The Sneaker Savant

Simultaneously, as I was working through the idea - I knew I needed to start getting things in line with a supplier...one of my best friends from childhood moved to China about 15-20 years ago, so I reached out to him - ‘hey man, do you know of any print shops around you?’ He responded with ‘in my town, print shops are like liquor stores in the states - they’re EVERYWHERE. What are you looking for?’

Before I laid the whole thing out to him, I wanted to see if I could get them done in America for cheaper...truth be told I was kinda worried about the China Trade issues our ‘dear leader’ (sic) has been having. So I contacted roughly 20 suppliers in the United States and only 2-3 were responsive. One of them was great - he sent me a pack of samples within a day or two and we were deep into discussions...he explained the process to me and gave me several different quotes.

The other US firm was helpful, too, but the rep wanted me to pay $50 for some basic samples and I dug a bit deeper - why would it cost $50 for a few sample cards mailed from AZ to CA? Come to find out it’s because they weren’t actually creating the cards in AZ, they were actually creating them in China and shipping them to AZ and then to me...huh?

I dug a bit deeper with the other 2 suppliers in the states, and they told me the exact same thing...they were going through China as well. Everyone I talked to (in the states) was acting as a middleman for the print shops in China.

So I went back to my buddy in China, explained the idea through him and, after we went over a few questions, he ran with it. He’s not exactly a sneakerhead, nor is he really a basketball fan, but he saw the value in it immediately. We both did some searching and came upon a supplier that we could both communicate reasonably well with and we started pulling some things together.