Cleveland Bolt Co RESPONDS | Tristan Speaks On The Fallout, Drama & Allegations | S4E168

On this week’s episode of the USAFBL Fingerboard Podcast, we sit down with Tristan from Cleveland Bolt Co for Part 2 of one of fingerboarding’s most talked-about stories right now.

After Part 1 featuring Mondo’s perspective, Tristan joins the podcast to respond to the allegations, explain his side of the fallout, and talk about what really happened behind the scenes during the rapid rise of Cleveland Bolt Co.

We also dive deep into the current state of fingerboarding, hype culture, consumerism, tuning, hardware, and what it takes to build a successful fingerboard brand in today’s scene.

⚑CONNECT WITH TRISTAN⚑ 
Instagram ➜  https://www.instagram.com/tankedandtatted
Instagram ➜  https://www.instagram.com/cle.bolts

Transcript

speaker-0 (00:06)
Welcome to USAFBL fingerboard podcast. I'm your host, LeVine Cunningham. And today I've got Tristan of Cleveland Bolts. Also, you can find him on Instagram as tanked and tatted. That's his personal account. Tristan, welcome to the pod. How you been? Good.

speaker-1 (00:20)
Good, thank you for having me. This is gonna be a cool conversation. I'm excited to be here.

speaker-0 (00:25)
Definitely. You are one of the most premier bolt tuning company like in the United States right now. You're on fire. Like crazy following. Everybody's hyped. You got sold out drops. Like you're doing the thing.

speaker-1 (00:42)
Yeah, it's crazy. It came on suddenly, but honestly, I'm very, very grateful for the support and the reaction from the community. It's been nothing short of amazing, but I appreciate the kind words. Premier Fingerboard business in the US is a, that's a big claim, but ⁓ I'll take it. Thank you.

speaker-0 (01:03)
Yeah, I mean, there's not too many bolt companies out there like period. think there's like six screws and like maybe another company I can't really kind of think of off the top of my head, but it's a it's not a very saturated category of finger boarding. And so the fact that you guys came in and came in strong, it just hit it and hyped it up and made bolts cool. Like out of all things, you're like, how does bolts become cool? But you guys went out and did the thing.

speaker-1 (01:28)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess it, it was the one thing where it's like, if you really enjoy this and you want to create and express yourself and be a part of the community, you have to think about, what's, what's absent from the community? What's something that I love and enjoy about skating and or finger boarding that I could bring. And for me, it was, I always express myself on my skateboard with bags of shake, junk bolts or crux or whatever it might be.

It's like colorized screws. Other than G sheets, I didn't know any company that was still doing it. And so it just made sense that, ⁓ you know, we take that route and see where it goes. And I think from the original green and gold commemorating the shake-junt bolts, people just resonated with it. And it's been awesome ever since.

speaker-0 (02:21)
Okay, all right. So I see the green and gold, you're Cleveland Bulls. It's safe to assume that you are out of Cleveland, Ohio.

speaker-1 (02:29)
Yes, yep, the company is based out of Cleveland. So it's where where I'm from. Don't live there anymore. But still what you would call a surrounding area, the greater Cleveland area. So

speaker-0 (02:42)
Okay, okay. Well, I know that you guys went on to Fingerboard Con a week or two ago and you guys were on a panel and you guys kind of talked a little bit about your background, but I kind of want to go a little bit deeper into like how you got into finger boarding, skateboarding, and kind of get that like little history behind the culture with you.

speaker-1 (03:07)
Yeah, for sure. ⁓ so I guess I'll start like all the way back for me growing up. My, my parents were, were super supportive of like anything I wanted to do. But I think the person who really cultivated who I became as a, as an individual and gave me my kind of uniqueness was my grandpa Mickey. And from, you know, motorcycles, skateboarding, just hockey and like anything kind of.

mainstream, but still a little different. He influenced me in that regard. And at five years old, I saw skateboarding on the TV and I was like, that looks cool. And he had an old Pal Peralta fish deck. That was my uncle's when he was a kid and he was like, well, let's see how good you are at it. And he took me outside and basically the rules were simple. You're going to figure out how to do this and you're not coming inside until you do. And,

So barefoot in Cleveland, Ohio, terrible street conditions, by the way, I had to figure it out. And I'd say within probably the first month, I was able to rip around ⁓ at a very young age on this giant fish deck, old school board. And ever since that, was just adding to the collection. You my dad would take me to a skate shop, buy me decks, and I beat the heck out of them. I mean, just skating.

non-stop whenever I could. It was my life for most of my childhood.

speaker-0 (04:43)
Okay, when did finger boarding kind of get into the mix?

speaker-1 (04:47)
Fingerboarding was, I guess, always around. ⁓ Not in a serious sense, but, you know, I grew up in the nineties, so you didn't have a ton of video games and things to keep your mind occupied while you were inside. So when weather was rough, I had tech decks around. I mean, I still do. Like, I'm sure my daughter's is somewhere in here, but...

I always kind of kept them around. couldn't do anything. I could do maybe a pop shove it. Couldn't Ollie. Like it was more for show and, ⁓ you know, style points. Like if I had a cool deck, I'd take it to school, show my friends. We trade from time to time, but I didn't know anyone that could do anything on a fingerboard until I got older, you know, and I would keep one at my office. I work in the car business, so I would always have one.

At my desk and would mess around with it, but still it was just pop shove. It's that was pretty much the extent of what I could do. And it's the tech deck, right? So the trucks aren't loose kit. You can't do anything. And, ⁓ eventually I met somebody and he was in my office one day and he's like, let me see that. He takes the board and starts doing things. I didn't even know possible. I'm like, what is going on right now? And he's like, yeah, dude, there's like a whole community out there.

look, and he shows me his phone, starts going through videos and I'm like, ⁓ okay. There's like a real community. It's just like the skate scene, just smaller, you know, it's literally and figuratively, it's just a smaller subset of skateboarding. And we got, we got into it all the way from that moment on, we were always shopping.

browsing, watching videos, doing everything finger boarding related. And I think in probably a month's time, I had 10 plus decks, tons of obstacles and had to split my garage into half of it's for the motorcycles. The other half is a skate park. It's a, you know, it just consumed me in such a short period of time.

speaker-0 (07:03)
I've been noticing that a lot of people when they coming into the scene for the first time, they go super heavy. Like they buy everything. Yeah. I interviewed Corey, go check out that episode. I think it's like one 63 or one 64. He's like new to fingerboard and literally just started like six months ago and kind of picked his brain, but everybody comes in and they're just, they're buying everything. They're trying everything. And I'm like the excitement of being everything being new. Just it's.

speaker-1 (07:23)
yeah.

speaker-0 (07:32)
intoxicating. It's kind of crazy. It's like, man, I kind of miss those days.

speaker-1 (07:35)
For sure. I think here it's, goes both ways for me because I think when you're first getting in, it's easy to do it. And like you're the kid inside you, you're like, ⁓ I'm an adult. make money now and I can buy the things that I never did when I was younger or couldn't when I was younger. So it's easy to get into the cycle of just nonstop spending and constant consumption. But I do think that like, if I could do it all over again,

I I would stick to maybe certain parameters, not overdo it because I've realized that there is a big part of the culture that kind of promotes that. What you would call consumerism now where it's like, it's all about the drop and the purchase and flexing what you have where that's not what finger boarding is at its core. It's about enjoying the hobby and skating. So I would change some things if I did it again.

But it's easy to get sucked in and just buy everything in sight right away.

speaker-0 (08:41)
No, I feel that it's definitely a good time to be alive and finger boarding where everything is available. There's so many products, so many things to try so much information, access to communities, events. mean, it's, it's wild out here. How far we come?

speaker-1 (08:56)
Yeah,

today, I mean, today alone, like, it's a crazy day. There's so many companies dropping and I've already been heartbroken, I think twice today because I wasn't able to get a part of it.

speaker-0 (09:06)
Yeah, I've been going through the chatter. ⁓ What's today? Today is May 15th for anybody that's listening to this, trying to figure out what we're talking about. Yeah, the knife 31 drop, I think hit today and tons of heartbroken people.

speaker-1 (09:22)
Yeah, I'm one of them. ⁓

speaker-0 (09:23)
Hons of heartbroken people for sure. So I've been looking through all the groups and stuff and I'm just like, man, there's so many knife lovers and there's including myself. But I mean, like who can get one of those is wild.

speaker-1 (09:35)
Mm It's, comes down to luck. Honestly, it does. And shout out to the guys, right? Like they're doing the best they can. They are making tons of product. It just, there's such a huge demand that it goes almost instantly. It actually, is within minutes. It's gone.

speaker-0 (09:54)
Definitely. All right, so let's actually talk about the guy at work. Who was that?

speaker-1 (09:59)
That was my buddy Mondo.

speaker-0 (10:01)
All right, so originally you and Mondo started the company,

speaker-1 (10:08)
That is correct, yeah?

speaker-0 (10:09)
So how did you end up meeting Mondo initially?

speaker-1 (10:13)
We just worked together. we met through work. He started at my job and we worked in a similar position, almost adjacent to each other. So we spent most of our days with each other.

speaker-0 (10:29)
Okay, so you guys basically just kinda grew to be best friends, I guess, at that point.

speaker-1 (10:34)
Yeah, yeah, partners for sure, you know, we work together.

speaker-0 (10:39)
Man. All right. Well, I mean, I know you guys started the company together and I saw you guys at finger boarding con. I didn't personally see you guys at finger boarding con, but been tracking a lot of the progress and clips and videos and all the interviews and cool stuff that was going on at fingerboard con and saw you guys out there and saw you on the panel. ⁓ yeah, like a interview panel out there as well. Fingerboard Chris put on and you guys out there is doing your thing and everybody looked like having a great time. I know you guys are in the applies mag for issue number 18 inside front cover big

big stuff going on there. And so for you guys, mean, like you guys had a really fast start into the scene, like fast adoption. Everybody's loving what you guys are doing. Like kind of talk to us kind of like how you and Mondo like started the started the brand started the company.

speaker-1 (11:10)
That's huge.

So initially we considered a few things. think, know, almost instinctually you want to do what most people are doing. It's like, should you do decks? Should you do wheels? You know, the basic things that you see a lot of companies doing that are starting off. I didn't know anything about it. I certainly didn't have the time or resources to just take my chance at, you know, becoming a deck maker.

And I didn't really want to, I should say, there are so many great companies out there that I don't want to be distracted by what I'm trying to do. If that makes sense. I guess I wasn't confident in myself to bring a product to the table that was going to like become a mainstay in the community in that regard. So we considered a few options, decks, wheels, trucks, and we knew it needed to be something that was.

missing. like we discussed a little bit earlier, hardware is something that doesn't have a real place right now. There are companies that are doing it, but they are doing it in addition to having other items on their sites or in their shop. So I think focusing on that, and that's something that has kept companies in skateboarding alive and running and still relevant today, I knew it could be done. Right. So

Just using the knowledge I have of skateboarding, said, bolts is the way we have to go and we can branch out if it seems right down the line, but this is the way to go. And here are the colors that people are gonna easily identify as being so recognizable. mean, green and gold with the branding, the packaging, the shake junk, you know it the second you see it. So it was done consciously, but

Because I love skating so much, it came natural. The idea was, it was so easy. The promotion, I will say, is something that just happened totally by accident. At least on my part, we were at an event in Cleveland, a fingerboard event, and Mondo just went off on like a wrestling style tear. And in the moment I'm watching him do this and I'm like,

Okay, this is about to be something that people are going to either love or completely hate, but it's hilarious regardless. And these characters started to develop that I think at the early stage of the company kind of built the identity of who they were online, right? Right. As far as who CBC is and their online presence. And so many people were able to relate and resonate and find humor.

and those skits where even if they didn't really care for colored bolts, they love those videos. And so yeah, like the early days were easy and simple, but natural at the same time.

speaker-0 (14:38)
had

a conversation with Mondo probably like a few days ago and stuff and he mentioned a falling out between you guys. I guess he's no longer with the brand.

speaker-1 (14:50)
He is not. ⁓ He's not involved. I guess I should also mention like the day to day, the operations, they are all handled by me. So it's something that doesn't, it's not a speed bump to the business. Things continue moving forward regardless.

speaker-0 (15:10)
Gotcha. Right. So what exactly happens? Like what caused the falling out? Cause mean, you guys are like a new company. not like you guys have been around for a while and like all of sudden this thing kind of like happened. It's like, you guys are literally fresh out the fresh out the paint and just, you know, guys just literally just fell out like within like a short period of time, like a month or two.

speaker-1 (15:33)
Yeah, ⁓ I guess I will be somewhat limited in what I say just because I don't know if it's fair for me to say my side and then I'm on this platform and then he doesn't get his. ⁓ However, the day to day stuff was handled by me. Ultimately the idea of everything was from me, right? So we got to a point where things were moving quickly and

We did work together, so we'd see each other every day. We no longer work together. And one day, ⁓ it was probably a week or two ago. I was at work and he, he wanted to, I guess, get a little bit more solidify his position financially and, on paper because the company's demand was rising so fast. And, know,

I don't know. guess maybe we had disagreements on that and what that would look like, but he did reach out a few times while I was at work one day and I was busy because I am at work. And ultimately he, you know, took that as the worst case scenario and thought no response meant he was out and wanted to, you know, position himself, I guess, against me and against the company. So.

It's tough without saying everything. I will just say it's no bad blood on my end, but you know, the business has to continue on and it has the ability to do so. yeah, I mean, that's hopefully can answer some of some of your question there.

speaker-0 (17:20)
All right, well, full transparency. I had a podcast with him a few days ago and he has a couple of allegations and I'm like, I, cause I originally, I wanted to get a pod with both of you guys and then realized that I got a pod with, with Mondo who's not even part of the Cleveland bolts company anymore. And so

I can go through some of these allegations. Some of these are kind of crazy and off the wall. And I say allegations loosely because there's two sides to every story. like Mondo is basically kind of taking the

betrayal route. Like he's more or less like the victim of the story. He's not really painting you as the villain, but he's not really painting you as the good guy either. But without your side to your story, I'm like, is it just two guys that just like, you know, had a disagreement and fell out, which, you know, that happens all the time. That's not anything too crazy. But I also want to make sure that like, you know, you have the opportunity to kind of like, you know, defend your name, defend the brand and defend the kind of like what's going on and whatnot. And so it was a interesting conversation that I had with him.

I'm like, he's just, we're kind of looking for answers. Like I don't want to post his pod without having a conversation with you and being able to kind of clear some of that stuff up for sure. Cause I like what the brand's doing. I like what the brand represents. I think it's a really cool thing that you guys got going on, but I'm like, I feel like we got to hash this stuff out.

speaker-1 (18:54)
Yeah, yeah, I guess we're doing it with a mediator now, which is crazy. ⁓ Yeah, go ahead. Hit me one by one. I want to hear how ⁓ outlandish some of these are. Go ahead.

speaker-0 (19:05)
All right. So one of the allegations that Mondo is basically saying is that you kind of intentionally cut them out of the company. like you registered your business as on basically through the secretary of state and got like an EIN number in like you never put him on any of the legal documents and stuff for the business. And I guess you guys talked about it and it just never happened. You guys, I wouldn't say he

specifically said you snaked him out of basically his kind of share. And I'm like, okay, that's kind of weird. Yes. I don't know, like what's going on with that?

speaker-1 (19:40)
Okay. ⁓ so when we started, I worked with the distributors. I found the product. I paid for the product with my account, ⁓ set up the website with my account. did everything with my account, my personal name, all of it. mean, still till this day, it comes my personal name on every shipping label. ⁓ same with that though. I have a business that it's also established outside of this. So.

Everything was established. So the business was protected, but if he took that as him being snaked, that's not the case. Now, if he felt like there was something that he was entitled to for sure, I mean, I guess I would say that would be a conversation we should and could have. I know that the route he decided to take was a little bit different. He now that I, so I will also say now that I know that

that you can post both sides. can speak a little bit.

speaker-0 (20:39)
I guess that's a lot going on here.

speaker-1 (20:42)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ultimately the day I was at work where he wanted to knock out this, this and this, he was asking to be on the LLC. He was asking to have a joint bank account and he had asked a few times where nothing was ever confirmed on my end. He could tell that I didn't want to have the conversation ⁓ for a few different reasons. Now those reasons

I will not air out online at all. I just know he wanted to take the business into a direction that would have put the business in true risk, not even the business, but us as individuals. And that I cannot do in good faith. can't do that. And I wouldn't take that risk. ⁓ so the conversation would just get blown off. Now we went through something at work where he is no longer there.

And we've had, we've got a lot of changes happening at work and he knew that. And I think he kind of took advantage of that day where everything that he had done and positioned himself against the company was done within my hours at work. Meaning I couldn't take a call. couldn't respond. I certainly couldn't get on the internet. And before I was done at work.

He had taken my lack of communication as, you know, middle fingers to him and took over the CBC Instagram page. I created the account when we started this and ultimately he removed my name, my email, changed the password and removed me off of all devices. So at that moment I understand, okay, there's like, there's something serious going on. This is now not.

A disagreement amongst two people or even two business owners. There's something really real happening right now. And so immediately I have to go into protection mode, not just against myself, but most importantly, the business we've got at that point, we had like two days until a drop. And so I'm working with Instagram's account recovery team, trying to get the account back. Non-stop, ⁓ reaching out to attorneys like, Hey, what are my options here? Like.

I know this happened and I understood that we are going to be playing the game of public opinion now. Ultimately, I know I don't like the drama and I don't like the.

the messiness of disputes. And I certainly don't think it should be broadcasted. However, we're here, so we're gonna do it. ⁓ But once I got the account back, I said, okay, business as usual, things need to continue on. Me and him will now work this out with true legal professionals involved.

The second I got the account back though, I started getting hit up from companies and people asking all kinds of questions, similar to what you're asking now. And I'm like, damn, like 48 hours of no communication and like, we're reaching out to people. We're taking over Instagram accounts. You like, we got to slow it down a little bit, dude. All the more reason for me to protect myself, protect the business and keep things moving forward. So.

We still to this day have not had any conversation and I don't think we will up until we get to a point of actually resolving how we move on. Right. There's no scenario in which we hash this out and say, you know what, dude? Misunderstanding, bro. My bad. Give me some. Like it's over as far as this being a joint venture.

So I've accepted that and I accepted that the second the account was was taken over. I knew we were we were not playing by the same rules anymore. Other than that.

speaker-0 (25:01)
Sounds like right now it's just a lack of communication on both sides. And basically we're looking at assumptions being made because of that lack of communication. And it's looking more like, you know, from after talking with him and now talking with you guys, like it looks like.

speaker-1 (25:14)
Mm-hmm.

speaker-0 (25:21)
You not basically responding to him. He's now making assumptions that you're no longer in it. He's being cut out. And then after talking to you, it sounds like you're in it, but you're busy. You're at work. Like you got stuff going on where you can't necessarily communicate in a timely manner.

speaker-1 (25:40)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess you, could say that, right? But there is still the, very obvious point. And this is more like even he knows we worked together. So he knows the hours to the T, you know, things were done within those hours. ⁓ so yeah, I mean, even, even if we assume that, right. And that's, I I'd say best case scenario. I like your, your outlook, but an optimistic view.

It was still, there was still, think some, some ill intent done with the, I'm going to remove and change the pass codes. And this is my account because you haven't answered me yet. Shame on you. You know? So yeah, I don't know. I don't get down like that. I try to be pretty, pretty transparent and hopefully I am. I don't want you to think like there's not something that's being told here.

speaker-0 (26:33)
Well, no, that's one of the reasons I wanted to reach out. So I'm just like, I don't know, Tristan seems like a like a cool dude, but I'm like, I don't I got to get like both sides because there's I've been on the earth long enough to know that like there's two people can be wrong and somehow still be right. And then two people can also be right. And both of them still be wrong.

speaker-1 (26:52)
and for sure.

speaker-0 (26:54)
There's sometimes there's just not a clear path in business. mean, you're basically signing yourself up for a like, theoretically, I call it it's, you guys are committing yourselves to each other to grow the business, be on the same page, move things along, stuff like that. And so I think that the lack of like business plan and SOPs and things like that for the brand definitely should have existed. And it definitely probably would have helped sort a lot of this stuff out, to be honest.

speaker-1 (27:23)
Yeah, for sure.

speaker-0 (27:24)
And I think that anyone that's looking at starting a business, starting a brand, especially with the with a co-founder or co-owner thing, it's like that. Like you guys got to definitely make sure that like, you know, all your ducks in a row, you guys are on the same page. You guys know what expectations to hit stuff like that. And so I think it takes a lot of the guesswork out for sure. I'm not trying to be on here and start a lot of drama, but I know that there is some stuff circulating and I'm like.

All right, well, let me talk to Mondo. Let me talk to Tristan, like see kind of what's going on. It doesn't seem like you are out here just trying to be the villain. I mean, is there anything that you want to say to kind of clear anything up?

speaker-1 (28:05)
I mean, I don't really, I don't think there's anything I need to say. Ultimately, the brand will continue on, regardless of what goes on behind the scenes. I think as like grown ass men, we should handle everything with, you know, our heads held high and straightforward. The second there is gossip or drama or chatter done, I check out mentally.

No, I don't really have anything other to say other than like, if you're, ⁓ you know, an observer and you're upset that I did something, you're, you're welcome to reach out to me. You know, you, you certainly can. ⁓ but you know, my, my opinion on the matter is pretty simple. You know, if you, if you start acting in a weird way and you start doing things that are weird, you know, just weirdo behavior, then

I'm going to remove myself from the situation altogether. And I guess in those situations, you got to say, you know, who's got, who's got the leverage there? You know, it's, it's not like holding, ⁓ you know, holding the Instagram page was going to do anything, right? The, the product was still sourced by me, bagged, produced, shipped, marketed. Everything was done by me. So regardless, the website would still exist and I would just have to

promote it from my personal page. That's all that really could be done in that moment. So that's all.

speaker-0 (29:37)
No, I feel that. All right, so let's get back to the actual brand. I'm kind of done with the drama talk. I just wanted to clear a few things up for sure. Yeah, I'm definitely over all of that. the brand, man, the brand Cleveland bolts just got done with a Miami, well, you got the Miami, Miami night. Yeah. Talk about that. You got a good drop going on. Tell us about Miami.

speaker-1 (29:44)
heard that.

I'll tell you this. We just released the Rasta colorway today, but Miami nights was the previous week and was also re-implemented this week as well. ⁓ it sold out so fast last week that I thought something was wrong with the computer. The second I made everything active on the site, I went to click orders just so I can monitor in real time and the page was full. was like, holy shit.

This like that happened quick. was impressed, but I was also a little shocked just because the response to the company had never been. I was never able to truly put into words or describe it. And I think in that moment, I'm able to like show people like, look at how quick this went. This is crazy. And the colors, the colors just work, right? There, ⁓ there's something that I've used regardless of, of what I'm, I'm making.

I've got podcast merch that's in that color. I've got tanked and tatted merch that I use those colors. The colors just work together. And I think people, people like something bright and vibrant. know I did when I was a kid, I was always getting like crew t-shirts and hoodies that were the neon colors specifically in turquoise and pink. So I, on any color you see that is brought

from CBC to the public, it is something that has meaning to me, right? In one way or the other, same with the green and golds, same with the Rasta colorway. ⁓ It all has a story behind it.

speaker-0 (31:49)
I like it. All right. So you got the Miami nights, you got the, the Rasta. What's, what's next? What's the, when's the next drop? What's the next ordeal?

speaker-1 (31:59)
Good,

good question. So I've got a few collaborations in the works. ⁓ but I think for the company, I am going to make an upgrade to the green and gold. So I'm going to offer a 2.0 green and gold bag of bolt, ⁓ version, which is going to be the green that they already have with the originals, but instead of an actual gold bolt,

I'm going to offer a very bright and vibrant yellow, which is also an option that you see a lot in skateboarding. can go like that true metal or the painted metal look. So that'll probably be the next thing that I do and implement either sometime this month or early next month.

speaker-0 (32:44)
Gotcha. Are we going to stick to the one-off drop culture? Or are you looking for more regular produced or more regular available products at this point? Like what's the, what's the vision?

speaker-1 (32:57)
question.

I would say that the goal is not to be every Friday tune in and hopefully you get there. want anyone that wants to have bolts on their fingerboard to be able to get them. So ideally I've had communications with storefronts about putting the product in stores and available on other shops. It because it's all done by me and in-house it's tough just because I have to find the time to do it.

So I am playing catch up. You know, I've got a few drops like packaged and ready to go. So once I, I fully get where I feel like where I deem, yes, I'm good. I'm there. Let's do this. yeah, I think, I think it'll just be something that the sites up and people can go in and buy what they want whenever they feel like it.

speaker-0 (33:50)
Okay. Okay. Well that's exciting. Yeah. I missed out on the drop. I, what do you have to say about people that put their grip completely over the bolts? know that there's a, I know I, I seen some of the debates is like, you know, bolt showing versus, know, throwing the tape completely over the top of your deck. No bolts. mean,

speaker-1 (34:04)
a war crime and they should be arrested.

My true opinion on the matter is it at the end of the day, we're playing with toys like if, if it makes sense and you like it better, no, no bolts. I get it for me, aesthetically a board doesn't look right without the screw showing that'd be like doing that with a skateboard. wouldn't make sense. People would be like, what, what's going on here? So I feel like bolts is, is mandatory on all of my setups, but that is truly preference. So.

It still irks me though if I see it. There's no denying that.

speaker-0 (34:55)
I was kind of thinking that the other day and I was just like, you guys got all the bolts and I'm like, but you got people that are, I don't know if it's pro, I don't know what the study or the numbers are. I don't even think there's like even a, like a polling or whatever. That's even like, you know, what percentage of the population prefers bolt showing versus non-bolt showing. I think so. I think for, for science reasons, I feel like this is definitely, definitely needed. think for you, it's going to be more market research, but yeah. So I think.

speaker-1 (35:11)
That would be a good pull to run

True.

But that's the best, in my opinion, there's nothing better though than like people coming up to you at an event, especially at FBCon and being like, look, dude, I never make the bullpoles, but these are so dope that I need to like, to me, that's, that's the best compliment is converting a tape over bolts to bolts showing type of rider.

speaker-0 (35:46)
No, I feel that 100%. Man. All right. We talked about a lot of stuff. we've got the rise of Cleveland bolts. We've got a little bit of drama. We came back. You got new products, you got product drops, super successful right now. You got the hype train going on, which is extremely hard and difficult to even produce, especially in our scene because it's

There's just a lot of noise on our scene. Everybody's fighting for attention, but somehow you're standing out ahead of the crowd for some, I don't know. What's the, how, how are you? mean, is there like a science? Is it luck or like, do you guys just be like, this is what we need to do to kind of get out ahead of all of the other hype? Because you guys definitely got the center stage.

speaker-1 (36:29)
So I will say I take my actual career, which I'm in the world of sales, I'm a sales manager, and I use that logic when I approach the business where I have a decent enough following on my personal page where I was able to funnel people who enjoyed my content or enjoyed the style that I

you know, promote on some of my setups and funnel those to CBC. And then from there, obviously you're hoping that they click your link and they, you know, continue to follow your stories and check the site. That's the other main reason I want to get a hold of like the, demand on the product and get that under control because I want them to be able to, this is cool. Click, click purchase. Boom. Done.

That ideally would be best case scenario, not just for me as like the business owner and the person who operates things, but for riders too. You know, I have so many people in my DM where it's like, I want to be able to hook these people up in the sense of like making sure they have the product that they want and have tried to wait all week for. you know, knowing that someone sets aside money for it and then can't get it bums me out.

So yeah, no, I'm with you on that.

speaker-0 (38:01)
you guys looking into putting together a team? Do you have a team? I know it's early. I know it's super early.

speaker-1 (38:06)
⁓

We had a team, we had a team. We're not going to get back into the drama, but we're going to take some, we're going to just start fresh. And I'm pretty selective, right? I'm like, who, who I would have for team writers, right? Because ultimately there's only so many color options that you're able to do. It's just how colors work, right? A color chart.

So I want my true team writers to have their own colors where they're getting them a portion of that profit directly to them for being a team writer and selling their exclusive bolts. So yes, that, is certainly the goal, but with that, have to be somewhat selective on, you know, who you have, because you will run out of options and have nothing to offer someone who wants to be a part of the team and should be a part of the team.

speaker-0 (39:03)
I don't know man, there's... I could have sworn I saw like a crayon box. Is it crayon? A Crayola? That's like what, like 128 like box? Like a big boy box? Like, I mean, I don't know what fuchsia is, but whatever fuchsia is, it makes it- Granny Apple Smith, like green, like I mean, I feel like the color combinations could go crazy. Then you got like metallics and then you've got-

speaker-1 (39:19)
That's a fuser,

speaker-0 (39:31)
Matt like pastels and flat mats and like, feel like you could go crazy hard in the color scheme.

speaker-1 (39:37)
You now I will say to, make sure the one thing I realized when, I kicked this off and started doing my research and talking to companies and writers who have had colored bolts from companies that no longer exist, the durability of the bolt was super important. Making sure that that thing wasn't going to snap at any time was like, that's important. I don't want writers pissed that they're set up that they put all this money into. ⁓

broke over some $10 bolts. that, if that was me, I would be upset. So, ⁓ I did work with a provider. So we, everything is done powder coat to, to keep the integrity and the strength of the bolt present while still giving it a color. So yes, if, if I find a solution where I can expand the color options for sure, but right now everything's done with like an RAL color chart, which is a powder coat color chart.

speaker-0 (40:34)
Gotcha. All right. Well, you've got, you got a lot on your plate. You've got all of social media, website, manufacturing, packaging, logistics. I mean, a one man, one man crew right now. So you've got a ton of stuff going on, looking to bounce back from all this speculation and drama and stuff like that. I want to leave this off really on a positive note, because I feel like we can't have all this melancholy. It feels melancholy to me. And I'm like, we can't.

speaker-1 (41:03)
I love

melancholy. I think I was born with a touch of sadness. So to me I live in that but go ahead I'm with you. Let's let's do this

speaker-0 (41:12)
Too early to pull out the scotch. Like you gotta wait till least five, six o'clock to pull out the scotch. But definitely. All right. So you got some projects that you're working on. You're talking about putting together a new, a new team, hopefully going to bust open the 128 pack of crayons and get into some crazy colorways. You know what I want to see? I want to see some bolts like dipped in gold and chrome and like

speaker-1 (41:17)
True.

You tell me. ⁓

Ooh, okay.

speaker-0 (41:43)
Super

shiny. Like if you're doing like if you're a street skater and that's out in the summer and like that sun hits those bolts and like it's blinding you like cause it's so shiny. Like I want that.

speaker-1 (41:55)
Okay, I like that. We might have to work on that. I'm with that.

speaker-0 (42:00)
Kind of cool to get a USA FBL collab, like a gold, silver, bronze. Might Like, stream. Might have to. May have to. I kind of like that. I kind of like that.

speaker-1 (42:09)
Let me get to work. I'll send you some options. See what you think.

speaker-0 (42:11)
All right, I'm gonna go deep into the Korean box. Like it's not gonna be just any silver. It's gonna be like metallic chrome fuchsia like kind of stuff like hard in the box. Exclusive, exclusive.

speaker-1 (42:26)
Okay, I love it.

speaker-0 (42:28)
Man, all right. For, I know you got a list of shout outs, people you may want to recognize or give a good shout out to.

speaker-1 (42:36)
I do. Honestly, here's what I'm going to do though. Instead of going name by name, I'm going to shout out the people that really rock with Tankton Tatted and CLE Bolts, regardless of the nonsense. Shout out to the homies up in Michigan, Michigan. As an Ohioan, it doesn't even seem natural to be so tight with people from Michigan. There's like such a rivalry there, but not when it comes to finger boarding. Those are the homies. So shout out to Pipsqueak.

Shout out to ABC Parks. Shout out to all of the homies up there. They are the realest. They always support. They always give advice. They're always showing love. Shout out to the dudes on the West Coast and the East Coast. ⁓ Shout out to the boys in Texas.

speaker-0 (43:20)
Right on, right on. Where can people find you on the internet?

speaker-1 (43:24)
You can follow me on Instagram at tanked and tatted or the CLE bolts page. You can also find me on TikTok and YouTube at tanked and tatted as well.

speaker-0 (43:37)
And as always, you can find me at USAFBL on all platforms. Tristan, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the pod.

speaker-1 (43:45)
Thank you so much, man.

speaker-0 (43:47)
Until next time.