she's like we've known each other for a long time she's like one of the like the homies that I started dating so she so she already knew that I was like at the mountaintop at one point or at least up the mountain a bit she's she I think she had a little belief in me that I wasn't like and I usually talked I talk [ __ ] like I'm not gonna be working here like my whole time I mean like this isn't it for me and she was like okay I get it so with that I had a little bit of like a support system at the time and I was like [ __ ] this I packed my car literally and I'm moving to California oh wow so I have a lot of friends at the time you know I have Tim Gavin very good friend of mine they have obviously Rick and Megan yeah so I packed my car and I I'm gonna move to California and then Rick I talked to Rick and Maggie and they're like why don't you work for four star oh but you could stay on the East Coast so I had that like kind of the I had a little like I'm packing my car I'm moving to California but then I had a few conversations over the next couple of days and they were like we're gonna send you a box you're gonna be like a sales rep for four star I'm like oh [ __ ] this sounds [ __ ] cool now did you sales yeah like me like I'll try it out yeah well can try it out like I'll work for girl kind of like yeah I'm getting my foot in the door the worst thing ever in my life really just though being a sales rep sorry any sales yeah I know a lot of sales reps in the industry it's a breed you got to be that you have to be that breed like you have to you have to or maybe it takes time to get there but I did it for like dude get in your car drive to [ __ ] in South Jersey the [ __ ] buyers not there I gotta talk to the owner oh we had an appointment today with Forrest are what like like it was around what do you think it'd be easier if the internet was around probably yeah this is like this is 99 but you still gotta go to the shops gotta go to the shop and then it was like I was like [ __ ] do you know who I like I had that I little I was a little attitude like not the [ __ ] you know who I am but it was more like you know who I know Ryan you should take me a little bit more seriously like like I just drove an hour and a half and this is not happening like not cool or go to Philly and I was in Connecticut and I was here and out on the island it was just like no yeah so I gave that a shot [ __ ] sucked then clay you remember clay so podium started clay and then I kind of got it excite excited because they Asian kids named their son song-song and weighing some was some was designing for DC came to podium directly from DC to do clay because the the Dunlap's and and and and Gavin were like dude we should do like a that's when like the lifestyle [ __ ] was hopping right so they knew that I was doing forced are they like we should have Buscemi be the rep for the East Coast for clay oh so then I was like okay I'll try this out I went to one trade show I went to ASR or whatever the one in Vegas was put a magic magic I got the magic they had a booth and it was like again it was just it was like trying to start the engine and the engine wasn't turning over man just I felt it wasn't my thing though so but now I'm like in the skateboard industry like I felt like I was kind of in like I had a little taste so I'm in New York and I'm like I'm a sales rep for four-star and clay but I'm quitting oh but now I'm packing my car now you're gonna move now I'm gonna move so I've drove my car this is a funny story to a sidenote story I call Gavin and I say Gavin I'm living with you members Hermosa Beach House yeah I said I'm driving to your house I'm [ __ ] living with you he goes no problem this is right when cell phones were like you had a cell phone right this is like 2001 a little Nokia or so now you had the Nokia or the [ __ ] little Sony with stick or something ran that one through that one was sick because it had the scroll this scroll right right anyway so Gino's like I got to go to LA I'm driving with you so sick dope driving across country with my man yeah go to Chicago at the Chicago stop you know cuz you can make it from New York to Chicago if you're driving fast and you got a homie with you in 16 hours yeah so that's the first stop Chicago the phone rings I got good news and Gavin's like I got good news and bad news all right give me the bad news first you can't stay with me whoa give me the good news frosty Costin said you could stay with him I said sick there you go Gino's like like oh no no he'll stay it [ __ ] Gavin's I'm like why he's like dude have you been to Eric's he lives with Berra like off of Melrose do you remember that apartment yeah it's a [ __ ] yeah now the phone so I call Gavin back he's like no no no no he doesn't live there anymore he just bought a house so I'm like all right cool that sounds cool sounds good sounds better so yeah so we drive cross-country Utah the whole nine yards okay we get to Kherson that's where sorry to blow you up Costin he lives on Carson Street and Geno's like oh [ __ ] I know Kherson but we get to Hollywood Boulevard and it's not a right unfuck it's not a left on cursing and stuff [ __ ] right all right gambit and Yuna and you guys all remember the house yeah he lived in another [ __ ] spaceship was a lot of spaceships landed do you remember the house on the top occurs and it was like TV cribs yeah yeah that's one rep great that's where I lived how long did you live with him three months oh that's it yeah well what happened your girl though still enjoy so I'm dating I'm still with Maria she's in New York she's like she gave me it was like she cried like it was like [ __ ] tough but she knew she was like you need to go find your [ __ ] and I know I know something well he's gonna happen yeah and the cool thing is her sister was moving to California her aunt who's like basically her mom lived in California out in Corona so like she she knew she'd be visiting and whatever and then then there was kind of talk of like if this works like you come out and she was down for all that okay so it was kind of it was that was the easy part I get to California I have a couple of bucks I'm very excited and you start to now you're a part of a skateboarder and I think Costin was popping at the time oh oh yeah sure dude 2000 2001 yeah I mean I know it was probably but I didn't know Mike Houston yeah no no I didn't know No yeah you know I'm saying right I knew but I wasn't like we were watching the video yeah I wasn't I mean I wouldn't know I was real you were well part of it but I you didn't you wouldn't no one knew it no one I mean you knew but you didn't know until you knew right so it was funny like you get to the house and like a prac I put my [ __ ] and like do this house is gorgeous and like I got them I had my own bedroom with a bathroom like a modern [ __ ] like a modern bed buttery everything was dope I mean the cleaning lady would come oh I was chilling yeah and I kind of worked my way into California like I'm there for a month and nothing's really happened yet lot of golf oh yeah a lot of a lot of time with a night club okay tons of time at the night club lots of golf lots of chillin looking for something or were you so sure tomorrow an osmosis thing and I wasn't trying to be like hey got a job hey got a job hey guy I wasn't like that dude I was kind of like something's gonna happen and let me just let me see okay three months go by mm-hmm I'm down to like I'm on fumes I'm at this point like maybe a Western Union from your girlfriend maybe you didn't get one maybe you did get one mm and I'm a failure again just nothing can do it it's Thanksgiving a rag around the corner mm-hmm I think I might have called someone to buy me a plane ticket home and maybe I maybe I didn't maybe I did okay but I got a plane ticket home and it was maybe like Sunday or Monday and your boy with no job is hopping the fence at visit Ellie hi the one the big fence down like where Beverly goes into downtown Belmont tell me oh yeah big fence yeah not good for ya not good at new Texas yeah and you got to hop it you're not even skating and you don't have a job and you [ __ ] hating your life and you're in a Range Rover with Eric and he's gonna hop the fence and you're like [ __ ] it I just came from eating pancakes with you at the griddle ride and you had to pay for it like just not in a good mood yeah I'm sitting at this [ __ ] school with like the worst feeling in my belly oh and I get a phone call I get a phone call from weigh-in who was the guy that started Lakai with them who did clay with Seung who went back to DC Shoes I haven't talked to him since I was at clay and clay was like way in the rear view mirror like a year ago it was probably a year at that point where I wasn't even work with them and make a long story short he's like where we just hired a guy from Nike he is changing like we're changing things around here they're hiring like new designers and they're looking for someone at the time they were calling it like a trend forecaster someone who knew about someone who knew about like street wear that was getting popular someone who knew about like you know I was wearing like supreme at the time in 2000 and 2001 and I had like seven jeans on that was like hot at the time right whatever I have my [ __ ] together I've always have I always will I have my [ __ ] together I'm looking for someone that has their [ __ ] together that understands the sneaker world okay cool he wants to meet you what yes so literally the next day I say no no sorry he said he wants to meet you on like on Wednesday I had 48 hours right to get like a resume to like down to San Diego I had a plane ticket do you remember him I had a plane ticket home for Thanksgiving that Wednesday because Thanksgiving is on Thursday damn I [ __ ] cram this whole thing in I called Lee DuPont cuz he's the homie mm-hmm I'm like Lee I'm coming down there I need a place to stay for the night but because I have this long-ass interview I don't feel like driving all the way back up he's like no problem da da da da dude my resident auke bout my resume dude let's see my resume I'm gonna shorten the story by a half an hour my resume is a picture of me which I randomly had that my boy had a picture of me in front of my sneaker collection that was your resume dude I swear to god that's my foot to drive moto when they're right on the resume that is my maybe a there's a picture of me I swear to god this is true and I can find it I'll send it to you it's a picture of me like this in front of 400 pairs of like Jordans and Nike dunks and [ __ ] and my name in the supreme font job you show me in the red box logo okay and the sort of says industry insider sneaker connoisseur overall nice guy that's my resume yeah and I printed it out at Kinkos 10 of them photo paper yeah and went to this [ __ ] interview and the interview if people anyone would go with members DC your interview wasn't one person it's like a plethora get a thick gullet like it was a gauntlet like the HR girl the [ __ ] the sales guy the product guy break lunch the person I'm supposed to be interviewing with can daemon like meeting everyone yeah and another alien moment I'm down there I have like I don't remember the porno shirt that supreme made they made an all-over print with like these naked girls back in the days I had that shirt on with a sweatshirt over it so you only saw a little of it it's a pink it's a pink t-shirt mine people mine's mom thank you fitted seven jeans and a pair of like the rarest Nikes that you've never seen like Air Force Ones from like London with whatever okay so I'm walking through like I'm dude I'm at the interview I'm like doing my thing right I mean and I'm going through these interviews and I like the HR lady can I have your resume please sir dude a photo of me in front of sneakers okay [ __ ] it got me the job that's incredible it's incredible so I meet with the person supposed to meet with actually met with Kenan Damon they're like haha funny they already knew about me through like Kelly and huh or whoever I probably met them before I actually met them during the NBA final Oh in New York when they were signing Stevie were at Chelsea Piers again just random skate [ __ ] parties you meet these people huffs wedding I met Ken Block oh yeah anyway I go back to LA I'm [ __ ] waiting I'm waiting like you know when you go on a job at me like we'll call you that was I'll call you yeah I got my ticket I'm like waiting waiting it's Thursday I'm like dude I didn't know like people wait like weeks I didn't know like I was on Wall Street I'm like I thought this was like quick quick quick let's go call me I got the [ __ ] job shovel [ __ ] against the wall you got the job you mean nothing get on the plane I've been Thanksgiving I'm [ __ ] my house in Long Island it's just like what the [ __ ] my car is in LA I don't have a job a week and a half go by I'm saying I'm driving I'm with my girl I got to go fly back to [ __ ] LA and drive my car back to New York what a [ __ ] letdown she's the phone rings the guy calls I'm gonna be in LA I want to meet with you or I'm gonna talk about you like a second interview oh okay um it's like Something About Mary Santiago Chile twice literally total lie there I [ __ ] somehow get it together I get on Tower air which I don't know if you guys remember that back in the days it was like kind of the JetBlue of its time you could just like you actually had to call up and give your credit card before pre-internet Wow get the call up and give me your [ __ ] credit card over the phone was so weird we got a [ __ ] flight got back to LA go to Fred Segal on Melrose I meet this dude he's like you know talking and talking and talking the [ __ ] he's like ordering dessert I'm like what dude I'm I'm I'm like gonna lose it I literally get up like this like yeah I'm like dude I think you're great I think this is amazing but like I need to know man I need to [ __ ] know do I have this job or not Wow like almost an hour into a lunch yeah he goes he's like eating his like chocolate cake he's like dude you had the job like two weeks ago like relax [ __ ] cry not like not like a like right like I start cheering I hugged the dude Wow it was like one of those like you have no idea what this means to me you know what I mean cuz it's like it's all that do what you love never work a day in your life I'm about to become like a quote-unquote like I'm gonna be directing seeker designers on what to make crazy like crazy yeah what like and DC was kind of popped like not that they weren't they were always were popping in a different way but they were popping at the time it was like yeah it was like Kahless and [ __ ] it was a dope time for them so I got the job and you know two years later I have to move down they move down there that would lead to [ __ ] you Paul gotta get Leo a little 10 minutes on the Buscemi month of me Wow dude because he's a maniac I love them yeah but you know I was a great maniac he's great yeah and I was a maniac and it was just it was funny so would it would but uh so I worked there and I was the international projects I worked on like artists collaborations I worked with the [ __ ] founders of the company on cool [ __ ] you know I worked on Stevie Stevie Shu Josh's shoe worked with Rob on all this [ __ ] he was doing oh I was in it man yeah and I I became like you know a part of that conversation like I was like getting articles written about me in like skateboards world business like I had like an interview and [ __ ] Buscemi [ __ ] transmittal business it was like wha it was dope but at the time it was like my boss was like dude why are you doing interviews like you're just like work here I'm like nah bro that's not that's um yeah it's good bro it's good for business yeah and then like for you too yeah we did a shoe that sold a hundred thousand pairs bro Oh Josh Kayla's shoe that I did with for him was like the Kahless for I worked on it with them and that [ __ ] thing bangs like we're making them money like it was like it was a we're making [ __ ] money dude we were killing it and then you know you get bored as a creative you know and and I learn it was so funny was almost like a I was like getting my PhD like I I was so excited about my job that I wasn't it wasn't a job it was like I was living it like a skate like like how you that how you like when you first started skateboarding right like it consumed your entire [ __ ] 24 hours of your day mm-hmm like I was doing [ __ ] at home when I got home and waking up early and going to the office and coming in on a Saturday and traveling and like trying to get involved in things and arting thing starting committees that kind of you know right inside I was going nuts yeah and I think I moved a little bit too I probably still be there if I didn't wasn't moving so [ __ ] fast Oh what do you mean by I though I just moved too fast through everything there and then I kind of like tapped out oh no like bitter done that no I kind of yeah it was just kind of like I got so much knowledge to so quickly and then preneur real spirit was like it's time for you to go but with three years like a three-year years a three-year run there but when it's harsh three-year run harsh harsh like not harsh grates a maze okay but harsh like the pace oh it got you traveling a lot like never around always doing something coming up with this coming up with that but when you're when you're when you're three years in and you're you're ready to you know leave do you have any thing said lined up or are you just leaving absolutely are you okay so two friends of mine we're starting kind of like an Italian American sportswear brand okay and this is mm and at the end of 2005 mm still DC okay and in my in my office of DC I was always working on my own things ideas this and that and I came up with a brand called gourmet gourmet yeah so I was cultivating this brand the idea the brand was supposed to be like as this kind of like a lifestyle streetwear brand and all about food because through my travels at DC I was eating well [ __ ] really went way way way like yeah it was like okay we're work like when you went on a skate skate trip or even you know you'd skate for a certain amount time and then I'd be like alright we're going to go bowling or what I'm just sure right when when we were on a trip it was like we'd work for eight hours and I was like where we eating dinner yeah and then like the dude you know if we were in Japan he was like oh we're going to eat dinner my cooker spa right right and DC had money and it was like it was corporate card time and it wasn't like we weren't going to [ __ ] Outback Steakhouse dude right never going to Ruth's Chris we were going now or even like Oh even but like yes Nobu yes Ruth Chris but like the local version which was like the foodie version and then it would be really specific like oh gosh amis coming like we need to out do everything and then I was you know I'm kind of like you know I'm not like this frail little dude like Oh cake are we going to dinner now we're getting tacos yeah that it like give it to me I want I used to challenge dudes like nah man you need to bring it you need to bring it a little bit harder oh and that became like a narrative and then you're you're meeting people that work for DC like if you're in Australia it's DC challenge them to like yeah and they know all this coming and be either be an email like we're eating you know we're going to eat when I come into town right and then that foodie thing really I mean now emails about eating and now you're like 16 years later from I mean when I became a always say I became a foodie in 2003 was one ice I was I was gone how I think I was gone more than half the year traveling at DC that one year and it was like I mean I can't even a kid this is pre [ __ ] social like if I had social media mm I can't afford a navigate culture I mean killing it okay I mean I have some of these photos like on like you know like a [ __ ] camera somewhere I mean I had that Samsung that Alcona TV I had that blue one that took like decent photos like you look at him now I actually plugged some of the I plug my iPhone one in recently I [ __ ] their [ __ ] I before does a [ __ ] right but anyway I digress so food foodie big foodie you had a big head big you know I thought I was the biggest foodie in the in the space okay so let's start a [ __ ] obviously we're gonna start a brand gourmet gourmet so gourmet was like you know graphics of like to everything bagels on a shirt and then in the middle of it said is like everything is everything Oh or like there was I had this graphic like a Warhol bananas and then I just put like that's above it that's been like kind of like a stupid little gray onwards with yeah yeah and then like try I was like like there was like some truffles and just like foodie [ __ ] dumb [ __ ] but I thought it was interesting how did it do didn't do anything it didn't happen what happened was I had this idea and my friend Greg Johnson and Greg Lucci in LA who actually were involved in like Greg was on worked with salads New York okay when I don't know if remember Sal Barbie a was running New York first I remember this guy Greg Lucci who used to work for adidas and [ __ ] mm-hmm Italian kid and then Greg Johnson who owned this brand called situation normal he designed for supreme he designed for Susi they were doing this like italian-american thing like luxury Guido culture like like their idea was like that and then I had this food thing and then I'm Italian and it was like dude that's pretty sick we should like put this together oh and I moved up to LA to work on on that with those guys okay and in the meantime I had a job at Oliver Peoples oh the sunglass the eyeglass yeah yeah that was kind of my I always say it was kind of my my appetizer into the luxury space mm-hmm so I worked for Larry Light was the founder and we we had a mutual friend that was the that would ran the company okay and he knew like I understood this world the quote unquote Street where was the name a friend that you guys were doing you your buddies gourmet gourmet I got nothing had a graphic foodie [ __ ] right for gourmet didn't happen but when we came together was like let's call a gourmet cuz obviously it had the best oh it's a great name yeah good name yeah it was a good name it doesn't exist anymore it doesn't exist anymore we went on a pretty good run we unfortunately we launched a brand in 2000 and back half of 2006 2007 and that's when like everything went apeshit [ __ ] yeah [ __ ] hit the face 2007-2008 the recession and then we're trying to sell like $500 cashmere hoodies and and like not we were very early on like this whole kind of like high luxury street where [ __ ] well very early it tanked but the saving grace was what the second season we were doing gourmet we came out with these ideas for shoes ma and you probably remember the shoes and like all this dope apparel that we're making in Italy and all this sick stuff like tanked no one bought it's too expensive but it was like oh those little shoes you made we love and those took off okay and became a footwear company so gourmet we went on like a three or four year okay and then the clothing part tank but the Jews were great and lower they were like the perfect price no we're the perfect it was a kind of like this hybrid like Jordan kind of casual shoe like high quality it was like a hybrid high quality hybrid basketball lifestyle shoe kind of like clay but more more like sporty Italian yeah for the shoes hundred bucks or whatever okay so like still a little expensive for the time ride not like crazy like our peril right so we went on like a three or four year run everyone raced to it like Vans vault and all these brands kind of raced to that lifestyle like luxury lifestyle kind of like sporty [ __ ] yeah and they we just got [ __ ] crushed by got it brushed but I had a job at Oliver Peoples and I was doing other things while I was doing gourmet and you know at the end of gourmet it was like what am I gonna do I mean again another one of those like cross I've been you know I've been in the corporate side and you know now I left to do my own brand and it's [ __ ] not working and now it's going out of business and what am I gonna do I'm gonna go back to what I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do right so in 2012 there was a brand called Warby Parker that we all I fell in love with this brand I read that's right and I grasped brand so I worked at all over peoples but I left in 2011 to focus on gourmet solely so I was out of there but I always I've just always been into the sunglasses and eyewear it's just kind of my thing and then now I worked at probably arguably the best eyewear company in the world like they're they're known as the pinnacle eyewear brand or not not so much anymore there's a lot of people but like when I worked there and then since 1987 since they started they were it that was it okay like in an American Psycho like Paul Allen was like you know I eat at Dorsia and I wear all over people's glasses it was that that was the [ __ ] the 90s for Oliver Peoples crazy yeah anyway I was introduced to Warby Parker through like a friend and then I read an article on them this is early direct you hear this word direct-to-consumer all the time here sure which is really just been around for [ __ ] 200 years but now it's the thing because of the yeah so it's brand started on the internet like cutting out the middleman I just love that I always kind of I've heard of that before I always love well you know growing up in Long Island was always like something falling off the back of the truck or going to the price Club or going to like Costco it was always like a thing like dude I'm gonna get this [ __ ] bag of sugar for like wholesale man got psyched on that yeah it was a deal yeah it was always a thing mm-hmm this is the same thing just packaged beautifully on the Internet right and then it was like it would be amazing to start a footwear brand that had that ethos like you're paying $400 for a pair of Italian made sneakers or a [ __ ] boot or whatever you're only paying $400 because Gucci needs the NAD and the GQ and he need to pay the [ __ ] creative director eight million dollars a year yeah and then we need a private jet that's why that shoe cause if she wanted cost 12 bucks to make yeah the shoe costs you know I'll give it to him that costs $40 there okay Wow what yeah something that costs 400 dollars in the store really costs 30 or 40 dollars to me yeah yeah it always kind of I understood it and I understand that people need to eat and and and companies need to thrive but there's a way you can get past that so grates was like let's start a footwear brand that cuts all this [ __ ] out and let's and I'm not scared to say it let's copy Warby Parker what they're doing in the art we didn't copy it to the tee but it was we drafted off of that okay not from the look standpoint just kind of from the process like we make a shoe for 25 bucks mm-hmm we're selling it to you for 60 that's it that's it that's it there's no whatever ething else in between we'll figure out yeah and that's what we did and you know we started you know we started it small we raised a little bit of money people were really excited about this space even in 2012 now it's six years later it's bananas yeah yeah yeah in 2012 the smart people were like I like this I'll give you money yeah so we raised some money started making the shoes and you know right off the gate the first day we sold 300 pairs of shoes Wow next month we sold 3,000 pairs of shoes and now this year we'll sell you know you know grates will sell you know I don't know the number but right Oh in the six in the six figures yeah when you first start off pairs you know right and you when you first started great was that is it internet-based or at the Internet that's it that's it that's all it was it was a team of four you get go ahead I'm sorry it was a team of literally four people two full-time people myself and Ryan Babb and zine who's the now the CEO okay the guy who runs a company I don't currently I don't work at greats anymore no I left a year after it started and for other reasons we'll talk about but you know to start a direct-to-consumer business yeah you need someone to build you a website but you don't need to hire those people you can go hire a firm right you want to build some shoes we've we went to Mexico we went to wanna wat oh it's Leo in Mexico no coach is the premier shoe making place in North America we flew down there and then the factory makes you your shoes right I designed them and Ryan worked on the marketing mm-hmm you don't need too many people that's why we can help make a shoe for 20 and sell for 60 be that $40.00 in between doesn't need to be 400 talking about there you go it's lean you have a few people and you know even the team now is such a it's such a huge company from like a from like a footprint side mmm-hmm sighs but there's only still like 15 people that work yeah we're a regular company that has two wholesale yeah and have sales people and have a warehouse we learned how to outsource even our warehousing is a is subcontracted to a company that it's called Shipwire oh yeah Shipwire Shipwire they do it all for you right you know and you have one gallery it's a third party and and greates is really the consummate but it's really a benchmark of how to run a modern brand yeah I mean it's really cool but I always thought great was a great brand like I always thought that you guys made grid shoes and I was thought they could go into skateboarding - yeah like I always thought people could get sponsored by this great but you know that's interesting you know we've been approached by well not approach we've talked to people about skating in the shoes people actually have skated in the shoes but the model of sponsoring athletes yeah and the amount of money that takes okay doesn't make sense for our business model I think because of like like I said there's there's only so much in the middle right and not built for skateboarding it's not built for skateboarding they're not but they look like they good but it's like is a van zold school built for skateboarding it's built it's built for like getting shredded apart but you skate them because more you feel your board they look cool I think greats or any brand like greats to build a skateboard shoe there's a couple I mean I built skateboard shoes for about three years straight at DC there's little modifications you could take to a regular shoe that you love and you know who's a wizard Rob Dyrdek's a wizard at that oh he was always a wizard at that like he'd love the running shoe the look but you couldn't skate in a running shoe yeah but he always could like make he could like ride that line and the the designers and the technicians and the engineers they'd actually like make that [ __ ] happen that technology actually works yeah it's all it's all stolen from Pasco yeah he had a DC chute that looked kind of like a Air Max right remember that yeah but that thing would like you could skate in it yeah they would test it - it wasn't like just like oh look we did this like now they there was like dudes testing it oh wow crazy it was real a real rd down there which was pretty sick to work around that it wasn't just like fake will you around for the legacy was being designed I was there for that what do you think of the Rio I'm not a big fan of it I thought it looked tight when the dudes were skating in it it's really nice I'll do skating yeah that's tight I just never liked the look of it no I was just wasn't my thing yeah hmm you know I love the clocker and you know she was tight that type of DC shoe another Stevie one Stevie what you want yeah the big big big but it would look like like if you were gonna go there like I remember then like it made sense it looked good okay feel that's I don't know cinder block big cinder blocks man and then after greats you went and did your own my eponymous brand Buscemi Buscemi bution I say bution you say beYOU could say Buscemi now why did you want to name it after your last name was it the the the sound of it or you just thought it'd be good or was it okay so when I started grates mm-hmm at the same time like I told you the personal brand which we don't like to talk about but we'll talk about it was what's happening okay so grates wasn't about me grates was about a proposition a value proposition about getting a brand out there that cut the middleman out you know didn't have the whole sale didn't have to kill you on the price okay at the same time and it wasn't planned I had it I had this story I've always been trying to tell a story at DC you know even at clay but all the way back through all over people's I've been my whole story is this been aspirational kind of like Street luxury thing like I've always been a spot I've always been attracted to luxury space okay whether it was like we always need a polo back in the days or we wanted like the Louis Vuitton belt or or we wanted a BMW bling you know even Stussy back in the 80s they took the Chanel logo and they flipped it the chambre 5 it was to see number four mm-hmm you know supreme back in the early 90s they took the Louie Vuitton font and they made s's instead of LV right and they did money signs instead of whatever as a culture we've always been aspiring to be like this luxury thing we love it yeah yeah Jordan really nailed it you know back in the 80s was like okay this is a sneaker but it's designed by a [ __ ] architect named Tinker Hatfield and he liked his inspiration was a Ferrari right and then you got the Jordan 3 in the Jordan 4 and it was like oh my god this is crazy so I've always been attracted to that so my DNA and my design ethos has always been that mm-hmm so I've never been really to able to tell that story and now greats funny enough when I'm starting it that's actually the antithesis of what I'm trying to do right so I said [ __ ] it I'm gonna start this it wasn't a brand it was more of like an art project it was a story so I told a story through product let me make this in their bag it was telling a story about a guy what is he gonna what does he want so that first buscemi project if you want to call it a collection if you want to whatever call it it was six items it was a weekender bag beautiful hand-painted edged leather beautiful bag like you could go on a three-day weekend like a guy could take this bag on a plane with them it's like the sick bag but like tons of pockets okay you could put your newspaper on the outside and your iPad yeah whatever then I made a dog leash the most beautiful dog leash all right you'd ever you've ever seen okay leather clasp and leather handle gold clasp and painted edge hand woven leather a bridle with an 18 karat gold uh you know clasp for the dogs well no collar okay I made the job a jacket I talked to you told you get those leather sleeve for your four until you when you go to a meeting you're the talk of the meeting you know what I mean no finger hole little finger hole made out of 18 karat gold plated metal a beautiful calfskin leather hand-painted edge hand-sewn beautiful right I made a leather tie which was actually kind of a gag hmm back in the days back in the 80s if you had a leather tie you were the [ __ ] like mid-80s okay but I took my keyboard tie keyboard it was like it was oh yeah Hebert I was actually led made out of leather yeah printed leather the Hebert I was a printed leather but actually around the time he there was leather ties like black or red or navy blue or green there were dope okay so I just it was it was more of kind of like an ode to back in the days I made a lot of time and then the shoe hmm so I took I took the idea of the most sought-after handbag in the world which that Hermes Birkin bag every girl wanted one every girl loved would it has a great story Jane Birkin you know Hermes made her this bag she wanted something that it wouldn't fall out it was like this mystique around this bag and I was like what if we made this bag into a sneaker right I also had like a dream years before that I had drawings of this shoe at a dream that my wife and I had broken up and she has one of these bags actually uh-huh had broken up and I took her [ __ ] bag and I cut it up and I made a sneaker out of it it was a dream well the true story actually had a dream and this is when blackberries were popular and I was working at Oliver Peoples at the time and I was on a trip and I always trip out on not trip out physically real yeah yeah I always you ever when you're in a hotel room the first night in your hotel room you have like a bad dream or you like wake up always yeah where am i moment exactly maybe because you had too much to drink or you [ __ ] whatever was or jet lag or something anyway I woke up I had this dream I wrote it in my blackberry it was in there for years so when I was doing this project I'm like we got to do this shoe we do this I made this like capsule of products for like this fantasy guy like like not my fantasy guy but I wrote a story of like who's the illest [ __ ] alive kind of that was the vibe yeah like this dude is just the man yeah yeah and all this [ __ ] is bananas and I made it yeah and greats is happening and now I go and I show this in Paris because my friends own this kind of show in Paris where emerging designers show all their [ __ ] no this show is called the capsule show I'm in Paris I'm sitting at this booth kind of it's like a trade show but like fancier yeah it's not like so like trade show II it's more like kind of like a gallery environment okay people are walking in like Ray Carriacou beau she's like she started comme des Garcons which is a famous fashion she's walking through there and editors of fashion magazines and this and that they're all walking over to my booth and just like what what is this and I'm like well I'm John Buscemi and you know I've I kind of was explaining if some people knew who I was and didn't explain my story I'm like this is kind of like a project I'm just made these six items hope you like it and like this is great this is really great I love how what you're doing huh and we actually after that show we got five of the greatest like stores in the world like Colette and Union in LA and you know a few stores in Asia bought into this stuff Wow they like loved it okay and because of social media I I leaked it all quote-unquote yeah I'm for it delivered and people just flipped out over especially the shoe yeah and the shoe delivered to these stores and it was sold out before the shoe even got there like wait house so it was crazy were you trippin like oh why was not something like this I was just this could be big I was tripping because well not only was tripping because I started a brand called greats and like now that's doing well but that was kind of a slower mm-hmm you know that's put on the simmer you know and I mean it was like simmering this went to straight to [ __ ] the the oven on high five hundred degrees immediately quick so now I'm like my day jobs greats yes other thing is not my day job I'm did it by myself I mean I have the factory in Italy working on it and my brother-in-law was helping me and pay a couple people were kind of like hovering around it yeah but then to make a long story short I went back to Paris six months later showed a little bit more of the range and then it just went [ __ ] completely apeshit because these are expensive and but it like how much were the shoes to like you saw in the shoes so the shoe who watches basically the main attraction and that's the biggest part of my business now cuz I'm a I'm a few guy yeah when we went to make the shoe price didn't matter the idea I mean when you're making a piece of art or you're going to build a table for yourself or you're doing something it did it was like I need all these things to make what I need to make yeah I'll figure out what it costs so fortunately or unfortunately depends on the way you look at it the shoe cost about $200 to make mm-hmm just to make yeah you know I'm saying yeah so the rule of thumb like I told you before some some of these big brands times that [ __ ] by 10 yeah so I could have charged two thousand dollars for this sneaker I want it I didn't it wasn't like the great's thing it wasn't supposed to be so democratic you're just like you know we're gonna charge nine hundred dollars for it which is actually half a little bit less than half what we could have charged for okay in the luxury space right so whoever is listening out there you actually got a value at $900 but that's neither here nor there but you're getting a lot right yeah you're getting a shoe that's handmade a sneaker that's handmade in the same ways that Italian fine footwear has been made for hundreds of years in the same factories and by the same people with this brands like Chanel and Louie Vuitton and Gucci in the same factor okay no one number two if these people use this material here I use this one like this leather wasn't soft enough I'm using this one this sole isn't comfortable I'm using that I took I did it on purpose yeah I took every element that the pedestrian luxury sneaker was doing and I took it up a notch I think that's what won because I think the quality mixed with obviously it looked good I thought it was cool right right but that taking the quality up a notch and helped us a great deal you know I mean and that's what's but that's a big success price-gouging I'm either know like yeah I think people understood and especially guys I think a 2010 things shifted a bit you had brands making you know brands were making shoes for guys are like five six hundred bucks and people were like okay with it even like it's funny talking about Kenan Kenan was buying those products knickers back and I used to rock them shits all the time they were like there was no like 350 bucks back in like 2005 2004 you know yeah so that you know everything's kind of doubled right I know in almost 20 years so you know a guy buying a pair of shoes for 600 bucks wasn't so crazy and now he's there okay look what I'm getting 900 so I'm not you know there's this is obviously it's a certain look it sounds a little crazy what we're talking about there's a certain amount of people in the world but like yeah you know we pay a thousand dollars for an iPhone X you know like like people have different priorities like me I'm a sneaker guy like I would pay right now I'd pay five grand for a Jordan if I wanted okay you know yeah cuz I'm a psychopath sneakerheads you'd really pay five grand probably but I mean not every day yeah it would probably be like once in a five-year and I'll go and Franklin yeah like I go to flight club probably a few times a year now where you say it was more bad when they first started but I like to like peruse yeah you know just but now it's kind of crazy like the things that I would want like really really want like now you know now it's getting at some of these sneakers like twenty twenty-five thousand seriously [ __ ] kind of sneakers so what happens is this is very Eminem - Jordan is 20 it's a great it's a great example so economics 101 is supply and demand yeah of course mmm makes 12 pairs of his shoe they're gonna sell right there the sneaker community now is exponential mmm you got 5 million core sneaker [ __ ] head oh yeah making this up but that's probably the number that 5 million the one super one percenters they're all there might be billionaires yeah true it's probably five billionaire secrets yeah that's probably a real number okay and now that billionaires like 20 grand for a [ __ ] M&M Jordi yeah you know I mean that's kind of my you know like the supreme thing ya know Supremes 25 years old 24 years old you do a collaboration with Louis Vuitton your your your fan base it's pretty hilarious yeah basically she's not a suspect exactly to me it's pretty hilarious yeah I think it was executed well enough to not be completely hilarious okay I think it was actually I got mixed feelings about it oh do you yeah I had mixed feelings about it but the the fan base of supreme is so wide and then the Louis Vuitton fan base is so wide like you know it's easy to sell a $60,000 steamer trunk with a sneek skateboard in it that's yeah you know what about with your shoes are you trying to get are you I'm not trying to make anything for 60 grand no no not 60 grand but are you saying like oh I could still nine hundred dollar shoes so maybe now I could sell fifteen hundred dollar shoes or twelve hundred dollar shoes or whatever it may be you're right or do you build a shoe not like you said you don't care about on guys yeah that's my problem mate maybe that's my problem my gift or my curse yeah it's the best product possible usually when you're designing something you you have to be working inside of a box so oh the you know your act DC shoes yeah we need to have this shoe at 999 dollars okay okay you can make a shoe for $12 and 79 cents so that what you know I'm just making these numbers up but you understand it's like you know your t-shirts for the nine club yeah you can't make a t-shirt with a pocket you know yeah there's a ceiling yeah when I started Buscemi there was no ceiling it was like this is what I want to make this is how much it costs and then we'll price it okay and that's pretty much now that we have a little bit of we have like if we come out with something that's like all right man we can't sell this at this price yeah we have had those moments this is not gonna work and then we and then those things don't happen you know I mean what do you ever think like God maybe you could we've tried to do things at a lower price okay and then the thing came out it's still too expensive what you're saying right right right like we made a slide and we had that moment was like damn and this thing is so beautifully made we actually worked on with a new technology where some of the slides that you guys buy or we buy is like that plastic foot bed it's like cheap yeah we took that shitty plastic foot bed and we drilled holes through it all the way through it because we wanted to get air around it and we did a vacuum we vacuum sealed the entire plastic out you know inner of that slide in leather so now you're slipping your foot into leather and put a rubber sole on it yeah then we did the leather oh the beautiful and it came out you know it was gonna be like well it is well back then it was like damn this is gonna be 300 bucks we're a little nervous no really and it banked yeah yeah well did well when you're doing stuff like that they're like minimums that you have to make and stuff like that yeah with that project funny enough yes but usually no because the the nature of the things that we make and the handmade nature of the things we make the quote-unquote producers in Italy that we work with they don't that they can make 12 or they can make 12,000 oh it just takes time it's a time thing yeah it's not like you know I'm sure some of those look at some of the factories some of the factories in Italy are like I can't make it won't make sense it's about making a thousand of these okay then but that's those are the big boy factories those are factories for like the huge billion-dollar companies we're not there so we work with smaller kind of like artisan one-off type of guys that are like oh if you do have to make twenty thousand of these we'll figure it out oh but we're never you know we're uh we're in the hundreds you know we make hundreds of shoes per style we don't make thousands you know interests you know okay in a year we will make you know thirty or forty thousand pairs of shoes you know what I mean Wow I mean sounds like a lot to me now but when you're working you know that would be one color of a shoe at DC I'm like okay of the pure in black white yeah like yeah things like a banger yeah you know they're selling I know I think at the height you know 14 or 15 million pairs of shoes a year you know I'm saying it's a lot of [ __ ] shoes yet knees at their height you know millions of pairs year millions damn even [ __ ] I'm every working at DC and fallen mmm they were doing like 500,000 pairs of shoes bro damn crushing it well Inland Empire heavy oh yeah black socks to the knees Metal Mulisha let's go so Buscemi is doing good you guys are killing it you guys are killing yeah we're in our we're in year 5 you're 5 you're 5 we've you know we've launched women's we've launched kids we have 3 retail stores now we open in New York yeah we have won in Las Vegas and Caesars forum shops ok so we have one in Toronto Oh another one in LA nothing in LA yet no la is a difficult like retail environment I think it's like hard it's very hard I think it's hard to open a store in LA that unless you're like some huge company mm-hmm that has you know disposable income to be able to open a store and not you know or you know you're on Rodeo Drive or you're on like certain you know what what we're doing it's very difficult yeah my opinion for like foot you know who's gonna walk in this people just don't walk in a store right and by a $900 pair of shoes you know right right right so I think LA could be a little bit later down the road and smaller format okay no cuz what we sell now is like their their their in you know in Vegas you know it's like people have been you know yeah and I in New York City and so oh it's like we're in the right you know LA it's yeah Rodeo Drive doesn't really make sense for me you know thing like I don't think that would make any sense o truf so truf is is the brainchild of one of my partner's my partner's son and his best friend basically okay they had this idea to do a hot sauce hmm but they didn't want to do something just pedestrian they want to do something a little bit luxe okay you're in that space I like that space nerd olive olive yeah the the the hot sauce is 900 imagine oh my god it's gold gold leaves [ __ ] gold I've been you know on the entrepreneurial kick gently investing in small things here okay helping people out and using my time instead of you know wasting my time I've been helping people with project stuff like that okay I threw a couple bucks and threw some knowledge at them yeah I brought in a partner Erin Levant who's from agenda complex Khan formerly mm-hmm now he's doing some new big project but he's also an investor entrepreneurial type of guy and he was gonna start a hot sauce with his mom his mom's like super connected lady and I was like don't do that one we all just kind of do it together yeah yeah we launched trough a few months ago it's gone it's it's funny how hot sauce is very I haven't been in like the consumable space yeah the food space right you know you can see why there's a line at in and out every day you know like 50 cars right no food is it's a crazy business bet at bat so you know you we've launched the thing two months ago and you already have like you have like ten dudes who have ordered it like five six times like the website oh really ridiculous and then like we've engaged well they have they've engaged with these people and it's like you know you see like testimonials or reviews or like kind of like a yelp review type times on our website it's like I'm addicted to this [ __ ] and I love it and you can kill a bottle of hot sauce real quick yeah it's funny and the hot sauce you know even me I you know I have the promo I have a trough at the house okay yeah I've used two bottles in two months you know yeah so even you know you have Tapatio in the house or at sera sera Chuck goes a little bit slower because it's a little hotter yeah the truck is cool cuz it's not so hot it's just hot enough and then it has like this super cool truffle if you're into truffles you're like yeah wow did that swanky [ __ ] what how many how much is a bottle cost the cost online is $14.99 somebody know again it's a it's it's not a value proposition it's actually we priced it because that's what it costs it has like real agave and and it has you know the real chilies in it that are that prepared in the correct way and the oil and I and the black truffle no it's you're getting you're getting the real [ __ ] right we don't make the fake [ __ ] around here yeah and not only trough well I can't wait to try maybe maybe we could send us a nice carriage ol walk around when some slot need some slides yes Christ category you know he doesn't have a luxury shoe sponsor I need some $3.00 lives but listened yeah we it slides some trough and maybe a couple sandwiches for my uncle paulie's down there you go yeah closest to my heart is it yeah uncle Paulie so you just open this deli in Hollywood oh I guess the technical term is Beverly Grove okay that's the technical term gotcha where you know yeah we're between Fairfax and La Cienega on Beverly okay if you know the Los Angeles area right near the Grove okay a Beverly Grove Beverly Grove I've been out here a long time yeah and you know you got base cities you got it you got a great deli one of the best delis in the world I love it then you have I want to call it Third Street Deli downtown mmm-hmm you have Claro's you have you have other Italian delis in like in in a in a in a radius okay but how we grew up in New York and Paulie from Queens My partner and me and Long Island literally every other block is an Italian deli or a pork store or a sandwich shop or some type of Italian market okay out here it's more like it's a LA's transient it's like you know there's nothing there's the food scene is really just 10 years old in LA yeah even less okay so you have bass who wants to drive the bass cities every day in Hollywood you know it's tough yeah and we're like sandwich people so anyway the deli was brought to you out of necessity okay we it's it's it's kind of one of those stories like at a bar we literally add a barbecues like yeah we should open a deli like two years later there's a deli seriously like it's just like one of those classic stories what are you doing nothing what are you doing well I got a couple bucks yes open a deli so I you know I put up some of the money and go Paulie runs it and we came up with all the ideas together we brought in this guy Frankie penelo who owns best pizza in Brooklyn he has actually the pizza show on Vice okay he did our menu he came out he stayed with us for like a month and worked on the recipes with us and now we have Austin Taylor in there who another you know skater down with the supreme guys and a chef worked at Spago he's our day-to-day chef so we have like like a real chef making sandwiches that were inspired by like the sandwiches we grew up eating it's like a real Italian sandwich man it's like check out Uncle paulie's deli on Yelp yeah seriously Sarita it's like bananas the reviews seriously yeah I win dude it was [ __ ] great oh you went yeah oh [ __ ] my bad I didn't know oh no it's beans are brown okay cool we made it we're like oh we got to go check it out we went him Wow good people were there got Turkey pesto it was banging so it's like everything that I've done you know that's me meant anything is like taking something that we've we had and like like lifting it right so you know the Italian combo or the turkey pesto it's like just a little bit little bit little bit little bit luxe a little bit looks a little it locks in like you know than your average right pedestrian [ __ ] you know being the entrepreneur guy you know being all these I mean amazing companies that you've created and been a part of and stuff with what any advice to people out there that wanted to go do gommi now like you just said is everything is out of necessity and whatever and passion but anything you could offer you know people out that I think the best advice I think the best advice I always give is there's nowadays things are moving so fast and everyone thinks they're an entrepreneur and everyone thinks they have a good idea everyone thinks that they can go get it right but what happens is there's a process involved in all of that okay I think the best advice is and what I saw in my career is actually go work for someone that has either had success or is on the verge of success or is currently being successful okay and steal every [ __ ] thing that they do because at DC which I always say I got my PhD down there I suck that place dry of the [ __ ] knowledge oh yeah I did man and I spent three years you know steal like an artist but know this so my even see it even even my son he's gonna be ten years old he wants to start a brand oh it's like that's cool you know when I was your age I was customizing hats and doing teach let's start there right like you want to go all the way you like you want to just go where fast forward to like the end yeah you gotta like you guys spend some time learning some [ __ ] man yeah yeah and that would that's the that's that's my advice like being an entrepreneur is great being creative great being like indie is great but all those 90% of those people that are like indie and this and like people like me or people that you know that have been successful independently really stole some ideas from other people right and that's a fact yeah anyone give you a piece of advice oh you think about like every day my mother god rest her soul she passed away a few years ago um she never gave me advice I don't I don't like live off of advice I think I feel like I have her I have like this someone like behind me or on my shoulder like that don't be complacent okay I mean like why are you sitting on the couch you're on the couch for two like I'm always I have it's not advice I have this like kind of like innate get after motivation by my mother really instilled that in me it was like if you're not doing what are you doing yeah it was always like what are you doing yeah you know if I came home like I skate for skating even like for like 15 hours she was she loved it like how like if I you're in the Hat like my you know I've had experiences like people just being complacent okay that's that's the only advice I could give you know right don't [ __ ] be complacent go out there and do something just do something yeah go and do it it's great wrong do it volunteer somewhere yeah and even if you have if you wanted if you have a job that you hate and you want to go do that over there you gotta work at your job for eight hours and then go like work at that one for free for five hours yeah no I'm saying do it right it's [ __ ] worth it yeah that's my advice get off your ass get off your [ __ ] ass yeah when are you gonna invest in the nine club well you know what I got a PDF all I'm very excited for you guys well thanks dude they know when you were very um you know when you thought you were only into nine episodes we were at dinner a few years ago that was just a bunch of horseshit no but you guys made it happen when we were at dinner and you were saying like dude you're gonna kill it with this like I know it I could already [ __ ] tell and I was I was sitting there thinking like why does he think that like I don't even know why you even say because like we're just talking with skaters we're just having a conversation there was something I was missing it's called white space I love white spaces okay like empty spaces why isn't someone doing that over yeah blue ocean I love that yeah and it was like when you said it I'm already like a podcast weirdo like psycho like I've been you know I have any spare time I have if I'm not reading which is very rare and I'm listening to a podcast like yeah you know I'll have the earphones on at the golf range I'll in the car on the plane if a podcast like dies on the plane because I didn't download the whole thing I'm like upset you know any me like I'm but I knew cuz I know podcasts the world now because I've um engulfed in it yeah from a consumer standpoint mm-hmm that was like there's no key cut podcast any no one's doing it right now there's gonna be a bunch of clones coming there are no there are already there's a few there's a few yeah so this is our last episode other people are coming into our space and yeah we're done we're moving no but uh man this has been [ __ ] amazing dude thank you guys no thank you so much what could you what advice can you give me bro I mean you wanted it if I remember my fashion sense what would you've always had it together oh but you've always had it like just right there I just know you never over the wine yeah you never Flay you're in no there's never purple you know you can t just keep it like you know like gray tones and Noa glass yeah you're sort of get in trouble you know don't know just just airmax Jordans or bone I dunno G jacket like you maybe maybe denim jacket denim jacket denim jacket denim jacket no I don't have a tendon Jeff a denim jacket I think everyone should have a denim jacket in though in the ensemble yeah yeah you could keep your same aesthetic okay and just level up what do you mean you know you can go from the free button down that you got from from someone from Ruka yeah rucas nice and then you could go you know maybe to a James purse or something you know interesting very soft maybe longer-lasting yeah how much is a James perfect yeah I don't know though you're on your way to making so much money it doesn't matter listen before I get there maybe you could put it on the Buscemi card we'll take you shopping on an experience up yeah there you go yeah amen thank you so much for stopping by dude yeah John Buscemi good times John yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Nine Club

Views: 76,008

Rating: 4.7698946 out of 5

Keywords: chris roberts, kelly hart, crob, the nine club, nine club, the 9 club, 9 club, skateboarding, skate, skating, skater, podcast, talk, show, history, lesson, interview, tutorial, motivation, entertainment, best style, legend, comedy, thrasher, transworld, tricks, sk8ing, nike sb, sk8board, street skating, switch tre flip, boardslide, crail couch, jon buscemi, buscemi, luxury, footwear, greats, gino iannucci, art basel, current affairs, streetwear, brabus, mercedes, fashion, shoes, sneakers, 100mm, angela yee

Id: uaAHrRV-Yws

Length: 124min 15sec (7455 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018