0:00 [Music] Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Careful Boys where we have Paul Gomez over here today. Everybody, let's go. I love that. Uh, obviously, you know, you've had a very established career, but I like that we're taking it to like the very prequel and what what got you there and the really really fun, juicy, exciting stories that maybe hopefully nobody ever heard before. But just to recap, make sure you go check out part one. Uh you were a high school dropout in your first year as a freshman uh with dyslexia by the way and you were a hack pro surfer. You somehow made your way into becoming a uh the I guess street team manager of the surf team for Quicksilver, one of the first surf companies to go public in 1988. And you were promoting clubs and getting in with all like the hot bands at the time while
0:50 you're doing some illegal stuff. Yep. And you almost got arrested. What was that? So, we're my friend was sitting at a at a restaurant and he was uh there there's cops sitting there talking and they just said and he they were going to make this big bust and he goes he heard my name. The cops were just talking and just and they dropped my name of one of the people that was going to get in trouble. Dang. And my friend just bolted out of there and he's like calls me up and this is before cell phones. He's like blowing up my home phone. Then he drives around my house. like, "Dude, you're going to go down." I'm like, "What?" He goes, "Yeah, this is going to happen. This is going to happen." So, I just bailed and went to Mexico on a surf trip. Oh, surf team. We're going to Mexico. Mexico looks great. I was like, "I we're going to go on a surf trip to Mexico." And then I came home and then and it was like it it and at that time I was back
1:42 at my parents house and it was like my mom's like, "Hey, the police are looking for you." And I'm like, "What are you up to?" And I'm not I'm not up to anything. And I like bailed. And then I went to my girlfriend's house. And then by the time I got girlfriend's house, she was crying. Oh, they visited her too. No, no, they my mom had called and said the police are the police are here. And this is what LA or this is in La Habra? La Habra. Okay. Yeah. So, and so I was like I came home and they're like you this that and the other. And I'm like, you got nothing. But you were how old at this time? 18. O. Did you find out what they were going to bust you for? That's not juvie years. But I didn't have anything. And I was like, you haven't got anything. Does it have to do with chemistry? No. Back then they didn't do chemistry. That was pre that was pre-chemistry. Pre-chemistry. That was before this. Oh, what's that?
2:32 That's chemistry. That's chemistry. You used to take this, this, and this and go like this and it would turn into a rock. Yeah. Yeah. And then buns are murder. Yeah. It's that's chemistry. That was I was pre-chemistry. I see. Like I was a high school dropout. I wouldn't have made it past chemistry. I would have blew myself up. So then, so that was it. And then I was never big into drugs ever in my life. I just was like, why? There's no purpose cuz it goes back to you do that, you're going to answer to the boss. Don't want to answer to the boss. So that was it. I was like, done. Never going to do anything ever legal again. Aside from like nightclub stuff and things like that, but never cuz that's like come on. That's not that big. But that it's like well at that point in time you don't think about what you're doing to people. Yeah. True. You don't think like you're poisoning people, right? You don't think it's like what you're you're really
3:23 having a terrible effect on people's lives. And when you're a teenager and you're a kid, you're just like, "Oh, I'm rolling deep. I got cash." And I'll never forget this. One of my siblings had got arrested and he was uh in jail and my mom's like, "I don't have the bail money to get him out of jail." And he's in LA. And I'm like, "Well, how much is it?" She told me where it was. I'm like, "Oh, there it is. Don't ask me where I got it from." I gave her the cash to get my brother in jail. And I was just like, at that point, I was like, "What am I?" Like, you get that thing. It's like, I can go this direction or I can go this direction. And then so I just I just started focusing on like music, trying to build my network and going around cuz at that point in time, people were asking me like, "How do you
4:14 know that guy? How do you know this And it was just like cuz I was always out and it I mean it went on forever. And then when I was 20, 19 or 20, I I left Quicksilver and I went and start working with Bob at Bibong. And Bob was like a full-blown Christian, still is. And um Bibong's an Australian company. Bibong's an Australian company. So the reason Bibong got started, this is a crazy story. Bob had a little surf shop, one of the best surfboard shapers on the planet. Bob had this little surf shop down in Newport Beach and he went to Quicksilver and said, "Hey, I'd like to carry your clothes." And they told him, "Nah, we're not going to sell to you. You're not this guys. You're not that guy." He's like, "Okay." So, another guy had gone to Australia. He goes, "Hey, there's this company in Australia called Bibong." And Bibong is like an oasis. That's what a Bibong is. And they go, "Why don't you bring their clothes in?" So, he started bringing their clothes
5:04 and selling out of the shop. And at that time, they had these some pretty upand cominging young surfers. And um he started doing that and then the guy who was the own Bill and a guy named Gordon Merchant calls him and he goes, "Hey, I don't need people to keep I need a license there. I need someone to license their brand in America." So Bob's like, "I'll do it." So he started doing it and like a year later I came on board and I was working in customer service. But then he was like I would have people come by. He's like, "Hey, you just had like the Booya tribe coming here." Oh ████ That's crazy. And he's like, you he had all these music I had all these music guys coming by and getting stuff. We got tribe of Bibong. Yeah, that's crazy. So those guys that that's a haunted they're like a OG Polynesian Samoan F. They look gangster as ████ but they all ████ pop. They pop and
5:54 they sing like birds and their their whole their whole their whole thing is now they are um they do security for like everybody. Eminem, Cobra, King Rook, all those guys. They're super they're ████ cool though. super good dudes out of Carson. So, um Bob's like, "Hey, you know all these guys and stuff there." He goes, "So, my first title at was I was called special projects manager." I was like sick. So, I would do special projects. So, I'd put on shows and do these different kinds of things with music and started connecting all these things. And then, so when I was like 22, I was still promoting nightclubs. And then I met my wife and she was it was funny because I was at one club and I had a broken leg and I used to have super long hair all the way down to here and I'd run it in braids and she's like oh this and and she was at the nightclub and she had her hair all slipped back and um I met her
6:46 and then she I was kind of crazy back then like just slugging like 24 packs and driving like a psychopath like still just out of my mind going psycho. And then um I met her and then right when I met her I was like this is the girl and then so we a year later got married. Wow. So I was 23 and I was by that time we were do I was doing a bunch of different stuff. So I started promoting surf movies. So it was my friend Rick Dvau who's the manager of Blink182. Wow. So this is 1992 9293. And um we were doing all so he had a company called Big Dummy Productions and Rick's like he's I talk to him every single day. I talk to him every day to this day and he had a company called Big Dummy Productions. So we put on every punk rock show. So he had this little
7:37 company and he was like he put on the first Rancho show, he put on the first Penny Wise show, he put on the first no effect show. Wow. Wow. And we were doing all these different things and there was a guy named Taylor Steel who he just had a big uh he won like all these awards for the Momentum Generation that was on HBO and Robert Redford produced it with him. So Taylor had these surf movies and we're like and then we went to Brett Gerwitz from Epitap and he's like and it's in a whole documentary you can find on HBO and it's like he's like hey let's we'll give you music put them in your surf videos and Bob and I were doing this with Bibong back in the day. So I was the first person to ever put Nirvana in a surf movie. Social distortion. Wow. Concrete blonde. All these cuz I grew up with Mike Nest. So I was like all the punkers cuz I was nightclubbing and friends with everybody. So started doing that and then Rick and I started putting on these tours and this how I got into
8:28 music. So then we had like no doubt play, we had sublime play and then like my son always and like Bradley I was with Bradley 3 days before he passed and he's a really good surfer and it was like he was like he came in and got a bunch of wet suits and everything else. So on one of the live things it's like I get a shout like want to thank Paul Gomez from Bibong for the wet suits. So that all happened. So that kind of got me my start in the music scene, right? And then so I had all these connections in music and promoting and traveling all the world and doing shows here, this, there, whatever. And we're doing these shows. And then Rick's working for a guy named Bill Silver Presents. So Bill Silver Presents is a huge like massive, massive, massive. And um when you're when you're like at this phase, cuz I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, they it seems like they have a vision and they try to go for it. Um, at this phase, did you have a vision or did it
9:18 just feel because it feels like me knowing you now, it seems like a recipe for success. There's tons of things brewing, but you at that age, did you know there's something that I was going to like? I just wanted to do stuff I liked. Oh, I didn't want to like and that's where I'll get to when I left Nike. I just wanted to do stuff that I liked. Like I wanted to do stuff that was fun because if I had to get in there and and actually build a deck and we'll talk about decks and build stuff like that then it's like I don't know how to do that. Like an Excel spreadsheet like I'm just like right like I don't know like I use my phone like you said I have glasses and a giant font. This is another one of our companies. So, it's like that being said, we we we did all that, Rick and I.
10:11 And then I had the Beasty Boys on the cover of Spin magazine wearing a Billong shirt. And the guy in Australia, cuz we were licensed, said, "I think Paul GMA should be fired." What? And and everyone's like, "Why?" And he's like, "Oh, because we have some New York hip-hop band wearing a surf brand. That's a really bad thing." Bob Bob's like Bob loves punk rocket. Awesome. When I was just like we're kind of like what? This is crazy. And then I was like maybe my days are numbered here. Like this is crazy. And like at this point in time, you know, we're just kind of looking at it. We're we're at this time Bibong's huge and we're running it globally. Like I'm I'm the global marketing guy for everything in the world. Like huge event, all this type of stuff. And like working with Sublime, working with the Beasty Boys, working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The
11:01 first time Anthony Ketus, Rick Rubin, and Fle went surfing was me and Sunny Garcia took them. Wow, that's a crazy Yeah. So, the first time they'd ever gone surfing, we took them surfing counting one and my friend Opie cuz then by that time I was so Rick Rubin can float on a surfboard. Ruben's actually super That's so rude. I know he doesn't look like he had the craziest beard back then. Probably still does. But then my friend, my friend Jeff Moore, they call him Opie. By this time, I was so anti-illegal stuff and all that kind of stuff. We made a a documentary called Trip on This. It was anti-drug, anti-racism, right? A lot of the guys in that were in that documentary are now dead. But it was Anthony, the Beasty Boys, Eric Avery from Jane's Addiction, uh Dave Nabaro from Jane's Addiction, Doug Fer from The Knack, like all these
11:51 different artists. And we just made this video talking about like how drugs will destroy life. And this is like early 90, like late 80s, early 90s. We made this thing. It's called trip on this. Can't even find it. So we did that. So then fast forward into like the late ' 90s and Bob and I Bob gets diagnosed with cancer. And it was like and then so I'm driving everywhere and we're like looking at this whole thing. We're like, "Dude, this sucks." And he's like, "I'm all he's" He's like, "I'm going to start my own thing on you. You should." And then we went back and forth and I go, "You should do it. Like you're amazing." And we were going to call because he Bob's a Christian and he was like, "Oh, I'm going to call it salvation." And we went back and forth. Well, you just call it Hurley. You're Bob Hurley. And like he's one of the most prolific surfboard shapers on the planet. So we called it Hurly. And so I was the first employee. I was the first person to bounce. So
12:42 this is 1998. We launched in 1999. I had a $50,000 marketing budget. That was it. But I I knew everybody. So I went on the warp tour, put stickers on everybody. I had every band wearing it. Blink Winnie to the whole everybody was wearing it, right? So we're out there and it's like the next year we had to run Bibong and Hurley. And was it like everybody was wearing it cuz like it was just fresh and stuff and everybody It was It was because of you guys. You guys your network. It was all about friendships, right? And back then you had MTV. You didn't have social media. You didn't have You didn't have any of that stuff. Yeah. And I always say Hurley was like the first Instagram, right? So it was like so that happens and then we're going and then my friend Rick who I was talking about Blinks we just launched. It's 1999, right? And it's like 999. So
13:35 I always tell people nobody needs another clothing brand but everybody wants a new story. It's true. Every nobody needs a new nothing. Everybody wants a new story. So 1999 and 999 in Europe is 911. So it's an emergency. So that was our whole campaign 999. It's an emergency. There's there needs to be a a thing. So like Billong's only a surfer knows the feeling. Everybody has their you know this that everyone thing is our thing was freedom of choice and microphone for youth. We don't care what you think. Go ahead and say it. We're the microphone for youth. Go talk. Just tell us what you think. And then we had Blink was on the BMAS. They opened the BMAS. And back then, remember how MTV would make you put a sticker over everything. You couldn't have any logos. And my friend Rick, who's like my best friend, and I helped him like, we came up together. We all came up together. And as they're
14:25 walking down stage, Rick just goes pulls the stickers off. There's things going on stage. Wow. Wow. It was gnarly, dude. So, they walk out. It's like live. Yeah. Right. They can't do anything. They can't do anything. It's like it's already happened. So they're out there playing. It says Hurley. Wow. And so boom, it happens. And then they win like best new artist. Hurley. It was like nice. Instant. Perfect storm. It was a perfect storm. And then everything to start happening. So we had to do a certain amount of money to even keep the lights on. And everyone's like, "You guys got to start small. You got to do this." We're like, "No." And it's crazy cuz the one of the keys to success was youth. And I always I I love sharing the story. I sat down, Bob and I sat down with our sales team. All guys are a little bit older and we go, "This is what we're doing. This is
15:16 why we're doing it." And they're they have a choice between Hurley and Dolma. And we're like, we told them like, "Dude, it's going to be rad. It's this like it's punk rock. It's it's freedom." You know, we don't want any marquee athletes. We don't want anybody who's famous. We want the guys who are like just out there living it. Who like the kids look up like your local kids you look up to, like, you know, the radish guy in the high school. that's the guy we want cuz all the kids in high school, I want to be that guy, not the person who's like in the magazines. So we I made the pitch and the next morning we woke up and our whole sales score team quit via Federal Express letter. What? The whole team quit. Every one of them. We lost all our sales guys one day. What? ████ Didn't believe in they Billong made them a better offer, which I Oh ████ Cuz we were parting ways and they're like, "No, you can stay with us. Those guys aren't going to pull it off.
16:06 We're doing, you know, at that time we were doing a couple hundred million in the US and we're rolling the dice. We're not doing anything. So it's like you have a couple hundred million dollars or you can certainty or not. Yeah. Or you can roll with Bob and Paul. And we're like, "Oh." So they all quit. And I'm like, "Bob's like, "What do we do?" I go, "I got the best idea ever." And he was like, "What's that?" I go, "Screw those guys." I go, "Every one of them's got a subrep." What's a subre? A subre? Everyone's got a subre. The subre's the guy who goes in there and has to fold all the clothes and talks to the kids on the floor and make sure the section looks good. That's me here. Yeah. A a subre. So you're you're the guy you're the scrub. Oh, you're the scrub. You're the guy. And he and the and the guy pays you like 500 bucks a month. The rep pays you 500 bucks a month and you get to go surfing, whatever. And you get
16:57 500 bucks a month. So I call a sub reps up. I'm like, "Hey, do come to come to come to the office." I'm all you guys want to do something rad? I go, "What?" I go, "Every one of you guys can have your boss's job." And they're like, "Oh." And they're like, "Oh, really?" And I'm all, "Yeah, you can have their job." And these are like kids. They're like 18, 19, young kids are like, "Hell yeah. Hell yeah, bro. Hell yeah. I'll take the job." No, but that's exactly it cuz it's like the guy who's like, "Dude, the floor's like, "Where are you at? You're surfing. The floor's messy. The t-shirts are this. You didn't get the count right. They're just getting treated like scrubs. And at that time, you have the reps walking by the kids on the floor and going and talking to the buyer. And the guy who's folding all the clothes are friends with all the kids on the floor. They're boys. They're going
17:48 surfing with in the morning, coming in, like hanging out with him, partying with them at night, the whole trip. Gave every one of them a job. And then all the kids on the floor go, "Dude, you got the job. We got you. Not so. we got you right. So, as soon as we hired those kids, all the kids on the floor is like, "That's lame. Buy these guys." But it was like wildfire. So, we had to do a certain We had to do I think it was 15 million the first year to stay in business. That's keep the lights on and not fire anybody. And all of us took pay cuts and at that time, one year to do 15 million. Wow. Blink happened. Hired all these things. One of these other guys want to come. It was like it just was like everything all the stars along. We blew past that number. Wow. by millions. What What was the number? Can you tell me? Yeah, I was like over $30 million in one year. That's amazing. One year
18:40 before I had a $50,000 marketing budget. Wow. Wow. So now this is we're going into 2020 and or I mean it's wait 1999. Yeah. 2020. 2000. 2000. Yeah. The 2020 is like 5 years ago. Just look at So we're going in we're going we're going into before 2020. We're going into 2000. Sorry. So we go and we're we're we're just growing. So like at this time but then we had this it was I called it the Blink Backlash. So all the bands that we were working with before they were like oh all the kids like cuz Blink was huge gigantic. And then um everyone's like all the other bands like I don't want to wear the Blink stuff. I don't want to be like because they're too big now too. Yeah.
19:30 So it got too mainstream and I was like damn this is gnarly. What do I do? So I went back to my playbook. I called up all the bands I work with. I'm like what do you like? Told me I'm I'm going to make your own t-shirts for you. Nobody can buy them. They're only yours for 6 months. And I go really? I go tell me what you want. So I made all these t-shirts for like Pennywise, Bad Religion, all these all the big punk everybody. I'm like, "Here's what you guys here's the stuff." Were they Hurly collabs or No, just one just just they were Hurly shirts, but this art they wanted. Oh, I see. Like, I like this. There you go. I like that. Here you go. And at that time it was like I was starting to do that. So, I had a Fel Williams heard and he goes, "Hey, I want to come meet with you." Cuz he was doing BBC and Groupy with Kiss. So, so I get this call and it's like, "Hey, we want to come cuz I know those guys, they're Mount Trashmore Kids." So Virginia Beach
20:21 is like a very famous skate area and it's called Mount Trashmore. It's a skate park on built on a dump. So it's called Mount Trashmore and they're like so ND is like a Virginia Beach guys and my friend Bush Cavell was like knew these guys. So it just kind of worked out that way and then we helped him we helped Travis start famous. Bob and I we helped Fel with his thing. We had all these different people come just we're like dude we we get it. We want to help. like when you came in was the first thing I want to help you, right? Cuz everyone helped us get to where we're at. So then 2001, September 10th, where this is where I get to Gucci and whatever. And um who before we get that because 2001 September 11th is one of our favorite holidays here. We're going to have to come back part three getting to know Paul Gman.
21:11 The scissor.
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