Nice Kicks: What made the timing right to move on to start ISlide?
Justin Kittredge: I’ve always had the dream and the passion to start my own business. I saw Reebok heading much more to the fitness and lifestyle realm as opposed to team sports, which I’ve always been passionate about, so it was the right time to move on. I was thinking about what type of company to start for a long time. After I left, it really hit me that the slide market was right.
Nice Kicks: Why slides?
Justin Kittredge: I saw that the slide market was booming. It had double-digit growth for three straight years. I’ve also always been a big fan of customization, personalization and what that means to the consumer. Not just throwing a logo onto something but really giving people the opportunity to express themselves in a way they’ve never been able to do. We want to do a very quality, customized, premium slide that people want to wear every today that really understands the blood, sweat and tears that they have put in for their own individuality. It could be your team, it could be your fraternity or sorority, or it could be individual. One person can go and put their own saying or personal logo on a pair of slides.
Nice Kicks: What’s the process been like getting the business up and running?
Justin Kittredge: It took about seven months to get up and running. We’ve been live for two months and it’s been going great. We had about 16 interns this summer from 11 different colleges. It was an unbelievable opportunity that was twofold. One, I got the opportunity to get young, creative minds in this business. Secondly, I was able to share all of my experience to be a part of something that’s more than just getting coffee everyday.
Nice Kicks: Do your interns also get to hoop at lunch?
Justin Kittredge: We don’t have the full court just yet, but it’s definitely in the works. We did put up a hoop in the office and we do certainly have free throw competitions on a weekly basis.
Nice Kicks: Was it an easy transition making the move from Reebok to running your own business?
Justin Kittredge: No, (Laughs) not in the least bit. I went from having a green corporate credit card that made things very easy, very fun, to living the mac and cheese lifestyle as they say. We’re very frugal with how we’re starting this business because cash flow is extremely important in a start up. That’s probably the biggest difference right now. Trying to hold on to as much cash flow as possible and manage the inventory, the marketing, the sales, the travel, and the hiring of employees with everything we’re doing. My goal is to always hire from within. There are a lot of people that give their time and their effort to ISlide and we’ve already had the opportunity to hire three people that worked as unpaid interns for this company. We’ve been able to reward the people that have given their heart and their soul to the company over time. The goal is that we can continue to hire more people and continue to grow.
Nice Kicks: How has your approached to work changed since you started your own business?
Justin Kittredge: It is the greatest decision I have ever made in my entire life. I’ve never been happier in my life about starting my own business. I’ve always wanted to, but I think people get very comfortable with their way of life and working for a bigger company. There is a lot of perks, but for someone like me that has huge aspirations of growing this into a multimillion dollar company, I come in everyday and I’m very happy. You don’t find a lot of people who come in to work everyday that are truly very happy with what they do. I’ve been very lucky because I’m doing something that I love, I’m around people that have very similar passions, and we’re all on the same team. I’m able to pick my own team which is great. The one piece of advice I always got was “hire slowly, fire quickly.” I’ve had to get rid of one person and it was the worst thing I ever did. The people that we actually do allow to come on board mean a lot to us. It means that we trust them enough to come in and make a difference. That’s what we love. I give a lot of people a lot of work and responsibility with this company. I think people embrace that and come in a very positive way. It’s much more about the company than it is about themselves and I think that everybody kind of goes off that mentality. Seeing the growth and seeing the positive results every single day has us approach things in a very positive way. We see we can do anything as a team.
Nice Kicks: In your opinion, would a college student looking for an internship benefit more from working at a big brand or a start up?
Justin Kittredge: At the end of the day it all depends on who you work for. To me, the people that I have learned from the most and respect the most are the great bosses that have taught me so much, given me advice and really wanted me to succeed. I’ve tried to take that philosophy of having anyone that I have working for me succeed as much as possible. I think when you do that they give just as much back to you.
There really are pros to both. Working for a big company, you’re not going to be doing as much buy you’re going to understand how big, corporate business works. There are definitely pros to that. With a start up, if you work for me you’ll have major responsibility and you’ll automatically grow up way faster than you probably would at a big company. I think the experience that you’d get at a small business like that is invaluable. If you’re gonna go [work for a] small business, you have to make sure and understand that you’ll get a lot out of it so that you learn to reach your goal. I tell every intern I have that ISlide may not be the end goal for them, but if they work their ass off and give me everything they have, I will do everything in my power with all the relationships I have across the industry to get them interviews and get them in front of the right people to help further their careers as best I can.
Keep up with ISlide on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Keep up with Justin on IG @Islidejanitor.
