February 2020 – Paid In Full: Chris Boline's Blog on Business and Pop Culture

Hot Seat, Cool Throne: The Brilliance of Pardon My Take

Caption: Pardon My Take co-hosts Big Cat (left) and PFT Commenter stand outside of their conversion van “Vanny Woodhead.” The duo has skyrocketed to the top of most major sports podcast charts since the show’s inception in 2016.

Image via Business Insider and Barstool Sports

One of the finest pairings of raw talent in the 2010’s did not happen on the basketball court or the boardroom, but rather in a smelly studio in New York City. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to take a moment to appreciate the creative geniuses behind Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take. Of course, if you are a listener of the show you know I am somewhat joking, but Pardon My Take is one of the biggest sports shows on Apple podcasts and has been streamed millions of times over. While Pardon My Take (PMT) is no doubt a successful enterprise, they are also in many ways the epitome of the working man’s podcast and truly a modern success story of melding your passions to your career.

The premise of Pardon of My Take is fairly simple in that it combines weekly recurring comedic segments along with guest interviews, usually in the arena of sports, but guests have also come from music, entertainment, and literature. However, what makes the show fantastic and unique is the chemistry between the two hosts: Dan Katz aka “Big Cat” and PFT Commenter aka “PFT”. Both men are in their mid-30’s and have found a way to combine their own special idiosyncrasies to make for a slew of unforgettable moments on the show and for a forgettable run on ESPN. Indeed this show is as if you and your best friend had a chance to interview your favorite entertainers growing up while also sharing a beer with them at the same time. Both Big Cat and PFT have referred to themselves as glorified bloggers throughout the show’s run, but they have made the profession a highly-desired one thanks to the show’s resounding success.

PMT, as mentioned before, is part of the larger Barstool Sports empire which recently sold to Penn National Gaming earlier this year for a reported $450 million. While Barstool has plenty of avenues beyond just podcasts, they originally started out as a newsletter and then a blog in Boston, their following has grown by the thousands over the years. Their impact is growing so quickly, the media company has ventured out into live event tours around the country to connect with their fans. However, still at the heart of it all is PMT which has stayed true to the show’s roots since it began in February 2016.

While PMT might not be perhaps your cup of tea, the next time you are looking to listen to a new podcast, give them a shot. It never fails to amaze me how much you can pick up in one episode beyond the crass humor. In fact, screenwriter/director Brian Koppelman was recently on the show and commended the whole crew (especially producers Hank and Liam) on their ability to grind and work through the creative process to find new ways to produce content. In the modern era of media being so accessible, PMT stands out as the standard bearer of combining the nostalgia of SportsCenter and the WWF in the 1990’s along with the modern era of social media.

Kicks ‘R For Us: The Sneaker Culture

Caption: Kanye West wearing the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 “Zebra” during a performance at Guaranteed Rate Field in July 2017. This Adidas Yeezy Boost V2 is one of the most popular sneakers all-time and immediately sold-out upon release in 2017. Image via of http://www.UrbFash.com

In the years since I graduated from college in 2015, I have undergone a massive change in my life. No I have not found that ever elusive secret underground tunnel to London or discovered a new diet to grant me eternal abs, but rather my love for tennis shoes has blossomed. Wait, tennis shoes you ask? Yes, tennis shoes, or sneakers, kicks, trainers, whatever you want to call them. In my esteemed opinion, tennis shoes are the most glorious accessory you can own and this is my ode to them.

My passion for shoes has long been an ongoing theme in my life, but for this blog I want to explore how this burgeoning hobby became more of a financial asset that I continue to add to as often as I can. You see, shoes nowadays are big business thanks to the likes of tastemakers Kanye West (the Adidas and Nike Yeezy versions), Virgil Abloh and his Off-White collaboration with Nike, and of course the classic Air Jordan silhouettes that never go out of style, at least the OG (original versions) of editions one through 14. These shoes can vary in price but some go as high as $79,000 which is the asking price for a pair of Nike Low SB Paris Dunks on StockX which bills itself as the sneaker stock market of sorts. While I myself do not own such a pair, it is truly fascinating to see how you can collect tennis shoes in the same vein as classic art, wine or vinyl records. Sneakers have a massive following on the internet and everyone from YouTube stars to social media bloggers have an opinion, it just goes to show that if you follow your passion, sometimes the money will follow.

While I want to go more in-depth in an article to follow about the cultural and business significance (the Air Jordan 11’s, anyone?) of some of my favorite sneakers, there is no shortage of content nowadays about sneaker reselling. There are dozens of accredited YouTube vloggers who review the hottest releases coming out on a weekly basis and companies like Complex have made multiple shows showcasing just how wide sneakers are connected to pop culture. In fact, Complex’s “Sneaker Shopping” series might be the best example of just how insanely high these shoes can be valued at and how buying them in clusters can be more than a brand new car! Indeed when a rapper like Future spends $38,971.85 on sneakers and clothing or NBA player P.J. Tucker drops $33,283.10 at Flight Club you know that this can certainly become a substantial business.

Now before we go forward, I would be remiss in saying I am not comparing you and I to multi-millionaire entertainers and athletes, but rather shedding a light on a topic you might not have had much interest in before. One of the best parts about wearing a pair of shoes is the connection you can have to another person that you might not have had before. Wearing a new pair of Air Jordan White Cement 4’s might mean you are a fan of Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” or that you just love the story behind Michael Jordan wearing them in 1989. Whatever the case, each shoe can have a story to tell. In fact, dress shoes like Clarks have even been name-dropped by Staten Island’s Wu-Tang Clan in songs which goes to show how these brands have had such crossover appeal and economic resonance. Wu-Tang later collaborated with Clarks to drop their own pair of Wallabees in the 2010’s to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their iconic album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

While I absolutely want to shed more light on the sneaker reselling world and its economic connections to pop culture, I am afraid this is where we must bid adieu. So please at the end of this post I want you to write down your favorite shoes and wear them today. Also feel free to give me a shout out on Twitter with your favorite kicks on and I will send you mine. Everyone has a favorite pair of sneakers they have owned over time and each one has their own awesome story to share.

“8 Million (Business) Stories” – A Tribe Called Quest and also this blog (sort of)

Image via YouTube and Complex

We all have heard of the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”, right? Well in the present day world, pictures are not the only forms of communication that make humans think and feel something. In our everyday lives, we find all kinds of ways to connect ourselves to the world around us. That means more avenues to tether ourselves to mainstream culture and relating it to our personal lives.

That’s why this blog is geared around our collective connections to pop culture (sports, entertainment, tennis shoes, movies, music, etc.) and how they can tie back into our personal lives, or in this case, how culture ties into business as a whole and how it can relate to your own company.This blog is going to be filled with examples of characters, both real and fictional, and their journeys navigating the sometimes treacherous corporate world. These stories will be going over the mundane turned comical (Office Space) to the eternally changing world of social media and its impact on future generations (YouTube vloggers). Indeed, business and pop culture have found multiple ways to intertwine themselves over the decades — do you think Air Jordans are popular by accident? Each story or anecdotal tale has a foundational core of a protagonist or protagonists striving to make money at the end of the day, and hopefully changing the world for the better.

While each post on this blog will tell a different event from industries as disparate as the NFL to the dry deserts of northern Nevada, they all share a common thread of stories offering a distinct glimpse into how their business functions and how it can change over time. For each post I will be going over a new tale and how it can potentially relate back to your business in terms of lessons learned and things to say and do. Plus who doesn’t like talking about sports and music? For every entertainer or superstar athlete, there is a story behind them and how they developed their business. There are also the events of everyday people and how their lives are typically connected to their business for better and possibly for worse.

It seems as though everyone is connected to some sort of social media platform whether it be your eccentric aunt on Facebook or a former classmate from middle school finding YouTube fame. All of these individuals are attached to an outlet that brings them closer to the collective consciousness of the culture around them. Indeed even those stories can add value to a business owner’s next great grassroots marketing plan or a new strategy to help grow a certain demographic. Maybe you will find some useful pieces of information in this blog or a new tactic to apply in your business. Hopefully you’ll run across some topics you’ve never heard of before or just a post to kill some time while you are in the airport.

Regardless, thank you for coming and visiting my blog and I hope you enjoy the posts inside.