EMT #26 with Caleb Williams - Walk the Brand: Designing Experiences One Sneaker at a Time

In this episode of Event Marketer’s Toolbox, we’re taking a step in a bold direction with Caleb Williams, founder of DSCMFRT. Caleb joins hosts Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito to explore the intersection of sneaker culture, corporate gifting, and event marketing.

With an impressive knack for custom footwear, Caleb reveals how sneakers - when designed with intention - can be used as standout branding tools for events. From corporate gifts to trade show giveaways, these one-of-a-kind creations can create buzz, elevate brand identity, and surprise attendees in ways traditional swag cannot.  Caleb shares the journey behind his business and how he went from painting Air Jordans in his garage to creating viral sneaker designs for big brands and high-profile clients.

In this lively conversation, we also unveil the Event Marketer's Toolbox x Blue Hive custom sneakers live on air, talking through the design choices, the creative process, and how these shoes could transform your next corporate event.

🔹 Turning Sneakers into Brand Storytelling
Caleb explains how custom sneakers are more than just footwear—they’re a canvas for creative expression and an opportunity for brands to craft a memorable experience.

🔹 Why Social Media Drives Sales for Custom Sneakers
From TikTok to LinkedIn, Caleb shares how his business has leveraged social media for viral success, reaching millions with creative, behind-the-scenes content. TikTok videos showing the customization process often generate more interaction than showcasing the finished product.

🔹 The Art of Corporate Gifting
Custom sneakers are perfect for corporate events, trade shows, and giveaways. Caleb explains how brands like Ibotta, Denver Nuggets, and Seamless AI have used custom sneakers as a tool to surprise clients, employees, and attendees, creating lasting impressions that go beyond traditional swag.

🔹 Building a Brand with Purpose
Starting as a hobby, Caleb’s passion for sneakers and craftsmanship evolved into a full-time business. He shares insights into balancing B2C and B2B work, while staying true to the creative side of the brand.

🔹 Custom Sneakers at Events
Caleb discusses how these one-of-a-kind shoes can be used for attendee engagement, giveaways, or even as a conversation starter at trade shows. Brands are using sneakers to create buzz and draw attention in a crowded marketplace.

Custom sneakers aren’t just a fashion statement, they’re a powerful marketing tool. Whether you’re using them for corporate gifts, trade show giveaways, or building buzz on social media, the creativity and personal touch Caleb brings to each pair makes them unforgettable. 

With insights on social media strategies and a behind-the-scenes look at creating custom sneakers, this episode provides invaluable ideas for marketers looking to push the boundaries of branded swag.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Intro & Guest Welcome
• 2:39 Unboxing Custom Sneakers (Event Marketer’s Toolbox x Blue Hive)
• 4:39 Caleb’s Journey into Custom Sneakers
• 8:09 From Hobby to Business: How DSCMFRT Took Off
• 11:39 Corporate Gifting: Sneakers as Event & Employee Swag
• 15:09 Social Media: The Key to DSCMFRT’s Success
• 17:39 Sneakers as a Conversation Starter at Trade Shows
• 20:39 Behind-the-Scenes of Custom Sneaker Design
• 23:39 B2B vs. B2C: Transitioning from Sneakers for Celebrities to Corporate Clients
• 26:39 Caleb’s 3 Key Takeaways for Event Marketers
• 30:39 Wrap-Up & Call to Action

Transcript

0:00:00
 (Chris Dunn)
 Well, hello and good morning. This is Chris Dunn and welcome to the Event Marketers Toolbox. I am here live and in person right here. Look at I can touch her. She's not even on another screen. Dana and I are together. You know, we've got we're starting a little bit late. Things happen in this tech world. Not always perfectly, but welcome to the podcast. Welcome to the show. I'm Chris Dunn with Blue Hive, and this is Dana. Dana, tell us about yourself.

0:00:29
 (Dana Esposito)
 So I'm Dana Esposito with Blue Hive. I'm the EVP of strategy. I basically come from exhibit design, creative leadership, and corporate strategy. And we're here with Caleb. So Caleb, do you want to introduce yourself?

0:00:41
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, my name's Caleb, do you want to introduce yourself? Yeah, my name is Caleb and I am the founder of Discomfort Custom Sneakers. And yeah, I've been customizing shoes for probably the last seven, eight years and excited to be on the show with you guys.

0:00:55
 (Chris Dunn)
 Well, welcome to the show. We're going to do a little unboxing. We've been obviously teasing with some videos and some inferences about something that may or may not exist already. But a little back story is I saw something about Caleb's company online a bunch of months ago. There was these kind of real quick like ASMR style videos that were really kind of getting

0:01:20
 (Chris Dunn)
 a ton of traction. I kind of reached out to, you know, to Caleb's company inquired, Hey, what would it take if maybe we can, you know, work together, maybe we can get some shoes made for the show. So I'm going to do that unboxing in a second. But first, before I do that, I wanted to just talk a little bit about our sponsors. So the first sponsor is Blue Hive. Dana and I happen to actually work for Blue

0:01:45
 (Chris Dunn)
 Hive. We are a creative trade show and experiential agency. We like to think that we're kind of in that right size. We're not a small boutique and we're not the big guys where you're only a number. We're a hundred people strong and we have a presence on both East Coast and West Coast and we do all of, almost all of our production in-house. So we are somewhat unique in that aspect. And super creative, great customer service,

0:02:11
 (Chris Dunn)
 all the things there. In addition, the company that is actually helping us with the creation of this show is called Fist Bump. And Fist Bump is a partner of ours. They're a sponsor. They help not only

0:02:26
 (Chris Dunn)
 executives and leaders kind of upscale their game with regards to social media presence, LinkedIn specifically, but they also do production and management of podcasts as a marketing channel in order to create content and basically build thought leadership. So we engaged with them. They're helping us put this together. And we couldn't be more happy to have them as a partner. And they handled the heavy lift when it came to figuring out, like,

0:02:54
 (Chris Dunn)
 why is this platform not working right now? And luckily, although I did get a little stressed, they're the ones who fixed it. So all good right there. And without further ado, so Caleb, I don't know, a couple of months, six weeks ago or so reached out. There was a little bit of back and forth with our creative team with regards to some design ideas, but I wanted to do a little unboxing here. I'm going to try not to block out Dana, but it comes in a custom box, which is

0:03:22
 (Chris Dunn)
 pretty cool. So you probably can guess the size of that box. It's not like our new car. However, we've got some custom shoes made by not yours truly, made by that gentleman right there on the other screen. Caleb, awesome job on these. Specifically, I had a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish. New Balance is a Boston based shoe company. We are Boston based also.

0:03:56
 (Chris Dunn)
 So I love that aspect. And I just wanted to give you a little bit more of a palette to work with. So chose the high tops as well versus a low tops just gives you a little bit more space a little bit more canvas there you go Dana you can have one right here so a little bit about and we're gonna kind of dive into it a

0:04:15
 (Chris Dunn)
 little bit more but if you want to give people a little bit more insight into you know the shoes and and like in particular working on this design as a as a whole.

0:04:28
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah so um you know based on what you told me I think you sent over like a screenshot um of the event marketers toolbox and I always love working with like bright colors like this uh they contrast really well so and the other other thing that I love to do is kind of incorporate the textures that are affiliated with the logo. So in your guys case with the blue hive, I wanted to incorporate that like hexagon kind of beehive texture on it. And then as well you had mentioned that you like that cartoon effect. So we kind

0:05:03
 (Caleb Williams)
 of just pulled that from some shoes we had done in the past. And yeah, I just kind of laid it out. And I normally try to break it up quite a bit. So there's not like too much blue in one area, too much purple. You know, we kind of break up the paneling so we can still see the rough shape of the shoe and stuff like that.

0:05:23
 (Caleb Williams)
 But yeah, overall, it's super fun to bring to life. And I also love working with gradients. So I like that you guys had this gradient involved. And yeah.

0:05:33
 (Speaker 12)
 There you go.

0:05:34
 (Chris Dunn)
 That's a pretty good, pretty good rundown. So I could see, you know, in the videos that you helped create, and that's part of the service that you guys offer is not only you making the shoe, but you're creating kind of the social media package that's available folks like us in particular, we're kind of using it to try to bang the drum a little bit and create buzz around our show here.

0:05:58
 (Chris Dunn)
 But I totally envision also using it to kind of create a buzz around trade show or a corporate event. So obviously that's kind of what we talk about we are we're a community of event people from trade show side to corporate events to festivals kind of all of that stuff. The other thing too before we get started is this is a live show so feel free to kind of jump into the questions we will be

0:06:24
 (Chris Dunn)
 able to see them and hopefully we'll do our best to respond and answer those questions as we go. So without further ado, Dana, why don't you take us where we're going? All right, so Caleb, the first

0:06:36
 (Dana Esposito)
 question, we're curious, you know, how did this, what was the origin story, like what was the

0:06:40
 (Caleb Williams)
 impetus that really led you to creating this company? Yeah, so I can kind of thank my mom for that Growing up. I really loved like shoes. I played basketball at the time, you know sneaker culture is a big part of that And I remember asking her for you know, fancy Air Jordans and stuff like that But she was like, I'm not, you know spending $150 on a pair of shoes for you. I was like, okay So then I started watching Rejuvenator on YouTube and basically what they did at the time was they would find like old shoes you could get for really cheap, maybe $20 or so

0:07:14
 (Caleb Williams)
 and they'd clean them up with their products and then they'd customize them and then either they'd sell them from there or they would just wear them and I thought that was really cool. or they would just wear them and I thought that was really cool so the very next day went to Goodwill and Found a pair of Air Jordans for $8 and I cleaned those up painted them. They turned out terrible I painted them again. I probably painted those Probably five six times before I let them die but yeah, and then I remember I actually used model paint on that shoe because I didn't have like the

0:07:44
 (Caleb Williams)
 Special leather paint at the time And I wore them to school And the very next day I did like a camo design All the paint came up so I came home. I was like, well, I need to get paint. So I ordered that luckily it wasn't too expensive And then from there my friends kind of saw what I was doing And started asking me to do stuff on their shoes.

0:08:05
 (Caleb Williams)
 And at the time for my services I was charging $20. And that was, I mean I was probably working for like 8 hours for $20 so it wasn't the best money but I was working with shoes and I got to see shoes I'd never seen before and I was just having fun. And then I think one of my friends recommended I try selling them on Etsy. So I listed, I think I did like these yellow pineapple vans and I put them on Etsy. And it took a few months, but they

0:08:35
 (Caleb Williams)
 kind of just took off from there. And I just kept making more designs, putting them on Etsy. And that's kind of what really grew the business.

0:08:43
 (Chris Dunn)
 So And that's kind of what really grew the business. So that's a, that's a very cool story. So did, I mean, prior to that, did you fancy yourself as an entrepreneur? Had you done things prior to that? Like, did you have like a lawn service or did you do other things just to earn money prior to that, or was, was the, was the, the shoe thing really kind of the Kickstarter for that?

0:09:04
 (Speaker 14)
 You know, I actually like always loved buying and selling stuff. or was the shoe thing really kind of the Kickstarter for that?

0:09:05
 (Caleb Williams)
 You know, I actually like always loved buying and selling stuff. So even before this, I would buy stuff on Facebook marketplace and flip it. And I just kind of did that for a while. I just loved kind of that aspect of the business.

0:09:19
 (Caleb Williams)
 And when I was even younger, I used to try to sell paracord bracelets. So I made those, tried to sell nobody bought any of them But I made probably 200 of them. So Okay, but a box with those. Yeah somewhere. This was the thing that actually took off people actually wanted so it's just a matter of time and actually I

0:09:42
 (Caleb Williams)
 Had a pair of shoes that I sold or I flipped on Facebook marketplace To get me the money to buy the shoes for this business. So in a sense that kind of led to starting this so

0:09:55
 (Dana Esposito)
 Well, it's it's obviously a passion and it's very also an art form Where did it or how did it cross over from sort of your pet project to really also get involved in corporate?

0:10:08
 (Caleb Williams)
 Elements. Yeah, I mean so I was also really big into sports growing up and there was kind of always that like Conflict of interest right like where do I spend my time building the business or doing sports? But I actually ended up breaking my back wrestling and so that kind of put me out of sports for a while. And then 2020 hit, so everybody was at home. And so I had a lot of time to work on shoes. And that's kind of where it really blew up.

0:10:35
 (Caleb Williams)
 And that's where I started seeing a lot of numbers on social media. But even from then, it was more like working with celebrities or like bigger influencers. And it wasn't until about a year ago where a guy reached out to me and he was like, hey, I think this would be a really cool thing to bring to the corporate world. So I made a pair of shoes for him and he just started talking and then it kind of just domino effect from there. And that's kind of been our main focus ever since.

0:11:06
 (Caleb Williams)
 Because we've seen a lot of traction with it and it just makes more sense.

0:11:12
 (Speaker 14)
 Yeah.

0:11:13
 (Chris Dunn)
 Yeah, that's a real cool story. And that's actually, it was Matt, no relation, but Matt Williams, who was somebody that I followed. And when he started working with you, I was like, oh man, that's got some interest to it.

0:11:26
 (Chris Dunn)
 So Dana, you're a designer, right? You look at something like this and you see kind of the craftsmanship that goes into it. And it's just really cool. I never would have thought you could do so much detail on such a small kind of canvas

0:11:42
 (Chris Dunn)
 that has a lot of weird shapes to it. It's not a flat piece.

0:11:46
 (Dana Esposito)
 It's not easy. I was checking these out and they're very well done. But I saw your production video and it's all done by hand. So I was even looking inside to see how you did the actual inside here because you don't have bleed bleed over, it's not messy like the edges, it's really, it almost looks like done by machine, it's so clear, crisp.

0:12:10
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we actually spray the, both the fade effect and then the inside, because it's hard to get in there with the paintbrush, but so we removed the insole and then with a little airbrush, we spray it.

0:12:23
 (Caleb Williams)
 And that also helps it stay better because if you hand painted it, it might come off on your sock or something like that. Um, but it's taken a lot of practice, especially cause uh, like with the ASMR video, you know, you see the tape peeling back and I always get questions like, Oh, how do you do the tape peels? clean. And all I can say is a lot of practice and a lot of messed up shoes.

0:12:48
 (Chris Dunn)
 Yeah, perfect. Well, I mean, you got a great kind of origin story and starting with you, Sneakers, and having to paint them a whole bunch of times, just kind of failing and learning and failing and learning and failing forward. And then, you know, here we are. I would imagine that if you think back to a younger Caleb in 2020, seeing where you are right now and what you're doing probably is pretty cool to kind of think about that journey and how that is all kind of come together.

0:13:18
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah. And it's definitely cool to look back because when I started, by no means I was expecting to do it full-time. It was very much like, oh, this will get me more money so I can buy more shoes type of deal. Being able to do it full-time has been awesome.

0:13:37
 (Chris Dunn)
 Yeah, that's great. Obviously our show itself is we're talking to event marketers, but we're talking to marketers specifically, right? So you think of all of the case uses for surprising and delighting clients, or just that over and above, like, how do I thank these, you know, this client who just, you know, put all their trust in me for a project of whatever nature. I think there's so many different ways that this kind of corporate gifting strategy and this customization, you can take it in a lot of different directions. Specifically, when I saw it, I was like, this would fricking be so cool and so awesome to do for our team at a trade show. So we're going to go work the booth, we've got a theme, and then letting the custom footwear

0:14:31
 (Chris Dunn)
 or making sure from an intentional standpoint, making sure that these custom designs become part of the overall theme and certainly the attire. We've all walked by a booth and we've seen people dressed with the same polo shirts or maybe they're all wearing, you know, a color-coded black pants, white shirt, whatever the case may be. Something like this obviously takes it to a whole new level. And for those folks who are listening to this on a podcast and they can't see it, just a quick description. You're the designer. Tell us what we're looking

0:15:02
 (Dana Esposito)
 at here. All right, so this is this is a men's It was originally a white high-top new balance sneaker. Not a running sneaker more like basketball basketball sneaker Yeah, and new balance. So it's literally, you know the logo and it's it's two-color. So it's white. The inside is Kind of like a plum purpley pink and the blue hive blue, which is a nice deep blue, not a Navy, more of a Royal blue. On the very, very back, we have our blue hive logo icon. On the left side where the little round bone

0:15:36
 (Dana Esposito)
 on your foot would be, that always hurts like heck when you clunk it, it says event marketers toolbox. So it has nice crispy text, which is impressive. Around the back, it actually has, because we're Blue Hive and we tie into some obviously bee and hive theme, we've got a hexagon pattern,

0:15:55
 (Dana Esposito)
 kind of like a beehive pattern. And some of the, so the color is very lively. It almost, when I first saw them, I was thinking like run DMC a little bit for people who are

0:16:07
 (Speaker 13)
 my generation

0:16:11
 (Dana Esposito)
 But it's very good pretty plum and a deep blue

0:16:17
 (Speaker 12)
 And to Chris's point when he was first talking to Caleb about this and design process

0:16:24
 (Dana Esposito)
 Process Chris liked a cartoony look so it does have like a black outline around a lot of the sneaker elements and some gradation. So they're very vibrant, they're very branded. So to Chris's point, it would be really interesting at a corporate event or a corporate trade show or as a gift for a client because you could really customize not just like the size of the shoe, but the style of the shoe. And whether it looks very much like a brand or just someone's own personal brand, like their personality. They're very interesting. And in this day and age where, you know, personalization is

0:16:56
 (Dana Esposito)
 a really important thing to make someone feel seen and special and appreciated, they're really unique. And I think just the fact that they're also unique, it's harder and harder to come up with ideas that surprise someone, right? We're all kind of spoiled in the way of just the internet and Amazon, like everything is so easy to get and find. Like this is so unique. And when you have an artist like Caleb who can execute it so well, I think someone would be really impressed with it because the personalization level is so high.

0:17:36
 (Speaker 12)
 Yeah.

0:17:38
 (Chris Dunn)
 So this is not a trade show exhibit. However, I'm going to draw some correlation lines between the two. Our process isn't all that dissimilar, Caleb. You're working with a set size canvas, as it were, because they're leather, but canvas in an artistic sense. When we get involved with a client, we sit down, we do a discovery meeting, we go through goals, we go through what are your physical booth needs, tower,

0:18:05
 (Chris Dunn)
 and storage for all your giveaways, and a meeting room, and so forth. And we kind of flush out all of the things that are important to our exhibitor friends. And then we set about designing an exhibit using specific brand colors and iconic imagery that goes with it. So what you're doing has a lot of similarity to that, obviously in a smaller, more compact sense. You've got a fit. We've sometimes got 400 square feet. We've got 1,000 square feet to do all that stuff. You've got

0:18:39
 (Chris Dunn)
 sneakers. You've got two. So it's a tighter space, but you're having a similar conversation, right? When, especially now that you're kind of working more in the corporate world, and you're getting involved with folks who have very specific, you know, brand book. Here's our PMS colors.

0:18:56
 (Chris Dunn)
 Here's how, you know, the brand has to interact. It has to have X amount of space around it, right? So there's probably a lot of things that, although the corporate, you're going in the corporate direction has, um, opened up your, your business considerably at the same time. There's probably some more parameters and a little bit less artistic license that

0:19:15
 (Chris Dunn)
 you have to kind of work in and around in order to do that. Is that, is that a reasonable assessment?

0:19:20
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:19:20
 (Caleb Williams)
 And I think it really depends on the brand I'm working with. I mean, I've worked with brands kind of like with you guys, where you're like, you know, these are the colors, but you kind of have artistic freedom. And then I've worked with brands that are very particular about even, you know, the size of their logo on a certain panel and stuff like that. So for those, we normally test the logo and stuff like that on a piece of leather in advance. And then I'll take a picture like next to the shoe so they can see exactly how to look.

0:19:48
 (Caleb Williams)
 And then once that approved, we get to the sneaker making. But yeah, I mean, it hasn't been too hard. The only thing I would say that has been more challenging if they don't give me the color code is if they send me a screenshot, say it's of a purple, well the purple on your phone is going to look different

0:20:10
 (Caleb Williams)
 than the purple in real life. So I may match it to the purple on my phone but then when they get it, it's not the same purple. Right, so that's why those color codes are so important.

0:20:21
 (Dana Esposito)
 Yeah, yeah. Even, and I found, and I find the same thing. With exhibits and graphics, we're always looking for the specific, whether it's a Pantone number or whatever the client has for their official number matching, because not just the phones, but every monitor screen is different, right? So it's important to have the true color number. So you were talking a little bit before

0:20:45
 (Dana Esposito)
 about how you first got started and then also some of your online interactions with Etsy and how that kind of kicked you off. What has been more, just more of the recent, like talk a little bit about your interaction and journey with like TikTok and I don't know,

0:21:03
 (Dana Esposito)
 see TikTok and Instagram, like what's that been like for you?

0:21:06
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, I mean, that's definitely where I've gotten a lot of my kind of early success and a couple of businesses through there, but most of the businesses come from LinkedIn and such, but TikTok, honestly, it's great for views and like getting people interacting with the brands, but the conversion's not really on TikTok.

0:21:24
 (Caleb Williams)
 So I don't really make many sales, though I have millions of views on Tik Tok. Instagram is kind of that happy medium between LinkedIn and Tik Tok. You kind of have a wider generation of people. So we've gotten millions of views on there and they've converted pretty well. But yeah, I think LinkedIn probably is the highest converting to fewer people, which has been nice.

0:21:48
 (Caleb Williams)
 It's also just like I've noticed I was not LinkedIn until a year ago. I'm super happy I joined because the people there are just like so much more friendly and actually when they connect with you want to have a relation with you, a relationship with you. Whereas Instagram, you know, you you get 200 people that follow you that day that it doesn't mean anything other than,

0:22:10
 (Caleb Williams)
 they like the video or something like that. So yeah.

0:22:16
 (Dana Esposito)
 Yeah, so Instagram's more like a one-sided relationship where TikTok feels like you're actually connecting

0:22:21
 (Speaker 11)
 with your audience.

0:22:22
 (Dana Esposito)
 LinkedIn. LinkedIn, yeah.

0:22:24
 (Caleb Williams)
 TikTok is very much, I don't know.

0:22:29
 (Chris Dunn)
 We're older. We don't TikTok is like, it's like that. My kids are on TikTok. I don't know.

0:22:35
 (Caleb Williams)
 Do you have, can you share with us some examples of sneakers that you've done in the world of corporate, corporate or just event gifting? Yeah, we've done a couple of them. For corporate gifting, we did a bunch for Ibotta. That was actually pretty cool because that was our first really big order. They gifted all their employees a pair and they were hot pink and black with the cartoon effect.

0:23:02
 (Caleb Williams)
 They also sponsored the Denver Nuggets. So I got to make pairs for the whole coaching also sponsored the Denver Nuggets. So I got to make pairs for the whole coaching staff of the Denver Nuggets. And that was pretty cool because they wanted like, you know, the Denver Nuggets logo and then kind of like the collaboration X with their logo. And yeah, I actually heard from the coaching staff on that one. They were super grateful. They just thought it was, you know, a great gift to receive. So that was super fun.

0:23:27
 (Chris Dunn)
 And then, yeah, we've got... I mean, you're a basketball fan, so would you be able to fly out to Denver for a game or hanging out with the Joker or anything fun like that?

0:23:35
 (Caleb Williams)
 That would have been great. Unfortunately, no. I did get a jersey that they sent me, though, so that was really cool. And I'm already planning planning I kind of want to make it into a shoe or do something with it but yeah and then as far as like trade shows and stuff like that we've gotten a couple companies you know ordered them for all of their employees they go to the trade shows I think we did some for seamless AI and they said that you know they pretty much loved I think their plan is to get

0:24:05
 (Caleb Williams)
 them for every trade show that they go to from here and then they also use them for like internal gifts I think once an employee's been there for like 10 years or so they gift them a pair so that's been really fun and then recently we did some for 1031 specialists and those were cool because they were bright yellow. So they just really popped on the trade show floor. And I think it's super cool because maybe it's just me

0:24:33
 (Caleb Williams)
 because I'm into shoes, but shoes are like the first thing I notice when I meet somebody. And a lot of time, when you're walking down the street, you're not really looking at everybody's eyes. You're kind of seeing their shoes as you go.

0:24:44
 (Caleb Williams)
 So if you see, you know, bright yellow shoes, you're kind of like, Oh, you know, what's that about? And then if you look over and you see a bunch of people with bright yellow shoes and you're like, what, you know, it's a good conversation starter and they're going to remember you as the guy with the cool shoes.

0:24:58
 (Speaker 9)
 So.

0:25:00
 (Chris Dunn)
 Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't disagree at all. As a matter of fact, even though they weren't custom shoes, I will notice that as well. One of my, one of my clients in particular, Easy Cater, their color palette is kind of a Kelly green is one of the really striking colors. And all of the people who work in the space where like a Kelly green and white air Nikes. So even though they're not a fully customized shoe, like you're saying,

0:25:27
 (Chris Dunn)
 like the fact that all of a sudden everybody's wearing, they're fairly distinctive to begin with. And then everybody's wearing them, regardless of what they're wearing on top. It's like, it's kind of this magnetic kind of a draw, which is really kind of cool.

0:25:38
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:25:39
 (Chris Dunn)
 I want to circle back if I could to, how you've grown business through the use of social media piece. And I want to kind of tie it into how we have grown and thought about and think about creating content for, you know, at trade shows and for trade shows. So not only using the content that we're building as like a pre-show piece where we're

0:26:04
 (Chris Dunn)
 sending it out ahead of time, getting people interested, using it as kind of like an invitational piece, like, hey, we're working on some cool stuff, you're gonna wanna come to the show, but then showing up and being prepared

0:26:15
 (Chris Dunn)
 to capture the content on site, whether we're flipping it really quickly and doing some quick edits and getting it out same day and making sure everybody in our ICP realm knows who we're broadcasting to. Like, hey, you're going to want to come down, exciting things on the trade show floor, or

0:26:34
 (Chris Dunn)
 for using it post-show, capturing that content, using it as a recap piece. So what you've done with kind of doing those ASMR videos and those just kind of capturing kind of your production process, it's kind of, it's interesting, right? People, the craftsmanship aspect, kind of a peek behind the curtain

0:26:58
 (Chris Dunn)
 of how you're actually building these things. I feel like there's a huge similarity there in the way that you've kind of built your business and how we've begun only in the last couple of years, I think, to kind of use content in that way.

0:27:11
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah. And, you know, I think it's, it's interesting that like, that's such a huge part of it because people love to see the finished product. But like on my end, I've noticed the videos that normally do the best don't actually show the finished product. Because it kind of draws them in, right? And then they either interact like, oh, I can't wait to see the finished product or you know, they're just interested and they like the craftsmanship behind it and stuff like that.

0:27:38
 (Caleb Williams)
 And you know, it's just also the fact that like some of these videos reach millions of people and it puts eyes on the brand that may not have seen them before Because I think also like, you know businesses social media a lot of the time get really stale Because unless you're actively involved with the company like a lot of other people kind of don't care too much about what's going on Or they just don't understand what's going on

0:28:04
 (Speaker 4)
 So when something like this draws men then they're kind of like oh care too much about what's going on or they just don't understand what's going on.

0:28:05
 (Caleb Williams)
 So when something like this draws men then they're kind of like, oh, what is this company about? And it gets them interested not only in the shoes, but like, oh, well, why are they making shoes?

0:28:14
 (Speaker 8)
 And then they kind of look into the company.

0:28:15
 (Caleb Williams)
 So yeah.

0:28:19
 (Dana Esposito)
 It's interesting that like say we were going to wear these for our team at like the exhibitor show, right? That would be interesting out of its own volition, but then the whole sort of like accidental advertisement when you're then posting the creation of it on TikTok and LinkedIn and Instagram,

0:28:41
 (Dana Esposito)
 it's just interesting the huge audience, like to your point, Caleb, is reached by people who would never hear of us necessarily. Because that's millions of people.

0:28:53
 (Chris Dunn)
 Well, from a marketing standpoint, we deal with event marketers, but they are, first and foremost, they are marketers. So at the end of the day, what are we trying to do? We're trying to garnish attention, stand out from the noise and do things

0:29:07
 (Chris Dunn)
 that are maybe a little bit outside the box in order to attract attention to our brand, our message, our product, our service, our offering, whatever that may be. So although, you know, Bluehive and the tool and the Event Marketers Toolbox

0:29:20
 (Chris Dunn)
 don't have anything to do with shoes, this is a perfect vehicle to kind of create that type of attention that you're talking about. Right. Yeah. We did, this reminds me, so Dana, speaking of Exhibitor Live is one of the shows that we do a couple months back. It was down in San Antonio and you and your creative team designed a wonderful activation engagement within our booth and at the end of the day after somebody went through the

0:29:51
 (Chris Dunn)
 process they put their head up into this learning you know kind of a cavern and they saw videos and they heard sound and they came down and they interacted with some pieces. People went through that process we kind of made them earn it a little bit at that point, they're allowed to put their name into a, into a hat. And the drawing was these beautiful custom made hats that you had sourced through it, Etsy, I believe.

0:30:15
 (Dana Esposito)
 I did through Etsy because they were, they were a high end hat. So they were definitely like, um, you know, a premium gift and they, they didn't have like huge branding on that. They were really meant to as a true genuine gift for someone to wear without like our logo giant you know. Could have our logo on the inside more subtle and classy but it was beautiful because they were handmade so some of them a couple

0:30:40
 (Dana Esposito)
 of them that were like they burned in almost not like with a Dremel, but like burnt in, like you'd be burning leather, but these were more like a suede felt kind of material. And then the other one looked, which was also handmade, felt more like a design, it was more of a print into like kind of the felt material.

0:31:01
 (Dana Esposito)
 And they both had sort of a nature hive bee theme to it, but it was definitely classy and not just overly corporate. So like I said, true, true gift to be able to have the experience.

0:31:17
 (Chris Dunn)
 Well whether it's us or somebody's maybe watching this or listening to the podcast after the fact like creating custom shoes, you'd be having a pair on site and asking people or using this as a draw, like, hey, enter to win. And you're gonna win and give them maybe some choice. Obviously, what's your size?

0:31:40
 (Chris Dunn)
 Narrow down a little bit. But here's the parameter. You can choose from three or four different brand sneakers and three or four, maybe two or three different designs or whatever the case may be. But I see kind of what Caleb, what you're doing and creating this really super personalized, very cool thing, which becomes such a novelty.

0:31:59
 (Chris Dunn)
 I know you said that these are quite durable and paints on there will hold up, but I'm petrified to wear these things and rip them up because I want them to last and look like this for so long. But who knows where an idea might go for that to create the blend of that personalized custom corporate gift, but pull it into kind of the trade show and event world and use that as a really high-end giveaway.

0:32:28
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:32:28
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, the other thing that we had a company do recently is they ordered, I think, four pairs of custom shoes, and then they did like a Where's Waldo kind of thing at the trade show. And so they had this contest that if you found all four of them and talked to them Then you'd be entered in to win a pair of custom shoes

0:32:47
 (Caleb Williams)
 So that was really nice too, and they all dressed up, you know with the striped shirts and everything Yeah

0:32:54
 (Chris Dunn)
 What kind of shoes does Waldo wear? Well, they they were equally branded those were

0:33:00
 (Caleb Williams)
 They were like light blue. It was for a med cart. So it matched their kind of blue logoing and stuff. And then they just had like a stethoscope on there and like a heartbeat as well. So they didn't really match the where it was Waldo theme,

0:33:15
 (Speaker 10)
 but.

0:33:17
 (Chris Dunn)
 But they hit the corporate brand brief, which is important.

0:33:20
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:33:21
 (Speaker 9)
 Yeah, absolutely.

0:33:23
 (Chris Dunn)
 Tell us a little bit about, so you're kind of bridging the gap between kind of this B2C world and B2B world now, right? And it's maybe kind of came about a little in happenstance based on your chance meeting with Matt Williams. But now you've seen kind of, you know, selling to, you know, the end consumer, and you've also seen like selling through customers. I think they both have advantages and disadvantages, but any kind of insights from you as kind of the founder of this company, like identifying trends that,

0:33:56
 (Chris Dunn)
 that things that are working right. ASMR videos are working in the B2C world and then pulling them and bringing them into a B2B play. I know some thoughts around that if you could.

0:34:06
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, I think it's interesting because like going off the trends and stuff like that, obviously the trends tend to start in the B2C world. And so, you know, being actively engaged on social media more in the B2C world, you kind of see those trends before they get

0:34:23
 (Caleb Williams)
 to the B2b world so you can kind of be more of an innovator in the b2b and you could say like hey you know people are liking this right now so you know I suggest you adopt that so like with Matt Williams and stuff that was kind of what we did for a while because he ran LinkedIn and stuff like that and I would be making the content for Instagram and he's like oh this is gonna perform really well on LinkedIn and you take it to LinkedIn and sure enough it performed well but it's almost like a testing platform as well

0:34:52
 (Caleb Williams)
 on the B2C and typically you know you see more of the creative side on the B2C but I've been surprised honestly with a lot of the B2B, I guess, creative freedom they've given me recently. And I think it's because a lot of businesses want to kind of infuse art more into the business now because it adds that level of flavor to it. And it's just more fun making the business lighthearted, giving employees something to

0:35:24
 (Speaker 8)
 work for.

0:35:25
 (Caleb Williams)
 And yeah.

0:35:28
 (Chris Dunn)
 Yeah, those are really good insights. And I think, I have worked with the Fist Bump group a bunch of for a few years on coaching on LinkedIn and just kind of thinking about and not forgetting that even though we're business people, we're people first, right?

0:35:48
 (Chris Dunn)
 So the same things that people are responding to on TikTok and Instagram are still interesting to those folks who are in business, whether or not we're gonna give it the time and watch the videos during our workday when we're on a quote unquote professional platform or not.

0:36:04
 (Chris Dunn)
 I think that there's a lot of, you know, you know, back and forth there. But at the end of the day, like it kind of exposes that, as you mentioned, kind of a fun, creative side. And at the same time, you know, humanity, right? Like this, this is interesting to me as a as a person who's interested in all sorts of things, including business and art and marketing.

0:36:30
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:36:31
 (Chris Dunn)
 It ties all that stuff together pretty good.

0:36:34
 (Dana Esposito)
 Are there any limitations, Caleb, to the types of shoes that you can do and customize?

0:36:41
 (Caleb Williams)
 Honestly, I don't think so. I have yet to come across a shoe that we can't customize in some way. I mean, certain shoes are more difficult than others, but, um, we've been asked to do like cowboy boots, work boots, you know, kind of just all types. I think obviously it's easier if this shoe has more room to work. Uh, maybe not high heels as much because they don't have as much

0:37:06
 (Caleb Williams)
 shoe to them but we could probably still put like a logo or a name on them. So you've done cowboy boots and wear boots? Yeah I've actually I've gotten into recently tattooing leather because it's more durable and it gives it kind of a cooler effect. And I find it on my cowboy boots and stuff like that, leather sticker, that works really well. Yeah, nice. I'm

0:37:32
 (Dana Esposito)
 not a handbag person, but I know some people are as passionate about handbags as you are, and some other people about shoes and sneakers. So have you been asked to do a high-end handbag, customize something like that,

0:37:46
 (Caleb Williams)
 a leather bag? Yeah, I did a bag I think a couple months ago. It was a Louis Vuitton backpack. That was definitely very stressful because you know the backpack was $2,000. And it was a friend of mine so that made it like a little bit better. But he was like yeah I'm just giving it as a gift to somebody and this is what I want. He gave me like full creative freedom which also was a little stressful. But yes other than that though I haven't done too many bags but it's the same. It's honestly probably easier because they're flatter. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. What about

0:38:22
 (Chris Dunn)
 the material itself? So I think when we first started engaging, you did have some suggestions, like obviously there's canvas sneakers, there's a lot more of these recycled material sneakers, which is great, right? Companies are recycling a bunch of crap from the ocean

0:38:37
 (Chris Dunn)
 and turning it into a shoe, which is amazing, but they present some challenges with regards to getting paint to stick or it's an open weave, right? So you can't quite get the tight lines and stuff like that if you were to yeah paint on them. Yeah, and you know

0:38:50
 (Caleb Williams)
 that's kind of interesting because I think I steered I steer most people clear of canvas shoes It's not because we can't work on them But if you want kind of the smoother lines for the logo and stuff like that It's a lot harder to get on canvas because it bleeds. I mean, there are ways to prevent that,

0:39:08
 (Caleb Williams)
 but it's just a bit of a pain. And some shoes-

0:39:13
 (Dana Esposito)
 It's hard to make a straight, crispy line on a textured

0:39:15
 (Caleb Williams)
 surface. Yeah, exactly. And some of the shoes that are made with different types of maybe fake leather or such, part of the process is you prep the leather, so you rub it down with acetone. And I've noticed on some of the like recycled leather, it'll

0:39:32
 (Caleb Williams)
 like almost rub the leather off. And so I try to steer clear of those as well. Um, they just can't rub as hard, I guess, but yeah.

0:39:44
 (Speaker 7)
 Awesome.

0:39:48
 (Chris Dunn)
 So where do you, uh, where do you see this business going? Obviously there's only so many hours a day that you can do all the things that you're doing as kind of the chief cook and bottle washer, right? You're doing, you're doing most of the production. Um, is this a goal to try to like scale your company to get to, to have you focus more on the front end and and leading, you know, doing the sales and the and the marketing and having other people produce

0:40:09
 (Caleb Williams)
 for you or what are some thoughts on how you're going to grow? Yeah, so I think like the future pretty much kind of came from a lot of frustrating emails with companies back and forth because it has been a lot of companies that are really interested and they're like, hey, we want 100 pairs and I quilt them And the price tag is just way too high right because they are all are they are all made by hand So they take you know, each takes hours So I have developed my own like discomfort branded shoe

0:40:40
 (Caleb Williams)
 In which companies will be able to customize them the same way they could before so the fades the cartoon effect whatever And they'll be built up that way right so that way I can offer a cheaper price for those companies They want you know 100 plus pairs, and I think that's kind of where the future is on that side of things I mean, I'm definitely going to keep doing the personalized sneakers Just because that's fun, and you know especially for like one-of of one gifts and stuff like that, it's really the way to go. But yeah, that's kind of where I'm planning on taking it.

0:41:13
 (Chris Dunn)
 Great. You know, so you and I were talking yesterday or day before about also another kind of sideline of your business. So you are a wrestler. Yeah. I didn't know that he broke back. That's pretty scary stuff. Are you like fully recovered from that?

0:41:27
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah. I mean, I, uh, I fractured my spine in three places, uh, doing it. So, and, uh, I was training for state at the time and basically I recovered enough to wrestle at state, but the doctor was like, well, I mean, it's definitely going to hurt, but it's not going to get any worse if you do. And it's kind of stayed in that state of like hurting, but not getting any worse. So like, you definitely have bad days and good days, but I'm still like able to be active and stuff like that. Um,

0:42:01
 (Caleb Williams)
 but yeah.

0:42:03
 (Speaker 6)
 So you have,

0:42:04
 (Chris Dunn)
 you have a side of your business also that specifically focuses on wrestling shoes and are those customized or you're just more of like, you're kind of an outlet to sell quantity

0:42:16
 (Speaker 5)
 to schools and stuff.

0:42:17
 (Chris Dunn)
 How does that part of the business work?

0:42:19
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, so that's gonna just its own thing, right? I actually, when I named the company discomfort it was meant to be a weightlifting shoe and so I went through and I developed a weightlifting shoe and stuff and it just didn't really take off I didn't really find my niche until I started making wrestling shoes and that was kind of funny because I made a weightlifting shoe and everybody in my comments was

0:42:42
 (Caleb Williams)
 like oh those look like wrestling shoes You should make wrestling shoes, and so I did I just turned it into a wrestling shoe and it kind of took off from there And that's been going great. It's it's not customized, so I just designed the shoe get them made Same way any other brand would get their shoes made I have like customized them just you know for fun and stuff like that, but I don't sell the customized shoes It's just more for promotional. I think also that's a good way of like showing that you know Customization videos work to sell product because I did a video tattooing

0:43:18
 (Caleb Williams)
 wrestling shoes and I think the video did like Wasn't crazy was like 400,000 views. But the conversions of people that went and bought wrestling shoes based on that video was like very much worth it. And so, you know, it's been fun to kind of incorporate

0:43:35
 (Caleb Williams)
 both businesses back into each other.

0:43:39
 (Speaker 4)
 Yeah.

0:43:42
 (Chris Dunn)
 Wow. I mean, you're quite the young entrepreneur extraordinaire, just kind of figuring out where there's a need in the market and you go kind of fill it within the realm that you're comfortable in.

0:43:56
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah. That's been fun. And I think also, my wife will be scrolling on TikTok and stuff and I watch with her and I'll kind of like note like okay Why did she stop on that video like what made her stop the scroll? You know and then I kind of make a mental note so I can use that later So I think like just kind of thinking like that as you go through social media has been super helpful

0:44:21
 (Dana Esposito)
 Yeah, I think that's brilliant always Always paying attention to user experience is always going to make your own things you provide even better. We do that same thing when we're trying to come up with the exhibit. It's not just a structure. We're thinking about how the end user is going to interact and what they're going to stop and engage with. So are we doing our three things?

0:44:47
 (Chris Dunn)
 We are gonna do our three things. So, we had some technological issues coming in, so I hope you're prepared for it, Caleb. We didn't really get to this, but we're hoping that you can leave our listeners with like kinda three actionable takeaways

0:45:02
 (Chris Dunn)
 or three little nuggets that maybe you've either learned in doing this or seen other people benefit from, you know, these cool custom shoes that you've made.

0:45:12
 (Caleb Williams)
 Yeah, I think like my first one would just be thinking differently. So, you know, people remember things that are different obviously, and maybe something they haven't thought of. So example for that was like, not too long ago. I made some shoes out of the

0:45:27
 (Caleb Williams)
 Aluminum cans so I sewed like the cans onto it Yeah, and that video did I think it got 26 million views and it was just kind of a thought one day where I was Like, huh? Nobody's done this. I'll try it out, you know So I think that this is especially is huge especially for bigger businesses that maybe have stuck to the same thing, you know Just kind of think outside the box try different stuff So that would be my first probably takeaway

0:45:56
 (Caleb Williams)
 Second one is have fun with it. You know, don't take it too seriously, especially, you know with the shoes It's kind of just bringing fun back into it. People like shoes so that would be probably number two. And then number three kind of like what I was talking about making an impression. So people remember your shoes you're wearing or you know maybe it's some other type of corporate swag but just like either wearing something or doing something that's gonna make that person remember you, you know, whether it's like,

0:46:29
 (Caleb Williams)
 oh, you're the guy with the bright yellow shoes or I don't know, maybe you're wearing like a hot pink hoodie or something like that, right? They're gonna remember that as opposed to the guy with the black polo with the company logo, you know? So yeah, that's probably number three.

0:46:52
 (Chris Dunn)
 There you go. Well, that's a nice job kind of putting a bow on all of that. We really appreciate your time today. Once again, another kind of quick peek at these awesome shoes,

0:46:56
 (Caleb Williams)
 everybody. Reach out. How can people find Caleb and order up their own shoes? Yeah, so you can go to my website. It is www.discomfort.org. Or you can just search discomfort custom shoes and I'll be the first link that'll pop up.

0:47:16
 (Chris Dunn)
 So all right, so DSCMFRT. Yep. Right, right on. Okay, great. So we can find you either on like Instagram, certainly here on on LinkedIn at your website. And I tell you, creativity and craftsmanship and a great guy to work with. So nothing but, you know, applause coming from from the toolbox over here, Caleb, thank you so much for helping us create these amazing shoes and also coming on and sharing all of

0:47:48
 (Caleb Williams)
 all of these great stories with everybody. Yeah of course thanks for having me and thanks for reaching out to get a pair of shoes made it was super fun love the colors you guys picked. All right fantastic.

0:48:01
 (Chris Dunn)
 All right everybody well have yourself a great rest of your day and rest of your week and uh All right everybody well have yourself a great rest of your day and rest of your week and uh Tune into the toolbox every thursday at noontime eastern. Take care everybody and have a good one. Cheers. Thanks. Caleb