[ BLANK_AUDIO ] Hi, Facebook. My name is Paulina Mernova and this is Founder Friday. I'm here with Jason Hairston. He's a former NFL player and he now has, he's a founder of a company called Kuiu, a company that sells high performance hunting gear. Jason, welcome. Yeah. This is incredible to be here. Yeah. Read the magazine for a long time and the involvement of Fortune is fantastic. Thank you so much for being here. So I wanna start with your path to entrepreneurship. Sure. So you played football in college. I did. You went on to the NFL. What did you envision doing with your life at that point in time? It's a great question and when you're in college athletics and then you're a professional athletics, you're so focused in life as what you're doing fruitful everyday. What you're gonna eat, what you're doing for training, practice, conditioning, study your film and when it ended for me with an injury it was a really tough time for the first couple years after. I really was lost cuz I hadn't thought past football .>> Yeah .>> I didn't wanna think past football, you really couldn't. So, I really struggled. I got into commercial real estate strictly because it was a great way to make money and I like connecting and talking to people. And I was pretty good at selling things. And so I did that for about five years but I just Really had no attachments to it and I really wasn't excited when Mondays came around. [ LAUGH ] I love the weekends and when I was about 31, 32 years old I was really kinda struggling with my life, as far as, is this it, is this all I'm going to have for a career and I wanted more. And what was the moment though that you decided you know what, I'm gonna start a business because I love doing this so much? It really came on a hunting trip. I was in the wilderness area in Idaho and had always been frustrated with apparel and equipment we could buy through the hunting retailers that were out there And I was buying most of my appointment from [ UNKNOWN ] source. And just thought I couldn't be the only one that's unhappy with the performance of hunting equipment. And as adopting about [ UNKNOWN ] designs of technologies, but they weren't perfect for hunters. They weren't the right colors, they weren't the right design just for a [ UNKNOWN ] locations and fabric and choices because we have to have stuff those [ UNKNOWN ] And just decided to go and do it. I had no experience in the [ UNKNOWN ] industry. No experience in how to build the brand. But I just believe that others would want the same type of product that I was dying for. What was your first step into taking the leap into entrepreneurship? What did you do [ UNKNOWN ] idea. Well, my first step was talking to my wife. [ LAUGH ]. And getting her We're backing it on board and you know Chris is awesome. And she's been so supportive of letting me chase my crazy dreams and doing things that most wives would think their husband's lost their mind. What was her reaction when you told her I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to start a business? She said you can do anything and if this is what you want to do then do it. And let's go All in, which we did. And you have to just to start a business .>> Yeah .>> And so I just started networking and talking to anybody that I could find that know anything about a paren or anybody that had connections with anybody to do with the paren. I went to outdoor retailer which is a large show for the outdoor market and talked to couple of [ UNKNOWN ] suppliers who introduced me to some cut and sowing people that can make some samples. And, kind of one thing to another and I just kept pushing and pushing and Call a network in I was able to get a sample I put together and go to the largest trade show for the hunting market in 2006. And got pick up by one single dealer which I thought was a huge victory and it was one that I'd targeted and convinced to pick us up. And buy in on my concept and idea. And fortunately the samples I was showing him, he didn't look at too closely, cuz they were terrible, looking back. [ LAUGH ] But he loved the concept, and because of that purchase order I was able to truly get into the business. And went and found a factory to make it, and in 2005 launched the brand, and within 18 months, it became the fastest growing, hottest brand in [ UNKNOWN ]. That's, that's amazing. And this brand that you're talking about, this is your first brand this is my first brand called [ UNKNOWN ]. It was, yeah. So, what happened to that company? So we drew incredibly fast. kind of a dramatic story here. Yeah there was. The timing was great. There wasn't anybody doing what we were doing. I've essentially created the entire category of technical apparel and equipment for hunting that didn't exist. And it's quickly is, still is the fastest growing segment in this market. Mm- hm. And it grow over night. And so we raised money We hired people. GORE- TEX approached us to license. Normally companies go after GORE- TEX to get the license. Right. They wanted to be with the hottest brand in the market. They approached- And this is 2009? This is 8. Excuse, yes. 2008 when Gortex licensed us. And then because of the growth we're having we had to raise significant amount of capital and Gortex wanted to be our partner in the business, so we took their investment. And that investment closed in October of 08. It was like two days after we closed on the investment, the market crashed. And things change quickly. And our CFO we were forced to hire for the Gore Investment got very nervous. My business partner became very nervous about the state of the economy, where things were gonna head, wanted to get very conservative and I wanted to get aggressive. And I was very bullish on the brand and the momentum we had. And thought it was a great chance to take market share, and they were thinking it was not time to do that, and so, they got together with Gore, and put a deal together, really, behind my back, without my- Wow. Approval, without my understanding that they were doing it. What was your reaction, as a first time entrepreneur, that happening to you [ UNKNOWN ] Well, it was It was, talk about highs and lows within six months so at the time we took Gors \ g investment we have a two billion dollar, one of the biggest brand names in technical fabrics and the world has just invested in your company. You won and you're gonna turn this into a global brand. And six months later I found out they had worked behind the scenes to push me out of the company I had built from my garage, took all the risk on. And I was unemployed and forced out of the company. My wife was working for the company. She was forced out of the company. And it was, at the time, what I thought was the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my life. And it felt like it. And I felt very betrayed, incredibly heartbroken, and had my dreams ripped out from me. But you weren't about to go work for somebody else. You were like I'm gonna start another company. Well, first of all, they left me very motivated. And during the process of building a brand, during the process of learning about apparel and learning about retail, there was a lot of things that didn't See from my lens that we are right. And I saw the deficiencies of retail much early than others had .>> MmmHmm And you see it now today more than ever as retails, sporting goods retailers in particular. Stores are going out of business and others struggling. And brands within those channels struggling. And felt like the retailer was no longer adding any value. And if I was selling a high end product that had a lot of advantages over the competition, the retailer couldn't explain that well. So price really one at the retail level in our performance products. Tough success, I was having to educate customers about it so they could go to the retailer taken off the shelf. And the [ UNKNOWN ] I was building and selling to Cabela's for 200 [ UNKNOWN ] The consumer for 400. The mark up. And I just didn't think that they earned that $ 200 of value. Got it. And that was one big reason to go create [ UNKNOWN ] the way I did. The other was because of pricing that the retailer needed to sell, I was walking away from the best materials Fabrics and factories in the world. I was making products that were okay for price, but not the best I could possibly make. And I wanted to make the best ever. I wanted to make the best products possible for the customer. And so then you built KUIU. And you're, the models totally different thou right? So you're direct to consumer you're keeping your products out of big box .>> We are. The primary reason for that was a fabric supplier in Japan called Toy. Who I'd find at Sitco we could make the pricing structure work with the materials Were so amazing. And I just could not get that out of my mind. If I could find a way to get that product inventory to market we could build a brand off it. It would be significant and be hard to compete with. And so I went and sat down and looked at a business model to do it and had to cut out the retailer to make the numbers work. And I also didn't believe that if I had said to you hey, the customer Let's give that retail market that they're not getting [ UNKNOWN ] retailer today? Yeah. Let's give it back to the customer. Yeah. And so what [ UNKNOWN ] do was building a much better products selling it to our customers a whole sale and it made a big significant impact to the customer. They loved it. And then because I'm working with the best of the best, the best material factories, suppliers and how I do everything I become completely transparent and I pulled the curtains back on the market and explained to the customers how it all works. Yeah. And why it all works that way. And they loved it. That's what really strikes me about your business. Is you're a profitable business, no VC funding. Nope. And you're about to bring in 50 million- This year we'll do 50 million. In sales. Yep. And we've had recent evaluations of over $ 200 million for the business. So you've been able to grow this just totally organically and I think a lot of entrepreneurs out there are wondering, how can I grow my business Yeah. Through word of mouth, through social media? What exactly youre using to do this. That's what we've done, I mean I build my business out of social media. How? Crowd sourcing I did it with a blog to begin with. Really? And that started in '09 when I first started building the company. So I blogged about building [ UNKNOWN ] 18 months prior to ever launching a product. Like a very transparent? You know I didn't know at the time what really even a blog was or what it would do for the business. I just thought it would be important to let people know what I was doing next. And I wasn't forgotten. From leaving to Sitka to then launching KUIU in 11. And I thought it'd be a good historic look at what I did. I didn't know that it would do what it did. But I blog post once a week what I was doing with the business. What fabrics and materials I discovered that week. What factories in Asia is in and showed them pictures within factories. Explain them what a great factory looks like. What great sewing techniques look like. What seam taping should look like versus improper seam. We're just really taking the chance to involve the customer through the process of building this company and. It created a massive following, and a massive amount of trust. And most people look to the business concept, as investors said, love it, how are you gonna get your first customers to the company, how are you gonna have enough customers to Get the business started before he got a business. And there's two ways to do it. One's raise a bunch of money and spend a ton of marketing like what were partners done in somebody's other brand. Right. Which direct consumer model that's what most to do. And I wanted to do it out of focusing on the product, being totally transfer and building trust. And having a product that's so remarkable that people tell other people about it. And you have to do that through price and quality. And so that was my focus. To do it this way requires more work I believe, for me personally. But, now we've got an amazing customer base and this brand has a cult type following. And, yap. All of these is a by- product of focussing and related things and connecting with the customer, listening to them and, involving them in the entire process of the brand boarding and the produts .>> Got it. So this is very interesting that you talked about trust. Even though hunting is pretty big in the US, I've seen that you've said previously to those still of stigma ,>> Yes. And you said that you're doing your best to educate customers on it. What do you mean by that? I think you hear people talked about, and I've meet people that aren't hunters that talked about hunting in a different light than what the hunting reality is. And the people say to me, well I'm okay with hunting but I'm not okay in trophy hunting. And in their mind, trophy hunting from how they described it to me as, we kill something. We chop its head off and leave everything in the field. Right. And there isn't one person I know that's a hunter that would ever do that. It's illegal to do it. And it's not who we are as hunters. That's not hunting. That's illegal. That's poaching. You see that in Africa. Everything we hunt and shoot, we eat. We love being part of the food chain versus having somebody else to the forest like most people do and the process of being evolved that food chain I eat well, I exercise for input, I train for i guess something to look forward and I guess something to look forward play around and others are dedicated in my whole life To building equipment gear for that and I think it's a great test. Yeah. To go the places that I get to go to and to go to remote places up near the Arctic Circle and get dropped off for two weeks and have to survive. Yeah. There's something very deep and meaningful for that I think more people should experience. Before they cast judgement on those that do. And that's the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about. Yes, like you sell hunting gear to actual hunters, but I've also seen you talk about your company as a fashion brand. So would you see me wearing KUIU gear next month? You know it's, I think you'll see more and more people that learn about Kuiu that tried Kuiu products, start to wear at their hunters and we're already seeing it. And because of the quality performance and the ruggedness of this brand stand for. We're not just a hunting brand, we focus on expedition hunting which is the most severe conditions in the world. The most challenging conditions in the world and it's not like an outdoor, some of it were an outdoor brand Will build a brand off of which is like climbing Mount Everest or K2. Now very few people are ever gonna go do that but they wanna be associated with a brand that sells that dream. Mm- hm. And that's what we do with hunting. That's also how we measure the quality of our products. They cannot fail in those extreme conditions. So when a general hunter or general consumer buys them, they look different. They feel different. They perform different. And they last forever. And people love it. And they love all the details that I spend and share about how I build the products and the materials I buy, cuz all of them have a unique story. Yep. And so what's next for KUIU? What are you doing? You know I originally started the brand as a consumer direct online brand. Right. I opened a small showroom in our original offices that has continued to expand, we now have a thousand square feet. We're doing some humongous numbers through the retail showroom, something I didn't really expect. We've noticed that as we did consumer trade shows, for four days, you cannot get in our booth for four days cuz the crowds, just it's a mob scene in front of us. That we need to take more product out to the consumer. And I won't go to the retail channels. So I'm gonna create my own. And you'll start to see in 2018 retail expansion. There will be small specialty gear shops highly focused on Taking care of our customers with really educated people to help them and they can get set up for the next [ UNKNOWN ] trip and walk at the door confident they got the best and the best self. And so, we gonna [ UNKNOWN ] retail on that hunting. We are also [ UNKNOWN ] experience [ UNKNOWN ] big summer Truck that has pop- out sides and a mobile showroom, 900 square feet. And I'm hoping to put it here in New York, and to let people touch and feel, and experience more of our product. And the growth and expansion of this brand not here, also in Europe, is really exciting. We're opening up a European website next year, distribution in New York next year. All by Word of mouth marketing. We haven't spent a dime to market over there. We have a lot of demand. That's awesome. And I think this would be very useful to any entrepreneur who's looking to get their brand. Yeah, I think there's isn't a better time than today to start a brand. There's crowd funding. There's crowd sourcing. There is Free ways to connect with customers that, and customers today we watch it, and we get to experience what works and doesn't. And it's raw authenticity. We get more views off of an iPhone video than we do off of a production piece a lot of times, right. Yep. Cuz it's real and is authentic and cuz the consumer smarter today than ever and they want to know. And they can tell real from fake. Of course. Speaking of authenticity, we're gonna move on to our random question challenge. Are you ready Jason? I've had about this. Yeah. Ready? All right. So draw a question. This should be interesting. [ LAUGH ] And these questions are made by? You know, just a variety of people. [ LAUGH ] If you could travel anywhere in the world Where would it be and why? And you've traveled a lot. I do. I've traveled all over. I think, because I've spend a lot of time in the mountains, and I've spend a lot of time in Asia and in Europe for business, I would love to go somewhere beautiful and quiet. And I've always wanted to go to Seychelles. Because the beaches are like that, aquamarine blue. But you can't wear your gear there. I know, that's why I wanna go there. [ LAUGH ] That's great. That's great. Okay, let's do one more. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Let's see, what was the last thing you lied about? [ LAUGH ] Speaking of authenticity. And to whom. [ LAUGH ] That is a really, really good question. My wife's really gonna like that one. I'm sure! [ LAUGH ] That's a really good question. I think the last thing I lied about was why I was late. To my meeting yesterday with, and I blamed it on traffic, and really it was my fault because I wasn't paying attention to the clock in the conference room. [ LAUGH ] That's, well, we've all done that. [ LAUGH ] Yeah, that was the last one that I can think of. That's great. I hope they're not all watching this. Well, they'll understand. Okay, let' do one more and then that's it. Hopefully it's a juicy one. Yeah. Those are pretty good one .>> It was. If you had any super powers which one would you have, and why? I would like vionic eyes .>> Vionic eyes .>> Super eyes, so I could see everything .>> That's interesting .>> I would go and see Mark and the places I go, I get to see such amazing things we're have to use binoculars all the time so, and statoscope. So it would be good if I talk to [ UNKNOWN ] on that stuff. Great! Well, thank you so much. Yeah, it's great to be here. Thank you so much. This was fantastic. Thank you Facebook for watching and we'll see you next time on Founder Friday. Thank you. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Meet The Ex-NFL Player Building A High-Performance Hunting Brand

Jason Hairston is the founder and President of KUIU, a technical outdoor apparel and equipment brand.