Brian Smith

That to me was like going to prison.

The ski market was even harder than the surf market because their attitude was, well, we have mud and we have slush and we need rubber.

You know, we got to have sorrels.

And they couldn't see sheepskin being strong enough or waterproof enough to work in their area.

So, yeah, the ski markets were very, very difficult to get into.

It was at the time when all the big mainframe computers were being replaced by desktop computers.

And what nobody knew is that these big refrigerator-sized mainframes, every connection where one wire touched another wire or a motherboard plugged into another board, it was gold connections.

And so he arranged to buy up all of these old mainframes, which most accountants were paying to get rid of them.

Not knowing they were full of gold.

And so I was given a bunch of cash and a pair of snips and hammer.

And I found out when I got home that I'd made $3,000, which was a fortune to go on the road for a month.

But I realized I'd shipped over $300,000 worth of gold back to San Diego, not really knowing that I was doing it.

Well, nobody was calling.

I mean, I was like a non-entity for the first three to four years.

And every time I'd go into summer mode, I wouldn't think about UGG boots for four or five months.

And then it would be, you know, July, August, September, I'd start thinking, oh, shit, I better figure out who I'm going to sell to and how do I get more sales, you know?

I learned early on that trying to walk into a surf shop with sheepskin boots on a hot day was like pointless.

So I learned to wait for a really shitty day when, you know, the storm would hit, you know, then I'd go on the road and sales would, you know, I would open up.

you know, half a dozen pairs in lots of different little surf shops.

So like in the off season, I was fully into making money to stay alive.