Brian Smith

Doug was selling sandals out of his car around about the same time.

Okay.

And he parlayed his business into licensing different brands like surf brands and stuff.

And he eventually took on the license for Teva sandals.

And in the very early 90s, the outdoor market took off and Teva went with that.

They went from like 16 million to 60 million.

Wow.

Just through this, and because of that, they did an IPO, and I knew that they were sitting on about $25 to $30 million in cash.

When I saw Doug in Atlanta, right?

And I walked up to him and we high-fived each other because we'd seen each other going in and out of surf shops for like 10 years, right?

We joked about selling out to each other in the past.

And I said, Doug, if ever we're going to do it, now's the time.

That afternoon, we had the accountants back in California talking to each other and suggesting meetings to start the due diligence on selling the company.

Yes.

His company died every winter.

Our company died every summer.

Yeah.

What was it called?

No, it was called Decker's Corporation.

So I called up Alan and I said, Alan, we have this opportunity to sell the company.