018. - Brendon Babenzien

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week. Jason, does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. Want to make a podcast? Spotify's got a platform that lets you make one super easily, then distribute it everywhere, and even earn money. We like that. All in one place for totally free. It's called Spotify for Podcasters. And here's how it works. Spotify for podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts right from your cellular telephone or your computer. So no matter what your setup is like, you can start creating today. Then you can distribute your podcast to Spotify and everywhere else, those other places that podcasts are heard. Video podcasts are also available on Spotify. And when you want to take conversations with your fans to the next level, Q&As and polls are the best way to get them talking. With Spotify for podcasters, you can earn money in a variety of ways, including ads and... and podcast subscriptions. And best of all, it's totally free. Zero catch. We've been using it ever since we started How Long Gone. And ever since I discovered Spotify for Podcasters, I feel like having the option of turning off the Q&As and the polls on the user dashboard has really helped boost my creativity and take it to another level. I highly recommend giving it a try. Download the Spotify for Podcasters app or go to www.spotify.com slash podcasters to get started.

Check, check, hello. Check, check, check, one, two, one, two, check. You're coming in pretty nicely. You're listening to the Joe Budden podcast. I'm your host, Joe Budden. Do you still listen to Joe Budden's podcast, Chris? I try to. It's actually a Spotify exclusive. So the two biggest podcasters in the world are both named Joe. Rogan and Budden. Wow, wow, wow. My head is exploding right now. Speaking of, I'm about to do a CBD tincture under the tongue. Hold, please. Bro, don't do drugs on this podcast. This is not that kind of show, bro. This is a family show. This ain't drugs, bro. I just want to give a shout-out to my dog, my weed sport. Yeah, actually, shout-out to my dog. He's my dog first, even though I don't use CBD, but that's my man. Dave, thank you. Yeah, Weed Sport is a product that I use all the time. They are nice enough to send me shit, but they just made a CBD for daytime and for nighttime. Have you ever tried the one that you rub on your body, on your little sports injuries? First of all, any sports injury I have is going to be big. And second of all, no, I don't use CBD products. So in your sobriety journey, you wouldn't even use a topical? I don't really know what the official ruling is, but I just don't. Yeah, I mean, you know, probably a smart bet because you really never do know and it's not worth it to find out. yeah i mean i'm not i understand obviously as a former um drug user i understand cbd is not psychoactive but for some reason i also you know like right now in quarantine i found this i told you about those uh those uh manuka honey cough drops with with ginger i found right i've been eating eight i can't stop like i'm just like an addict bro i cannot that's your that's your nicotine gum at this point

Exactly, yeah. I have eight a day. It's crazy. So these are little ginger chew type thingies. They're not chewy, but yeah, they are. They're fucking $10 a bag. Well, it wouldn't be a Chris Black snack if it wasn't severely overpriced. That's true. Dude, you are right. I love paying too much. Once you get into the world of designer honeys, The price tag gets fucking brazy real fast, man. I know, but I don't use honey in anything else. I don't really care about honey. I don't drink tea. I wouldn't put honey on toast or anything. I don't care about honey, dog. I don't care about honey. Honey ain't my thing, bro. But, man, I've had a big day, bro. I went and got a coffee from a store. Oh, my God. It felt good. Wow. Okay. Walk me through everything. I saw on your Instagram story that you were hanging out with a guy wearing a coat, some type of winter coat. Well, I went to meet my friend, Montreal legend Paul Labonte at another Montreal legend Cafe Olympico. Wow, that's the most French Canadian name I've ever heard in my life. I know. And you could just walk up to the window at a safe social distance and get a fucking flaming cup of Joe. Bro, it hits so much harder. It's crazy. Damn. Imagine if you smoked cigs. Well, I might have a cheeky cig in there. That's right. That's my favorite thing about 2020 Chris Black is every now and again pop in for a cheeky cig. I mean, dude, I just am like, what else? I can't. I need something. No, it's cool. Ever since I've known you, you were never a smoker, but you've always recognized that. smoking will always be cool no matter what it's true it's true smoking that you practice what you preach smoking and cocaine are two things that are eternally cool and i can only have one of them so you gotta you gotta pick you know what i mean i agree it doesn't matter what happens in the world those things are always going to be cool always cool but it was really nice to like have a i don't know it was crazy the americano hit very different it was odd to walk up to a person and give them

tell them with your mouth any coffee drink in the world that you could ever think of, this person will make it for you. And then they make it for you and you give them money and you drink it. We really took that for granted, didn't we? I had two Americanos. And guess what? I rode the Montreal version of City Bike there. What's it called? Does it have a funny name? Bixie. Bixie? B-I-X-I. I'm out. I'm out too, but... Honestly, when there's no traffic on the roads, it's pretty nice. I feel like riding a bike, not for exercise, but for just transportation, it makes me feel like John F. Kennedy Jr. in his Carolyn Bessette days when you always see him going to and from work with a bike. It's pretty interesting how you ship these narratives to be convenient for yourself. I definitely recall you talking shit on me riding my bike multiple times. And now when you are using it as a commuting device, suddenly it evokes times of John F. Kennedy Jr. Well, look, I don't have the looks. I don't have the money. I don't have the last name. I don't have the legacy. Let me have the bike. And yes, if you know me, TJ, and you do, I obviously shift the narrative to fit whatever I'm looking to do. That's part of being me. Like the gears of a Shimano derailleur. That's a bicycle joke for my heads. You do shift close gears in your direction. I will make fun of you for anything that you do. It doesn't matter if I agree with it or not. And that's good. That keeps me sharp. Exactly. It doesn't mean I was disagreeing with you. I stand with TJ. I think there are a lot of people that have a negative association with people. You need to take a minute there? No, I just had a little cough. You got a little ginger chew down the wrong pipes for it? It's just the corona flaring up. Thank God this is a remote show. I think there are a lot of people that give cycling as a means of transportation a negative connotation.

I would say most, to be honest with you. It's such a weird thing where it's the same thing, the same bike, but if you're wearing spandex and a helmet, then everyone's like, oh, hot, rich guy who takes care of his body. If you're just wearing a t-shirt, then it's like, oh, this poor, poor person is living a pathetic life. They may or may not be homeless. This sounds like you're projecting a little bit. I am. But I think that – I don't know. I mean, this quarantine has got me just – exercise is all I have. So, I mean, why not buy – like I said on Twitter, why not buy a bike and start riding 100 miles like a fat dentist? Fat dentist. You know what I mean? Like, fuck it, dude. I know exactly what you mean. It's a good activity. I just saw – Or boy Fi. It's your boy Fi. My boy Fi. What's Gucci Big Fi? He's a cycle hottie. He's putting up miles on the Strava. He's a literally anything hottie. I saw that on the gram and I was like, of course this fucking hot piece of shit also cycles shirtless through Mulholland. Yeah, it's so cool. To take pictures of him smelling a rose or something. But I do think that... I do think that I've been told by all my runner heads I have to use Strava, but I think it's whack. But apparently it's the best tracking. Yeah, yeah. It's by far the best. Like everyone uses it. It's just industry standard. It's like Uniqlo of shit. You just got to do it. I know. Oh, you know, actually that brings us to our guest. Uniqlo CEO. No, just never mind. Yeah, no. Today on the show, we're having Brendan Babinzine, the founder of NOAA, a brand that all the listeners are probably familiar with because I ride pretty hard for it. And then former creative director of the clothing company Supreme for many a year, right? It was a long time. Many years. Yeah, many years. Basically ran Supreme for a long-ass time. Made it cool, at least. Creatively.

Yes, but Brendan is a known athlete, a serious runner. One of the first people I met who would run to work and shit back in the day. We can ask him about his preference for tracking because I like to hear everybody's opinion. I think it's important to poll my friends and colleagues. I agree. Twitter elite and streetwear elite. You're not my friend or colleague, so I don't know why I'm asking you. Me no no. Me no no? Well, you use an Apple Watch, which is a whole other issue, but I'll roast you for that later. Let me call Brendan now. Wonderful. All right. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, so do our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world, writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly. A website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative, but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools. So those future graduates can find me and, you know, I'm able to accept quote unquote donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. Show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early. And we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional as your competition, if not more. So head to squarespace.com slash howlong for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code howlong to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone.

It was brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking something put together? A cabinet? Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf? TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. How it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs. handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive. And that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app using promo code How long taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book trusted home help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code howlong with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter. more breathable, and they're just easy but still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons, well-made basics but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated.

but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe, go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada. That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. Hello, hello. What up, bro? Hello, hello. What's going on? Nothing, man. How are you living? Just, uh, I'm all right, you know? Yes. Yeah, sure. I do know, actually. I think we all know. Anything going on? Anything new? Anything interesting going on? Oh, my God. I cannot believe. Like, dude, I'm just every day completely baffled by, you know, I went into this thing already kind of like spending an unhealthy amount of time. evaluating our government and our leadership. Now I'm just off the charts, disturbed. I think maybe our king needs to step away from the fucking internet. You know what I mean? Dude, it's... Are you looking on the internet? Are you watching the news? Are you doing all? That's the problem. I'm a news junkie anyway. Like I, yeah, I'm all day, every day, like news, like on my phone. And then at night I'm like watching news shows and like, and I just, to be honest, I've been doing it a lot, but I've, I've actually stopped watching as much news because come like eight o'clock at night, I'm exhausted from information overload. Yeah. So I just, I just can't hear about it. And they're pretty much saying the same stuff I've already read throughout the day. So.

I just, I kind of check out. Well, I think the problem is there's so much going on that it does feel like a constant ticker. You know what I mean? If you start it, if you look in the morning by the afternoon, there's plenty more where that came from. Yeah. And it's all going to be there in the morning when I get up. So I have reduced the visual TV watching component of news, but I read way too much. Well, are you able to, I mean, you're also though, homeschooling a child and running a business, so I would like to understand how you have time to do all of it. If you could just break down what that looks like for us regular guys out here who spend our time running and tweeting, because we got nothing to do except dick around, so it's nice to talk to somebody with responsibilities. Well, what's crazy is some of my best friends, so there's three or four guys right now that I grew up with that somehow, and look, two of them have three kids each. One of them, I think has two, like the other one has two and like somehow they're on like this crazy Facebook page from like where we're from. And they spend half the day just texting each other about it. And they're checking out the long Island locals, Facebook page. Yeah. No, they're like, they're, they're on it and they're like killing it. Like they're just bringing up all kinds of like old memories, but like, I'm not sure how they're doing it because. I don't have the time for it. And these are busy guys. These are not like, you know, they have jobs too. You know what I mean? But somehow they're finding the time and I'm baffled because I am not performing well. Like the homeschooling component, thankfully, one, Sarah was only five. So like, it's not that serious yet. She's not like, she doesn't have like assignments or anything like that to finish. She doesn't have to keep up. It's pre-K. So it's like, whatever. And on top of that, Estelle's here and she's much better at it than I am. So she's, you know, it's not that I haven't done anything, but she's definitely done a better job than I'll ever do. So I'm thankful for that. But dude, it's super hard because with a five-year-old, it's like, you can't just like drop a five-year-old in front of the TV. That would be like melt their brain. Right. So, you know, you've got to find time.

It's hard. It's really, really harder than I could have imagined to be home all day trying to work and take care of a kid. It's kind of crazy. We've only talked to one other parent, I think, on this podcast, but in my life I've talked to a few and they're like, oh, it's just absolutely insane. The schools being closed is the worst thing that could happen. That's what people are saying to me. That's the hardest part. Yeah, when they announced that it was a wrap for the whole school year, People were kind of like, wait, that's half the year. People are like, what? Hold up. That's half the year, right? I don't want to see my badass little kid that much. Yeah, like I didn't sign up for this. It's next level because it'll be by the time they're done, it's like six months. It's like half the year by the time they go back in the fall. It'll be six months. That's if we're lucky. Right. If they go back in like some normal way or whatever. Think about that. Half the year. I mean, it's, it's kind of bonkers. Like, and, and most parents that we know, and we're lucky, we're the lucky ones, right? Like we live a lifestyle that affords us the ability to kind of like, you know, we had, we had a babysitter that we shared with our friends and like they, the babysitter watched both kids. We split it. That was every afternoon. Our daughter had a whole social life. She had a whole other world. I follow your wife on Instagram. I'm familiar. She's killing it. She had a great life. Then come summer, there's summer camps and all kinds of stuff to keep the kids occupied. All that's gone now and it's just on us. Even when you got the bag, it's tough. I think it's difficult no matter what. Obviously, it's less difficult for some than others, but it's still difficult just across the board. I don't know. I'm glad I have no responsibilities because what I'm worried about is getting my mile time down and recording this podcast. Those are my two main goals every day. And making sure his delta status has not been altered in this time. Exactly. Making sure these important things stay. My tent poles.

Um, but are you finding the, the, cause you know, I, Jason and I both, you know, for, for all intents and purposes work for ourselves. So I think that like going into an office is not part of my life really. Uh, but I know, you know, that's a big part of your life. Like you go into the office every day, you have a lot of employees, you have a warehouse, you have all the, you have a store. Um, so I imagine working remotely has been a true adjustment for you. Yeah, it's been crazy. I was terrified. I was like, oh, that's it for us. We're done. If I don't meet with my team every day in person, I don't know how we do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what we've discovered, and it's something I've had suspicions about for a long time, and I've actually talked about, but I didn't know if I truly believed it or not, is that you don't have to be the business model that you're told you like this country, everyone goes to work, they go to an office, they see each other and like bosses expect to see your face and all that kind of stuff. Like it's not really necessary. We've been pretty productive, man. Like we, we, we're getting through this. And we found a way to work pretty efficiently. In some cases, I'd argue in certain scenarios, even more efficiently, which. What kind of scenarios are working more efficiently for you? I mean, we've had, you know, like, we've had less discussion about things, right? So, like, when you're in the office in an open floor plan where everybody can hear you and everybody can see you and everybody can chime in, a simple conversation can be tripled time-wise, you know what I mean? And when you say, okay, you remove... six personalities from the conversation just because they can't physically be there or like they're not on the call you can kind of get to decisions easier yeah for sure and you know one of my i think it's both a strength and a weakness is like i i want to hear from people and i want other opinions and i don't want to i don't want to live in like an echo chamber where like i'm just kind of like deciding what happens on my own without asking questions

I think that's a very positive thing. But if not managed properly, it can be really, really detrimental. I think as time progresses and you make those decisions, I think the effect that where you wake up the next day and that decision that you made hastily or with less people involved and the world keeps spinning and everything was fine and business moves on, that's when it starts to feel a little bit better. Yeah, because if you have six people discussing something and two people don't like the direction you're going, it potentially could give you doubts. And you're like, oh, maybe the way they're thinking about it is the right way to think about it. And that can go on and on and on forever. And I suffer from that. I suffer from almost too much open discussion. And yeah, it's slowed us down. maybe this is a good thing for us. We learn a lot from this and we take some of this going forward, whether we're all in a room together or not in the future. And maybe we won't be, maybe there's a scenario where, you know, we don't go to work every day, you know, as a group. I mean, I think that's probably going to be the case at least, you know, in the, in the near future. I think that at least for me, I mean, I've been to your office many times and I feel like it is very collaborative and that's like necessary to a point. But I think that everybody's going to learn something from this. So if it's, you know, if you've learned that you don't need to do that all the time, that will be beneficial probably because it will just streamline the process. Yeah. I mean, that's what it should be about, right? Like even with our business, we always wanted people to have their own lives. You mean your employees, you mean? Yeah. I've never raised here. If someone's not in the office, I'm not like, what are they doing? It doesn't freak me out. You're not a regular boss. You're a cool boss. Yeah, I'm cool boss. Cool boss. No, bro, I skate too, guys. It's cool. It's fine. Just come in whenever. It's cool. I skate. It's fine. You guys want some more rosé?

Oh my God. That's very real. That's how it should operate. People should have a life. My thing has always been like, if the job's getting done, I don't really care if I see you or not. It doesn't matter to me. All that matters to me is the job is done. Now, the flip side of that is people... And I'm not saying our people do it, but I know people can take advantage of those types of environments and just dip out and not get the work done. That obviously can't be tolerated in a working environment when things need to get done. But we've been pretty lucky. Our team gets it, and they, for the most part, act pretty responsibly about it. Well, I feel like people want to be there. You know what I mean? I think that it's like a... It's a small enough team where people feel connected to things versus working in some big corporation where they just want to get away with as much as possible. Right. Yeah, that's true. The people that have come to work in our company, they already have a connection. Yeah, exactly. They're not just there for the check. They're attracted to the whole thing and the lifestyle that comes with it. Yeah, they're about it. They're real. So we're lucky. We're lucky in that way. What's going on with the store? Because I think this is the most interesting part because I think we've talked to people with businesses, but I think the retail part is interesting to me at least. I think that in New York especially, that was just such a core of the business. So what are you guys doing? How are you handling it? I mean, we're not. That part of the business is a wrap. I mean, there's nothing we can do. The store has been closed for weeks and weeks, and we are an online business right now. Before the quarantine happened, what was the percentage of business from e-commerce versus brick and mortar? If you don't mind sharing that. Probably.

I'm guessing because I don't really track it that way. He's not a numbers guy. He's more of a top-down creative guy. That makes one of us. We come for the P&L here on this podcast. That's what we care about. I didn't know I needed Bo for this conversation. I would have called your accountant directly, but I thought that was a little unnecessary. Could you just share your screen, please? So I'm guessing, I think it's either like 60, 40, 70, 30, like web to store, something like that. And do you think businesses are sort of considering brick and mortar that to be more of like a marketing cost versus a revenue source or like sort of shifting that way? I mean, it wasn't for us. We, you know, the store was as important as the web and driving sales. I mean, cause like if you did, if you were just do the, like, you know, the dollar for dollar kind of like what you do in the store, the store, the store performs pretty well. You know what I mean? Like, yes, there's a lot of overhead, there's rent and staff and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, the store on its own. That bitch was still making money. For listeners at home, it's a beautiful store in a prime part of New York City. So I'm sure you guys had lots of foot traffic and tourists and people from all over the world. Real Heads may recognize as the Paul Frank store. That's what I call it still. But it's been rebranded as Noah for the time being. Old timers might remember the Paul Frank store. I didn't know that. Yeah, years ago. A little piece of New York history for you there, TJ. But I think that the store also, and this is the thing that is not quantifiable monetarily, is that your store specifically, I think it serves as a hub and a cultural space, and people like to go in there. It's not just a place to sell T-shirts.

I've been in there 10 times, never purchased a single thing. Sorry. Thanks. We appreciate your business. I touched the corduroys a lot, though, and they felt great. But I think that that is something that is impossible to replicate. You know what I mean? And that's something that we're all just kind of, at least me, I miss. I went and got a coffee today from somewhere and it felt like I was literally doing cocaine. I felt so, I was so excited by the whole, like it wasn't just the caffeine. It was like, I got to interact with someone even at a safe distance and do this whole thing. And I think that that part, you know, you can obviously shift sales to online, blah, blah, blah. But the cultural part of it, a blog post isn't the same as going to the store and talking to people and seeing things. No, for sure. And like, you know, for us, the store experience. The true experience, not just like shopping experience, but like this idea that the store was, you know, a real living and breathing entity where people could like say hello to each other and talk and hang out or whatever. Like it wasn't always about shopping. It was really going to be more like just people can just kind of like interact. That's such a huge part of who we are as a brand, as people that losing that, it's like losing an appendage. It's really. It's really damaging to us emotionally. We miss it. But with that said, we're clearly not alone in that regard. Like you said, we do have the ability to sell stuff online. If you're a restaurant, forget it. Restaurants, movie theaters, there's other businesses who've lost the ability to sell anything completely. You know what I mean? Those are the businesses where I'm just like, oh, my God, that's just like, you know, what do you do? Like Lucky Strike is closed. Oh, no, it's crazy. It's been open for 35 years or something. I mean, it's crazy. I mean, I think the first time I went there, I might have been in high school. Like, you know, like it was a staple, you know? So it's sad. And, you know, what's really truly the saddest part of this whole thing, you know, like obviously.

loss of life and people losing loved ones and you know even just being like severely ill is an awful thing you know and but like so much of this could have been avoided like you know oh yeah like a like 90 percent of it could have been avoided like you know like i mean if if our society had a different set of priorities if our leadership actually did their jobs they would have been prepared for this, right? Like they've been studying these viruses forever and they just don't fund it. So they stopped pursuing it. And now it happens and we're behind. We should have been ahead of this, right? Like why are we not prioritizing potential disaster? Why are we waiting for it to happen to then act? It's just insane to me. It's like, it just shows how ineffective leadership is on a global scale. Well, to me, I mean, it seems like, ignorance is bliss situation which is insane when you think about the the gravity of it all you know it's like um i don't think you can't ignore things and expect them to go away which is i think to me like that's a big lesson to take from this i i you know and i i know that might that might simplify it a little bit um but i do think that's the truth of the matter um that's the approach right like and that's like i mean people just operate that way. They just kind of go like, well, maybe it'll never happen. So I mean, I, unfortunately I've operated that way in my life and it didn't get me too far. So I've learned, I mean, you know what I mean? Honestly, it's like, Oh, this isn't a problem. I'm just going to keep not as fine. It's fine. And it's just not fine. And it, uh, it goes from not fine. It goes from fine to not fine really quickly. But you, you making those choices for yourself personally is one thing. Very different. No, you're right. You're right. When you have, you know, career politicians whose job it is to manage, you know, the safety and security of populations. That's their job. That's like they're, they govern, right? They govern. I would somewhat argue that's their only, that's their only job. But they don't really do it. And that's what's so crazy about this. They don't do anything really. Well, I think the issue is, is that it's, it's a job.

To them. You know what I mean? I think it's a game as far as the way that someone would play corporate politics internally. You know what I mean? It's the same idea. I think it's like, I want to stay in power for as long as I can. It's not about what I can do while I'm there. And that's a bigger issue too. I mean, it's kind of nuts because this to me feels like, I feel the way people must have felt like. in the 60s right like when when hippies were like out there kind of like screaming and yelling about things because the fact is nothing's really changed since then right like the people in power don't really do the right thing for the population they use their power to like enrich themselves and their friends and advance kind of like corporate you know structures the only loads of money the only thing the only thing i like about it is insider trading that shit seems pretty cool to be honest like i gotta be real with you if somebody gave me a tip i'd probably take the tip and make a couple million maybe not if i was a senator but as a citizen i like insider trading you know i mean you're definitely on the like no scruples side of things for sure exactly yeah that's me that's me but i do think it's i mean what but i guess The bigger question is, what are you able to do to take your mind off of this besides work? Like, are you deep into some TV series? Are you listening to a lot of music? Are you running? I was going to ask you about running because I've recently embraced it more than I ever have, and it's bringing me a lot of joy in this situation. So I've been running, but I've always been running. Hold on. Do you use Strava? I don't even know what that is. Fire. Fire. Fire. So what do you use to track your distance and stuff? Come on, dude. You know me better than that. I'm not tracking my distance. You're just running. I use the clock, dude. I know my mileage. I use the clock. I use the clock. Yeah, he's like a fly fisherman or a soul surfer. He doesn't need all your bells and whistles and gear. He does it with the feeling. Set a meeting with me. Set a meeting with me in the future.

and tell me how far it is be like oh you live here and all right you'll be like uh it's a four mile run to come to have lunch with me right i'll just figure it out and go like i'll just like yeah he looks at the position of the sun and then yeah exactly well i told you i told jason before i was like you know brendan's one of the first people i ever met that would like run to work You know what I mean? It's shit like that. When you worked at Supreme, I'd be like, where are you going? You're like, oh, I'm going to work. I'm like, bro, you're drenched in sweat wearing Patagonia shorts. What the fuck are you talking about? I run to meetings all the time. I feel like you used to run to Whole Foods, fill up a backpack, and run back. That's very cool. My big thing was Christmas shopping. I would go out and run. Yeah, because think about it. You're married. You know what I mean? You're trying to get some Christmas shopping done. work together for the most part so like when am i going to be like we're together all the time like all day long like at the office and this and that so like sometimes that you know you go for a run and it's the only time you what did we lose him chris there we go now i can hear you i didn't move that was weird i was sitting in the same spot i was dude it's fucking his big government that's 5g bitch that's exactly what it is well now i've moved yeah i used to i used to go christmas shopping so so so you could just Picture you hauling ass down the street with a Barneys bag over your shoulder. More like wrap this up while I'm here. So you'd see me with like a fully wrapped. Fully wrapped gift. That's fire. Basically carried like a football. Okay, okay. You look like an elf on Christmas Eve rushing to get this package into Santa's sleigh. Right. That's very cool. Put me on the cover of Runners World Magazine and the December issue and we're all set. So you are able to get out for runs to clear your clouded mind. Yeah, I'm running almost every day. My runs aren't as effective as they used to be because usually I'm able to completely turn off when I run. And that's the whole point. But now I feel like...

I'm kind of like looking over my shoulder and trying to avoid people. Yeah, I agree. I'm a little like, yeah. I guess it's harder to do that in New York City versus going for a run in the countryside where you won't see anybody. Yeah, it's become complex. Do you listen to music? Yeah, of course. I didn't know Zen Daddy. You're talking about all this other shit. Yeah, you seem like the kind of guy who would go silence. Yeah, full silence. No, no. Music is like... I've always run with music. It's definitely like... I need it. I can't do it. I couldn't imagine. Which Chili Peppers album are you running to? Funny. I don't think you thought that was that funny. Estelle's going to correct my technology. His AV tech is going to sort us out. I love that Estelle is the AV squad of the house. This style is definitely the 80s squad. I'm like, yeah. You ever see those commercials where people buy homes and they turn into their parents? Yes, I know the commercial you speak of. Yeah, that's basically me at this point. There you go. You sound strong now. Very booming voice. Cool. I don't know what we're talking about. Music? Yeah, we're talking about you listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers while you run. Which I don't, by the way. We want to make that very clear. What do you listen to? I love Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I don't really... If I were to listen to one record of the Chili Peppers while running, it would probably be Freaky Style-y. But you're not really on the running playlist, to be honest. Are you listening to full albums back to back, or are you listening to a playlist? No, I'll do... I'll do... Not even playlists so much, but like I was saying, I'll put it on the radio station. um, WLIR, which is the one I grew up with that went out of business in like 1989 or something. And they were one of the first, if not the first like alternative radio stations in the country, kind of like K rock in California. Wait, you would put this, you can listen to this on your, on your iPhone. Yeah. They're like a WLIR.fm now, like they've come back. Oh, I see. Okay. So they've come back and they're online, not on.

Okay, I understand. So you really are turning into your parents listening to the radio on your run. Sorry, say that again. I missed that. I said you really are turning into your parents listening to the radio on a run. Oh, for sure. Yeah, completely. Which is cool. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. And then other days I'll just pick stuff. Do they play music from that era or are they playing like new alternatives? So I tune in. for the music from that era. When they play new stuff, I get pissed. Because the new stuff sucks. Imagine Dragons or something. Exactly. I was going to say, I wonder what it would even be. So they have a show where they play all the shit from your youth. So it's unclear to me what the breakdown is at the moment. It seems like they have a show during lunchtime that plays older stuff. I think a lot of it is still older stuff. A classic lunchtime rock block. You love to see it. Basically, yeah. But it's not Led Zeppelin. It's like The Cure or whatever. So I listen to that, but then I'll just pick something. I'll listen to what I've been listening to a lot lately, both on runs and when I was driving out to surf, was Thin Lizzy. Wow. Jailbreak. That record, it's actually called Jailbreak. That's a really good record. I can honestly recommend that to just about anybody. It's got anything you want. It's got up-tempo songs. It's got kind of ballady type stuff. Those guys are great. Incredibly, incredibly underrated band. I've only done coke to that album, but running sounds good too. Yeah, I mean, it gets the heart rate going either way. See, my problem is that when I do... a playlist for running, I need everything to be upbeat. I can't handle a ballad in there. I need everything to be bumping to keep my energy, energy level up. But I feel like that's a weakness on my part. It is. Well, you know, yeah, we know that about you, but well, maybe, I mean, I look at everyone's got their own stuff. Right. So like, I generally like upbeat stuff, but when I really get humming and like,

I stopped thinking. Yeah. It doesn't really matter. That's true. Like, that's true. I'm almost not even hearing it. It's like, it's kind of bad. It's like when you're working with good music on, you know, you kind of like, it disappears. Yeah. So you, I try and achieve that. And then. whatever's on is just on and it doesn't really matter. I'm not really singing along to it. Well, see, I am. I'm playing air drums. I'm going in. If you see me running, you're like, what's up with this freak show? This guy's losing his fucking mind. My AirPods are going to fall out. I'm going so crazy. Brendan, do you ever listen to podcasts on a run? No. I think I've listened to like three podcasts in my whole life, actually. One of them was, what's his name? Revisionist History. Malcolm Gladwell. Yes. Which one? Which episode? Something about golf courses. That's the best one. Yeah. I don't know why. Somebody must have recommended it or something. But it was really good. It was probably Jake Davis. Yeah, that's a Jake Davis recommendation for sure. Yeah, most of the things I do in my life are recommendations from Jake anyway. Wow, you really should listen to him. That's scary. You're going to start baking bread and having a cat. It's pretty bad. I'm about to buy all the Barry's Boot Camp paraphernalia instead of the gym in my house. I mean, it's crazy that you can't buy a kettlebell anywhere in the world right now. You guys should have made a Noah kettlebell. That would really go through the roof. You know what's crazier? The fact that you even know that you can't buy a freaking kettlebell right now, that's crazy to me. Why do you know that? Because I've fucking checked. Of course, dude. I'm out here. I'm going to lose muscle mass right now during this fucking downturn. A friend of mine sent me a link. People are making kettlebells at home and selling them on Craigslist for like $75. And they're made out of like cement. People are taking basketballs. Cutting a basketball open, filling it with cement and putting a handle on it and selling them as kettlebells because they're just sold out everywhere. It's impossible to find them. So Estelle's been doing a workout with a girlfriend of hers and her husband in Sri Lanka, our trainers. So her whole crew has been getting together and doing these workouts in the morning. And one of the things they've been doing is I guess they fill a backpack with stuff. Yeah, I've seen that.

So that's the answer to the kettlebell. That's the problem, though. You can't get weight. Like, I need weight. You know what I mean? Like, I can do all the push-ups and shit, but to really see the gains, you need weight. Are you kind of, like, secretly trying to tell us how strong you are right now? No, I'm not. I'm trying to tell you how desperate I am. There's no secret. No, this is a secret. He's like, no backpack can hold the weight I need. Exactly. Like, I don't know what kind of backpack. Maybe an army-grade military reinforced. Maybe. Maybe the big rimouar. yeah exactly i need i need a suitcase actually no i just i just find it um i think that because all i could do was like body weight stuff or band stuff that's part of the reason i was drawn to running is it was like a little more extreme in some way in a different way for me to like push myself like that it was like more extreme and also the weather i'm in montreal and the weather here has not been like i was running in the snow yesterday morning so i was i was really on my like rocky shit which you can't indoor with a kettlebell ain't going to be the same as that. You know what I mean? As far as like feeling like I'm pushing myself. Yeah, I get that. I mean, the whole draw for me originally with running was the movement and actually not being inside, not being in like a small, like weight training and all that stuff. It just doesn't appeal to me because you're just in one space. With running, you're kind of like, you're getting exercise, but you're also out seeing the world and interacting with the world. You're right. You're right. That was the original draw for me. No, I think that's been an appeal, especially being in a place that I'm not super familiar with. You know what I mean? I'd never seen the Olympic Stadium here before, and now I run by it, and it's fucking insane. It's such a crazy-looking building. I would have probably never seen that. Now you have dreams of being the oldest man to qualify for the Olympics. Every time you run by, you start envisioning yourself on the podium. The fact that a man who's older than me is saying that is fucked up. I know what you mean. No, I don't have delusions of grandeur. I know that I'm merely a homespun athlete with no future. Don't worry. I'm very familiar. You don't have to put me in my place. I know where I stand. Are you skating?

um i haven't been um it's funny that you say that because i think i've been thinking a lot about it and i probably should it's something i can go out and do by myself um but by the time i'm done with the run i get home you know i do some work it gets to be a little it would be a little bit unfair of me to like dip to go skate because obviously estelle's busy too so like we have to try and split it and i'd argue that like she's probably looking after sarah more than i am at this point so i have to try and find time to like be present do it all you're just a modern working man a father a working man a runner a skateboarder i mean the slashes go on and on dude i can't even you know well is this has has this shit caused any like I guess another question retail-wise, is this delayed plans? Is a lot of stuff on hold right now? Oh, yeah, for sure. It is. Because you were opening a store in Japan? We're still doing that, so that's still happening. Another store in Japan. If you guys could actually see what I was doing right now, it would really drive home the all-encompassing duties of a father right now. You can't even imagine. So, yeah. You changing the diaper? Pretty close to that. So we were opening a store in L.A. and that just, I mean, we were like, we could have signed a lease like a day later, right? Oh, you were that close. Yeah, we were super close to like moving forward with an L.A. location, which obviously now is on hold. The Osaka store is still going forward. And that's where Estelle's been spending a lot of her time because she's doing all the interior design. She's not going there. She's doing all this remotely. She was there a few weeks before we shut everything down over here. She had just gotten back. Interesting. She was in Japan in the middle of the China uptick. And she got back a few weeks before we started shutting things down here.

Since she's been back, everything's remote. She's doing all the interior design, all the furniture design, selecting, I mean, everything. Tiles, you name it. I'm sure that's difficult if you can't put your hands on it. You know what I'm saying? Or see that stuff IRL? Or are there samples that she's able to look at in real life and then via mail and stuff? Or is it all done online? When she went, they did a lot of shopping. I see. visiting places. Okay. And she was selecting things. She also sends them a lot of visual references and stuff. And then they have been sending her some samples. That's cool. Wallpaper samples, tile samples, wood samples, whatever. So she's able to see it in person. I feel like you have to see that stuff in person. I feel like you can't really judge it off a screen. Yeah. Unfortunately, what she won't be able to do is go just prior to the opening. and just double check everything. When does it open? Good question. It was going to open early May, but as of this moment, I'm not really sure, to be honest. It'll be relatively soon, but it's not clear. LA, had you found a neighborhood you liked? Yeah, we found a few places we liked. negotiating with the landlords. And I mean, we were, we were pretty deep into it. We were, we were ready to go. I mean, we were, you know, I think we had pretty much settled on a location we liked and if everything had panned out, we would have been like, cool, sign the lease. So that's, you know, who knows when that's going to happen. And there was a lot of other things. tied to that location um other plans we had yeah just west coast or you mean in the actual space or just in general in the space and as a broader kind of like brand expansion um that space was going to kind of like serve as a launch pad for some new ideas yeah which you know i mean it'll still happen yeah we'll still do it um and we'll still expand the way we've been talking about expanding but it won't happen

at the same scale and in the same timeframe, you know? Yeah. Like everything's going to change, not just for us, for everybody, but we will, our focus, the things we focus on in the past will still be there, but we'll definitely shift gears a little bit. You know, like online is going to be important for a long time. Like even when they say, okay, everybody, cool, go outside. I don't see people kind of like being very comfortable, you know, interacting with loads of people every day, you know? Yeah. I can't tell. I think it's going to be like split down the middle where there's people who are just so either like don't care and need interaction so much. They're just going to jump the gun. And there's going to be people that are freaked out by the whole thing for months and months to come. Yeah. It's for people that just don't pay attention that scare me because, you know, there's things. pretty serious like it's not you know it's not something to kind of like overlook so for me it's like do i want to subject my store staff to irresponsible behavior you know yeah well i was going to ask this too have you had have you had employees that are like super freaked out by this whole thing or has everybody been kind of even keel about it um i think everybody's been pretty cool you know looking back On the month prior to the shutdown, or even the two months prior to the shutdown, I'm pretty sure a few of us had it. I've heard that from a lot of people. I think a lot of my friends have had it. A few people in the company were pretty sick for 10 days, two weeks kind of thing. Really healthy people with good diets and young. They were laid up for 14 days. That doesn't happen. I'm looking at it now. I'm like, oh yeah, this person probably had... coronavirus. Yeah, definitely. But everybody has handled it pretty well. We've had to furlough some people. We've since gotten one of those loans. Oh, you have? Yeah, we were early on that. We got it. They launched it on the Friday and it was a disaster. I don't know if you guys remember, but the first day it was a complete train wreck.

I kept hearing the website just didn't work and shit. The website didn't work. To be fair, the government hadn't given any oversight into how it was going to work. They still really haven't. It's still very unclear. But you've actually received a check. The money is in your account. That's pretty fast. The Friday was a disaster. The following Monday, we were top of the list. We worked all weekend to be prepared. And we had our thing submitted Sunday night. So was it just a lot of like in-depth paperwork? Um, yeah, there was, you know, it's like that you have to show your kind of like payroll, you know, like what your payroll is for the month and all that kind of stuff. It's like, cause the money is supposed to go directly to payroll. Correct. So it's built around payroll. The idea was to keep people employed, to keep people. Okay. Basically, so people could spend money, right? Pay rent, pay mortgages. I love spending money, Brendan. I love spending money. Finally, there's something cool to talk about this whole thing. Oh, my God. Yeah, so it's built around payroll, but you can use 25%. If you don't want to spend it all on payroll, you're allowed to use it for rent and utilities, I guess. Did your landlord play ball with you guys in New York, or is it just business as usual? We haven't asked. We paid our rent and we'll see. It's only been one cycle of rent. We just paid it. If we need to have that conversation, I guess we will. I'd rather not because even though my landlord is probably massively wealthy, I'm sure he has his own. Yeah, he's got to pay mortgages still, too, right? If everyone in all of his buildings stops paying their rent, what happens to him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's loaded. He owns a bunch of buildings. But so far, we haven't even bothered asking if we can delay payments or anything. If we can manage this thing without...

altering the way we do business very much, I'd rather. I feel like it's almost like a responsibility. I agree with you. I agree with you. I agree with you 100%. I think the more normalcy, as far as business goes, it can be upheld, the better it is for everyone. Economically and just mentally, I think. It all kicks down the line, right? Yeah, exactly. And we're not rich. Our company's small. We don't make a ton of money, personally. But we can still afford, at least for the moment, to continue to employ people because we got the loan. We can continue to pay our rent. We've made some adjustments and some alterations for sure. But we can still operate as normal, which is really what anyone with the means to do so should do. Anyone who's got a ton of money and is trying to not pay people, That should be treasonous at this point. No, I agree. It's fucked up. We live in a consumer-based economy that relies on people having money to buy things and to spend money. If you don't pay your people if you can afford to, you're just a douche at this point. I think you're right, though. The reality is it all just goes down the line. If you're fucking up, it's always going to fuck somebody below you. That doesn't do anybody any good, really. Have you seen, has certain stuff sold better? Like, have different products started to sell better? Or is it the same stuff that you usually see at the same rate? The masks are selling a lot more. Yeah, yeah. When's the Noah mask dropping, first of all? And second of all, yeah, I mean, I just wonder if, you know, like, is it a lower price item? Is it a more, like, comfortable, for lack of a better term, item? Or are you seeing basically the same stuff? No, we've seen a pretty serious. We always sell T-shirts and hats and sweatshirts well, but that's pretty much the bulk of our sales at this point. Oh, really? No one's buying a leopard print double-breasted suit? That's so weird. No, sir. Wow, I'm shocked. Yeah, right? I mean, basically, I guess if you're not going out looking sharp.

You're not buying it. You know what I mean? Is that going to change the way that you guys manufacture clothes and the products that you sell in the near future? Or are you guys going to keep going business as usual? It will basically be business as usual. We might shift some quantity a bit. We might decide to order less of certain things and that kind of thing. Temporary. Temporary could mean six months. It could mean 18 months, but it is temporary. And the business we've been building for the last five years, it can't change. We believe in what we're doing. We believe that what we're doing is a better way to operate a clothing company. So we see that going into the future once this is over. People are going to need shirts and pants and jackets again. For us, it's an opportunity to come out the other side super strong, being one of the brands that people look to to be like, okay, cool. If I'm going to spend money with a company, I'm going to spend money with a company that I know is, one, making clothes responsibly, trying to offer me a great quality product at a good price, and also is attached to other things. Call it give back, whatever the hell you want to call it. I think consumer behavior is going to change. We bet the farm on that. We built this business on that idea. We were like, consumer behavior has to change because we can't rely on huge corporations or people in government to make the change for us. But when consumers tell you what they want or how they want things to be with their spending, companies will respond to that. And that's how you can drive change. So we're going to basically operate. business as usual with a few minor alterations probably just in like how much of things we order you know do you have any what is your prediction or estimation on when you're going to open new york store back up again god i have no idea i mean i'm not sure i'll even open even when they say i can because if they jump the gun if i think they're jumping the gun and it doesn't sound like new york world sounds like cuomo is really

Well, right now, what does May 15th mean exactly? Because that's the date I've heard. Does that mean it's just going to get a little less strict, but it's going to be kind of the same? It's unclear to me. It sounds like May 15th is like a best case scenario. I don't know once May 15th comes if they're going to say, okay, they might push it again. Because, you know, once you start, once people, people are stupid, man. Like once they're like, oh, you can go outside, people are going to act stupid. people are going to get sick again. You know what, Brendan, what I always say is you can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. And that is something that, that is something that I will, I will, that is a hill I will die on. But you're absolutely right. Like they'll be at bars, like spitting on each other. May 15th. Right. Like, dude, all you need, we've had a, like we're in that transitional part of the year in New York where like one day it's like 35 degrees and the next day it's like 60. The few days we've had over the last month that have been like, really nice outside, like, you know, 60 degrees, sun's out. The park is popping. People instantly forget. They get lulled into this comfort of like, oh, it's a beautiful day. And they go out and you start seeing people letting their guard down. I mean, really quickly. Yeah, I know, for sure. It just takes one day. And so I worry about the better weather when it comes because I do think people are just going to like be tricked into thinking it's all good. I mean, it does because nice weather feels healthy. You know what I'm saying? It does. Like when the sun is out, my mood is better. I feel better. I want to be outside, which I mean, that feeling is hard to damper because of like something that's not, you know, real to you maybe depending on who you are. Well, it's not visible and it doesn't feel like it could be a problem, right? I mean, so yeah, I mean, May 15th is the date apparently in New York. I don't know if that date will stick. But if it doesn't feel comfortable, I might not open. I don't know if I'm open. I think that's the beauty of being an independent businessman. You get to make those decisions. It's literally up to you. It's not some board that's telling you what to do. And if you feel like people are at risk, then you're not going to do it. And again, like you said, you have the...

for lack of a better term, luxury of having an online store so revenue is coming in. It's not like a restaurant where you're just fucked. At this point, I'm following the science. As this thing drags on, what we're just discovering is it's not as deadly as they said it was. Really? Not even close because they had it at 3.5%. Now it's at 0.6% because what they didn't know is a lot more people had it, right? So when you have a much larger pool of people who had this thing, they were unaware that they had it, clearly the death toll is going to drop. And it has dropped considerably. Like it's nowhere near what they said it was originally. Additionally, there are more people that have had it. They didn't know that. Like as they ramp up testing, they're discovering way, like in New York, right? I think the official count is like 200 and something thousand. Well, they just did a round of testing, and now they're saying they think it's more like over 2 million people have had it. That's a slight difference in numbers there. It's insane. So if it turns out that a huge portion of the population has already had this, and if it turns out that, yes, indeed, young, healthy people can get sick and can die, but nowhere near the rate that they thought, then you might think differently about it. For sure. There's been so much misinformation and so much lack of information that it's hard to even make an informed decision about how to move forward. So I'm kind of waiting on more data, basically. And it feels like in the past week, it's been the first time that I've seen data that feels like real and trustworthy and to some degree kind of like well-vetted. Because before that, it's just been like people throwing shit at the wall every time you turn on the TV or read an article. I'm waiting for concrete data to make any decisions. That's smart. Does it feel weird outside? Because I left New York before it got weird. Does it feel weird? Dude, it's totally weird. Like people vibing each other out or just completely zombie land? Definitely not vibing each other out because you know how New Yorkers are. When things go bad, they tend to rise to the occasion. Yeah, that's true.

we're not vibing each other out, you know, is down because criminals aren't leaving their house. Like it's, it's, I'm sure there's a lot of shit going on. We're not hearing about, but basically people are acting really responsibly in New York. Um, but it's weird because there's no one out. So like you go out for a run and it's like, there's just nobody there. And you know, it's dirtier than it's been in a while because like trash is just blowing around and like, There's less people cleaning up and all that kind of stuff. And you just see weird shit. I've been taking pictures of weird shit that I see. A true documentarian. No, I'm thinking about posting it all because it's just like on my runs, I'll just encounter odd things that shouldn't. I saw this crazy bee's nest just on the steps. Somebody just left it on the steps. It's a massive bee's nest. how did I get there? Like, why is that there? Who put it there? You know, like, yeah, there's a lot of questions with that. Yeah. Like weird. I saw like a sign today that like this guy has like a, a little garden in front of his brownstone in, in the neighborhood. And he's got like a, like a Roman, like bust, like a head. And then there's a sign next to it that just says, God help us. Like, you gotta start throwing all this shit up on the stories, bro. Yeah, it's not. I'm collecting it, and it's just odd. But in this environment, it's not odd. You're like, oh, I totally get it. But any other time, it'd be like, why is that sign next to that head? It's just weird. Yeah, so it's definitely weird in New York, but it's not negative. It's not a negative energy. There's just a lack of energy because no one's out. Which is, I mean, that's like, you know, energy is basically the appeal of New York. So when that's lost, it's a very, it's a strange feeling. I do feel a little bit of, I feel like I'm missing out a little bit. You know what I mean? I feel like I should be there to experience it at least a little bit. But at the same time, I'm probably better off. Chris, do you have any plan on when you're going to return to the Big Apple? I mean, look, if they, whenever the gym opens, I'll be back. Let me put it that way.

But you know, Brendan, I'm sure you're aware as a news hound that Georgia's opening on Friday, just jumping the fucking gun. So if I need to go catch Corona and get a pump on, I can always go to my parents' house. So I have a place to go. You know what I mean? I have places I can go if I really feel like risking it all. But I do think that if this thing goes down in Georgia and two weeks later everybody dies, it's going to be crazy. But they're going to. Dude, like there was this guy who was posting on all his social media sites, right? Like he was like, it's a hoax. It's a this. It's a democratic thing to get rid of Trump. Right. All that kind of stuff. Oh, then he died. I mean, that's so good, dude. It's like when Boris Johnson, when Boris Johnson got it, it was so good. I mean, there was a preacher who opened his church and he was like, you know. god will yeah god will protect us that guy's dead like you know i mean that's that's just poetic brilliance that you can't plan for that's too good like what does that say about us liking them dying i mean like i'm not i like i like like it is it is you know it's it's justice porn or whatever it's it's nice to hear dumb people dying i guess but It's turning us into kind of fucked up a little bit. I never said I liked it. Well, I'm not saying you liked it, but, you know, we're all talking about it and laughing about it, that it's a cool, funny thing, which I don't disagree with. Just so God knows, I have no part in this. I just told you guys, as news, you guys are leveling in it, because justice continues. So, good Lord, I am not happy about that. Good Lord. Good Lord. Are you a religious man? Not in that way, no. No, definitely not. I mean, I believe in what I believe in, but like, you know. You wouldn't risk getting coronavirus to go to a southern church? God, no. I mean, when I hear religion, I get nervous because religion is just like, it's basically, you know, it's men, right? It's like men controlling stories. It really is. It's a disaster. Like, you know, I believe something and I believe it's even possible that Jesus,

walked the earth and did some of the things he supposedly did. What religion is today is a disaster. I think if Jesus showed up today, the first people to go down in flames would be all these guys with the big churches. Those are my favorite guys. I fucking love. Honestly, the southern pastors that have fucking Bentleys and private jets, those guys are the coolest. Do you watch John Oliver? Yeah, I do actually. Did you see the recent one where he showed this The guy blowing? The guy blowing? This guy was in the pulpit, Jason. He called coronavirus for a name and then just blew really hard and said it was gone. I love it. It was so good, actually. That was really funny. And he has more money than all of us combined. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. By a lot. But you're from Georgia, dude. You can help me out here. Be careful. No, I'm not going to be careful. Yes. People you know that you grew up with, they believe that shit? They watch this guy and they're like, okay, he blew coronavirus away. Let me say this. Let me say this. When you put it that way, no, I mean, I've said this before. I think in the South, religion is almost part of the fabric, the way that Judaism is in New York, where it's almost cultural. And there's obviously extremes to that. I went to church every Sunday until I moved out of the house. It was just like my parents weren't really concerned how serious I was about it. At 12, I told them this is fucking stupid and went and listened to Black Flag or whatever. But it was just like that's what we do as a family. We go. But I think like anything else, there's obviously extremes. And unfortunately, in that realm, the extremes all exist in the general area where I was raised. You know, I do, I do know those kinds of people or we're exposed to those kinds of people, but the people in my life and like my family, it's very much like, you know, this is something we do. It's not as like, yeah, Jesus is going to, you know, I have cancer, but I'm going to pray and not get chemo is not the vibe. Right. Right. This is something that we do so the neighbors don't think that we're bad people. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's more of, it's cultural. That's what I mean. It's like, it's like, um,

It's just something you do, and it's weird. I don't know how it is now. I think now times have changed, and things are just more modern everywhere, so I'm sure it's a little less extreme. Yeah, I think women can vote down there now. Women can vote now. It's pretty crazy. Bathrooms, actually, both races can go into it. Georgia has changed. Georgia has changed. But wait, dude, this guy and all these guys, right? they're loaded rich rich people are sending them money hell yeah right hell yeah which means people believe yes right that's crazy that is so insane to me but i think people need like it's the same way that you know the three of us it's like if if i was in the same room i like i just think that some people are um need something You know what I mean? And desperately need it. And they think that this person is actually closer to God than they are. You know, and it's no different than like celebrity worship and the way people act around celebrities. You know what I mean? It's like the same way people buy everything Kanye puts out and then pays to go to his concert. You know, it's the same idea, really. It's a celebrity. they're looking at these preachers as just entertainment then they're just like no i think it's deeper than that but i do think entertainment plays a big part in it i mean that's why like church getting so popular with celebrities now um famous noah customer justin bieber for example um he i like him no noah hatware justin bieber is uh i mean he Him and all his crew go to a cool church that's led by a cool pastor who's good-looking and wears Saint Laurent. You know what I mean? But we know what that is. That's all nonsense. These guys, they have sinned. They're trying to make up for them. Yes, but a simple Southern person also thinks they've sinned. It just isn't in a cool way. They looked at porn once and felt bad, whereas Justin Bieber did. you know, a pound of methamphetamine and had sex with 30 girls. It's, it's two different levels of sinning, but, but everything, it only appeals, you know, it's only real to, to who it's real to. So, but it's no different to me. And that's why it's been really odd for me to see like Christianity specifically become like trendy with celebrities because it's the least cool, least cool thing on earth to me. I think it's just marketing. I think it's like running, running wasn't cool when I started.

right like and like it was for nerds and weirdos and like you know people would see me running and be like dude are you running yeah i'm not like why are you running you know like so this is just the next level of that and i feel like famous people are always looking for that like like almost like a shock value component like oh look look what i'm gonna do now yeah church now and it's like you know what as far as i'm concerned Fuck you. Like, get out of here. You know what? As far as I'm concerned, I mean, I think it's all, though, a, I mean, you know, when there's money to be made, there's money to be made. Like, I can't wait to start my church because I have the vernacular. Being raised in the church, I know the language so well and the nuance to it that I could, and I think I have a cult-like personality, obviously. So I think it'd be, you know, I just need a building, basically. I can really picture Chris with the Hermes collection tray. Dig deep, brother. Dig deep. You need a building. That should be no problem. You watch Ozark, right? You just need somebody who needs to clean some money. Exactly. I would love to do something illegal, Brendan. I know you know that about me. I'm itching to do something illegal. Like Jason knows, I have to speed to feel something in a car now. So anything illegal I can do. I would love to wash money, insider trading. You should get into the graph game. It's really thriving right now in our quarantine society. Yeah, graffiti would be – Montreal is a big graffiti town. I talked about it today. I could get out there and get up. Do some of your street art maybe. I could do some fill-ins out there, but I mean – I'm sure Eli has some dirty money he needs cleaned, right? Oh, definitely has. Yeah, definitely. I definitely know people have dirty money. I just need to figure out how to clean it. I just need a way to clean it. Right now, I'm merely a – vessel and i don't have i don't have an ocean to sail in you know what i mean would you have what would be the name of your religion or your church would you have do you have a name oh no i'd go straight no it'd be it'd be done to death church it would be it would be i would just i keep the brand strong i would keep the brand strong it's good to have the word death in your church exactly but well i think it's i think it's you know death is inevitable and honestly the sooner you die the sooner you get to meet god so i think it could work actually

But I think if I keep a strong, I would have a strong narrative of my own redemption if I kept the brand name the same. You know what I mean? I would come out on the other side a leader, but I was once a sinner. Because the devil has had his claws in you before, Brother Chris. Exactly. Brother Chris has been on both sides. And luckily now I'm closer to God than ever. Please don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, on your way out to stop at the done-to-death store in the back for your T-shirts. We have a done-to-death church Noah collaboration in the back. Very limited. We have brand-new Gildan hoodies in the back. Exactly, exactly. Thank you, guys. This is a free business idea. I love this. I have two. Two great entrepreneurs just feeding me advice. Brendan, speaking of spending in the gift shop, have there been any luxuries that you are missing now in the quarantine that you were living before? No. Luxuries are not a part of my landscape, really. Brendan, you eat lunch at Balthazar every day, bro. Come on now. Don't front. Don't front on these fucking people. You're drinking $6 iced teas from Dean DeLuca, RIP. Don't front. What kind of shoes are you running in? First of all, I would do a burger from Balthazar about once every six weeks. That's fact. It's not every day. And Dina DeLuca's been closed for ages, dude. What are you talking about? Oh, so where are you eating? Chipotle? Come on now. Chipotle. You know we moved offices, right? Yeah, I know. So now you're going to Hampton Chutney Company, a known wasp establishment. Gross. That place is disgusting. I hate that place, too. But people love it. I mean, we used to get sick. There's nobody I know that's ever eaten. So where are you eating in Soho? Let's fantasize for a second. So let's see. I mean, we were right above Soho Thai, actually, at the new office. So Soho Thai was definitely in the mix. But, you know, I mean, I eat like a 12-year-old. I order pizza. Oh, Pete's Pie Company. They do a chicken pot pie. You ever have it? No, I don't eat meat. You know that.

Oh, that's right. You're one of those people. I forgot. Chris would never eat a pot pie right now. We're always on a strict diet. We're trying to cut calories. The fact that he is over here eating chicken pot pies hauling ass around New York and he's in better shape than we are combined says something, doesn't it? It does say something. I would say genetics, but I don't know. Just for your listeners, I mean... Chris tried to flip it and make it like I was some bougie guy. And obviously in the course of this conversation, we've realized that it's the opposite. No, no, I'm a known bougie guy, but I want somebody to die on the... I'm eating like white trash 12-year-old food and like, you know, God knows what you're eating. Like you're eating like a $30 salad. So come on. No, I'm not. I would never. Well, I mean, luxuries go beyond food. Like have you switched up some soap brands or like are you doing anything? Brendan, you're trying to tell me that you and Estelle don't have Aesop in the house right now to wash your hands. Estelle. Hey, baby, what kind of soap we got? Hold on. What's the soap at the kitchen sink? The hand soap at the kitchen sink. What is it? If you say Myers, I swear to fucking God. Wait, what is it? Soaply. No, but the hand soap. Soaply sounds like a cool new startup. It does sound like a startup. Soap.ly. It's Soaply, apparently. Doesn't sound cheap, I'll tell you that. Right. Okay. Thanks. She's like, wow, sounds like you're doing a cool podcast, babe. This podcast sounds like you're covering some important topics. But Brendan, I'm not going to let you flip this on me because I've seen you wear. I've seen you have a pair of crock, real crock loafers. Yes. Like Crocodile, not Croc the rubber sneaker shoes. Not Croc stamped, like some real boss bougie shit, some Upper East Side shit. Yeah, so those were, and I've had those probably 15, maybe more years. Those were a gift actually from Mark McNary. He made those. Yeah, I mean, look, those are amazing shoes, but I was hoping you paid a lot of money for them. But I mean, I think that- I'm sorry.

I think you do have a taste for the finer things in life, but you're somehow dodging our questions. Well, you're not going to pin it on me because the fact is, like, I would never spend $1,500 or $2,000 on Crockwell. I just wouldn't. Like, I'm fortunate to... You know, they're a gift. Like, I don't know what to say, dude. Wow, what a flex. Do you hear that flex, Jason? Yeah, it ain't tricking if you got it is what it sounds like. It ain't tricking if you got it. Damn, nothing has ever been more real. I, unfortunately, Brendan, am a sucker and absolutely would pay two grand for a pair of crock loafers. 100%. Yeah, I mean, I just started buying, I bought a couple pairs of very expensive shoes this year, and it feels good. I mean, it changed my life. If you're going to wear a shoe every day, you should get the best one that's available, I think. I mean, look, a well-made shoe and a few good shoes do cost a lot of money. It's just that simple. And if you buy a good pair of shoes, you're probably going to have them for a very long time, if not for the rest of your life. So like from an investment perspective, it makes sense. I haven't seen you, although I can't think of the last time I've seen you in a pair of like real shoes. I used to wear them exclusively. I don't know why I stopped. Like something flipped. I feel like last time I saw you were wearing like a Julian Casablanca's level Adidas high top. Like it was a sample or something, but I was like, what the fuck is going on? Why are you wearing Run-D&C shoes right now? Oh, no. They were top tens. Yeah, but that's a – Wow, top tens. It's a pretty extreme look for you. You're talking to a pretty extreme guy, Chris. That's true. Basically what's happened is as I've gotten older, I haven't wanted to – align with my demographic. I think that's called a midlife crisis, but yeah. Instead of a Porsche, I've got top tens, basically. That is more affordable. Much more, especially since there are samples. You've become an old head. You've become an old head. But you don't have any Charvet slippers or anything? No, I own a few pairs of my slipper thing. I've got some really cool Paul Stewart hard sole slippers I used to wear. I've been a fan of Belgians for a long time. You are an OG Belgian. You're one of the first people I ever knew that put me onto Belgians. I'll give you that. They're not cheap. They're like $400 or something.

They're not crazy. No, those aren't crazy. I think anything over 1,000 is when you're talking real crazy talk. Yeah, which I'm not sure I would ever do. Honestly, I don't really spend money like that. What's your running shoe, Brendan? Newton. He's in Newton Head, which is like the OG nerd runner shoe. That's good. That's very cool. And they didn't get bought or anything, right, Brendan? They stayed independent? Yeah, so the last I had heard, because like, They came out. I had to order them online for a while. And then for a couple of years, they were actually available in stores. You could get them at Paragon and Super Runner Shop. And then for some reason, it disappeared. And I had a call with the CEO at the time because I wanted to do something with them. And what turns out, they brought in a former CEO of Quicksilver. And you can imagine how that call went. He was in his car. And he was just not present for the call at all. He was basically just bullshitting me the whole time. And I guess it turns out his focus was like, we're going to streamline the business. And I was like, okay, dude, see you later. So I guess they went through some instruction. Shots fired at Quicksilver. Yeah, he was a joker. But I guess they... Either he did it or someone after him did it, but eventually they restructured the business. And I heard they were going out of business. They did not. They're still here. They're introducing new product now. The shoes are as good as they ever wear. They just hadn't had much of a brand expansion, which I expected by now. I kind of think it's for the best, to be honest. I think what is happening to Hoka, who knows if they can maintain this. Can they go back to a core running brand after being whored out to fashion? Like it's going to, it's going to be tough. I think Newton, like if you buy those, you buy those and there's nothing that is going to turn you off because they've stayed the course. Well, I wouldn't be caught dead just walking around in them. Right. So like, you know, like they're not cool, you know? Yeah. But, but they also could be Balenciaga. You know what I mean? Like ugly, ugly shit like that is like what people pay a thousand dollars for, dude. That's like really what the fact that they're so terribly not cool is what makes them cool.

That's what made Hoka explode. Hoka's owned by the same company that owns UGG, so they knew how to lead it to that. Also, having a shoe that nobody else has at all is also very cool. You guys know more about this than I do. You guys are teaching me stuff. I don't know if that's true. I feel like you know a thing or two. You know a thing or two. You definitely know a thing or two. running shoe market is interesting to me because I only want to wear Nike because they're cool, but they're not good running shoes. I used to have this whole who's good, who's not. I don't care anymore. I feel like if it's good for you, it's good for you. There's different ways things can be good for people. I think they're all the companies from Nike to Addy to Newton to Hoka to Saka. They're all doing what they do, and it's going to appeal to different people for different reasons. Damn, listen to this guy trying to get a running shoe collab with every company out here. You know what, guys? I think everything's great. I would never show any brand allegiance to anyone. If you want to email me directly, you can. Even the good people at Under Armour and Skechers are doing great stuff right now. I think they're really turning it around. That one is mind-blowing. The Skechers one, when they got Ned Kukleski signed up, that was, I couldn't believe it. I think people will do anything for money. That's what the reality is. But I think what you guys, I think it's interesting, like, what you guys did with Soliver is, like, that's a brand that, like, I had maybe heard of in passing, and you guys bring it in, you guys do your own, and now I see them everywhere. That fully happened because of Noah, in my mind. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, I know that nobody in America sold them. And I know that, you know, it was something that was brought to my attention. And, you know, Brian Sweeney, who is basically our design director, was like, oh, yeah, solo bears are great. Whatever. And we started talking about them. And then, like, really, all you have to do is look at them and see that they were just, like, a way better shoe than the other one. I won't say who it is, but, like, it's just a...

superior shoe. It's incredible. They're great. It was such an easy decision for us to be like, let's just do this. We did see an increase in visibility on them after we brought them in. We definitely were told that our next order might be delayed because they were all of a sudden very busy. We were like, you're kidding, right? We made you hot, baby. Come on. You have to save some for us. We've got to wait in line now. Seriously? We had to get out ahead of that and place orders. I stopped myself from getting those green ones because I was like, I just don't need another pair of shoes and I regret it every day. They're great. I have the green ones. They're incredible. I wear them all the time. Do you think there's anything that Hoka can do to turn it around and become cool again? Or is it dumb? I didn't know they weren't cool. This fucking guy. They did outdoor voices, bro. Come on. Dude, you think I'm here paying attention to what all the – I'm not. I mean I probably should be. I know what you are. You're one of those guys at the top. It's like I can't be distracted by what other people are doing. I have to keep my vision clear. Brendan, will you pay us to do that for you, please? We need a job. This is what we do for a living. So I'm seeing a hole in your business structure. First hit is free, Brendan, but if you want to keep this train going, we're going to have to do a little routing number. Hold on. What's happened? Okay. Okay. I'll have Bo email you guys after this conversation. Bo and I have talked before. He has my email address. We've discussed things before. So how are you guys in the midst of all this? How are you feeling? Honestly, I feel pretty fucking good, man. I mean, like, this whole shit is crazy, and I'm a little bored and a little stir crazy, but overall, I've handled it better than I thought I would. I thought I would have a full meltdown. Jason's thriving. He lives in LA, bro. It's different. There's no problems there. Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right. The bubble. I have multiple kettlebells. It's 86 degrees outside. It's 90 degrees outside right now. Fahrenheit. Things are going all right. I mean, other than having no source of income, things are going great. You don't really need money in LA anyway, right? You can just go to your neighbor's orange tree.

and you'll be all set. That's true. That's definitely what he's doing. I have so much citrus from my neighbor's trees in my kitchen right now, I swear to God. But unfortunately, Meyer lemons don't pay the rent. Right. I heard Amazon's hiring. It depends on whether you mean for a driver or in the strategy department. You're more of a warehouse guy. Yeah, I was thinking more pick and pack. Yeah, you're more of a pick and pack guy. Pick and pack. All right, fine. I was actually volunteering. I talked to Justin that does jams, and I was trying to volunteer while I'm in Montreal to go pack his orders because I want something to do. But I think he thought I was kidding. But I'm like, no, bro, I'm ready to, like, I'm ready to work, dude. You know? Like, I want something to do. Like, let me help. I mean, it's crazy, but, like, there's some jobs. Like, you know, I did see, I saw, like, I think it was, like, a TV ad for, like, UPS was hiring, you know? Yeah, because I think that that's, I mean, like anything else, there's businesses that are going to thrive during this shit. They're going to see crazy numbers, you know? And I think that's, like, You can think of what they are, but especially UPS. My mom has mailed me some stuff, and a UPS package got here in three days, and the U.S. Postal Service took two weeks. It was a $20 difference in price. It's like, I'm going to go UPS, and that means they're going to be overloaded, so they need to hire people. Right. Well, they're trying to get rid of the Postal Service, right? Yeah, which I really hate that, actually. The Postal Service. Do we talk about it, Jason? Brendan, I'm sure you experienced this too, but if you grew up into punk and hardcore and shit, USPS was a lifeline. Getting records and communicating with people, it was just so important. I just can't imagine getting rid of it. I'm reading about all these crazy things. They're trying to get rid of the Postal Service. I'm reading about them trying to privatize the national parks where companies will run them.

I mean, they've done that with prisons, right? Which is already a disaster. What if they hired Patagonia to run the national parks? It all depends on who you get in charge. I mean, but it would never happen because, you know. Yeah, it would never happen. You don't think big boy Trump puts on a pair of five-inch baggies to go hit the golf ball around? You never know. Five-inch. They ain't five inch. No, he needs the nine. You know what I'm saying? Brendan, thanks for joining us. I think we've covered it all, bro. Yeah, thanks for having me. I don't know if this was helpful, good, bad, what. No, it was great. No, I think it's nice for us to talk to people a bit. are not only business owners, but parents and just people that think about the stuff a little more critical, a little more critically than others, you know? So, and you know, I'm a, I obviously I'm a, I'm Noah's number one fan. I want to see the brand thrive and survive. So I like to hear reassurance from the man himself. You know what I mean? Because I need to hear it directly from the horse's mouth. Can you give Chris a promo code for the website right now? 15% off. Free shipping on orders over $100 if you use the code. Yeah, actually, the charge for you being on this podcast, I'll send you my personal order when we get off the phone. You can just pick and pack that yourself if you don't mind. I got it. Seriously, no problem. Direct access. Exactly. I want people to know I have it. It's important for me. If you guys want to shop, you know where to go. It's noahny.com is the website. Is that a plug? I wasn't doing this for a plug. I didn't know that was a thing. No, of course you're here to plug. Fill your carts. Dig deep, brothers and sisters. Dig deep. You get some free incense. You know what I mean? What's the Instagram? It's noahny? Instagram is noahclothing.

Okay, got it. And if you need anything from Brendan, just send a smoke signal because he's not leaving the house. Salvation lies in the checkout. Wow. Damn. That's fire. That's a good tagline. Thank you for joining us. Be safe. Tell the family I said hello and we will talk soon. All right. Thanks, dude. Talk to you later, man. Bye-bye.