PPB September 2018

Rising Stars | FEATURE His Inspiration The most incredible people I interact with daily are our team members in the Philippines. We have our own production facility there and the way our workers approach their jobs is immensely inspiring. They come to work each day excited, determined and effective. I aim to go into the of ce each day with that same energy. On a business level, it’s LeBron James. He is the greatest of all time. His passion for becoming the best and his ability to motivate himself while already at the top of his craft is inspiring. What’s Next Our goal is to become the largest sock company on earth. Period. While we know this will take much longer than 24 months, we make all our decisions with that end goal driving us. Best Advice Just start! When we began Strideline we had no idea what we were doing, but it was incredible to experience how, by refusing to move anywhere but forward, we were able to make connections where we needed and nd solutions to our problems. Jake Director, 28 Co-Founder Strideline, LLC J ake Director launched sock specialty supplier Strideline nearly 10 years ago with co-founder Riley Goodman while they were still in high school. Both lacrosse players, they wanted to buy colored crew socks to wear during games. “Turns out those were hard to find,” says Director. “And just like that, we discovered our niche in the market.” Their partnership was destined early in life: he and Goodman were born at the same hospital, on the same day, just hours apart. They lived in the same town and attended the same schools. Their first aspiration to enter the wearable products industry was an idea for a t-shirt company cooked up on the school bus in the third grade. The pair started by selling socks out of the back of an SUV and traveled to lacrosse tournaments throughout their home state of Washington. Relatively quickly, they received recognition from some large retailers and started selling to Nordstrom, Macy’s and Lids. When they were approached by Microsoft to create custom socks for the company’s health initiative, it was the impetus to take the next step into the promo market. They bought a 40-foot by 40-foot space at The PPAI Expo in 2015 and launched Strideline. Today, it’s a multinational company with nearly 300 employees between the Seattle home office and the production team in the Philippines. Employee and nominator Molly Dietz says, “As the company grows, Jake and Riley continue to push the company to innovate and adapt to the changing market landscape, such as with their speed-to-market model. Purchasers are becoming accustomed to faster production and delivery, so suppliers need to keep up.” Director adds, “We really believe the future of custom apparel will be built on super high speed and high-quality products. That’s the systemwe are looking to build.” | SEPTEMBER 2018 | 31