Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast

If you're a Brand Founder, eCommerce Entrepreneur or Growth Marketer and looking to scale your eComm brand, then this is the podcast for you. We'll be interviewing industry leading eCommerce founders and marketing strategists and bringing their insights and actionable take-aways for you to implement and drive your revenue growth.

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Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast

#23 - How do you build a loyal fanbase for your brand? RetroKid Co-Founder shares how they grew their brand by putting product quality & community over everything w/ Steve Gaskin

March 10, 2022 • Right Hook Digital • Season 1 • Episode 23

When some entrepreneurs embark on the journey to scale their brand from 0 to 100, they tend to forget that two key ingredients include cultivating a deep, meaningful relationship with their customer base and understanding that product quality & excellent customer service trumps everything else. These elements are exactly what RetroKid, a Canadian clothing brand specializing in officially-licensed apparel that celebrates nostalgia with sought-after designs, included in their journey that helped make them a 7-figure brand (and still growing).

In this episode, Ray is joined by Right Hook’s Head of Performance (US side), Billy Bambao to chat with Steve Gaskin, Co-Founder of RetroKid, about the growth journey of their brand, why RetroKid believes in PRODUCT over profits, and the marketing fundamentals entrepreneurs must ALWAYS remember when trying to reach their core audience and new prospects.

Listen in as Steve shares his honest reflections about RetroKid’s product-first philosophy, numerous insights that Steve and his co-founder Eric Bauza have gained from ideating new product launches & collections, and RetroKid’s secret sauce in keeping close relationships with celebrities, influencers, and their loyal fanbase alike.

We also reveal the biggest misconceptions Steve had before running paid ads and how his leap of faith in working with Right Hook showcased the massive potential to scale RetroKid to new heights. Tune in to find out how you can prepare your brand for long-term success putting product and people first before profitability.

For real-time updates, connect with Steve & RetroKid:

For real-time updates, connect with Billy:

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If you want to learn more about us and what we do at Right Hook, visit our website: Right Hook Digital

Full episode transcript & chapter markers for this episode are available on the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast Buzzsprout page!

0:00 - 0:27 - G&G eCommerce Podcast Theme
This is the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast, powered by Right Hook Digital, with your hosts Scott Seward & Raymond Johnston. If you’re an eCommerce brand founder, entrepreneur, or marketer looking to accelerate profitable growth for your business, then listen in ‘cause this is the podcast for you.

0:27 - 7:14 - Introduction of guest Steve Gaskin
Ray (0:27 - 0:39) - Hey, everyone! Welcome back to the podcast. This is Ray Johnston. We’re shaking it up again. This time, we’re bringing our Head of Performance of the US, from Right Hook, Billy. Billy, how have you been?

Billy (0:39 - 2:03) - Great, man. I’m excited for this podcast to jump into it. We’re going to be talking to Steve Gaskin, who is the founder of a retro, throwback apparel brand. And, in honor of that, I’m having some Dunkaroos today, guys. No, Steve, you cannot trade me; actually, it’s so delicious, you’d probably trade me. Yeah, really excited for this episode. To speak to Steve and have him on the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast, I’ve had courtside seats helping and watching RetroKid go from just an idea to getting its first sales, storing, picking & packing inventory out of their basement, to feeling nervous about spending $50 a day on Facebook ads. RetroKid is now a 7-figure brand, selling officially-licensed throwback unisex apparel for Inspector Gadget, Sesame Street, Space Jam, Beetlejuice. They’ve shared the red carpet with LeBron James, been featured on Complex, National Media, Entertainment Television, and the list goes on. And, you know, Steve and his co-founder, Eric Bauza, have done this all within just a couple of years, which has been so impressive. And, by the way, Eric is the voice of characters on animated shows like Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Fozzie Bear, Ren & Stimpy, he’s done the voice of the animated Luke Skywalker as well. So, welcome, Steve!

Steve (2:04 - 2:16) - I’m on mute, sorry about that. Hey, guys! Listen, super amped to be here. Love to, you know, share a little bit of our story and, you know, I just wanna thank you guys for giving us a platform and, yeah, looking forward to getting into what you guys have planned for today.

Billy (2:17 - 2:31) - Yeah, awesome! Dude, let's jump right into it, man. So, love to ask you a bit of a loaded question to kick things off. What is the one thing, in your opinion, Steve, that has had the strongest impact on RetroKid’s success today?

Steve (2:31 - 4:12) - Holy! I think to answer that, it's, you really have to understand your why, right? And, you know, for a lot of people looking to make the leap or jump off the cliff, you know, you have to figure out what your why is. And once you can do that, that's really gonna power your locomotive to, kind of, build the business. And I think initially, you know, I'm 43 years old. I've got two kids, a family, a wife, white picket fence, all that stuff, you know, adulting is hard, right? Like the last couple of years, being an adult and even just growing up is, it's hard, right? And I think all of us have this really playful, you know, inner kid that, that's been pushed down and, like, buried that's always deep inside of us. And I think, really, you know, the big push for us at RetroKid is to truly, you know, bring that inner kid out and really celebrate who that is. And, you know, that's really the DNA of RetroKid and that's what kinda keeps me going because it's just shit that I love to talk about on a day-to-day basis, right? Like just for the call, like all three of us, we're talking about, you know, childhood memories. And I think right now, especially in today's climate, like, that's connective tissue to kinda keep us all together, right? Like that's what's, you know, bringing strangers into building this community that we've done so, so well at is to, really, just reminisce like that's… that's what COVID’s done, right? Like, you know, COVID’s done some separation between, you know, friends and family, but, you know, talking about our past and our history and, especially, our childhood and how fun that was back in the ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s, that's what, kind of, keeps us together.

Billy (4:12 - 4:18) - Yeah, man. We're getting older, dude. And so, now, we have to rely on things and, like, looking back, looking back.

Steve (4:18 - 4:22) - No, I'm getting older. You haven't changed a bit. I'm getting older.

Billy (4:23 - 5:02) - I love it, man. That said, you know, like it's, my wife and I were walking through Marshall’s the other day. Funny enough, we were talking about that too before this episode, Ray, but we're walking through a Marshall's and we saw retro, like, throwback clothing, you know, from all the brands we remember as kids, but you don't see them on social, you don't see those brands on social as heavily as RetroKid. What is it about your connection with your audience that has them choosing RetroKid? I think that's one thing that's really unique about you guys, would love to kind of hear your secret sauce around that, man.

Steve (5:02 - 7:14) - So, the secret sauce for us, really, is pretty simple, right? So, we put people and product over profitability. And, you know, from an owner’s perspective, from a CFO seat, that's a wrong answer, right? But from a marketing seat and a sales perspective, that's what you truly want to do. You want to create product that inspires people to return, increase AOV, and spend more in your store, which will generate profit at the end. But I think a big part about our business is, like, you know, every time we go into a pitch, it's you know, I've heard several times from some bigwigs, ‘Oh, these guys just sell t-shirts,’ and I always got to stand up and be like, ‘No guys, we're actually selling memories first and not t-shirts,’ right? And I think that's the separation, right? If we truly get behind this idea that we're selling memories first and the product or the sizzle is just the t-shirt or the hoodie afterwards. I think that's where a lot of our engagement comes from, right? And, like, social and email, which you guys are crushing for us so thank you for that, is just the platform we use to really connect back to our customers, right? And we're very different than a lot of other apparel brands that have drop after collection after, you know, different types of releases where we actually wanna make a connection with our customers, right? So, like I can tell you our top 100 customers by their first names, right? And, like, that's important, right? So, when I see, like, Alex Bell drop an order in our Shopify, I'm like, ‘Okay, like, I know this guy, I know where he lives,’ and I think if a lot of brands had that potential or that commitment to really understand who's buying their products and make a genuine connection, I think that's what good brands do best, right? And I know that becomes really challenging once you start scaling up, right? Like once we start getting to 5 million, 10 million, 20 million, you know, that idea of the owner or the corner office, knowing what's happening down in the mail room, becomes very difficult, right? But I don't ever want to lose that idea and that kind of small business mindset of not knowing who's buying our product.

7:15 - 19:30 - RetroKid’s process of launching a new design or product collection
Raymond (7:15 - 7:54) - Steve, I've had the pleasure of just watching how you interact with your audience. And I love the fact that you have, that you're playing the long game, and I love that. Everything you just said about, you want to sell the memories and you're willing to, you know, go the hard route. It's easy just to spend more money, sell more, but you want to do it the right way. And the thing that's been so impressive is you know your audience so well that it’s great how you, some, you get them engaged to find the right product. And I want to ask you, like, how do you go about when you wanna launch a new product or a new design? Could you explain, like, the process that you go through because it shows that you care about them first before the product?

Steve (7:55 - 10:15) - Yeah, I mean, I hate to tell you this, but it's pretty simple process, right? Like it's literally just myself and Eric hopping on like a one o'clock in the morning Zoom call and just reminiscing, right? Like, if all 3 of us just sat down for an hour, cracked a couple of Buds and just kinda sat down, I'm sure we could come up with, like, 10 collections that RetroKid should be doing next. And I think it's, when we have that list, how do we check ourselves, check and balance of, which of those 3, of those 10 are really going to pop off? But really, you know, it's really our personal memories, right? So, myself and Eric have been super fortunate to have grown up in the ‘80s and the ‘90s, and I will argue, like, those are the best generations, right? Like, the 2000s never had G.I. Joe, they never had Transformers. And I think, you know, that generation is so different than the generation now. You know, whether good or bad, but I think, you know, bringing up some of those memories really, like, kicks people in the ass to be like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are doing, you know, Care Bears now! Oh my God, these guys are doing, like, Inspector Gadget,’ right. So, and a lot of the other competitors or brands that we look up to, they're not even thinking about that stuff, right? And, like, it's so simplistic in my mind where I'm like, ‘How come you’re not doing Care Bears the way that we remember it?’ But what they're doing is, you know, from a business sense, they're just taking what's available. I think our specialty is really going off into right field, right? So, you know, in the licensing game, a lot of brands and, like, we've done it of course, once or twice, you really just take what's given to you and you put it on a t-shirt. The kind of opportunity that we saw was to not do that and, like, redraw and, like, remaster and recreate all these memories that we had of that property that aren't necessarily given to us, but we've got to play the long game, to your point, and recreate those things and then put them on premium apparel, right? So it's a fun process, man, like it's literally just like myself and Eric and, you know, our designer just chopping it up for like an hour or two and just talking about our childhood, right? And it's those moments where like one of us would be like, ‘Dude, I can't wait to do this,’ where we all, kind of, pause and reflect and we're like, ‘Shit, we should probably get on top of that.’

Ray (10:15 - 10:19) - Once you have the designs, how do you validate the designs?

Steve (10:20 - 11:27) - That's a good question. So, recently, we just started tapping more into our email subscribers, right? So, you know, later on this year, we're going to develop, kind of, a VIP program and get some more loyalty going. But we really want to hear from our, you know, Instagram followers and everybody that's following us, you know, some of their memories, right? Because Eric and myself, our memories are great, but, you know, some of our customers have even better memories. So what we're gonna do this year is we're going to use email and Instagram a lot more to, kind of, vet and validate some of our designs that we think are pretty kickass, and just give our customers a chance to provide some feedback and give them a little, like, flavor of what's coming down and just to give them a voice, right? So, you know, Inspector Gadget is launching soon. We just teased that last night and it blew up, which was great. You know, we've got five designs right now. You know, we'll probably only do, you know, for those five designs, but we actually want to get it out there on email for all of our fans to, kind of, give us some feedback, right? So we're going to start to do that this year and, you know, see what happens.

Ray (11:27 - 11:36) - With all the product drops that you've had, you've had a lot of successful ones because I've seen it myself. What are some learnings that you've had from the ones that just, that didn't blow up or didn’t take off?

Steve (11:39 - 13:23) - That's a, that's a pain point for us, right? So, you know, one thing that I've learned in business is never to make emotional decisions, right? And, you know, especially with our business, because we are selling memories, that's super personal, right? It's hyper personal when you're gonna say, ‘Man, I love Inspector Gadget so much that I want this logo here, I want this logo there.’ I think a big learning for us was, we did a collection with MGM, which is BloodSport. I'm not sure if you’ve watched that Ray, but Billy knows what I'm talking about; BloodSport starred Jean Claude Van Damme, back in ‘88, and it was this big, like, action hero, you know, big American blockbuster, you know, coming off Bruce Lee, and, like, Arnold and Stallone, and it was one of those movies that myself and Eric just watched over and over and over again. And it was an emotional response where we're like ‘Man, if we ever have the chance to do BloodSport, we have to do a full collection,’ and we spent months, like, doing custom graphics and this, like, embroider patch, which is gorgeous. But, you know, when the dust settled, it was our worst, it was our worst drop ever, right? So then you take 10 steps back, you know, like, well, what did we do wrong? Well, we didn't do anything wrong. It was just that we weren't listening to our customers, right? And it was a real eye opener for me, from an owner seat of, like, ‘Yeah, it's great you want to do all this stuff, and it really hits your, kind of, childhood, but for the customers that you're serving, it didn't serve them well.’ So, I think going forward now, now we have a criteria of ‘Listen, dude, don't get super emotional about the shit,’ like look at it from, now we have a better understanding as well as to who's buying our stuff. Let's check them first before we check ourselves.’

Ray (13:23 - 13:44) - I love that you have that you have that vulnerability to tell us what didn’t perform well. I think, I see so many current brands, even those we worked with and seen over the years, is they try to tie their emotions to, like, a failure. And sometimes it burns them forever, they can't get over it. But you guys had a lot of successes and a lot of successful drops. What's your favorite drop that you've done to date?

Steve (13:44 - 13:51) - Oh, jeez! From a business perspective or from a, like a, shits-and-giggles, like, this is the best thing ever.

Ray (13:51 - 13:57) - Make that a personal favorite. So it can be both, but what's been your personal favorite drop so far?

Steve (13:58 - 15:32) - So, Sesame Street was, like, the best for me, right. Like I'm a complete Sesame Street kid. I watched it day in, day out, like, back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Back then, there was only one channel, there was no Netflix. So, like, you’re either watching like church, or fishing videos, or you're watching Sesame Street, right? Because there's only, like, a couple of channels. And, like, I grew up on Sesame Street. And when I mean grew up, I mean, like, mom and dad were cooking, I was watching Sesame Street. There was no Super Mario, SNES back then so, like, that's all I had and, you know, Sesame Street was a very big win for us because, you know, that's a big global license, right? But we reached out, I found the right contact, we went hunting, and we got him. I think what's really cool is, you know, our idea for Sesame was to really do some shit that no one's done before, right? So, like, even if I say Sesame Street to you and Billy, it's Big Bird, it's Kermit the Frog, it's Miss Piggy, it's Oscar the Grouch, right? But, like, no one ever, has ever dug deep into their vault to bring back some hidden gems that, if I were to play the audio, you would get an earworm right away, and, like, you would sing it for the whole day. So, you know, that's my favorite property because when we had the pitch call with them, they were like, ‘Oh, here's all of the assets you can use.’ And then, within a second, I was like, ‘We don't want to use any of that stuff’ And then they were like, ‘What?,’ like that's when you get up and close the meeting door, and you're like, ‘Uh, what are you guys…’

Ray (15:31 - 15:33) - Did you guys have Bert & Ernie?

Steven (15:33 - 15:34) - We do! So…

Ray (15:34 - 15:36) - Yeah! I love Bert & Ernie!

Steve (15:36 - 15:41) - I mean, we could do all that stuff, right? But do you remember Bert had, like, a pigeon dance? Do you remember that, Ray?

Ray (15:40 - 15:41) - I do, I do.

Steve (15:42 - 15:47) - Right. So, no one's done the pigeon dance on a hoodie, right? Everybody’s just taken...

Ray (15:47 - 15:48) - Surprising.

Steve (15:49 - 16:57) - You know, what’s been given to them. And when we said, ‘Hey, you know, we love all these assets, but we actually want to do some stuff that you've never done before,’ they were blown away, right? So we did 4 designs for Sesame Street that nobody's ever done before. We, basically, recreated and redrew, by hand, by pixel, every single one of our designs to make sure that when we printed them, you know, they came out exceptional. And to do that, that was a big feat, right? Because, you know, again, we use some crazy shit over here, right? I think that that's part of our success, right? Like, people recognize the fact that we're going, you know, 30 feet deep into this asset vault to figure out what's possible, and we're taking some serious risk of not doing Ernie and Bert or, you know, Big Bird or Grover, right? But that's my favorite question because we, you know, we celebrated all of my own personal memories. It was a huge success, and just the way that we, you know, delivered it out onto social and on to all of our customers, they completely ate it up.

Ray (16:57 - 17:41) - Sesame Street has a personal tie to my family emotionally because, in ‘93, so I was a little kid, and ‘93, my brother, my older brother, when we lived in Vegas, went on Sesame Street, and we have this tape that we pass around the family. He's like ‘Oh my God, it’s first or second grade!’ He was so nervous that, back then, he would chew on his shirt. And so, like, Big Bird came walking over, and I didn’t get what Big Bird says, something like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ And so, like, he was so nervous, he just kept chewing on his shirt, he has, like, saliva on his shirt that Big Bird had to stall, ‘Ah, we have to move on to the next kid!’ It was so funny! To this day, we give our brother so much crap over it. So, Sesame Street, like, not only nostalgia from watching it, but now, for me, just, like, that memory of my brother completely screwing up on Sesame Street.

Steve (17:41 - 18:10) - Yeah. And then I think, for Sesame Street, specifically, right, like, everybody has their own personal stories about Sesame Street is, from a design perspective, how do you take that property but make it mature, right? Because none of us want to walk into the boardroom, wearing a Big Bird shirt, right? But if you can somehow, creatively, figure out how to make that design, you know, look and feel like you should be wearing it in the boardroom, I think that's where we kinda get some of our success as well.

Billy (18:10 - 18:32) - Love it. You've shared a lot of amazing things so far, Steve, and appreciate it, bro. You talked about your why, how you teased product, how you really listen to your customers, your top 100 buyers, you know personally. The only thing I disagree with is Budweiser. I've never seen you drink a Budweiser in my whole life, dude, so I’m gonna have to call you out on that.

Steve (18:32 - 18:38) - Listen, that was just off the top of the dome. Hey, nobody drinks Budweiser anymore.

Billy (18:38 - 18:51) - I got you. Dude, I told you, this will be like an honest, open, candid conversation. So, you know, I’m gonna call you out on that, you don’t drink Budweiser. Anyway, you segwayed perfectly into my next question that I'd love for you to share a little bit more…

Ray (18:51 - 18:55) - Real quick, how long have you 2 known each other? I think that’s important, how long have you 2 known each other?

Billy (18:55 - 18:58) - Since what, 2003?

Steve (18:58 - 19:01) - Since Kobe Bryant was a rookie?

Ray (19:01 - 19:04) - Oh, you had to go there, but wow.

Billy (19:03 - 19:04) - About ‘96.

Steve (19:04 - 19:05) - Long time, man!

Billy (19:06 - 19:26) - ‘95. Yeah, 2003, Steve was, I worked at EB Games, that video game store, and Steve was the Microsoft guy that would come in and put, like, make sure that I'm showing off the Microsoft games and you kinda, like, won me over. And so, I make sure you had a lot of real estate in the store. And then, you know, the rest is history from there.

Steve (19:27 - 19:28) - Best friends!

Billy (19:29 - 19:30) - Best friends.

19:30 - 23:15 - Gauging optimal product quality & right manufacturer fit for RetroKid’s collections
Billy (19:30 - 20:05) - But, Steve, you segwayed into something that I think is really key that I think our listeners are gonna wanna hear about, and it's product quality, right? Because, as much of all the things that you do that validate what is going to sell, at the end of the day, it comes down to like, how does this shirt feel when I put it on? How does it fit? If I'm a woman or kid or man, different builds and whatnot. So, what did you look for in a production partner to make sure that all of the apparel has great fitting, it's quality, it's not gonna fall apart. What advice would you give and what insight can you lend?

Steve (20:05 - 23:15) - Yeah, we've, listen, relationships and partnerships are the backbone of any business, right? If you can't be successful in those two areas by making the right partnerships and connections, you're absolutely going to fail. And, you know, we went through a ton of printers. We validated, we, you know, lost some money, and actually when we started, you know, we did the whole print on demand game, right? And, you know, to be perfectly honest, I didn't know anything about printing a t-shirt, right? But YouTube masterclass will make anybody an expert, right? You spend 60 minutes a day on YouTube or the Internet, you can find the information you need. And, you know, the initial proof of concept for RetroKid was just print on demand. Like the BiWay shirt you're wearing three years ago was a print on demand concept and we sold out and we rebought. The challenge is, you know, product quality and that's big for us, right? So anybody and everybody can walk down the street and, you know, go into a store and get a heat transfer application and print a t-shirt but, you know, it's identifying how we separate ourselves versus those guys, you know, along with the creative licenses, but then also product quality, that's really gonna set us apart, right? Because I think our product quality, like, if you look on Google and just hearing from our customers is being received really well, right? And that's important for me, right? Like, we all have bills to pay. Nobody wants to drop $88 dollars on a hoodie, right? But knowing that you're spending your hard-earned dollars on our product means a lot, and it encourages us to stay persistent with making sure that, you know, our $40 dollar t-shirt is not like the ones you get at the company picnic. It's not going to be the ones that you walk into Walmart and pick up like an AC/DC t-shirt right? And we found, you know, that that quality with a printer locally here in Toronto. So, the good news is, you know, all of our stuff isn't made and finished overseas, right? We knew that, based on my past experience, that would add too much complexity and the lead times were just crazy. And right now, shipping overseas is just a madhouse. So, we've been with our print partner who's literally 25 minutes, you know, west of here. They're called Abbott Apparel, shout out Jesse! They've been great and they've helped us, kind of, elevate our game to make sure that all of our blanks and our garments are imported ethically, one, which is important, right? And then, two, just make sure that all of our products are top-notch quality and, you know, we get that question all the time of, you know, first time buyers of, ‘Why is your shit so expensive?’ But then when you get those customers to buy it, their reviews are always the best because they're like, ‘Oh my God, this is the best way hoodie I’ve ever owned. It's super soft. I always reach for it every Saturday morning,’ and that's rewarding. And I don't know if I want to lose that sense of, you know, profitability in terms of, you know, creating the best product possible, because as I said earlier, we will always put product and people over profitability, and that's what we want to keep it going, right?

23:15 - 31:22 - How RetroKid has built trust & lasting relationships with celebrities, influencers, and a loyal community
Billy (23:15 - 24:15) - I love that. I think a big part of that is trust, right? If you end up selling a product that's not as premium as it should be or as you're selling it, and then once it lands in the lap of the customer, they're just not going to buy from you again. And you lose that trust. And I think, you guys, RetroKid, does a phenomenal job in a number of different areas, building trust, and one of those is getting attention from really influential celebrities and icons and figures in the space. So we're talking if you're in Canada, starting from Skratch, one of the biggest DJs, arguably the biggest DJ in the country, Russell Peters, who’s known internationally. Eric McCormack from the show Will & Grace, all donned your RetroKid clothing. So, what have you done? I'd love to peel back the layers in terms of, how did you get the attention of celebrities? How do you approach building relationships with them and how has it helped RetroKid?

Steve (24:16 - 28:24) - Ah, you know, a lot of that, a lot of that fandom has really been organic, right? You know, Kardinal Offishall, who is, you know, he's not a close friend of ours at all. But, you know, that same BiWay shirt that you’re wearing, ironically, I know I didn't know you're gonna wear that today, but, like, when we dropped that three years ago, literally within three or four weeks, somebody was like, ‘Dude, Kardinal’s wearing your shit,’ and, like, Kardinal, Ray, I'm not sure if, you know, he's a big Canadian rapper that Billy and I grew up with. You know, here in Toronto, he's now gone global. He's doing like Canada's, you know, Got Talent and a whole bunch of other things, like I never would have thought Kardi would be wearing our stuff, right? And that was three years ago when RetroKid was nobody and we're still not there yet, but to have him wear our stuff was huge validation, but that was all organic, right? And I think it goes back to, if you believe, if you believe in your product and your why so much, like, the universe and just the gravitational pull will kind of suck in, you know, people that love what you're doing. And, you know, Russell Peters, shout out Russ, has been a huge fan of ours. I didn't know Russell Peters before RetroKid. Neither did Eric, right? But that same BiWay shirt that Kardinal wore, Russell Peters saw, and he was like, ‘Dude, where did you get that shirt from, right?’ And I think it goes back to, you know, Ray, your question of how do we validate all of these collections, right? But if we're truly selling memories like, that's that unifying connective tissue that, no matter where you are on this influencer or celebrity scale, like there's some common ground, right? But, in terms of, you know, who's like celebrities and influencers, a lot of our stuff is all organic, right? So like Russell Peters, started from scratch, Monique Coleman, who's an actor, Natalie Portman actually has our stuff, but she hasn't worn anything yet. We send some stuff to Shawn Mendes, right? Shawn Mendes, shout out Pickering, what, what! He's received some of our stuff. GSP from MMA has received our BloodSport gear. It's gone to some far off places. And, you know, we also do use an agency, with all transparency, who reached out to us and said, ‘Guys, I love what you're doing. You know, a lot of our network would love to receive some of your stuff,’ but they didn't come to us from a business perspective. They were just like, ‘Man, you guys are crushing it. I never would have thought that you could do a Beetlejuice hoodie,’ but all of that outreach has really been organic, right? And I know you and I had a talk, you know, earlier just about, you know, Eric's celebrity and, kind of, who he is. Honestly, we really haven't even used that, right? Like, I haven't gone to Russell Peters and said, ‘Hey, dude, my home boy is Eric, the voice of Bugs Bunny. Can you where our shit,’ right? And then just a couple months ago, I mean, like I talked to these people over DM and I'm looking at my phone, I'm like, ‘Man, I'm having a conversation with Russell Peters, which is crazy.’ But, like, that ties back to the whole relationship piece where, you know, all of these celebrities and influencers, at the end of the day, they're just like human beings, right? So we treat them like a customer and I actually want to know what's going on with their lives. And it's important for us to kind of keep that connection going because I've also learned you can have a 1,000 influencers of, like, the top 100 celebrities, but if you can't make that connection, with your brand, with those celebrities, they're not going to wear it, they're not gonna talk about it, they're definitely not going to post about it, and you just lost thousands of dollars sending out swag gear to nobody that cares right? So I think a lot of what we're doing is really coming from our product and our focus on people. And that's what, kind of, gets us the love and the validation from some of these big name celebrities.

Billy (28:24 - 28:42) - Yeah, man, like, so much credit goes to you, like you, individually, because there was a time, I remember in the early days, where you were nervous to put yourself out there, right? Like, especially through social content like, ‘Dude, I don’t wanna fucking do these videos, like, oh my God,’ but you eventually overcame that and now, dude, you’re a natural, and…

Steve (28:43 - 28:44) - Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Billy (28:45 - 29:24) - Genuine. Yeah, dude, but I think the key there is that you create a genuine connection just by being yourself and just showing the passion that RetroKid and RetroKid, really, is, like, the conduit of our love for childhood, you know, and how we grew up. And so, through that, you've created, and you said this, like, an organic community that has resulted in so many really fruitful partnerships and attention from influential figures. But for brands that have a good size following, but not so much that community feel yet, what advice would you give them to start building stronger relationships with their audience?

Steve (29:24 - 31:22) - Yeah, that's a good question, and I’ve always wanted to articulate this. You know, I always said, like, if Gary V ever got me in front of a panel, and like a one on one question, this is the question that I always love to share with people is, you know, we never wanna lose our small business mindsets, right? So, you have to imagine that we're running this small, like, rickety, broken down, wooden cart on, like, a highway of other carts, right? What's the one thing you can control that will make your customers love what you're doing, they'll come back and buy some more shit, and they'll fall in love with, not just your brand, but also the ownership, right, which is really the why? And I think the big thing that we've tried to do really well is make a genuine connection with everybody that steps through our door, right? And I completely understand how difficult that is once you start reaching 5 million, 10 million, 20 million dollars because the scale just gets massive. But I think if you can keep that on your tombstone and die by that, right, and really truly connect with the people that walk into your store at any level - email, social, whatever platform you want to use - but just make sure they're heard, then you're developing, like, thiis, ravenous, rabid group of fans that love what you're doing. And I think that’s the one piece that I'd love to send the elevator back down to some other brands or even just laterally, just lateral the football like, ‘Hey guys, like, really care for your customers, right? Because I think if you can do that, then all your metrics afterwards, will obviously amplify.’ And, listen, like, that's tough, right? And, I think, to your point, you know, thanks for giving me kudos but that comes from the heart, right? Like if you're not that type of an owner and you just wanna see what your profitability is at the end of the month or the quarter, that's fine. But you also have to care a lot about who's buying your stuff, right? And I think that that's the field, that's the court that we want to continue playing on.

31:22 - 35:18 - What are some of RetroKid’s biggest learnings and debunked myths since its inception?
Ray (31:22 - 31:48) - Steve, you, kind of, struck a chord with me just now about how much you care for your customers. When you were starting RetroKid, what was, like, a big myth you had before about how you could get your customers to care about your product and what you do, or really just care about the mission that you're on the big why. Like, what was the myth you had? And then now that you've actually gone through it and you're living it and you're accomplishing it, what would you say is like the biggest revelation that you've had since then?

Steve (31:49 - 32:04) - Jeez, that's a big question, Ray. You know, Billy can validate this. You know, I had zero confidence in social media marketing. Great. This is attacking you guys right now, right? This is your business.

Billy (32:04 - 32:14) - ‘Dude, what?! I have to spend $50?! Dude, you’re gonna make me go broke! What?’ Relax, Steve, it’s gonna be fine. This is how it works. Anyway.

Steve (32:14 - 34:00) - Easy, easy, Dr. Phil, right? But, like, it's, you know, when you strip out all of my layers, like I'm a sales guy, I'm an owner, I'm a marketer. And anytime, you know, somebody can be okay with those labels, you think you can do it all. So, you know, there's the cliché of, you know, it takes a village. Obviously, it takes a village, but I didn't know and this is good. I didn't know the power of, you know, ad spend and ROAS, and, you know, making really good, you know, ads and strategically launching those and getting them to the right funnels to the right audiences, like I knew nothing about that shit and, you know, coming into that game, you know, brand new, naive, and just really reluctant to drop hundreds of dollars a day, right, on this business that's really just selling t-shirts, was a huge risk, right? Complete risk, right? Because, you know, any good ad agency will say, ‘Well, listen, sorry if you spend thousands of dollars a day, you'll scale up and you'll get, you know, 10,000 in revenue and, you know, being okay with that took a lot of labor and a lot of, you know, psychology sessions from Billy to convince me that, you know, that business works, and I think you guys have done such an exceptional job at, one, proving me wrong, number one. But then, two, significantly scaling up, you know, our business, you know, from $300K to just over a $1 million last year, right? And a lot of that was because of your team and just what you've done to amplify on the social side. But that was a big myth that I had, Ray, right?

Ray (34:00 - 34:09) - What was your ‘a-ha!’ moment, Steve? Like, was there something specific that Billy said, or was there, like, a moment in time that you can, like, go back, like, this was the moment that really changed my opinion.

Billy (34:09 - 34:13) - I think it's when Shopify deposited the money into his bank account.

Steve (34:17 - 35:18) - I think it's just looking at the numbers, month over month, right? And I'm not a big finance guy, like I'm more on the sales and marketing side, but it obviously hits the bottom line. I can't pinpoint one exact moment, but I do know that halfway through, kind of, our, you know, short-term journey now with you guys, there was this, there as the big ‘a-ha!’ moment of ‘Shit, this is actually working, right?’ Like the hundreds and thousands of dollars we spent for Q4 calendar last year was crazy, like just working with Salima, she basically, you know, took our account from, I think we're at, like, 500K and vaulted us to, like, $1.2 million in a matter of months, right? And we wouldn't have been able to hit that benchmark, one, without Salima, two, without you guys, and three, Billy, to your point, about trusting you guys to run that business for us, right? And I think that was the ‘A-ha!’ moment of, kind of, everything that's made us okay with allowing you guys to run our business for us.

35:19 - 41:58 - What’s next for RetroKid in 2022 and beyond?
Ray (35:19 - 35:43) - I really appreciate that, Steven. As a person who, I think, the best era of mankind is the ‘80s and the ‘90s, I love what you guys do. Like, I was telling, before the podcast, me and Billy we're talking, I was like, ‘Man, I just want to rewear all the ‘80s clothing,’ like that's the music I listen to, it's really funny. But I want to ask you is, if you can, if you’re allowed to tell me, what is a partnership that's going to be coming up that you're most excited about?

Steve (35:43 - 36:07) - Oh, dude! So, we just teased Inspector Gadget last night, you know, this is a Dr. Claw hoodie, this is coming back. That’s all fine and dandy, I can't believe I just said dandy. But there is a, so Ray, you're not gonna know this, but for any Canadians watching Shadow Canada, you know, we just signed the agreement for Degrassi Junior High. And…

Ray (36:07 - 36:09) - I know what that is, I watch that!

Steve (36:08 - 36:09) - You do?!

Ray (36:09 - 36:10) - Oh, yeah!

Steve (36:10 - 36:19) - Okay, shit, alright. Degrassi is, like, if you’re Canadian, you’ll know Degrassi. That was our Saved By The Bell, right?

Billy (36:19 - 36:20) - Or if you’re a Drake fan.

Steve (36:21 - 37:10) - Or if you’re a Drizzy fan, right? Because yeah, Drizzy was Jimmy in a wheelchair, everybody gets that. And we were just iterating on some, like, these crazy ideas for Degrassi. And we came up with this insane idea of, ‘What if we did a full collection on, like, all of us went to Degrassi, and these are the gym clothes, or, like, the uniforms that we wore because we all went to Degrassi? And it was just like,’ ‘Ka-pow!’ because then it started rolling into like, ‘Dude, what if we did like a sick leather varsity jacket that said Degrassi here, on the sleeve, and on the back, and that would be limited edition. And then, what if we did like a denim jacket that had, like, Degrassi patches and all that stuff. But like…

Ray (37:10 - 37:15) - I was literally telling Billy I want denim jackets back so whenever that drops, first customer.

Steven (37:14 - 39:08) - It’s coming! It's coming, man! But, like, that's the fun part about our business, right? Where we're just thinking about, so I think, first and foremost, we are, we are absolute complete fans of every single property we do. And I think that changes the game when you're starting to build product like we do. If you're a fan building for other fans, your product is gonna be exceptional versus everybody else. But, especially for this Degrassi series, I mean, I think there's three different generations of Degrassi. There's the old school people who are, like, Snake, Caitlin, Wheels. And then, there's, like, the new school peeps who are like Jimmy, Aubrey, Drake, and some of those younger kids, right? So, we have to service both of those generations. But I think, you know, with the idea of, you know, if we create those gym clothes like Degrassi Panthers or, like, all of these crazy limited edition pieces for Degrassi fans, and not just simply putting, you know, Drake on a t-shirt, right? We're not gonna do that, but I think if we can, if we can deliver that emotion, dude, like, I just got concepts this morning, like, at 5AM, and I was like, ‘Goddamn, these are so sick!’ So, like, that's the next big collection that I'm looking forward to because it's gonna be something we've never really done before, right? Like we've always taken Care Bear photos, and redrawn them, and put them on a t-shirt, but we've never taken it like to the next step of saying, ‘Well, what if, like, we attended Degrassi as kids, and we had these old, like, Degrassi gym shorts, or like, a Degrassi Panthers basketball jersey, right?’ Like, that's where it's gonna be like. These guys did it, these guys did, like, a $800, 100% leather Degrassi letterman jacket.

Ray (39:08 - 39:31) - I love that so much because now, not only are you just like having memorabilia, but now you feel like you're stepping into your memory and I love that so much. I wanna ask you a question - if you could wave a magic wand, and there's any partnership you could do, and it was a free for all, what's, like, your dream partnership or design that you can make, any brand, any TV show. What would it be?

Steve (39:31 - 40:53) - Oh my God! So we just went through this exercise so it's not gonna take me an hour to answer you. So there's two responses, one is My Pet Monster. If you guys remember My Pet Monster, that was a big cartoon back in the day, My Pet Monster, there's that one, right? So we're working with Nickelodeon to try and figure out how that's gonna work because they own the license and all that stuff, that's number one. But number two is a Canadian classic called The Friendly Giant and The Friendly Giant, where you probably don't know because it was kind of ‘70s, ‘80s, but it was in the mix of, like, Mr. Dressup, who's our Mr. Rogers and, kind of, that, you know, Saturday morning cartoons you always watched, Friendly Giant. Unfortunately, the giant has passed on and, you know, his estate owns, kind of, the properties, but those two, The Friendly Giant and My Pet Monster, dude, if we could do those, and do it right, like, for this Christmas, one, it would satisfy every fiber of me as a kid and as a Canadian, but I know all of our customers will love it because they told us, they tell us all the time, they're like, ‘Dude, when are you gonna Friendly Giant? When are you gonna have My Pet Monster, right?’ So like those two alone, once, I'm not even gonna say if, I'm throwing it out there, I'm claiming it! We're doing that, this year, at some point in time. But those two are my personal favorites to look forward to.

Ray (40:54 - 41:21) - Steve, I've been learning so much from you, and I think there's a lot of takeaways that our brands that listen to this podcast can take away, just how you do business and how your principle first-driven and not just money-driven first. I think, if a lot of brands took your advice, they build deeper connections, better user experiences, and I think they have a longer sustainable brand for the long-term. Steve, this has been a pleasure talking to you. How can people learn more about you and RetroKid, where can they turn to?

Steven (41:21 - 41:50) - Hit us up on social - @retrokid_to is our handle on social. Instagram is our main platform. We're also on Facebook. Just started TikTok, so if you want to see me dance eventually on TikTok, we’re also on TikTok, @retrokid_to. Hit up the store, retrokid(dot)ca. Listen, if you wanna chat, call Billy. Billy will connect you to me.

Billy (41:51 - 41:53) - Love it.

Ray (41:53 - 41:56) - Billy, Steve, it was a pleasure. Thanks again for the podcast episode.

Steve (41:56 - 41:57) - Thanks, man!

Billy (41:56 - 41:58) - It was a pleasure, Steve. Appreciate you, man!

41:59 - 42:54 - Episode Outro
Scott (41:59 - 42:54) - Thanks again for tuning to this episode of the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast. I hope you got a ton of value out of this episode and if you did, we’d love for you to leave us a review on your platform of choice and help us reach as many people as we can. Now, if you’re a brand founder, an eCommerce entrepreneur, or an in-house marketing manager looking to accelerate your growth this year, reach out to us at Right Hook Digital. We’re a performance branding agency and we specialize in partnering with eCommerce brands to help them hit their growth goals with maximum ROI. Now, if this sounds like a solution that you need, then check us out at righthookdigital.com and schedule a call with our client partnerships team. They’d love to have a chat with you and see how we can help you grow.

People on this episode

Ray Johnston

Host

Scott Seward

Host