From Reebok to Syntilay: Footwear Innovation with Joe Foster & Ben Weiss

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Speaker 1 When Rebot got to nearly a billion and got to $4 billion, it's just a machine. There is no excitement.
That is now becoming a corporate entity, which does things and continues to grow.

Speaker 2 You kind of look at this industry and it's like, why are there so many amazing people with massive audiences online? The Jake Paul's, the Mr.

Speaker 2 Beasts of the world, why are they not getting their own shoe deals like the typical basketball athlete? They have lifestyle appeal, they're engaging with their audiences every single day.

Speaker 2 Their fame in their audiences and their fan bases are not a byproduct of something else. They are the product.

Speaker 2 It's every single day that they're building that, and because of their engagement, it has grown.

Speaker 1 Disruption is never a bad thing. And what we're doing now is we're disrupting a bit.
We're trying to do something different. And people love that.

Speaker 3 This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production.

Speaker 3 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month,

Speaker 3 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 1 What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. We're always telling you about what's happening now.
It's not about last year. It's not about next year.

Speaker 1 It's about what's here and now and how you can learn about the latest, the greatest, the innovations, the techniques. And look, if I seem excited, it's because I am.

Speaker 1 I grew up a little boy in Greenville, South Carolina, playing basketball, playing the sports. Wearing Nike most of the time.

Speaker 1 Then along came this Challenger brand that blew the world on fire with those Reebok pumps. We're going straight to the founder of Reebok.
We've got Joe and Ben. They are the founders of Sintele.

Speaker 1 They are one of the first AI 3D printed shoes. The shoes of the gods, let me tell you, I've got them right here on set.
You got to be watching this on YouTube to get it. What's up, Joe?

Speaker 1 What's up, Ben?

Speaker 2 Thanks for having us. It's great to be here.

Speaker 1 It is great to be here. Yes.
Thank you. It's going to be interesting.
Yes, it will be.

Speaker 1 I mean, Joe, come on, man reebok pumps i know you reebok did a lot of stuff a lot of cool things it was way more than the pumps but for ryan offer growing up that was the the icon of icons showing up at school that day getting ready to go on the gym going i'm about to jump over all you cats

Speaker 1 well what the hell i mean we had some good ideas We had some good ideas and we got lucky. Oh, look.
Luck has nothing to do with it, Joe. I know better than that.
Come on. Come on.

Speaker 1 You were the original founder of Reebok, right? That's right.

Speaker 1 With my brother.

Speaker 1 Yeah, with your brother.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 it is an icon in sports and being guy that grew up playing athletics. By a salute to you, I did not imagine a day growing up.

Speaker 1 where I get to, you know, two founders that are innovating the shoe business today, and then one who who innovated it, you know, at least in the original time of Ryan Alford growing up in athletics.

Speaker 1 It's fun, and it's

Speaker 1 what?

Speaker 2 Why shoes, Joe?

Speaker 1 I mean, you seem you can't get out of the shoe business. Well, yes, we,

Speaker 1 my brother and I, we started in the shoe business because

Speaker 1 we had

Speaker 1 an incredible family business. My grandfather started that in 1895.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, his sons, my father and uncle, just didn't really pick up on the genius that my grandfather was. And

Speaker 1 the company really was going down, was failing. So Jeff and myself, we'd just been two years away from the factory doing national service.
And, you know, you learn a lot doing national service.

Speaker 1 You just learn a lot. You learn independence.
You learn to think things through. And we came back and we came back for a failing company.
The only way that we could,

Speaker 1 I challenged my father, I challenged him to say, why are we still making shoes that you made in the 1930s?

Speaker 1 Why don't we own this business? He didn't listen. He just said, Joe, when I'm gone and your uncle's gone, this is your business.
Do what you like with it. And

Speaker 1 all I could say to that was, Dad, we don't want you to go, but this business will be gone long before you.

Speaker 1 The only answer to that was for Jeff and myself to just say, okay, we've got to start our own business. We've got to take it forward ourselves.
And that's how we started Reebok.

Speaker 1 So that's the beginning, and that's 1958.

Speaker 1 And it took a long while, particularly to get into America, where we did. And then,

Speaker 1 you talk about luck. I think we had some good luck.
We had some good turns. Yeah, you work hard.
I mean, it took me 11 years to get into America.

Speaker 1 But when we got there, and then we got into aerobics, we just,

Speaker 1 that was it. 9 million to 900 million in four years.
How do you do that?

Speaker 1 We did it.

Speaker 1 900 million back in what, 19 what? When was 900 million?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That was in the early ages.

Speaker 1 The early 80s, 70s?

Speaker 1 I mean, like, those numbers would be impressive today, but just to hear almost a billion dollars in sales and 100xing the company, like, what did that take?

Speaker 1 Because, I mean, you guys are starting on a new venture here. We're going to talk about Since Lais and everything going on, Ben.
You're coming, man. Your time's coming.

Speaker 1 But, you know, you've done this. You've scaled.
And the times are different, but innovation and excitement and footwear is still popular as hell.

Speaker 1 Well, look, I mean, sneakers or sports footwear, whatever you, mean,

Speaker 1 they've taken over the street. No, that's what you see.
On the street, you see sneakers. That's it.
And so

Speaker 1 even from when we started in 1958, we never had a recession. You know, lots of recessions came along when business was bad.

Speaker 1 In our world, we never had a recession because more and more people want to play sport, want to participate, want to watch sport, and they then buy the product. And so for us, the good luck was

Speaker 1 we were in the right business.

Speaker 1 I remember having a word with a guy in

Speaker 1 New York, and we were talking about luck.

Speaker 1 And he said, Well, to be honest, I'm just lucky that I was born in America and born in New York. Now, he didn't have anything to do with that.
He was just lucky. Same with Reebok.

Speaker 1 We were in the right business at the right time, and

Speaker 1 we made some good decisions. We may have made some lousy decisions, but we made some good decisions.

Speaker 1 And we came up with Hexalite, we came up with the pump and the pump was the one thing that people related to. They sort of felt part of the brand.

Speaker 1 They could just touch that little pump on the shoe and they could make a difference. So it wasn't just putting the shoe on.
They had a, I could say,

Speaker 1 They owned something. They were part of it.
They could work on that. A bit like jumping into a car.
You drive the car, you just don't look at it.

Speaker 1 This is what happened in footwear. You know, we had the pump, and that was great.
You could turn it on, you could turn it off. So it was those sort of things.
And yeah,

Speaker 1 I know we did a lot of good things, but we also had a lot of good luck in being there at the right time. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, shoe culture meets the internet, meets social media, meets AI, meets 3D printing. and here comes, oh, Joe, how did how did Ben pull you back in? Or did he? Did you pull him in?

Speaker 1 Ben, how'd this story go down? The two of you guys.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, basically,

Speaker 2 I was trying to find, yeah, I really wanted to have somebody with, I mean, the expertise that has been there and done that.

Speaker 2 And there's pretty much, there's only like a couple of people in the world that have ever done anything like this, you know, and Joe's pretty much sits alone in this category.

Speaker 2 So I was aware of the Shoemaker book, and I got the book and ultimately read it.

Speaker 2 Great book on just his journey.

Speaker 2 I just saw how he started with barely being able to afford the machines that he needed to make shoes to taking it to number one in the world, better selling than Nike and any other brand at that time.

Speaker 2 I was like, I got to get this on my team. So, you know, reached out online and just wrote to him and said, hey, I would really appreciate taking a meeting.
And this is what I want to do.

Speaker 2 I really want to back content creators with their own shoes, like athletes, and prioritize them like that.

Speaker 2 And we want to do stuff with technology, you know, and integrate technology much more into this space. It just kind of seems like it's been absent.

Speaker 2 And we were talking about gaming at that point in time and integrations into games and wearing shoes digitally because so many of the youth really spends their times in games.

Speaker 2 And it's becoming the next social networks. And it was fortunate that he and Julie took a meeting and I heard they were coming to Fort Lauderdale shortly after.
I'm in Boker Town, so close by.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I got to get some time in person. So I got some time and, you know, and then they decided to jump on.

Speaker 2 got,

Speaker 2 I mean, Joe already was speaking around the world and stuff. So this is, you know, I think a new angle for him.

Speaker 2 And it's a great, I think it's a great thing for us to just be able to, I mean, especially for me, just to learn from his experience. I mean, it's just the greatest experience.

Speaker 2 He was a living legend, and we're fortunate to have him on board.

Speaker 1 I think it says a lot about you, Ben, and,

Speaker 1 you know, respecting and understanding that guys like Joe Foster, author of Shoemaker, founder of Reebok, the value and the insight and the wisdom that they can impart in in today's world.

Speaker 1 A lot of people think they got it all figured out. Well, Joe's forgotten probably more than you and I would ever remember.

Speaker 1 And yet, he's a living legend who's

Speaker 1 conquered the behemoth that was Nike back in the day. And so, Joe,

Speaker 1 how much coercing did it take to get you on board?

Speaker 1 It didn't take a lot, Brian.

Speaker 1 The thing that I remember very well when we started out, my brother and myself,

Speaker 1 the energy, the excitement, the thrills, the challenges. I remembered all that.

Speaker 1 When Reebok got to nearly a billion and got to 4 billion,

Speaker 1 it's just a machine. There is no excitement.
That is now becoming a corporate entity, which does things and continues to grow. So

Speaker 1 meeting with Ben, it was like, wow, I can get back. This is the excitement, the excitement we had.
You know, the chase, the problems, the failures, and the successes.

Speaker 1 Because you get the failures, that means you get a success. It's great.
And Ben has the energy. That's what really brought me into this.

Speaker 1 The energy that Ben has reminds me of, yeah, we're going for it.

Speaker 1 We're going to win. It's not a question of we won't win.
We'll have problems, we'll have this.

Speaker 1 But, you know,

Speaker 1 that makes winning so much better. The problems make it so much better that when you do win, wow, yes, we're there.
So that's why we're with Ben. And so far, it's brilliant.

Speaker 1 It's fabulous. We're into something new.

Speaker 1 AI, 3D printed, scanning your foot for size. That's totally different to what we know for the shoe industry.
So why not be different? Why not disrupt? Okay,

Speaker 1 there'll be problems. We need to move a little bit left, a bit right, whatever it is.
But this is what Ben's doing. And so it's brilliant.

Speaker 1 Ben, talk to me about the product, about what we're ultimately bringing to market. And let's share that with the audience.
You know, I mean, I don't have to necessarily ask the inspiration.

Speaker 1 The inspiration is, I imagine the technology is here to enable these things, but it's just taking advantage of it. But talk to me about that inspiration and ultimately

Speaker 1 what are we?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, we view ourselves, Ryan, as the content creator shoe company, but also there's a lot of brands that have great lifestyle people that have never done shoes before.

Speaker 2 And you kind of look at this industry and it's like, why are there so many amazing people with massive audiences online? The Jake Paul's, the Mr. Beast of the world.

Speaker 2 Why are they not getting their own shoe deals like the typical basketball athlete? They have lifestyle appeal. They're engaging with their audiences every single day.

Speaker 2 Their fame and their audiences and their fan bases are not a byproduct of something else.

Speaker 1 They are the product.

Speaker 2 It's every single day that they're building that and because of their engagement has grown.

Speaker 2 So, you know, I looked at this space and just kind of thought like there needs to be a method that we can, you know, take risks on some of these people.

Speaker 2 And if you look at traditional footwear making, it takes 18 months, a year and a half to go and make a brand new shoe.

Speaker 2 So what if there was a way to go and back them and find out in a couple months if they can make a shoe with an original design?

Speaker 2 Well, if you have AI automated majority of your design, which 70% of our shoe here, the Explorer model, is automated, and then you also have it all 3D printed, then you have the ability to.

Speaker 2 you know, to have no molds whatsoever and you can print on demand.

Speaker 2 So whenever someone orders from us, Ryan, we just make it exactly, you know, when they order and send it to them about four to six weeks later, accustomed to their feed from just images from your phone.

Speaker 2 So, that process now is two to three months. It's three months overall instead of 18 months.
And we can now say, Hey, you're a comedian, let's try to give you a shoe deal.

Speaker 2 You're a WWE performer, let's give you a shoe deal. You're a UFC fighter.
I mean, there's so many areas I've never even got a shot, and now we can give them a shot.

Speaker 1 I mean, I imagine, Joe, it's got some of the things that the technology solves for now. I mean, the print on demand, the exact sizing.
I mean, what's it?

Speaker 1 Is that just

Speaker 1 what if you had that 40 years ago?

Speaker 1 Only 40 years ago, that would have been useful 40 years ago.

Speaker 1 1960, and always like, oh,

Speaker 1 65 years ago. It's a long time.
If we'd had that,

Speaker 1 we'd have been up to it, but we didn't have it. Yeah, we're traditional shoemaking.
And

Speaker 1 to some extent, Sintele may have to go to traditional shoemaking to get the volumes. But, you know, we're still working on the technology.
We're still going to do AI. And we're going to, we'll

Speaker 1 3D print an original so we can look at it. And if we're happy with it, we could change it or whatever.

Speaker 1 I mean, the main thing is that disruption is never a bad thing. And what we're doing now is we're disrupting a bit.
And

Speaker 1 we're trying to do something different.

Speaker 1 And people love that. Like the pump.

Speaker 1 You enjoy the pump. That was something that people could think about and say, wow,

Speaker 1 this is different i like this cintelet is doing something different and you know right now we'll think about what can what else can we do different so it's doing things different

Speaker 1 it's very simple you can go to any factory in south korea or anywhere in asia and say make me a shoe and they can make you a shoe it's it's as simple as that but they're not thinking about it they're just making what they know What we've got to do is to turn that around a bit.

Speaker 1 Let's make a change. Let's make people think.
you know, we're not into volume at the moment, but we're certainly into marketing. We're certainly into selling the name and making people think Sintele.

Speaker 1 That's good. If we can get people to talk about Sintele,

Speaker 1 then we can sell anything to them. And that's the objective: get people to think of Sintelay.
Wow, they're different. Joe, you just gave a master class in building brand, baby.

Speaker 1 You know, that's that's it. You know, like you get attention, you can deploy it wherever you want it.
And that's how much you have to do.

Speaker 1 The audience will have to do it. You know, when Joe Foster drops the brain power on brand building,

Speaker 1 you know, we have to start charging. We have to put this one behind the paywall on this kid.
We got to get that Senselay name out there.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Yeah, Ben, I mean, what's it like bringing this brand to life?

Speaker 2 I think it's an incredible experience. I mean, we're creating something that's so different.
And it's in a white space category. I mean, Joe talks about this too and Shoemaker.

Speaker 2 But, you know, it's really all about finding a niche and doing something different. You know, it's not like we just, we don't need to compete necessarily with where all the brands are today.

Speaker 2 They're all trying to sign the next big basketball player and it's like four or five brands in the same kind of negotiation. Then it's a bidding more.

Speaker 2 Like there is so much influence today outside of that. Half the youth wants to be content creators.
When these other brands are being built, they want to be athletes.

Speaker 2 And, you know, we need a brand built for these types of people that, and that's why we called it scintillate, Ryan.

Speaker 2 It's, it's about going after greatness and being able to walk in these people's shoes and shining in that direction based off the word scintillate, which means like to sparkle or shine.

Speaker 2 Um, you know, greatness.

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Speaker 2 It's in all forms of life. Greatness is in the world of DJing.
Greatness is in the world of UFC fighting. It's in all these different worlds.

Speaker 2 And people need to feel like they can go in that direction and be empowered in that direction.

Speaker 2 And these are who they aspire to be like.

Speaker 2 building that and coming up with this having this new method brought out um to the world that i mean there's this whole new method to make shoes with ai design and 3d printing that drastically changes the cost structure and the time.

Speaker 2 And you can make something brand new original without a template from scratch to launch and give these people the ability to be so creative in this category when they're already so creative elsewhere.

Speaker 2 That's the first phase to get to this, this becoming this content creator, Brandon. We've got the method.

Speaker 2 Now it's about backing these people and giving them a real shot and seeing how the world responds.

Speaker 1 I love that, you know, it's all how you frame questions sometimes. Opportunities, challenges, threats.
Like,

Speaker 1 what's the biggest opportunity and, or second part, challenge to getting to where you want to go?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, we have a lot of potential with this.

Speaker 2 It's massive potential because I think that there are so many people with influence today and so many brands with influence.

Speaker 2 And now it's about delivering something of quality to them and finding the right partners, you know. And if we do that right and we get a couple more case studies, the world is ours in that sense.

Speaker 2 And that category could be the biggest category today in all of footwear. You know, there are more content creators with influence than there are professional athletes in sporting leagues.

Speaker 2 And that's a big deal. You know, and they have already proven merch stores with hats, shirts, shorts, hoodies, and everything under the sun.

Speaker 2 Some of them are selling millions and millions of dollars in that.

Speaker 2 But this category has been vacant. So, I mean, it's about that's one piece.
It's also about just bringing interesting technology or just innovative footwear to the forefront of this.

Speaker 2 I think this space is looking for something really different and exciting. We've got some new developments we're working on.
We can get to the numbers, you know, which I was talking about.

Speaker 2 They're traditionally produced, but still with this Design by Tomorrow ethos and slogan, slogan, which is what we're kind of all about with this AI technology and using that.

Speaker 2 The AI comes up with some really interesting ideas. I mean, you've got the shoes in front of you, Ryan.

Speaker 2 They look like a yacht, the base of it, and then they have this like kind of spaceship texturing around them. You got a yacht bridge on the shoe on the front of it.

Speaker 2 You know, that's something pretty different. And you can't really do that traditionally.
So we want to bring some really unique design elements to the forefront and see how the world reacts to that.

Speaker 2 And there's so many design ideas that you can now do with 3D printing and AI coming up with some of these ideas that weren't possible before. And we're ready to experiment.

Speaker 1 Yeah, tapping into that creator economy. Creator capital is the, it's the here frontier and the next frontier.
It's,

Speaker 1 we're doing, I've got several business partners that are involved in leveraging and building

Speaker 1 investment vehicles around people of influence. And this feels like another one of those things that's just right at the heart of that and really smart.

Speaker 1 How do you start to

Speaker 1 build the awareness within the creator kingdom?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, I think

Speaker 1 this show.

Speaker 1 Well, that was our whole plan, Ryan.

Speaker 1 You came to the right place. You just did.

Speaker 2 We're counting on you.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 2 One of the best ways, I can't.

Speaker 1 Yeah, go ahead, Ben.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think one of the best ways is, I mean, there's two different avenues. There's the social media world and then there's the traditional media world.

Speaker 2 We've done really, really well with a lot of legacy media and traditional media because we have an interesting story. And I think it's become more interesting over time.

Speaker 2 I mean, we're the first brand to bring something out like this commercially, which is a big deal. It's something that you know, no brand has done.

Speaker 2 Nike generated some concepts of shoes with AI that they created, but none of them were wearable.

Speaker 2 And there were other brands that did a digital image generation, but it wasn't something that was, of course, real and physical. And so this now puts us at the forefront of this space.

Speaker 2 And now it's about going to level two of that and, you know, really increasing it.

Speaker 2 But there's been a ton of awareness around that. And we were fortunate to be featured on the front page of USA Today and in the New York Post and print and in Inc and Entrepreneur.

Speaker 2 And we just spoke in Money 2020 in Thailand. Joe and Julie flew out there and I spoke at the event.
4,000 people go to that premier financial conference.

Speaker 2 And we got to talk about brand building and what Joe's done and with Reeblock and what we're doing today. And there's that piece of it, but there's also the experience piece.

Speaker 2 Like it's such a new product. It's so different on multiple fronts.
You have AI designing, you have 3D printing.

Speaker 2 People don't even know you can get fully 3D printed shoes today, let alone something designed by AI, let alone something that's custom-made to fit you.

Speaker 2 That you can, people don't even know that's possible. So, you've got like these, we've got a couple angles here that have to be explained.

Speaker 2 So, we're going to start soon a series of in-person content, getting people's reactions, explaining what it is to it because it's so different.

Speaker 2 And I think that that's another piece of communication that's going to be essential here.

Speaker 1 Joe, what do you make of this new media world?

Speaker 1 It It's absolutely amazing. And

Speaker 1 the good thing about it is that you're there. Ben is there.

Speaker 1 For me,

Speaker 1 I can let you guys go at it because it was different in my day. We didn't have computers.
We didn't have smartphones. In fact, I'd even stepped back from Reebok before we got computers.

Speaker 1 And then when we did get computers, we got Wikipedia and we got Google. And they started telling me this is how Reebok

Speaker 1 started. And

Speaker 1 it was so wrong I had to write a book.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that was it. And then the book became something that the universities picked on.
And they said, this is a business book. This tells a story because you started with nothing.
And we did.

Speaker 1 We bootstrapped. For those first 10 years, we bootstrapped.

Speaker 1 But it was fun. You know, we had a lot of fun.
And that's what I say to Ben today. You've got to have fun.
Enjoy it.

Speaker 1 Because, you know, even though there's some tough times, you take some punches, you've got to ride them. You got to work your way around it and then deliver your own punches.
And that's what Ben does.

Speaker 1 He's delivering punches. And

Speaker 1 it's a story.

Speaker 1 Reebok has a brilliant story from 1895. Now we're building a story for Sintele.

Speaker 1 And people love stories. And we'll come out with that product.
This is a product which is original, but we'll come out with the pump. We'll come out with something and it'll be good.

Speaker 1 And everybody will be talking about us. And I think they're talking about us now.
But yeah, that's what we're looking for.

Speaker 1 Get the name out there. Then we'll give them the product.
Talking with Ben Weiss and Joe Foster. Joe's the founder of Reebok, author of Shoemaker.
And so, guys, let's,

Speaker 1 it's

Speaker 1 the democratization of media is fascinating.

Speaker 1 You know, like, Joe, wouldn't you have killed to be able to run some free ads back in the day, so to speak, with all the social media that you can do that, you know, you just hit two buttons and you might go viral.

Speaker 1 That's a crazy world.

Speaker 1 It's a crazy world. It really is.
But, you know, that's the beauty of tomorrow.

Speaker 1 As Ben said, you know,

Speaker 1 our strap line now is designed by tomorrow. And

Speaker 1 that's what we're looking for.

Speaker 1 What is tomorrow?

Speaker 1 Tomorrow is not here. It never arrives, but you keep on moving towards tomorrow.
And

Speaker 1 I think if you've got the energy and you're in a position to talk about tomorrow this you know people people think about it people stop you know people just don't like doing the same thing buying the same thing they love you know i hope you're still buying reebok but uh that's another thing i do

Speaker 1 you've got to create that you've got to create that desire that sort of willingness to become part of the brand.

Speaker 1 And we always wanted people to become part of the brand, you know, to love the brand that much

Speaker 1 because we did. We love the brand.
And if you love it, then fine, you can sell it to other people. And if they love it, they sell it to more people.
And that's what we're doing with Sintele.

Speaker 1 Now we're getting people to love the brand and to sell that brand to other people. And that's the excitement.
That's the energy. And Ben has tons of it.
Ben,

Speaker 1 talk to me about the reaction, you know, when you're speaking at these conferences, when you're talking to people.

Speaker 1 What's been the, you know, the energy, the discussion? Like,

Speaker 1 where are we trying to navigate the ship? Obviously, elevate the brand name. We have the AI and the 3D printing now.
But, you know, what's the react, two parts?

Speaker 1 Like, what's the reaction to, you know, when you guys are talking about these things? And kind of where are we trying to navigate this ship short term, long-term?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, the reaction is people are fascinated by this. I mean, they want something different in this space.

Speaker 2 We found an interesting white space and they're like, wow, I mean, AI can make real physical products and it can make shoes. And people, I think, are kind of taken back by it.

Speaker 2 I mean, we even use ChatGPT to help make this, like for some of the shading. So, you know, it's amazing what some of these tools can do today.
And people are surprised by that.

Speaker 2 And then when they feel it, they're like, wow, 3D printed shoes are actually soft and comfortable. And I could have a really good experience with 3D printed shoes.
I mean, people are so surprised.

Speaker 2 They think of it being way harder, you know, the feeling of the material and all of that. But in fact, it's really the opposite.
It's an amazing, super comfortable experience.

Speaker 2 So there's that from the product side. I mean, just in general, like from us as a brand, I mean, Sintele has gotten out there a lot more now.

Speaker 2 And people are really excited about what we're going to do with some of these collaborations.

Speaker 2 Also, how we're going to scale with a traditionally produced product that's designed by tomorrow that has this AI technology design approach with it.

Speaker 2 And so that's something that we're really working towards, you know, towards all the time.

Speaker 2 And I think that that's going to really help take this to many more people and get them to experience some really futuristic and interesting design.

Speaker 2 And hopefully we can 3D printing can keep scaling and we can do millions of units of 3D printed shoes at more affordable costs. And we can bring that experience to more people.

Speaker 2 But we want to bring this in person. We want people to go and touch and feel 3D printed shoes and understand what those are like.

Speaker 2 And we're working on something now that's going to open fairly soon that will involve an in-person scanning experience to get your feet scanned and then get a custom-made shoe.

Speaker 2 We'll be able to touch and feel them and see what they're all about. So, we understand what people are saying, and we're moving towards that direction.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, pop-ups, baby. Pop-up, you know, you got a little pop-up shop with

Speaker 1 someone can feel what it's like. And let me tell you, I'm holding this.
I've picked this up no fewer than 10 times while we've had this interview.

Speaker 1 That's why I mandated that I had the product because I wanted I had to first try it and so I could promote it. And it is like walking on the clouds of the heavens.

Speaker 1 And it feels unlike anything you would expect from what can be 3D printed. And I got a text while on this episode from Kanye West who says he's jealous.

Speaker 1 He wants some slides like these. Okay.

Speaker 1 He wishes his slides look like these. Ben has a pop-up shop coming in New York.
Tell him about you, Ben. Yes.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we've got an experience. We're opening up soon.

Speaker 2 We can't fully say everything about it yet, but it's going to be in the heart of New York City in a spot that hundreds of thousands of people

Speaker 2 walk by daily.

Speaker 2 And in that spot, we're going to have this machine you'll be able to walk onto, a really high-quality scanning machine powered by the same company we're using now to do our digital scan.

Speaker 2 But it will get much more data.

Speaker 2 And we'll be able to really create a very high-quality, custom-made 3D printed shoe

Speaker 2 based on that data that we get. And that's going to be like a whole experience.

Speaker 2 I mean, when do you get to ever walk onto a machine and get your feet scanned and get a custom-made 3D-printed shoe to fit you exactly? And it's going to be the best scan we can possibly do today.

Speaker 2 And I think it will even improve shortly after.

Speaker 2 But it's almost like there was a recent video that went very viral, Ryan, with the Cleveland Browns with one of their players walking onto a machine, getting his feet scanned, getting a custom-made cleat done.

Speaker 2 This experience democratizes that now.

Speaker 2 Anybody can go and get their own custom shoe. And with the right fit, the kind of experience you can have casually,

Speaker 2 it's incredible. And it really just improves the way that you move in general.
And so that's something that we think we're going to be able to bring to hopefully hundreds of thousands of people

Speaker 2 that come by that area. And it's happening fairly soon, early July, is our goal to bring it out.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, they say people forget what, you know, the words that you say, but they never forget the way you make them feel.

Speaker 1 And so that experience within, you know, the pop-up and the innovation meets the cloud,

Speaker 1 you know yeah

Speaker 1 a lot of uh the true cloud on the cloud

Speaker 1 design in the cloud worn on the cloud

Speaker 2 we got a good quote from you ryan we gotta we gotta get permission from you to use the walking on heavens clouds i like that one oh it is it i'm telling you like i

Speaker 1 joel can attest to this i started walking i'm like i feel like i'm you know not only do i look like a god because they're so like dynamic looking but then the way they feel like I couldn't believe how, I was expecting something really rigid.

Speaker 1 And like you said, being able to print, you know, with the same material, but different, I don't know, cushion with the hard, you know, the bottom feels secure like you'd want your heel to feel, but then there's something really aerodynamic.

Speaker 1 I don't know what it is. I mean, I don't know how the pressure points are, but it's just, it really does just feel

Speaker 1 very comfortable. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, what you said right there was just you thought it was going to be much harder. Like that's something that's a like this is an online only purchase right now, you know, direct to consumer online.

Speaker 2 That's why we're bringing it in person to people because everyone thinks a lot of people think it's hard. But in fact, it's the opposite.
It's walking on heaven's clouds.

Speaker 1 So you know, that's what we're trying to get.

Speaker 1 What are we going to leave behind for our audience here?

Speaker 1 Let's hit on where they can learn more, where, if you can name it, you said just kind of still top secret, you know, the pop-up and all the any of the calls to action for how

Speaker 1 they get scintillated with Sintele.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, scintillate.com is our site, S-Y-N-T-I-L-A-Y.com. That's a great place to learn more about what we're doing.

Speaker 2 And we also have a nice page on what our AI design approach is and what that means and why that's better for you

Speaker 2 from a design standpoint and how different it is overall. So, that's a good resource, of course.

Speaker 2 But, yeah, I mean, this will be in the heart of New York City. You know, it's going to be right around the Times Square area.
So,

Speaker 2 that's the goal. I mean, it's for people to come over there and check it out.
And our plan is July for us to have this available. And we're really excited about that.

Speaker 2 I think it's going to be something that will finally make this space understandable to people, but the whole space in general is just still so new.

Speaker 2 And then LinkedIn is a great way to

Speaker 2 reach us and connect.

Speaker 1 Joe,

Speaker 1 where can

Speaker 1 I leave all the socials to Ben and stuff, but

Speaker 1 Shoemaker, great business book.

Speaker 1 Where can people keep up with what you are still doing?

Speaker 1 Becoming, being and becoming

Speaker 1 an old legend and becoming a new one.

Speaker 1 So, what's our email these days there?

Speaker 1 Chat.

Speaker 1 Chat

Speaker 2 at JW Foster Heritage.

Speaker 1 JW FosterHeritage

Speaker 1 dot com.

Speaker 1 That's my assistant who reminds me all the time. My wife.

Speaker 1 As Ben knows, she again has a lot of energy and brings a lot to

Speaker 1 what we're doing.

Speaker 1 I love it. And we'll have that in the show notes for everyone.
We'll beef up the audio there and we'll have it in the show notes for how to reach out and stay in touch.

Speaker 1 Gentlemen, it's really been a lot of fun. Yeah, we agree.

Speaker 2 This has been a good one, Ryan.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I appreciate you guys. Hey, you guys know where to find me.
RyanisRight.com. Hey, if you want to get to tomorrow, you got to start with what is kicking today.

Speaker 1 And it's these, Sintalay. We'll have all the highlight clips, the full episode, and where you can buy these amazing shoes all in our show notes.

Speaker 1 And you can find them on my social media at Ryan Alford. That blue check before you can buy it, baby.
We'll see you next time. Right about now.

Speaker 3 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 3 Thanks for listening.