Eastbay was Legendary — and so was my Time There.
My first day working at Eastbay was 15 years ago today — March 24, 2008.
But let’s go back…
I, like most 90s kids who loved sports worshipped the Eastbay catalog. When it came to sports gear — Eastbay was THE BIBLE.
You name it. Eastbay had it. Every brand. Every color. Every size. Every. Damn. Thing.
Growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin — just 90 miles from the Wausau, Eastbay Headquarters, the catalog was LEGENDARY.
I still remember the first time I saw Eastbay Catalog — it was 1995 — the Reebok Shawn Kemp shoes and Air Jordans graced the cover. My memory of that issue is vivid.
I became obsessed with those sneakers and the idea of getting gear for Christmas every year.
In 1995 I got a pair of the Reebok Kamikaze 2, but it wasn’t from Eastbay. They were from Kohl’s — on sale for 60 bucks — but I’d found out about them via Eastbay.
It seemed to be a trend — circle every single sweet thing I saw in the catalog and never get it cuz we didn’t have money like that. Items from Eastbay were aspiration. A dream. Something to fantasize about and maybe get one of every 20 items you lusted over. If you played sports and were an obsessive fan then you know what I’m talking about.
MJ, Scottie, Griffey, Barry Sanders, Penny, Shaq, Bo, Deion, Iverson, Barkley, Rodman, JKidd, Grant Hill, and Kobe. You name a superstar athlete — they had shoes available at Eastbay.
As a 12-year old kid my weekends consisted of eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and Doritos, drinking Surge pop, playing video games (mostly NBA JAM and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball), watching wrestling, going to sports card shops, and playing with the neighbors. I was so locked into sports and Eastbay catalog fed that obsession.
Originally founded in 1980 by high school track coaches Rick Gering and Art Juedes — Eastbay was built the typical grass roots way. They sold shoes out of the back of their cars at high school track meets. I met the founders at a company party one time and they talked about how they started with a 1-page black and white flyer — then 2-page, then 4-page, then 8-page full color and eventually it became over 100 pages of the most eye-catching gear on the planet with pro athletes leading the way.
As a sophomore in high school in 2001 this new website called ebay had emerged. I remembered back to watching MJ play on Saturday mornings wearing the white and red Air Jordan XII in 1996. So, I bought a used pair of size 12s of that shoe for $40 on ebay even though I wore a size 13. I tried to rock them with no laces. It didn’t work. They were too tight. Mission failed. So, I cleaned them up, put some shoe polish on em’ and sold them on ebay for $120. Another obsession was born.
I started buying and selling vintage Air Jordan and Nike sneakers like crazy. I’d buy them on ebay, find pairs at thrift stores, or even ask friends for their beat up pairs. I’d clean them, fix them up, and relist them on ebay — making hundreds, ensuring that I’d never need a “real job” in high school.
When I was a 17-year old senior in high school the Air Jordan III White/Cement released at Eastbay. With the co-sign of a credit card that my grandpa got me I bought 3 pairs. I sold two for double and the profit paid for the 3rd pair. So I could have the coolest shoes for FREE!
I eventually ended up going to college for graphic design and in 2005 in my second year at the local university my small little shoe business was featured in the St. Paul Pioneer Press with the title “Restoring prized sneakers makes him an entrepreneurial shoe-in.” Shoutout to Allison Kaplan.
Shortly after that I dropped out of college to pursue other endeavors — particularly something sports related.
I kept buying and selling shoes, traveled around the country to visit friends, and in 2007 got in touch with a man named Dave who worked at Eastbay.
Dave and I exchanged emails for months and after feeling my passion for the sneaker industry and constantly fielding my endless crazy ideas — he decided to connect me with his Brand Director Sean. After meeting with Sean I was excited of the prospect of working at Eastbay. Nothing came of it as I called Sean to follow up about next steps and he replied on the phone, “Who is this?” I was crushed. I thought I was a “shoe-in” to work at Eastbay.
Fast forward 6 months and Dave replied to another one of my crazy emails with his HR team cc’d saying, “Let’s bring Jordan in for a series of interviews with the Foot Locker team.”
Shortly after that I met with a woman named Alissa and a gentleman named Bob. We had a great connection in the interviews and they decided to bring me on board. In March of 2008 (just over 15 years ago) I got a call from HR that I was being sent an offer to join the Foot Locker / Eastbay team. BANG! I did it. I was gonna work in the Eastbay offices! Wow. What a moment. I couldn’t wait to get in there, learn, grow, and find a way to contribute to the iconic sports catalog that I grew up with. It was surreal.
On March 24, 2008 — exactly 15 years ago today — I started my career — at Eastbay of all places. The man Dave who essentially hired me said, “You’ll probably be here a year or so and then be onto something bigger.”
On my second day on the job I reconnected with an old friend named Steve. Steve owned a sneaker magazine called “Sole Collector” at the time. We forged a fast relationship and in a short time Sole Collector helped start the Eastbay Blog and several content series that drove significant traffic to the website. It was a pleasure to manage that partnership for 4 years.
I took on the job of tracking down and interviewing 25 pro athletes for Eastbay’s 25th Anniversary issue and we were off to the races.
Over my four years there I helped kickstart a ton of fun projects and eventually my job was to secure the athlete photoshoots for the cover of Eastbay. What a gig.
Dave entrusted me to track down the best candidates to grace the cover of the most iconic sports catalog of all-time. It came with some pressure — but what a privilege!
In 2010 the Eastbay team was at the NFL Combine and they ran into the agent for the 2009 NFL Rookie of the Year Percy Harvin. After the team secured Percy for the cover I had suggested we keep going.
I think leadership thought it was a fluke, but I felt we could use that photoshoot as a spring board to creating more original and better content.
Previously Eastbay had used Getty Images or imagery provided by brands for the covers.
I remember talking to Dave one night after-hours — trying to convince him to let me run with the responsibility of getting more photoshoots like the one the team had secured with Percy. In classic Dave fashion I remember him saying something to the effect of “You can try it. If it works, great. If not, you may not have a job.”
I wasn’t afraid. Ever since I was a little kid I had always bet on myself. Eastbay had a great photo team and I knew if we got access to the athletes that we could deliver some really awesome covers.
So I started to dig for contacts. Agents, reps, handlers, managers, cousins, you name it, I’d find em.
Being in Wisconsin I wanted a Packer. Greg Jennings was a Packer wide receiver who just had over 1,000 yards and he had a good look — one I thought worthy of the Eastbay cover. After talking to his marketing rep at the time we got it together and agreed to get an hour of his time for $1,000 in Eastbay gift cards. Score! We all drove to Greg’s hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan in July of 2010 and were set to shoot. The morning of the shoot I received a call that Greg’s grandpa had passed away and that he wasn’t going to be able to do the shoot. About 30 minutes later I got another call saying Greg wanted to follow through with the shoot.
Greg Jennings ended up sticking around for three and a half hours, helped carry around the lights and was one of the coolest, kindest pro athletes I had ever been around.
That year he went on to have a Pro Bowl season with over 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns along with 2 more scores in a Super Bowl victory. Seeing that unfold was a huge accomplishment for Eastbay. After that shoot I helped set up a custom portal for the athletes we worked with. It allowed us to tell their story, show the cover they were on, and feature the products at Eastbay.
The second shoot I helped secure was with Andre Iguodala — the best player for the 76ers at time. We did a photoshoot in Bellwood, Illinois at a random gym where he worked out. We had 45 minutes to knock it out and it was a banger. Dre (not Iggy — just ask him) is now a 4x NBA Champion and was the 2015 NBA Finals MVP.
That Iguodala photoshoot opened the flood gates. Under Armour offered up time with eventual MLB Rookie of the Year and World Series Champion Buster Posey and then I went on to set up opportunities for exclusive content with the likes of Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Dywane Wade, Bryce Harper, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Calvin Johnson, and JJ Watt among others.
The last photoshoot I helped coordinate in my time at Eastbay was in Las Vegas with Kobe, LeBron, KD, Chris Paul, and Anthony Davis — exclusively for a series of 5 Eastbay covers in collaboration with Nike. To this day it stands as the greatest photoshoot ever done for Eastbay.
My career at Eastbay started out of my love of sneakers. One of the most fun things about Eastbay was buying shoes. Working at Eastbay fed my sneaker obsession to a wild level. At one point thanks to Eastbay I owned over 650 pairs of shoes.
I created so many fond memories during my time at Eastbay. The countless projects, challenges, and experiences are priceless.
The greatest thing about my time at Eastbay is undoubtedly the friendships. I met so many beautiful people who believed in me, showed me love, and some have stayed connected over 15 years later.
I ended up working at Eastbay for just over 4 years. It was most significant and impactful time of my professional career by far. I learned so much about the corporate world, made some mistakes, and learned a lot about myself, my capabilities and how to navigate (and how NOT to navigate). It shaped my mindset and prepared me for what was to come.
After a bittersweet ending of my time as a corporate employee of Foot Locker Inc, I’ve gone on to become an NFL Agent, head up partnerships for the worlds biggest sneaker blog Sneaker News — collaborating with some great businessmen that I met while working at Eastbay. I’ve also started my own sports card shop in my hometown — using some of my Eastbay learnings along the way.
The lessons from working at Eastbay were endless. I’m so grateful for my time there and the impact I had on the iconic catalog that I worshiped as a kid. When I recently saw Eastbay was going out of business I was bummed — but as in life all things must come to an end.
So, as we say good bye I want to thank Eastbay for the inspiration, the experiences, and the friendships.
Shoutout to the people — Art & Rick — the founders of Eastbay. Thanks for everything. Dave — you believed in me before anyone else in my career. For that I’ll be forever grateful! The great friends I made during my time at Eastbay — Milker, Mullholand, Bob, Alissa, Carlson, BV, Krambs, Karl, Beauchamp, Jess, Becks, DuPree, Nuthals, Hocker, Smog, Ken, Darbyshire, Wes, SJ, Doull, Nicky, Sean, Jed, Boneman, LK, Simo, Haacker, D’Wayne, and Diehl among many others! So many great connections and moments spent in the trenches together.
What a ride. What a company. It impacted so many lives — gave people opportunities to shine and created an undeniable legacy in the hearts and souls of so many athletes and families. Eastbay was legendary and so was my time there.
As Eastbay recently went out of business there were so many articles sharing stories from the time it existed. ESPN, LA Times, Sports Illustrated, CBS, Yahoo. Most major sports outlets covered the news and had incredible stories from back in the day.
In my time at Eastbay I worked with all of the major footwear brands, over 160 pro athletes, traveled to 32 states, and met so many people I never would have met otherwise (including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant).
My time at Eastbay gave me courage and confidence to think bigger and to believe that anything is possible with some hard work and the right team.
So, Good Bye Eastbay.
Much Love,
Jordan
— -
