Don't Look Sideways
When the sky is this beautiful, I can never stop myself from taking photos of the Kellogg Global Hub (Photo by NGL)
Every week features a new newsletter from Nathan Graber-Lipperman examining how culture influences business, telling a story from his entrepreneurial journey, and peeling back the curtain on everything Unplugg’d. This week he writes on adjusting the measuring stick for yourself and not others while touching on Netflix’s incredible improv special and Nike SB’s latest foray of fuego.
This past Wednesday, Northwestern held its pitch competition, VentureCat, in which a pool of over $300,000 was awarded to 25 different student startups all vying for the grand prize of $150k. Put on by The Garage (Northwestern’s space for student startups), the Kellogg School of Management, and other entrepreneurial programs at the university, the annual event is an awesome opportunity for the Northwestern community to come together and celebrate the art of the pitch.
Or so I felt, when I took it in last year. It’s held in the Kellogg Global Hub, which sits right next to Lake Michigan and shimmers in the sunlight that’s usually managed to squeeze itself out from behind the winter clouds come May. I sat among an eager, excited audience, all the while picturing myself on that same stage in one year’s time.
That was the track I had laid out for myself. I had dabbled in the world of student pitch competitions since I got to college, slowly ramping up what I deemed to be the prestige of the programs I entered. It would all culminate with VentureCat my junior year, the granddaddy of them all, where I would aim to bring home some cash and channel most of my time and energy into scaling the business until I graduated.
But then the application period came and went without me entering. I wasn’t really in the right headspace to craft a deck and deliver it, I decided.
Besides, at this point in time, what the hell would I even be presenting? Sure, I could bullshit and throw something together. But I was running a company that had brought in $1,500 in the previous year in its entirety before I took a break for the first three months of 2020. I had no business pitching a business.
I’ve always thought of myself as someone who is extremely intrinsically motivated, that external signs of validation never really pushed me to the same extent as the expectations I set for myself. I used to be driven by the idea that no matter what I did, there was always someone out there working harder than me. That imaginary person I pictured in my mind never cared about what school I got into, or how my resume read, or what I’d accomplished by the time I turned 21; every time I laid down to rest for something as simple as a 20-minute nap, that person was laughing in my face before tapping back into the #grind.
I’m not an outwardly competitive person, but when the adversary is inside my head, I can get pretty damn motivated to win. This has led to many late nights where I felt there was no option other than to tediously touch up that one graphic, or slave over two sentences for hours.
And as I’ve written, it led to me not taking care of myself, and burning out.
After talking to a friend who was a little down due to putting themselves out there in a professional capacity and getting denied, I knew what I wanted to write about this week. Don’t look sideways. Competition can be a good thing in moderation, yet you don’t want to constantly compare your successes and failures to your peers. I strongly believe that while hard work is important, it’s healthier to control it on your own pace and not worry about fitting onto someone else’s schedule.
When following this year’s iteration of VentureCat — which was held entirely over Zoom — did I feel a pang of jealousy for some of my peers and the success they were achieving? I mean, as much as I believe in myself, I would be lying if I said I avoided envy altogether, as well as a feeling that I wasn’t accomplishing enough.
Nonetheless, I’m glad I have a set of goals, a bedrock to fall back on, a why. I know what interests me and what kind of ventures I want to pursue; I know that making other people happy drives me; and I know that it’s okay to take time in shaping a grander vision.
Also, good stories have always helped me when I get down, particularly those of entrepreneurs who accomplished success in their own time, even as people questioned them along the way. I recently listened to the episode of How I Built This with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-creators of a beloved American brand synonymous with dessert. Ben was a perpetual college dropout and a potter struggling to make ends meet, while Jerry was a failed medical school student. The childhood friends reconnected and decided to take a course on how to make ice cream before working towards starting their own shop in Saratoga Springs, New York.
They never made it to opening day, though. Turns out, another store beat them to the punch. So Ben and Jerry packed up their stuff, scoped out Burlington, Vermont, and set up shop in the cold Green Mountain State. By purposefully avoiding competition and focusing on what they could control — working really damn hard — that little ice cream parlor grew from a big fish in a little pond to one of the most recognizable companies in the world.
Also, in scaling their venture as a B Corp, they’ve been able to make their brand stand for good along the way through stances such as backing prison reform and climate justice. Even with the duo no longer running the show, the business consumers have grown to know and love only works with the brand built from scratch in New England.
To sum, I’m really happy for all my peers who are out there killing it. I’m also really content with where I’m going and what I want to do as I look to achieve more balance in my life while also growing my business. After all, at the time of writing, we’ve topped $650 of revenue in the month of May, which may not be a lot yet certainly registers as an extremely important figure to me. When you start to boil it down, $100k in annual revenue is $8,333 a month, which amounts to roughly 400 t-shirts sold per month. It’s not like we can just flip a switch then all of a sudden sell half a thousand items…but it’s certainly doable, and I’m excited to keep building and building this thing into something truly special.
Also, as I write this, we’re set to donate over $200 to PPE distribution and food donations; you can help bump that number up by purchasing items from our collab with EndingCOVID before it sells out entirely! I’ve really enjoyed working on this project with Tejas because I think he strives to embody one of things I value most — empathy. You can follow along with his venture as they continue to do awesome things in St. Louis, too.
And finally, one last housekeeping thing. We’re introducing a referral program for our mailing list; refer 10 different people, and get a free mystery t-shirt from our store shipped to your door! Log onto beunpluggd.com/letters, sign up a friend’s email (with their permission), and start racking up those rewards points.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @bynategl and Unplugg’d @unplugg_d. Alright, let’s get into it!
Links (and Other Things)
“If It’s Not Fun, Why Do It?”
When I talk about what I want to do as a career, there’s three things that flow concurrently: branding, storytelling, and design. However, it’s not like “brand strategy” is an easy thing to explain to your grandma, so I often get frazzled and frantically search for an example of what this job entails.
(Photo via Sneakernews)
And when searching for examples, it’s hard not to come back to Nike because the Swoosh does all three of these things so damn well. Look no further than the Nike SB x Ben & Jerry’s “Chunky Dunkys,” which retail for $100 and are already reselling for upwards of $1.5k.
The marketing team at Nike has done so much, so well with this release that I don’t even know where to begin. I guess we’ll start with the partnership: as I wrote about above, when it comes to awesomely unique brands, you can’t get much better than Ben & Jerry’s. Flavors like “Cherry Garcia,” “Phish Food,” and, of course, “Chunky Monkey” stand out when walking into your local grocery store; hell, they’re even the shop that first tried mixing cookie dough into ice cream!
Next, though, comes the intricate details found on this pair of kicks. Mismatched faux cow leather and a melting swoosh complement the familiar rolling-green-mountains-and-sky-blue design found on Ben & Jerry’s packaging. Other aspects of the design certainly stand out, such as the stitched “Chunky Dunky” text on the tongue tag, hippie-infused tie-dye inner lining, and “BEN & JERRY’S x NIKE SB” lettering (in the B&J font, too!) on the insoles. I think what I love most about these, though, is the message found on the inside of the tongue:
Of course, that’s the slogan Ben & Jerry’s has used for years. I’m a sucker for little Easter Eggs like that. One of my favorite sneakers I own, the Jordan 1 DMP “Celtics,” celebrates the 63-point clinic MJ put on against the 1986 Boston Celtics with the words “APRIL 20, 1986 - 63 POINTS” upside-down on the tongue. The Concepts x New Balance 999 “Seals” (another personal favorite) is a nod to the combat boots Navy SEALs wear, featuring Morse Code on the tongue that spells out “CNCPTS,” the famous sneaker boutique in Harvard Square.
I’m not sure if anything tops the Jordan 3 “Doernbecher” for me, though. Originally released in 2010 before retroing in 2013, it’s part of the annual collaboration between Nike and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon, in which the Swoosh works with young patients to create limited-edition sneakers and proceeds to donate all the profits to the hospital. If you sneak a peek behind the pull tab of the 3s, there’s spaghetti wrapped around a fork on the left shoe and a half-eaten chocolate bar on the right, a nod to designer Cole Johanson’s two favorite foods at the time.
Coming back to the B&J collab, though, I think the final thing that pushes these over the edge for me is how they’ve packaged the whole thing — literally and metaphorically. The Friends and Family special edition they sent to Nike SB athletes is insane, coming in a Styrofoam freezer with ice packs and various pints of ice cream. Most importantly, though, athletes received a custom Chunky Dunky shoe box that doubles as an oversized pint tub...with the shoes inside. Oh, and if you were wondering, the special edition is currently reselling for $4k.
In terms of how they’ve marketed the thing, the hype from pictures alone seems to have done the trick, though animations like this certainly help. However, just read the write-up Nike did on their website:
“Ben & Jerry’s has done things its own way since humbly serving its first scoop in 1978. The company is world renowned for producing high quality ice cream—but the Vermont-based brand has always remained committed to its core values of doing good and having fun. In recognition of that shared ethos, Nike SB is churning out a chunky rendition of the Dunk Low featuring hues and textures that mimic Ben & Jerry’s signature packaging. Blue skies, bovines and green pastures all appear in familiar form, while colorful tie-dye patterns and bold text graphics cover the shoe’s insole and heel. Dip into this delicious edition before it gets gobbled up.”
The special edition packaging for the Chunky Dunkys.
What I admire most about this whole collaboration was the amount of time the folks in Beaverton took to really understand the company they chose to work with. They could’ve easily mailed it in by slapping a B&J logo on a pair of Dunks and called it a day, but the amount of creative energy embedded in these sneakers really shines through, driving the hype and leading these to sell out immediately.
Oh, yeah — they came out this morning, and I wasn’t able to cop a pair. Happens to the best of us.
Why did I spend so much time this week writing about sneakers? The takeaway isn’t so much that sneakers are awesome (no bias). No, it’s to show why I’m perpetually drawn to the sneaker industry. I believe it’s a breeding ground for some of the most zany, out-there ideas to transition from a creator’s head into a real product consumers will buy en masse. Oftentimes, it’s the industry’s best storytellers and stories that stand out and grow respective legacies over the years.
TOTW: Mars Blackmon Returns to the Silver Screen
I don’t nerd out about directors often, but Spike Lee is one of my favorites simply because it often feels like he’s operating on a different plane than the rest of us normal humans. Do the Right Thing — one of my Top 10 movies ever — takes 125 minutes to expertly capture the essence of a sizzling summer day in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Crime thriller Inside Man weaves together a complicated plot and twist ending with ease, while BlacKkKlansman portrays an all-too-real world of hate in succeeding as a black comedy.
So yes, you can chalk me up as excited for his upcoming flick, Da 5 Bloods.
The film — which will be a Netflix original release — tells the tale of four veterans who return to Vietnam and begin to confront the horrors they experienced during the war. But there’s an awesome twist: whenever Da 5 Bloods dabbles into the main characters’ history, the frame rate and aspect ratios change to match the cameras of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Also, we get to see Chadwick Boseman in these flashbacks, as T’Challa trades in the panther claws for camouflage and plays the quartet’s fallen squad leader as they search for his remains (as well as buried treasure) in present time.
Even though there’s a few stinkers in his filmography, given the setting of this film, the crazy teaser, and Lee’s track record, I’m confident that Da 5 Bloods will be an awesome ride. It’s a good thing you won’t need to go to theaters in order to see it, too, so steal your older brother’s Netflix password like me and give the movie a go come June 12!
What I’m Watching: Middleditch & Schwartz (2020)
(Netflix)
I’m a longform guy, so I’m probably the last person you’d turn to if you were looking for someone to fill in as the last member of your improv troupe. Nevertheless, I’ve grown an affinity for this form of comedy since getting to college, having seen several student groups perform and even making it out to Second City this past winter.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when turning on Middleditch & Schwartz, a three-show improv special from Netflix and titular comedians Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz. Both rose to fame as stars with the popular YouTube channel CollegeHumor before going their own separate ways. Middleditch starred as Richard Hendrix in the irreverent startup bro comedy Silicon Valley, while Ben Schwartz popped up in Parks and Rec as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein and — more recently — voice acting gigs such as Sonic the Hedgehog and DuckTales.
I think seeing the duo in those various roles over the years — approaching the mainstream but never quite crossing over into it — made me forget how damn funny they both are, respectively. And Middleditch & Schwartz might be that proper introduction to said mainstream. The only props they have are two chairs, but it’s more than enough as they craft sketches together based off of several facts they get from a random audience member at the beginning of each show.
The comedians don’t take themselves too seriously, and you shouldn’t either when watching Middleditch & Schwartz. It’s legitimately smart, gut-busting humor, all made up on the spot. I think I liked Episode 2 the most, where they start in a law classroom before going off the rails, but pop in just one episode and you’ll find it incredibly difficult to not binge all three.
Except for if you’re that one condescending dude from Maryland who likes to mansplain everything in the classroom. I wonder what his thoughts on the show were.
NGL is an O.G. sneakerhead, diehard Big Lebowski fan, and huge ultimate frisbee nut. You can follow him on Twitter here and sign up for his newsletter here.