Ride or Rot⚡️ep.006- Jeff Lobo the man behind the Merch

Episode 006 – Building Brands, Bike Week, and the Day We (Accidentally) Shut Down an Airport

In this episode of the Ride or Rot Podcast, we sit down with Jeff Lobo — owner of Lobo Fishing Lures and Ink Trends, and the man behind all of our merch.

We get into what it really takes to run a successful screen printing business, build a brand from the ground up, and produce high-quality merch that actually represents what you stand for. Jeff shares his experience working with multiple brands, lessons from the fishing industry, and what it’s like operating a business right here in Daytona Beach.

We also talk about the impact of Daytona Bike Week on the city, the changes happening locally, and the ongoing conversations around the future of the motorcycle culture in Daytona.

And then… there’s the story.

A phone call from Homeland Security that somehow led to the Daytona Beach airport getting shut down while delivering merch for one of our events. No exaggeration.

This episode is a mix of business, culture, and real-life chaos — exactly what Ride or Rot is all about.

If you’re into motorcycles, entrepreneurship, or building something from nothing, this one’s for you.

Ride or Rot Podcast
Real conversations. Real people. Real life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Then at the end I looked like some lady that worked at a bowling alley that smoked marble red. So I was like, anyone have a cigarette?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome to Ride and Rod. My name is Dougie Fresh, and to my left is Nick. This is the podcaster we talk about bikes, the culture, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Let's get into it. What's up, guys? Today we got Jeff in. So Jeff is our merch guy. He's uh he's got the mindset of business and he knows what works and what doesn't work. And you got a really cool story behind yourself. Obviously, you didn't start doing the ink trend stuff. Right. Tell us who you are, what you do, and and what you're about, man.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

So I'm Jeff. I uh started my career in management actually at Dunkin' Donuts. Um I know how to brew a nice pot of coffee sometimes. Um learned that I hated working like 60 hours a week because I, you know, started there as a regular person, worked my way up into management in like two months, uh, did that for like four years, then decided I was gonna go back to school, uh, became an optician. I was a specialty contact lens fitter up in Connecticut. Um, and you know, decided, okay, this is awesome, getting paid well. Uh got into the optical end of it and quickly learned that I didn't like working for people. So I decided I was gonna pay off my college tuition or my college debt, did that in seven years, and um retired from that field in 2017. From that point, um I went, I was recruited by Cosa del Mar here in Daytona. Uh, went to work for them as a Northeast Territory um sales manager in the RX division, um, did that for three years, and when they got bought out by Lexotica, I decided, okay, this is time to hop and away from this and go full-time into my local lures business, which was manufacturing offshore fishing tackle. Um, that led me into issues with screen printing companies. You know, they dropped the ball on me and I was like, you know what? I can figure this out. So bought a little printer and started printing stuff, and uh quickly it expanded. And in 2021, during the heat of COVID, uh Valuja County reached out to me and they're like, Why don't you move Lobo Lures down to Florida? I'm like, all right, let's do it. So that's how I ended up here, and uh, it's been an interesting road and working with new people. Um, I lost a lot of clients in Connecticut. Um, but coming down here has just been really interesting. Um got to meet you guys. So yeah, that's kind of where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

I think it's pretty cool how businesses are formed based off of you saw like an issue with something and decided to you know what I could do it better myself. You know, I think that's pretty interesting. A lot of people do that. I think some of the best things come out of it because you know, you're taking a crappy product and making something better. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Yeah, you see that you see the negatives and things, and I think my management background, um, running opticals, running Dunkin' Donuts, um, and then managing a whole territory gave me a new insight on things. And um, you know, one of the things that we do is we try to keep everything in-house as much as possible. And we rather than people coming to us and saying, Hey, I need you to screen print this or I need you to make a t-shirt or something like that, we look at you as a partner because when you look at somebody like a partner, you your initiative is to make them as much money as possible, make their job easier, but also for them to make you money. And as long as everybody has food on their table, it's great. And you're able to offer, you know, ideas. You know, a lot of screen printing shops are so stuck in their ways of like, nope, I'm just gonna be behind a press slinging shirts, slinging ink, which is cool. I mean, it works for some people. Um, but we found success in partnering with people, like partnering with you guys and some pretty notable brands out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

So oh, that's awesome, dude. And that was one of the things that when I met you, you could just tell that you were you're a team player, you know. The it takes a village, and it's really cool to have people in the in that in a community that actually believes that. Um, that's huge.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I just think it's awesome you went from donut balls to eyeballs. Yeah. To it's true. To sling and ink. Slinging ink. I was trying to think of another ball thing. Balls.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah. Hanging out with the bobbers and the fishing. Yeah. There we go. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So you've talked obviously with the fishing game. You're known in the fishing world, off-sea or offshore stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Um how long have you been fishing? Is that something you've done up north?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

So I've been fishing my whole life. My father introduced me to it. Um, we uh the interesting thing about me is I was raised uh very poor. My dad's from West Africa, my mother's from Brazil. Um, my dad's an entrepreneur at heart. He was dislodged from his home because of communism, so that's how he ended up here, and always taught me hey, you gotta work hard for what you want, and made sure that he kept us involved even when he couldn't afford it, which was really uh notable. I mean, my dad's my best friend, and yeah, I mean you guys met him. Yeah, cool guy. He's he's always around when he's not in Connecticut. Uh so um fishing, it you know, I got into manufacturing fishing lures in a way to afford fishing because it's very expensive on the offshore game. And somehow I became influential in it uh because of the bit because of the business I'm in, you know, manufacturing offshore lures, winning people a ton of money uh with our tackle, which is pretty cool. And we started seeing some of these big clients um who spend a lot of money in the fishing game have these big boats and they're business owners. So we started tackling that too. And that's how Inkrankended. Yeah. Right. So that's how we got really started in this the screen printing. Aside from doing it for my own brand, um, we started going on the outside of that.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Sounds like a lot of networking. Oh, yeah. Knowing the right people. Yep, yep. Yep. That term, it it's all about who you know. It really is. I mean different situations, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

What business is your primary? Is it the screen printing or is it the fishing?

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Um the screen printing surpassed the fishing business by far. Um the fishing business is fun, it's got really cool connections. I mean, some of the people that we rub shoulders with are you know, namestays and on TV and stuff, and that's pretty cool. Um but uh I would say the screen printing is for me the most fun because uh it's very creative. I get to work with you guys and other people and get all these ideas and just constantly on the edge of fashion, right? In in your terms, we went out to California to find the best blank for you. Like we left Florida, went uh to Los Angeles, and scoured for the right t-shirt. Um, and I think that's what makes us different than other screen printing shops.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

That's awesome, dude. Let's talk about bike week just ended. Let's talk about how that impacted your business a little bit. Did you see an influx of orders? Um did it was it good or was it bad? You know?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Aside from the traffic going home, it was good. Uh got to meet a lot of cool people. Um it was the first time that I went out to bike week with you know, like you guys introduced me to it, really. Um we've got a lot of ideas. Um it bike week brings in a lot of money. Um obviously with your merch, we we noticed that. Um and you know, mean it's for me it's meeting new people, right? Uh and creating those relationships. And you know, as time goes on, as we become a staple in Daytona and with you guys, I think that we're gonna we're all gonna grow. Um bike week is while some people I I'd like to say the older people look at it as a negative thing, I think it's one of the greatest things for the area because Daytona used to be an epicenter for tourism and spring break and all this stuff, and the biggest thing that we look forward to is Rolex 24 and bike week. You know, that's what brings the I think the most money to the town, and maybe Jeet Beach.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah. Well, I mean, we saw on a you know, on a separate topic, we saw Daytona Beach during bike week. A lot of bikers came in. Um the statistics from that, I believe, were 20 DUIs during the whole bike week and 133 arrests, and that was the whole seven-day or ten-day period. The first day of spring break had 133 arrests.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Really?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

First day? The first day. I believe it. Or more. Yeah. Don't quote me on the exact number, but I know that it was somewhere comparable to the entire bike week. So if that's an indication of anything, you know, the we all know that these dudes rolling in here from out of town with their fifth wheelers and um, you know, all their you know, some of them have two, three bikes that are you know forty, fifty thousand dollars each. You think these guys are really coming into town to dine and dash and you know, destroying cars and lane? Destroy people's businesses and things like that. They're here to have a good time. Yeah, they might drink and say some dumb things to some of the bartenders and waitresses and stuff, but overall, everyone during bike week, for the most part, from what I saw, was just here to have a good time.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

They're from my understanding it's uh or from my viewpoint, they're super respectable. I mean, like we hung out at Ironhorse one day, and I'm sitting at the bar and I look over and I'm like, that guy's got a freaking fifty thousand dollar Rolex on, and the guy next to me's got a Panterai, and I'm like, okay, well that's that's not the you know, that's not somebody who's coming here to create a headache.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Exactly. I'm sure back in the day, bike week had a different flavor, you know, actual bikers like clubs and stuff rolling in and maybe being a little wild and out of out of control, but nowadays, dude, it's doctors, dentists, optometrists, lawyers, lawyers, you know, things like that. And uh, you know, just I think they got to get rid of that stigma, you know, with the powers of bee in the city and kind of embrace like, hey, this is a huge event. The people that come here are actually you know willing to spend money and help out our economy. Why don't we figure out a way to embrace that and build on it, you know? Oh, absolutely. And I see the racetrack, it does it. They have all the vendors out there, and they have Supercross and King of the Bagger races and then Ormond Beach, they're doing it. They have at Destination Daytona all the big vendors out there for Harley Davidson. Um, Deland even had their own uh bike week, the first weekend of bike week. So, I mean, what's the city of Daytona Beach doing? They could promote it more, um, maybe have some some events that are put on by the city. Maybe I don't know, I don't know what they can do. I'm not a city council member, I'm not the mayor, but we're not politicians, but but we're business owners and we see it. Like it's a good opportunity, man. Like capitalize on it.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

I look at I came to Spring Break in 2002, uh and this place was booming. And then fast forward, they kick out spring break, they kick out MTV and all this stuff, and next thing you know, their hotels are coming down. It wasn't just spring break, they kicked out Tuner Bash, something back in the day with you know, I was in the car scene. And uh, you know, these people come, they bring money, they spend money in the restaurants, and that's what supports the business, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Without that, you know I think the vision for this area is they want to kind of make it higher class, they want to have you know, um, big high-end like Louis Vuitton stores and things like that. Uh Aston Martin is actually building um a hotel over like more towards South Daytona on the beach. Okay. So when you get somebody, you know, a company of that caliber coming into town, you know, it's you're kind of wondering, like, okay, what's next? You know, how big is this gonna grow? What are they gonna do to change the whole atmosphere? Because Daytona Beach itself, it's not like you're down in uh West Palm Beach. All right. You know what I mean? It's it's a little bit more uh rugged.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Yeah, that definitely is more rugged. Dirt Tona's a good one. Um, like you were saying with Aston Martin going down there, uh, you got Palm Coast that's putting uh Ritz Carlton, you know, million dollar penthouses. Um and I think they're trying to make this area higher end. Um Daytona's just gotta.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

But I mean, pushing out bike week, how is that going to decrease the value if businesses are making money and people want to come here because there are things like that? I don't envision, you know, because they put up a couple new hotels and some stores and you know, clean it up a little bit, that all of a sudden you're gonna have people from the French Riviera coming out here and hanging out on Main Street. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 13:13

I I think some of the and I might be wrong, I think some of the old timers, like you know, we look at Palm Coast, uh, Ormond, Daytona, Holly Hill. Holly Hill is actually embracing Bike Week. Um they that's what I've come to see. Um Palmcoast is a lot of old timers, right? Um and and it's changing. Um there's no industry up there yet, but hopefully that's gonna change soon. Um these people look at it as like, oh the motorcycles are loud and yada yada yadda. It's like, you know, I get complaints when I drive my car in my town. Like I have some lady that comes every time with her cell phone. I saw you speeding down the road. The car has a video, like you can go to it. I'm doing 25 miles an hour down the road, but my exhaust is extremely loud.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Um sounds like you're going faster than what you are.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah, and I get harassed by a Karen. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Gotta have Karen's around, man. No, we don't. No, we don't. I was coming home the other day from school. I was on my bike, I was behind a Karen, and she was just driving right next to another car going the same exact speed. And we've all been stuck behind cars like that. So I'm like just riding behind her, and then finally um she like speeds up a little bit, enough for me to like finally get around her, and as I do that and I start going, she swerves at me like aggressively, and I'm like, whoo! And and roll over to the right a little bit and then speed up and go. And in my head, I'm like, okay, was she trying to get over? Like, what did I like? I go around her too fast and she didn't know that I was already next to her. But the fact that she did that and swerved back, and I saw the look on her face too. I kind of want to tend to lean towards the fact that she did it on purpose. That's but I mean, sad. Do not do that to a biker, you know, because like if I was a like a newer rider, I could have overreacted easily and just completely, you know, overcorrected and you know dumped it off on the side of the road or whatever, but that happens all the time around here. People are just just don't like bikers in general.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

We actually have a pretty sad story. We also own real estate, and in like 2013, we had a tenant who was a motorcycle rider, and in Palm Coast, he I guess he was coming around and kind of came in the another lane and lady hit him, severed his leg, and she was too scared to get out of the car that he ended up bleeding out. And um everybody just stood there watching. I'm like sitting there. We got the call, like the the wife was traumatic. Um she's like, I I don't know what to do. I'm gonna have to move back. I think she was from like Indiana or something. Um and we're we were like, you can stay in the house as long as you want, no rent. Uh but it was one of those things like in your case, you could have got really hurt. But in this case, this gentleman lost this not gentleman, this 20-something year old guy lost his life because people are just not smart enough, or I don't know, if it's not smart enough, just didn't get out and take a belt off and make a tourniquet. Like this is common sense stuff. I mean, she let she let the kid bleed out. Um and it wasn't just her, it was somebody else too. That just they just stood there. I'm like, how no common sense, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

That's the problem. A lot of people don't have that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

It's getting so bad out there, dude. See it every single day.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

And and when I when I drive, and especially during bike week, I am extremely aware of, especially on the highway too, right? Because you get the you get people who ride, cruise, then you get, you know, it usually seems to be like the street bikes, like or the what what do you guys call them? Crotch rockets.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yeah, crotch rockets, and they're like darting in and out of traffic, and there's times like this time I was with my wife, and my wife was like, Oh my god, we almost just hit him.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

I was like, honestly, when I'm cruising and I'm on the freeway and I'm passing cars and stuff, you know, it might look crazy to you guys, but in my head, I'm like paying attention to the car, I'm looking in the mirror at their eyeballs, looking to see if they're gonna be making any movements or lane changes, and I go around them in you know in the area that seems safest to me as fast as I can, usually most of the time, because every single time when I'm riding the speed limit, cars are doing that to me instead. Yeah, so it's either they're coming up on my ass or you know, they're coming into my lane and or they're like fighting with each other in front of me or behind me, and it's just like I'd rather be the guy clear it. I'd rather be the guy just smashing home, you know, and going around to everybody, and then you know, if I get pulled over or whatever, I mean it is what it is, but yeah, I I've been riding for a very, very long time, and that's so that I get, but this is like you know, this one was flying up, and he had either the split-second decision, like and you saw it, like there's obviously a car here, I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Like, he slams on the brakes and cuts in front of me and doesn't like really could have just like gone quick.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Um but I mean there are those cases where dudes are just racing and they got it pegged and they're just having a good time and not really doing it for a specific reason. They're just going, you know. Yeah. And yeah, a lot of the times that they don't have enough time to react to a car that's slowing down or merging or you know, getting on the freeway or changing lanes.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

But during bike, we definitely as as a I was gonna say as a consumer, as a car driver or truck driver, whatever, um, you really just gotta keep your eyes alert because you never know.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Um that's some just that's this area in general because it's so many bikes here.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Oh yeah. Yeah. At all times.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Like people do not stop when they're pulling out of a side street, they just pull straight out and go.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Yeah, that's I mean you over here we got so many nice roads to drive, like because cars, right? I love driving A1A. There's times where if I bring my car down to the shop, I'll drive A1A all the way back home. Um, and that's you know, a lot of salt spray, but yeah, it's it's just a beautiful ride. And coming from the north, you know, like it's like paradise every time you drive. Yeah. Um when and when we take that for granted, um, I know it's I've been here too long.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Sure, sure. Yeah. Everyone like I was questioned all the time, why would he move down there? It's hot. It's like I don't want to sit in cornfields and have to go through a winter and freaking uh seasonal depression's real, man.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Real, real.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

I'm just I'm just picturing Nick sitting Indian style in the middle of a cornfield. We've done it. A piece of corn in his mouth. It wasn't in my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Fucking weirdo. Who the hell? Who's this guy? Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Like in Connecticut, it was like snow and cold and gloomy six months out of the year, and then you you know, you take you your my car would sit on a lift six months out of the year, my boat would sit out of the water for six months out of the year, and I'm like, sitting there, I'm like, damn, this sucks. And then you see these people like down here in Florida just enjoying life. And yes, June, July, and August, whoo, terrible.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Dude, it is the it's like literally being in hell. Yes, that's how hot it gets here. But it's got jumping water. The water's hot too, dude. It's boiling.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

But you know, it could be worse.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

You could be uh with snow and twitters exactly, and that's months, at least in Indiana. It's cold for a while, like it doesn't calm down.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Let's take a look at this uh this website, dude.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yeah. So you're helping us obviously with the Shopify. We're gonna have that set up soon. But currently, we're going through your website um with a link, and we're gonna pull it up here on the screen for you guys. Talking about quality and stuff like that, because obviously, before we even printed anything, we talked about quality and how it's important. And you obviously you got a background in this stuff. What makes our stuff stand out from just a regular print if you went up and got something printed?

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Okay, so as you know, we started talking in September and we didn't launch the brand up. Well, not the brand, we didn't launch the merch up until what five weeks ago?

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Probably, yeah, right before bike weeks.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

And um, you know, most people say, Oh, let's throw that on a Gildan t shirt. I am I don't think Gildan prints nicely. I you know, and it's just run of the mill. And then you also told me something about how you know when you're riding, you don't want your collar flopping around and stretching out. So we decided that we were gonna take the time and research what other big brands were doing. Um we have A big brand that we do business with that's a major player in the sunglass industry, and we already work with a top-tier blank for them. And uh so when we went out to LA, we looked at you know, some of these I don't want to say like hippie brands, but like these boho style, like heavy cock tie-eye. Well, not tie-dye, it's like you know, like just I say think of LA, you know, and it's the epicenter of all these crazy t-shirts. And you know, we talked to a bunch of people and from super high priced, 100% made in the US, grown in the US and all that stuff, to you know, stuff that's made overseas. Um, we knew we wanted to stay out of China because they've got uh you know terrible quality uh in terms of you know one day a small will fit a person, and the next day I'm looking at it and putting it on the press, and I'm like, well, that looks like it's toddler size.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

You don't have no idea how many shirts my wife has of mine that have shrunk.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Or consistency is terrible. Um, so we happened to just come across this one company, and nobody was really talking to them because they didn't have a hip, you know, booth or anything. But the guy was just a nice guy. He says, Hey, what what are you looking for? I says, Well, I'm looking for a quality blank over six ounces. He goes, I got something for you. Walks to the back, comes out, and these blanks were sitting on the backside of a rack. And I'm like, Yeah, that's that's what I want. I was like, Let's talk, send me some samples so I can show my guy. Um because originally we were looking at another LA brand that's cut and sewn um over in Mexico and then brought over. Um but they were super expensive, and this shirt ended up being ideal. They allow us some customization. So say we wanted to do you know, specifically a um what do you want to call it? A specific ounce. Say you wanted like I want seven ounces, and I want the sleeve to be more um what what they're doing in like uh Europe where the sleeves are all the way down here, you know, short sleeve. You can do that with this company. So there's a lot of customization.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

And um the sleeves are getting lower and the shorts are getting higher. Yeah, basically. And tighter. Tighter, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Yeah, asless traps tight.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Sorry. They're all assless. That's the biking world, you know. I've got I got taught that once. I got yelled at. Gay dude. But so our shirts up here, these are six and a half ounce.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Six and a half ounce, mineral wash, so they're super soft.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

Um printed here in Daytona. Yep. Um I think we're discussing possibly doing a live printing event next round. Um, so that's gonna be cool. Uh right now we've kind of got this mix. Uh, we've been talking about based on where your sales are coming from. We're talking about bringing in some hoodies. Yep. Even though we're a Florida, you're a Florida brand, um, we definitely want to have hoodies because a lot of your merch went Maine, Washington, Indiana, Illinois.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Dude, it gets cold here, man. Hoodies, hoodies sell. Yeah, yeah. Night riding, man. This is the longest winter we've had in a long time. Yeah, it was nice. And it was the coldest winter in history in Florida, like this last December. Really? Yeah. I'll take that. Got down. Got down to like 73. It's tough.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

And then we, you know, banners. We made some banners for for the garage, and uh, I said, you know what, if we got one hanging in the shop, got one hanging up behind you. Oh, yeah, look at that. Yep. Um, we decided, okay, well, why not put the banners up on the website? Because that'd be we got the patriotic aspect of it. You know, you you're a veteran and stuff, and I said, you know, this is gonna be a good thing. And one of the things that we do that's different than I say a lot of screen printing shops is we bounce ideas off you. I mean, you're getting text messages from me at 10 o'clock at night, I'm like, oh crap, man, I'm so sorry. I send them to you too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

So uh Yeah, but the ones you send are like, what are you wearing? Shhhh.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Don't bring up the nail polish either.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

Oh gosh. Yeah. First time I meet Doug, I got big nail polish on.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Like, nick, dude.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

Who's this guy? Shows up and he's like, it's not our type of people we're going. I'm like, no, no, I swear my daughter literally painted my nails the night before.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

It's all good. It's all good. So, but yeah, for our shirts, they're not gonna stretch, they're not gonna shrink when you dry them.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Um my biggest thing, like you said earlier, is when you're running down the road and I hate when my collar gets loose, I'll never wear that shirt again if it stretches out. And I've washed mine and worn mine multiple times. I haven't had any issue with it yet.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yeah, me neither. Yeah. The mineral wash one is extra special thick. So comfy. I love that shirt, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

My wife wears it and she's not a biker. She's just like, have to be a biker. She's like, I love this shirt.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yeah, that's one thing about ride or ride. You could be a biker, a trucker, a boater. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

If you ride something, a unicycle, even I mean, even not rides, just ride your ride life. Get out there and fucking live it. Ride the wave.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

So surfers, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

So the way I perceive your brand, because we've worked with a lot of brands, um, your brand isn't just it's a lifestyle brand. That's how I view it. And lifestyle brands become super successful because you know, the nice thing about you is people see you in public and they're sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

You broke every rule. It was the alarm. You broke every rule. I can edit that out.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Alarm fire me. But like you're a lifestyle brand, right? So you it crosses over to jet ski riding, boat riding, like you said, automotive. Um you know, brands that we see come and go in our industry are brands that are like, oh, I'm gonna be strictly this and I'm gonna target that community. You know, give you a good example, Loba Lures, what's an offshore tackle brand, but we're only competing for two million fishermen, uh big game fishermen. If I if I delved into the inshore community, that would add another 60 to 75 million fishermen. So that's why brands like Bajio Sunglasses, they're a sunglass brand that caters to all fishermen, but their target market is, you know, the outdoorsmen. Yeah, yeah. Fly fishing, bass fishing. Um, and I believe that they'd cross over into the motorcycle world because they got the best polarized sunglasses out there.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

So you heard the man. I think we should reach into the college students and change it to right or rot. Right?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

We can do sister brand, right? Hey, sometimes when I do my voice text, it does put right or rot. I've sent that to companies. Universe is telling you something.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

It's so much a lifestyle brand that uh y'all made me a uh rebel.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

You are a rebel. I can tell, dude.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

Well, he ended up on a list. Yeah, now I'm on Homeland Securities list because uh yeah. I went to go deliver the shirts to you guys. So I uh dropped during bike week. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I uh I decided that I'm gonna go to the shop, grab some merch because I didn't want you guys to come with your bikes and put them all in the bike. I said, I'll deliver them. So I had to drop off a car at the airport for my dad, and I decide I take my military green book bag with my receivers for videography, and it's on the side, they're on, so they got the little red light blinking. Didn't realize that. And I take the four bins of merch, put them in my wife's car, and drive away. My dad doesn't notice that the that that's my book bag, and he drives the jeep away because he comes in and well, I'm at the venue where you guys are, and I my wife gets a call from Homeland Security. We need to speak to your husband. And I'm thinking, okay, my brother's in the military. So your bag was left in the parking lot at the airport. So this this gets even crazier. So I'm like, oh, I'll call them back, babe. It's they'll probably need to do my brother's security clearance or something like that. And she goes, I don't know. You should call him back. All right. I call him back, and then I'm like, hey, uh, how's it going? I'm Jeff. I'm so glad you called. Uh my name's Agent Kyle something from Homeland Security. I was like, Oh, okay, is this in regards to my brother, like security cleaners? He's like, What was your business at the airport? I was like, uh, well, I was dropping off a car for my dad. He goes, You closed down the airport with a bomb threat.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Is this the Orlando airport?

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Uh Daytona Beach.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Daytona Beach. So during bike week.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

So there's something going on. All incoming and outgoing flights were delayed because of so uh he's like, Yeah, you you gotta, you know, the county sheriff's probably not happy with you. I'm like, oh, I can only imagine I'm shaking in my little space boots here. And um, so I go to pick up my bag and the guy's laughing. He's like, uh, your bag's cut up. I'm like, well, damn.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

And uh sorry.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

I was like, sorry. Uh but yeah, so that's uh I am You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Because you guys, I am so you had you had receivers sticking out of it?

SPEAKER_03 31:36

I had uh like a receiver and a transmitter for my video camera at the shop.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Red light blinking in a bag in the middle of the airport.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Yeah, yeah, in a military-style bag. Yeah. That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

They sliced it up, it's at the shop. I was like, do I throw it in there?

SPEAKER_00 31:51

They probably had the little um EOD little robot guy come out and like they said that they did that.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Probably cost them 25 grand to roll that thing out there.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Yeah, I was just like, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

You made some kids cry because mom and dad didn't get home that day.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Probably evacuate the whole the whole airport too, probably.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

I have I I didn't even ask, I was terrified.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

I was like Was it on the news?

SPEAKER_03 32:13

No, I don't think so. Dude, that would I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

I didn't hear about it.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

So you got some street cred though.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Yeah, well, that's more than a street cred, are you? You probably are on a list. You're probably like, well, he was probably just checking our response time and blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

I it was just so funny because I'm like, uh my business cards were in there, my car registration. He goes, Yeah, that's how we knew it was you. I was like, oh. And he goes, We tried your old phone number, but you changed it. I'm like, yeah, I literally just changed my phone number from a 203 to a 904 recently.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Why is that, Jeff?

SPEAKER_03 32:45

I just tried to cut my ties with Connecticut.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, I get it. I'm about to put changing my Indiana number down here number down here.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

That's insane, though. I'm still laughing about that on the inside. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

My wife was like, that would only happen to you or your dad.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So nonchalant, too.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

Yeah, it was just like, I was like, crap. Like one time my dad goes through security in JFK, flies to Central America, is flying back, and they stop him in like Guatemala, and they're like pulling out his wallet. He had razor blades in his wallet. I'm like, Well, why do you have razor blades in your wallet? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Why? Like shavers? Why did he have razor blades?

SPEAKER_03 33:26

He owns a machine shop, so apparently he uses it for stuff. I don't know. I don't know. Come on, Dad, we need an explanation.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

You're an old timer, dude. I guess maybe back in the old days, like you just need to you need to have a razor blade, you never know.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Well, the funny thing is, my dad's name is apparently very similar to a drug lord's name. So my dad always gets the um, what do you call that, the anonymous check? It's never anonymous. Every time we go to security, they they pull it to the side and it's like we need to verify. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

That's just insane. You you guys and your luck, man.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

Oh yeah. Us us Portuguese Africans, you know, we we have some bad luck.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Is there like another name for that or like a Portimax? Pafrican. Pafrican. African. That's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

I don't know. I don't know. I'm so because my mom's a Brazilian, I'm a dual citizen of Brazil. So I couldn't go to Brazil till like now because of you know, I'd have to go into the military. That's that's pretty cool too.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Isn't that interesting that all these other countries require certain things of their citizens? Yet over here we don't have kids in our country, you're like, what?

SPEAKER_03 34:46

I gotta make my bed? That's not right.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Yeah. Just snooty little brats these days, man.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Oh, you see right, you see it right now with these people, these parents like, oh my god, we're gonna my kids are gonna have to go to war. You signed up for the military. It's it's in the fine print.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Yeah, you kind of know what you're doing when you get to work. Little do they know your kid's probably excited about it.

unknown 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Like, oh, I get to do what I was trained to do. Yeah. I mean, I I know for me when I was in the Navy, like whenever we got the opportunity to actually go do something, not just float around in the ocean just training, it's like, okay, I feel like we're actually like being utilized for what we're here for.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

And it's it's also uh And plus I never really thought if it was like good or bad what we were doing. Yeah. You need to have that mindset. Yeah, when you're that age, you don't think about the politics of anything. You're just like, I'm in the military. If my government needs us to go somewhere, I'm going because they know better than me, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

I'm I'm there. Yeah. No. Well, on that note, I'm biting my tongue. I'm biting my tongue. But Jeff, thank you for coming out, dude. Uh it was a pleasure. Yeah, dude. We do gotta do some fishing, though. I just uh spooled one of my reels today.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

We do have to do some fishing. Yeah, there's some really good fishing out here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

I've been playing around uh under the Granada Bridge.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Yeah. I'm terrible at inshore fishing, but put me on a boat offshore, I'll catch a big fish.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah, teach me some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I don't like being on the water. Navy people did it for 22 years. That's that makes sense. It'd be cool if you did you ever fish off a carrier or something? Off the back of a ammunition supply ship. Really? That's cool. Yeah, and all you do so basically when you're fishing off the back of a ship, you take a uh inner tube from a bike tire, and then you tie your your fishing line to that, and then the bike tire is connected to the ship. So when the bike tire, the inner tube, not the tire, the inner tube, when it stretches, then you know you've got something on. So we were just out there trolling for Mahi and just raking them in, dude. And you just slice them up right there on the back and have fresh sushi, or we'd send it into the um mess deck, to the mess decks, to the kitchen, and they'd slice it all up and serve it to the to the crew.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

That's actually cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, but I mean that's a civilian operated ship. You can't do that on the back of an actual like Navy operated ship. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

That that makes sense because we had uh somebody that bought lures from us once, and they were taking a ship from Groton area down to the Caribbean or something, and they were allowed to fish, so they bought lures and they brought their rods. Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yeah, those ships that come out of there are like ammunition supply ships or oilers or something like that. Yeah, those are all merchant marines. Yep. And then the other thing that And submarines out of Groton, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_03 37:45

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

There's lots of those.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

We have we we kept our boat up the Thames River and we would offshore fish and we'd have to go past uh um general, I think it's General Dynamics, where they build the subs. And uh one time we cut it a little too close, they put their spotlights because you you leave when you're offshore fishing, you leave super early in the morning, and uh they just put their spotlights on. I'm like, yeah, they probably are gonna blow us out of the water because we're too close.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

You're definitely on a list somewhere, dude. Oh yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

It's crazy because you like look at places like you don't realize this, but where we were in Connecticut was Sikorsky aircraft, um, you know, general dynamics, uh common aircraft, um, all these big things that were big targets during during like the early 2000s. I mean, when the World Trade Center went down, we saw the smoke trails at the beach. That would that's how close we were.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Wow. Um, but yeah, guys, uh, make sure you guys check out Inktransco.com. We'll definitely have it. Inktrends Printco. Yeah, Inktransprintco.com.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Yeah, we made it extra long so it's extra confusing.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

A lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

When it's trends with a Z. With a Z. It's the only thing I could get a domain and a Inctrends T-R-E-N-D-Z. Printco.com. You heard him. Hit up Jeff if you need some cool merch for your business or for your kids' soccer team. Soccer team. Business, hats, everything. Underwear. Underwear. Coffee mugs, banners, tents. Everything. Anything you need, he's got Thanks guys. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you want to follow us.