From Sole to Somm
My Zappos Career – Private Label 2007 & Las Vegas updates Chapter 25
My Zappos Career – Private Label 2007 & Las Vegas updates
Chapter 25
2007 starts off with many new changes
The vertical strategy was in full force and to start the New Year we launched the Running vertical. We were in talks with Nike and trying to add them to our site. We felt this focus on running and other categories would help this effort. The vertical was basically a “Soup to nuts” type of thing where it was everything running. From socks to clothing and rankings of popular footwear styles. A runner could now come to our site and get lost in all the info and product but in a good way.
We also decided to add some in house services for our employees which included a shoeshine stand similar to what you would find at a Nordstrom store and alterations services. Employees could bring in their clothing that needed alterations and have them back the next week.
So, March comes around and on a quiet day on the 21st, Fred stands up and yells “We got them!”. Yes, Nike was coming to our site probably in the fall. Fred was so nervous and happy he was beside himself. He could barely write the email telling everyone the details. Later in the day we went to Claim Jumper for a “happy hour” to celebrate. The waitress there told us the next day it was one of the biggest bar tabs in the restaurant’s history there. Fred and I joked about how they were going to beat LY numbers next year.
Alfred is announced as the company’s Chief Operating officer April 11. Tony and Alfred had a long history of doing things together. I was excited to see Alfred hold this position as we all had faith in him to make smart decisions. He was a really smart guy and thoughtful in his decisions. I had worked with Alfred doing seminars for the finance team educating them on the footwear business. I would put together PowerPoint presentations on the history of footwear, how to properly buy shoes and the thought process behind it. They really appreciated the info and I enjoyed putting it all together for them.
Soon after this announcement we told everyone we were launching our Zappos Canada site. We would have different operators in CLT to answer the phones. The challenge was getting the shoes to the customer from our warehouse as we tried to “Wow” every customer with expedited delivery. This would help us understand how better to go international at some point.
With all this going on Richard and I were planning another trip to Shanghai/Dongguan. We would be taking Charles and Katherine from my team and some others in the company as well to do the tours. We wanted Charles and Katherine to come out to help with Zappos culture training for our China office employees. We also were looking into adding Shoe bags with every private label brand in the box so it was a big project we were trying to wrap up. On top of this my passport had to have extra pages put in because of my extensive traveling. There was a delay so I would have to leave a few days later than the rest of the team. Thankfully that was the only drama of the trip.
Another vertical is launched in May focusing on our Rideshop business. This vertical would focus on Skate, Surf, Snow and BMX. The team would have skate shows at skate parks or on campus which were really cool. There was definitely a cool vibe going around for this effort.
Couture site gets a facelift.
We launched the Stuart Weitzman Powered by Zappos site in February and the Taryn Rose site a few months later. We would create the site for the vendor using their brand messaging. It was a full-service web production & development site hosting. The fulfillment of all orders would be managed and replenished by Zappos. We would have a dedicated customer service team to handle all customer inquiries as well. There would be a Powered by Zappos logo on each site.
The Couture area which Eileen headed up and launched in 2004 was adding some great brands while keeping a separate site from our Zappos site. The brands on the Couture site were very protective of their brand image and exclusivity of their styles. The true definition of couture is custom made garments. The term for our selection would be more high fashion brands with unique styles that set the fashion trends. These are usually not mass produced and limited replenishment, if at all. We had launched the site in 2004 and it was time to update the styling and aesthetic. They had been working on it for a while and was revealed in March. It was really beautiful. They had done an amazing job and you could really see each style in great detail.
On the finance side we decided to switch over to SAP to be more efficient on our reporting and bookkeeping. It was a process to convert, and training was involved for each area affected. We would have to sign up for training and basically was held in a classroom type setting and they would give several classes for each topic we would have to learn. We were all a little nervous about the transition but just like everything else in the company the change wasn’t as bad as the lead up to it.
The new office on corporate circle had three buildings, CLT was in one building, legal and finance in another and merchandising was in the main building where the lobby was. Some of the conference rooms were in building three however so it was a jaunt to head over to building three after checking in at the lobby. We decided to buy some golf carts to help in the transportation from one building to the other. Heaven who now works in Merchandising in the Casual lifestyle area is pictured here when she used to work at the help desk in the lobby. She would often take a cart and transport the vendors to their meeting room.
Our next trip to China would be in October so we were starting to plan the trip. We would be attending a golf tournament there, so I needed to practice my golf game as I maybe played once a month. We were told they would be providing caddies to help us with the club selection and it would be a scramble so less pressure.
Zappos acquires 6PM and Nike goes live
July 2007 Zappos acquired 6PM.com from eBags.com. eBags.com had launched 6PM in 2005 and the premise was to find 6 perfect matches of shoes/handbags for the customer. It was the first acquisition for our company. While our focus at Zappos was customer service with features such as free overnight shipping and free return shipping, 6PM would focus on a different model so we decided to have two separate sites for that reason.
Zappos sponsors the Two Ten Footwear foundation for a second year in a row. We tried to get Nick to come out but he had a prior arrangement. The golf course was beautiful, and we had a great time golfing as well.
We had the annual Vendor Party at Tao this year. They dressed a very large Buddha with an equally large Zappos t-shirt, it was pretty amazing. I hung out with Pam and Jerry at the party since I was a single guy this time around. Everything was really cool, a lot of different activities for people to enjoy.
We were trying to enhance the outlet store experience by having the Directors team up and work with one of the three stores in Vegas. We were to help hire, train, and merchandise the stores. Pam and I got teamed up to help the Safari outlet store. We went down there together and assessed what needed to be done. We made a few suggestions and would follow up the next week to see progress.
October rolls around and we had a trip planned for the end of October and another one in December. Fred was trying to convince me to move there for 6 months but with my kid’s over here I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to see them every month as was might visitation rights and didn’t want to give up that precious time with them. Before the trip though we had a fund raiser for the Juvenile Diabetes foundation. Basically Fred, Tony and Alfred volunteered to have pies thrown at them for a fee. It was an auction style bid so Jeanne and I tied for Fred’s pie. We each bid $40. I think I threw it too hard and it had a whap sound to it. All in fun though. They were good sports for doing it.
October 21st we take a large team to China for a tour. Scott my traveling buddy and Meghan who was recently hired for the private label team, Charles of course, Chris B from performance, Jen S. from couture, Andy and Erica from kids and Amara from planning. We took them through the factories then had some fun in Hong Kong before we left for home. Behind Richards back I started planning for the December trip because he would be turning 60 this year. I talked to some factory owners to plan a big dinner in his honor. It would be a total surprise.
We get back and the following week Nike went live. It was a long time coming. We had been talking to them for 8 years in a row and finally they would be on the site. Sales were tremendous from the opening bell. We all went to Claim Jumper to celebrate.
We all headed out to NYC for the Ffany show and just like the last few years we set a record 4 million dollar day on November 6th. The following days we broke that too with a few more records and a big 5 million dollar day the day before my birthday.
December 3, 2007 $4.42 million
December 5, 2007 $4.67 million
December 11, 2007 $4.71 million
December 17, 2007 $5.01 million
It was a great way to finish the year. One more trip to China and 2007 will be finished.
Zappos marathon, a new puppy and a 60th birthday party
Zappos decides to sponsor a marathon to be held in Vegas. The runners would run part of it down the strip and the back part of the strip as well. The performance team would have a space nearby to sell merchandise as well. It was cool to see the hype and how excited everyone was. I am not a runner but decided to sign up for the half marathon which would be 13 miles.
I decided to look up how to prepare and there was plenty of content online for this. I started my training in September and December came along quick. Was not sure if I could run the whole 13 miles straight so I decided to run a mile, walk a mile and see how it would go. I basically just wanted to finish. There were other people with the same mindset, so I ended up running with people who were in my level of running fitness and ended up with a decent time of 3:30 for my first one. I was satisfied with the result. Chris who was in the performance team did the whole marathon in about the same time which was incredible.
My son James had been living with me for a little while now and I took him on one trip to China, but I was going there so frequently he had to stay home sometimes by himself. With that, we decided to get a puppy to keep him company. I have had dogs my whole life. Had a poodle/terrier growing up, a few different collies and a lab too. Getting a Collie for Vegas with the long hair didn’t seem like a good idea and I didn’t want to deal with the shedding. I got a German Shepard for a brief time, but the back yard was too small so he basically tore it all up. I found a nice person to take him, and he had a big backyard too.
We decided on a Pug. Little did I know how much Pug’s shed their coat as they have three layers. Having a short coat, I didn’t think that would be the case. Should have done my research. James and I went to a Puppy place and found the one he wanted. He was pretty funny, and we thought he’d be a great edition to our small family. I asked James what he wanted to name him, and he said he wanted to see his personality first. I was heading to China soon, so I was going to leave that to him.
Richard and I headed out soon afterwards. This trip was to find new factories as was always the case and strengthen our relationships with our current ones. Richard wanted to go to the Sun Yat-Sen Museum as we had some extra time after we landed. People in China refer to him as the “Father” of the nation similar to George Washington being our first president. It was very interesting as we toured the museum which was basically where he lived. When we got there a young Chinese girl wanted to take a photo with me as I was taller than most and from the USA.
The next day we toured some new factories, but none were what we needed at the time. We saw Chainson and Titan and Markon all of whom we had great relationships with. Our go to guy named Johnson usually would take us around to the different factories. I had arranged something with him earlier to surprise Richard with a Birthday dinner.
We arrive at the restaurant, and I pull out a gift the team bought Richard for his birthday. He was turning 60 so I felt it warranted some attention. They all signed the card and I presented it to him. The owners of the factory made sure we had an amazing dinner with multiple courses a few beers too. At the end the wheel out a pretty good size cake that looked delicious and it was. He was really surprised, and it made me feel good we could make him feel special on this special day. He had been a great travel partner for me, so I wanted to make sure he knew we appreciated him.
Steve gets promoted to VP of Merchandising
So we were planning an offsite At the Mount Charleston Resort. It was a Leadership workshop our “Zookeeper” Mark put together for us. Mark was heading up “Zappos University” and was well versed in these types of workshops. We had activities planned as a group and of course the happy hour and dinner to end each day with.
The first day we had a bunch of teambuilding type exercises to do in our groups we were assigned to. They tried to spread everyone out into groups that were different from the everyday work interactions we would have with each other.
The first exercise was to have two people face opposite directions, each sitting in a chair. One person was the artist and would draw what the other person was trying to describe to them. The team could not tell the artist what the item was and could only give instructions. The artist could only draw based on the instructions. The exercise was to show how important proper communication and creative thinking is. The results were sometimes comical and was a great learning experience.
At this time in Zappos history, we were big on skits. It started as a joke when we would ask people randomly that were new, to do a “Skit”. Chris who was a new buyer “nailed” a Jim Carrey impersonation, so the Zappos skits became a thing. At first, they were “live” then evolved into A 3-minute video. We did these skits for the next ten years and would play them at our recognition meetings. We would generally have a theme, then it was up to the creators from there. The point of mentioning this was we had to do a skit as a team, as part of the team building.
The skits were really funny and afterwards we went to dinner. At the dinner Fred stands up and announces Steve getting promoted to VP of Merchandising. To celebrate, Fred “Encouraged” everyone to buy him a shot. Well, there were quite a few of us there, so I could tell this was going to be a rough night for Steve. To be nice I got him a water shot and I took the vodka shot. After he took it, he mouthed a quiet “thank you”.
During dinner everyone was pretty toasty, and someone ended up throwing a dinner roll, hitting Steve square in the face. It left a red mark, so it must have been thrown with some force. Lucky for him, after 20+ shots, he wasn’t feeling much pain at that point. After dinner we ended up in the bar. There was a girl who wasn’t part of our group and was very friendly. She kept being very friendly to Jeanne, so Jeanne came over to me and said I was going to be her “pretend husband”.
The girl comes over and asks Jeanne to dance and Jeanne says, “I’m sorry I’m with my husband”. I look at the girl and then at Jeanne and say, “go ahead honey, have a great time”. If looks could kill, I’d be dead lol. We all had a good laugh on that one. The night ended and everyone went back to their rooms.
The second funny story was Fred and Scott were rooming together and Fred had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He mistook the front door for the bathroom door and found himself in his underwear locked out of his room. Scott was dead to the world and didn’t hear him pounding on the door. The person next door to him did though and it was the girl who was hitting on Jeanne, she was leaving in the middle of the night. Fred decided to go to the front desk to get another key in his underwear. He had to go downstairs to the front desk and ask for a duplicate room key. The clerk was reading a newspaper, didn’t look at him and handed him a key not noticing Fred’s predicament. These stories have circulated the Zappos circles for quite some time now and are considered “Classics”.
Zappos Culture Book
Every year we have published a “Culture book” where employees speak to what the culture means to them. Everyone is always excited to get their copy to see what their fellow Zapponians have written. Here is my excerpt:
“I started in 2003 and each year it gets more exciting. I attribute this excitement to our Core Values we have established. It’s great to work in a company that really believes that you should treat people well. I have always believed that if you treat people the way you want to be treated the sky is the limit. When I first started, it seemed insurmountable that an online shoe company could do 70 million in one year. Now we are beating that monthly. It is good to see all the hard work paid off. We have established great relationships with our partners, developed some really talented people and I’m so excited to go to work every day knowing that something new is going to pop up. I’m so happy to be here and know this will be my last job. I LOVE ZAPPOS!!!”
The planning of the Holiday party is a big deal. Every year Tony wanted it to be better than the previous year. This year we were having it at the Stratosphere. We had to go up elevators to get to the top. Once there you could partake in the cocktail party or do some bungee jumping off the side of the building. If you know me and my fear of heights, you knew I would be at the bar lol. They had a nice spread of appetizers and a chocolate fountain. Chris decided to dunk his head in the fountain, at least I think that’s what he did. I only saw the after effects in the men’s restroom lol. It was a good time once again.
Aaron leaves the company in February which was a tough time for Eileen and I. We were all like the three musketeers in this Zappos adventure. Aaron is such a smart guy though, I knew he would be successful in his next venture. We stay in contact even to this day in 2025. We have a lot of history together and have shared some great moments in our careers. So many funny moments and great accomplishments together. I was going to miss him…
February also brought on a new push by Fred to have us participate in the Corporate Challenge event. This was a competition for employees to test themselves in a sporting type competition. I had planned to play tennis for the company as I was still pretty good at that. We had planned a long trip to China and Vietnam about the same time that the tennis event took place, so I didn’t participate this year.
The following years though I made a point of doing as many events as possible. I did pretty good too since I was still athletic enough for my age group to win the company some points and enjoy some medals. Stay tuned for future blogs for 2009 when I start my 10 year run of Corporate Challenge events
Private label team heads out to Vietnam
February 29th Zappos has its first ever All-Hands meeting at the Henderson Pavilion. It was an outdoor venue and within walking distance from the office. It was the First time that financials were discussed with the entire company. It was also the first time we got together as a team to discuss how things were going (finances, etc.). We announced for the first time that we were profitable as a company. In the past we were reinvesting our profits into the customer experience. And if that wasn’t enough Tony and Alfred decided to give a 10% bonus to all employees. It was the first time ever they gave out a bonus to employees. Needless to say everyone was jazzed about all the good news and some people even cried when they announced the bonus.
In March we launched our first ever commercial campaign called “Zippy City”. Until this time we were only advertising by word of mouth. It ran for 24 weeks on national cable and had about 250 spots per week. We ran a second campaign later called “Put a little Zappos in your day”. It was a 31 second spot. They learned from the mistakes of the first campaign so this one was much better received.
The private label team headed out to China then Vietnam for the first time in April. We had been getting a lot of information that Vietnam was an up and coming country for private label opportunities, so we wanted to check it out. The team for this trip was Charles, Kathryn, Richard and myself. Rob was going to meet us in Hong Kong, then off to Shanghai.
Rob and I shared a room in Shanghai, it was like old times when we did that at Nordstrom. We headed out to Shanghai the next morning to look at some new opportunities for factories there. Michael, who helped Rob with the sourcing also had some updates for us on the shoe bags we were using for all our brands. It was a big endeavor for Michael, and he did a great job for us coordinating it all.
We got to the hotel and had to convert our money. We were all a little excited to get a Million Dong note. In reality it was worth 44 US dollars. We all got settled in to our hotel rooms and Richard & Judy had a nice surprise for the PL team. After dinner Judy and Richard were going to take us to a very famous water puppet show. It basically was just that, a puppet show in pools of water. I was trying to figure out how they did it so effortlessly but decided to just enjoy the moment. It was incredible. Richard told us these shows had been going on for a thousand years and it was an honor to be a puppeteer. There were about 10 people doing the magic.
The next morning we would be going to factories all day so after the show we all turned into our rooms to get some rest from the long trip.
Private label team visits Ha Long Bay
The next day we went to the factories Rob & Michael arranged for us. They were mostly casual shoes which was what we were looking for anyways. Question was, could they do the gel for Fitzwell? We met the factory manager and he was about 5 feet tall, maybe smaller. I felt like a giant next to him. Super nice guy though and he said they could do the gel for us.
He left the room for us to discuss internally what we wanted to do. Rob started with an “Uhhhhhh’ Then said, “I don’t know about you but I think a beer is in order”. We went through some of the details when the guy came back then they ordered a car for Rob & Michael to catch their flight out. Rob was bigger than the car but he managed to fit in. It was quite comical though. We went back to our hotel room to get ready for our next adventure, Ha Long Bay.
The name Hạ Long means “descending dragon”. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes. According to local legend, when Vietnam had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist the Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magics, numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders’ ships; the forward ships struck the rocks and each other. After winning the battle, the dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and then decided to live in this bay.
In 2012, New 7 Wonders Foundation officially named Ha Long Bay as one of New Seven Natural Wonders of the world.
Ha Long Bay is also a member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World. We took a van to the bay which was about an hour from our hotel. He gave us a lesson of the Vietnamese language along the way. We arrived at the shipyard where Richard had rented a boat for our journey. It was a total tourist trap in everything had a price. We all bought some Vietnamese hats for the boat ride as we would be in direct sun. During the boat ride some local farmers came along side our boat in a boat full of fruits and veggies. Other boats sold fish. It was really interesting.
The bay itself was breathtaking. We saw the dragon rocks which were famous which I talked about earlier. It looked like they were kissing. We went to a famous cave in which the Stalactites & Stalagmites were lit up. It really showed their beautiful colors. I learned that the way to remember the difference of the two is Stalactites are from the top and Stalagmites are from the ground. Remembering how to spell them correctly is a different story.
This trip was definitely a bucket list we could cross off, especially with the Ha Long Bay and the puppet show. The people here were very friendly but the living conditions were very poor. It made me think how truly lucky I am.
We flew back to Hong Kong and had the day to shop and also attend the Electronics show. It was massive and had many of the new technology items we would soon see in TV’s and such later on. I think we were all worn out from the long trip though so we made it an early day and had a nice dinner and turned in early.
My Zappos Career – Private Label 2007 & Las Vegas updates
Chapter 25
This is a condensed version of my experience in Private Label 2007 & Las Vegas updates, what did I learn?
-Evolve or go Extinct- Developing a culture of continuous improvement and innovation is vital to a company. Both are equally important to keep pace with industry trends and customer needs. There are countless examples of companies that didn’t keep up with the times and are no longer relevant. Tony wanted to avoid this fate.
-Culture is King– At LinkExchange, Tony observed that with the rapid expansion, the culture declined. He made this a focus at Zappos in the early days making culture the central focus of the companies identity for long term success.