March 11, 2026 • 36 mins
What happens when scooters, robots, and real-world retail collide? We sit down with GOTRAX VP of Sales Todd Gentry to unpack how play, data, and speed are redefining what wins on shelves and in neighborhoods. From the 1990s “golden era” of Bentonville to startup floor time inflating basketballs, Todd’s journey reveals why listening beats grandstanding, and why the best ideas are road-tested with families, not just modeled in spreadsheets.
We dig into the rise of e‑mobility; e‑scooters, e‑bikes, and the surprising boom in golf carts, as costs fall and access grows. Todd explains how price compression turned $3,500 e‑bikes into $450 private-label offerings without losing quality, and why communities love open-air rides for school drop-offs and weekend errands. Then we pivot to practical AI: the “so what” of analytics, faster insights for replenishment and features, and a live story where an AI toy inferred Walmart’s preferred “building systems” phrasing mid-meeting. That’s not hype; that’s context-aware assistance improving decisions humans still own.
Robotics takes center stage as GOTRAX demos humanoids and quadrupeds in Walmart lobbies, pointing to near-term retail jobs in security, marketing, and guided experiences. Costs are high today, but the curve is familiar, and the tipping point is coming. Throughout, Todd shares candid lessons: why speed is the last durable edge, how to balance gut with data for innovation, and the simple career truth to talk less and listen more. If you care about retail strategy, AI that actually helps, and products that make life more fun, this conversation is your playbook.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_02 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey Podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, CharlesGreathouse.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
And I'm James Harris.
And today we're excited to betalking to Todd Gentry.
Todd is vice president of salesfor GoTrax.
You might have seen theirscooters, hoverboards uh in a
city near you.
Thanks for joining us, Scott.
Glad to be here.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
Yeah.
So I mean, Bentonville's changedquite a bit since you maybe were
first here.
I'd love to hear a little ofyour retail journey uh just to
start.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Great.
Um it has changed a lot.
So I I entered the the retailworld uh back in 1995 uh for uh
with a fitness company by thename of Icon Health and Fitness.
So they have a history here withuh Walmart uh under the Proform
uh Westlow brand, I think at thetime they were they were selling
(01:02):
them.
So right out of college, Istarted uh that retail.
SPEAKER_02 (01:06):
I mean 90s was like the golden era.
Oh yeah.
Not that the future's not brighthere in Bettonville, but that
was just like stores uponstores.
I'm pretty sure like themerchandising was like we need
warm bodies to make decisionsabout what's happening and a lot
of chaos and an enormous amountof growth.
SPEAKER_00 (01:26):
It it was interesting to watch just how
fast everything was changing andevolving.
And so I went from that side ofthings with on the the fitness
uh side of the world to asmaller startup company that uh
by the brand of Classic Sport.
Classic actually ended up um, Ibelieve Sportcraft took on that
(01:47):
name, and many of the balls andsporting uh has now become
private labeled here interestingat Walmart.
Yeah.
Um and during that time, I youknow, I really learned how to, I
guess, cut my teeth from theside going from a bigger
corporation now to a startupwhere we were just uh clawing to
get any business and doinganything and everything we
could.
(02:07):
How many hats would you say youwore in that?
Every hat.
Every hat, yeah.
We we were in a part of Denver.
Actually, we were uh we wouldinflate basketballs and
footballs.
We had this little kit of threeballs a basketball, a football,
and a soccer ball.
And there were times we'd getbehind on orders and we'd have
to run down to the floor, andand it was a part of Denver
(02:28):
called Five Points, which haschanged dramatically.
And a couple of times we'd hearshots ringing out in the
neighborhood, and everybodywould have to hit the ground and
let things calm down.
So yeah, any, you know, retailspare or uh the the space to
lease was a lot different, youknow, then but uh so and then
that evolved in I I leftactually uh from the corporate
(02:48):
side and became a sales rep.
Yeah, and uh for about 12 years,12, yeah, it was about 12 years,
I was selling to sportsauthority independently,
independently, and I representeda company primarily um Lifetime
Products, oh yeah, which alsodoes a lot of business here with
blow molded, blow molded tablesand chairs, basketball systems.
(03:09):
Uh, we introduced the kayakbusiness to them.
And so we we did that for quitea while, and then uh sports
authority went bankrupt, whichtends to unfortunately happen to
some of our retail partners, anduh jumped into the the Power
Sports world at that time withColeman Power Sports and again
another um manufacturer that hasproduct here with the
(03:30):
gas-powered mini bikes andgo-karts.
And the theme kind of across theboard is I've I've worked in
this industry, it's been inrecreation and sporting goods.
Yeah, that might speak to myintelligence level.
SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
You know, I might I think it's really fascinating
because you know, the to to meetsomebody that they started at
craft and then they went to PGor they went to Unilever, like,
you know, the on the consumerspace, it's not as often you
come across somebody that's inthe I mean they're big
categories, but they're notthey're not that, right?
(04:00):
I think it's almost morechallenging to do what you did,
uh, because you you you youaren't just coasting on the
power of your brand or themarketing campaign or the you
know whatever um might be a partof it.
Yeah, there's clawing at everyuh every step of the way.
SPEAKER_02 (04:18):
And startup, oh my gosh.
That just yeah, that retail issuch a small world, so it's
funny to have like, oh, it's astartup, which you know could
have become vaporized.
And actually, it's you knowstill lives on in different
ways, different brands,different retail banners.
SPEAKER_01 (04:32):
Well, it's interesting.
You know, uh you talking aboutyour background in some of these
categories that now we play into kind of hear a little bit of
the evolution of like we knowwhat we're working with now, but
to go back 20 years when weweren't calling on that time.
I wasn't far behind you, but Istarted out of high school, not
out of college.
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's great.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
I was always uh I've always been a little jealous of
those that have gotten to playin fun, cool categories.
Not that my categories weren'treally cool, but my first buying
desk was Adult Incontinence.
And oh gosh, that's a differentokay.
I I would fight with marketingbecause I was if we needed to
tell this story, and they'rejust like, Yeah, we're not that
(05:14):
called to tell this story.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Yeah, my kids were always uh interested in stuff I
was selling.
Yeah, yeah, that actually mademy job a lot easier.
That's really fun, yeah, right?
I mean, because we would go outand ride you know, go-karts and
minibikes.
We'd have the entireneighborhood over and we'd set
up courses and pray that nobodywould roll one or get hurt.
We had that every now and then.
Yeah, moms weren't too happywith me.
(05:38):
Well, but dads loved me.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02 (05:42):
Um I think durable medical equipment was the the
closest to being you know coolbecause I could roll around in
some wheelchairs at the layoutcenter.
Um, couldn't quite argue gettingthe motorized ones as like a
viable uh path.
So never quite did it.
But now when my kids come to theoffice here at High Impact and
we've got a couple of GoTrackscooters, there you go.
(06:04):
They absolutely love being ableto.
In fact, my now seven-year-olddaughter, um, I think we were we
had just gotten here, and youknow, we have a couple snacks in
the kitchen, like and scooters.
And she looked at me and said,Dad, I'm glad Walmart fired you.
(06:24):
I was like, I was displaced, butyeah, thank you.
Uh nobody should have heardthat.
Well, you say because now we getto ride the scooters.
I'm like, thanks, baby girl.
That's awesome.
It's funny how God works thingsout.
SPEAKER_00 (06:37):
Uh I'm glad you get to ride some scooters.
That's that's funny youmentioned that.
My four-year-old granddaughter,she she called me on FaceTime uh
with her dad, and she's like, Ihave something to show you,
grandpa.
And so then he took the phoneand she's on uh one of our
three-wheeled scooters, and shetakes off and then she wraps her
(06:58):
leg around the front post andthen takes both her arms off of
it, and she's four hands, andshe said, I'm ready for a bigger
scooter now.
And my and I don't know that ifher mom, my daughter-in-law, I
don't think my daughter-in-lawknew this was going on.
And my son's filming this, andshe's like, I'm ready for a
bigger scooter now, grandpa.
So, you know, if I can do thiswith no hands and wrapping my
leg around like a kind of toughto argue that logic.
(07:20):
Yeah.
So we're working on that for abigger scooter.
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
So speaking of GoTrax, um, you've been with
them about a year.
Yeah, yeah, just over a yearnow.
What was the draw?
SPEAKER_00 (07:30):
What was compelling about Goatracks?
So I had experienced, Imentioned the Coleman Power
Sports side.
Um, I actually introduced ourColeman Power Sports team on the
production side with um the CEOum of Tau, who owns Goatrax.
So we they started manufacturingall of our product.
(07:50):
And to mention that too, we nowjust purchased Champion Sports,
which now has the the theColeman license.
So the company I work for and wewere producing, we now own them.
So so we're they mentioned itwas a small world.
Yeah, it is very small world,very small.
So that's cool.
The GoTracks, um, though thispast year, knowing the company
(08:10):
and knowing what they didalready, I was really excited to
jump on board when Terry reachedout to me.
And um, it's it's been a ridethis last year, a crazy ride.
And uh the vision is reallywhat's super exciting about what
we're gonna be doing.
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Is there any innovation that you've got in
the funnel that's maybe not outthat you're free to talk about?
Or do you sure yeah?
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
We've got some fun stuff, uh, particularly in the
AI.
We're calling it the AI plus inrobotics.
Yeah.
And um, we have been able towork with our manufacturing um
our way into that AI world withrobots.
So we've we've uh a couple timesbeen down in the the Walmart
lobbies with our humanoid andour quadrupeds and just blown
(08:56):
people away.
We're now known when we walkinto the lobby at Walmart as the
robot guys, and thereceptionists ask us where the
robots are each time.
They were disappointedyesterday.
Oh, they're fantastic dancers.
The robots, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Thank you for the clarification.
Anytime.
Yeah.
But um, so we're really excitedabout that.
(09:17):
There, there's there's a greatretail application.
They're expensive right now,right?
Uh, when people say robots arehere, they are here.
Sure.
But when you're talking abouthumanoid that that could be in
excess of$40,000, I don't thinkmost of us are rushing out to
get those.
But the applications for retail,such as security and marketing
(09:39):
and uh, you know, the patrol,when I say security, um, there's
things that we can do to helpeven introduce them more uh to
everybody, to everydayconsumers.
And then from a manufacturingside, we'll do what we do.
And that's you know, gettingthat technology down to where
they become uh easier to runfrom a cost standpoint.
Yeah.
So a lot of cool stuff.
(10:00):
And then the toys, the the theAI toys, which fall under robots
and tying chat GPT technologyinto that.
We're having some good runs atthat as well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:10):
So a lot of uh the educational opportunities in
that, specifically that world,seem like could be a pretty
major unlock.
Particularly when you look atsome of the depressing
statistics of you know our ourreading level, math scores,
things of that nature.
Do you see uh AI-enabled tech uhor AI-enabled toys being a help,
(10:33):
uh a benefit from uheducational?
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
Most definitely.
And uh, we were just talkingoffline here a little bit about
the fact that so many people canend up putting their kids just
in front of a screen.
Right.
Right.
And what are they getting fromthat screen?
If we can now take AI and thatability to interact um with a
young child in a safeenvironment, again, that's
(10:57):
something that you got to becareful of, right?
Uh, but giving them theopportunity to have feedback um
and to be able to grow and tolearn and to be challenged in
ways, um, whether it be math,um, reading, whatever that can
be, there's so many things youcan do with that.
And AI can learn with you too.
Like they can take on theability of understanding, so to
(11:19):
speak, the age of the ageappropriateness of who they're
dealing with, and and and youcan learn together with it.
Yeah, exactly.
You can you can have differentchallenges along the way.
So that's fun, and then thenever-ending uh why.
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
Why?
Why you can uh I'd love to havea AI robot get annoyed with help
uh help navigate the the whyjourneys.
Um that that age, like when itgoes away, but I definitely have
them the why at home.
SPEAKER_00 (11:53):
I don't know if it goes away.
Well, I did you know I've gotchildren in their 20s now, and I
still hear why while I talk tothem.
So yeah, hopefully not 10 ofthem.
You're consecutive in a row.
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
No, yeah, just three.
Get in.
Sturgil sits and says, why isthe only is the most important
word to Lexus?
All right, I got that one onlock.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
I'm glad Sturgil would be satisfied with that.
That's right.
It was interesting.
Yesterday, in one of ourmeetings, we had an an AI, uh,
let's call it a toy.
It it looks like a little petdog in the meeting.
And we introduced it at thebeginning of the meeting and we
didn't turn it off.
And during one of ourconversations that we were
(12:33):
talking about top selling umcategories um at Walmart, it all
of a sudden jumped in and itnamed the top five selling
categories at Walmart.
And instead of using the wordLego, it used building systems.
Now, this was the top sellingitems in the toy and it used
(12:54):
building systems.
And our buyer said, Absolutely,we don't use the term Lego at
Walmart, and it knew in ourconversation to use building
systems, and that was from ithad only been in that
conversation for 20 minutes.
That's amazing.
Yeah, how that picked that up.
That that blew me away.
It blew our buyer away, too, bythe way.
He went, I just caught what itjust did, and it was quite
(13:16):
interesting.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:17):
I love, I mean, when you can read enough, get enough
context, it seems prettyintelligent.
Yeah.
Um yeah, flipping kind of to AI,what have you seen as uh you
know useful, not useful?
You've uh a wide array ofexperience across retail and are
getting deep into this AI space.
(13:39):
What are you most excited about?
And what are the things youthink are more distracting?
SPEAKER_00 (13:43):
Are you asking more from what I see like from a
retail, what we could be sellingand what we could be doing?
And then yeah, just in AI addingvalue across the retail
landscape.
Yeah.
Um I think what we're seeing onthe retail landscape, for me
personally, um, the analysisportion of what we've been able
to look at quicker, and I knowyour team helps us tremendously
(14:05):
with that.
And I know they're pulling a lotof information that way.
But for me, to be able to lookat documents and just to have it
sorted so quickly, you know, forme to say, hey, I need to look
at this specifically uh and topull that information, it's
mind-blowing to me.
You know, I I think back beforewe even had Excel, right?
In the early days before we evenhad email.
(14:27):
I mean, I remember that day.
SPEAKER_03 (14:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:28):
I feel like I'm talking about covered wagons
here, you know, but yeah, beforecars, uh, but now you have
before email, you know, it couldbe a dating system, I guess.
But um, but before we had thoseabilities to to draw
information, I don't even knowhow we did business, right?
Like how how we could truly doanalytics.
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
So my my first role um in the industry was in
replenishment at Walmart.
And there were still people thatworked there that the years
prior, they would open thisgiant like you know, you've seen
like the really huge calendar.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Look like that, open it up, andit was a warehouse, and all the
(15:08):
items that they were responsiblefor replenishing with all the
data, and they would just circlethe numbers, and that was what
they're and at the end of theday, they'd give it to their
assistant, and the next daythey'd type it in, and that's
how replenishment's amazing.
As recently as the 80s, likeit's not a lifetime ago.
Yeah, it's fascinating when youwhen you when you when you see
that, and then see where we'reat today where we can literally
(15:31):
dump gigabytes of numbers intosomething that say find
correlations, and there it is.
Yeah, so when I learned uhanalytics in the early 2000s, it
was okay, start at the top line,so growing 10%.
Now what items are contributing,and then let's look at a little
regionality.
And you basically kind of do areverse recause analysis where
(15:54):
now you can say find everyrelevant correlation that is in
10 stores or more, and it doesinstall late.
Um it it's uh that to really beable to harness it, it's gonna
the that's the feature ofanalytics for sure.
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
Yeah.
Had a great conversationyesterday about the so what.
The so what?
Right.
Because if you you can do allthese things and you can you can
create a bunch of different uhcorrelations, the the so what?
What's the so what?
And at the end of the day, it'sall about decisions.
Like what what decisions aremade differently?
They may be made prior, and withadditional data, it can trigger,
(16:30):
you know, a replenishment event,a a feature opportunity, um, uh
a likely out of stock that needsto be researched or or whatnot.
And ultimately, that's whatwe're always trying to do is do
better faster.
Yep.
And go this is a great go findthat so what in a in a in a more
creative way, a faster way, abetter way.
(16:50):
Sometimes you you you can justmake way more decisions.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:53):
Um which I think has been important for growth.
You know, you wonder could aWalmart have grown, you know,
um, or continue to grow, or nowsee where they're gonna be the
next 10 to 20 years without it.
I mean, you get to a point whereif you didn't have the AI, yeah,
could you process enoughinformation?
Could you really see the visionof where you need to go?
(17:13):
And even without the error,exactly, you'd really have a lot
of trial and error, right?
So I think it's helpingeliminate that.
I know from us from themanufacturing standpoint, it
helps us greatly from a uh youknow, a competitive standpoint.
We can understand, we canunderstand the lay of the land
better and quicker.
We can see quicker how our youknow um uh competitors are
(17:35):
reacting and acting to certainthings.
Now obviously they can do thesame thing.
Yeah, so we're just in anaccelerated world, yeah, I guess
at retail.
SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
Yeah, I I've I've gone back to it a lot.
Um Jack Shoemaker's quote of theonly sustainable competitive
advantage is speed.
And and as I as I've like chewedon that, it's like, yeah, I
think I think he was right.
Um and it's interesting becausewhat used to be an advantageous
(18:04):
rate of speed is no longeranywhere near the front.
You know, yeah.
What uh what got you here mightnot get you there when you when
you think about AI and ingeneral having a data-rich
environment that's meant forbetter decision making.
SPEAKER_00 (18:24):
Yeah, I think that's the key too, is people do get
scared or intimidated.
And I know I I get intimidatedby it all the time, but if if AI
can lead to decision making, andif we can learn how to work that
and not take the human elementout of it, if we can work those
two together, where I think alot of people get worried and
intimidated is like, well, AI isdoing everything, but really it
(18:46):
can't make those decisions thatyou know, okay, ultimately I
take the AI information and whatis that doing to help my
company?
Well, there's also a liabilityissue.
SPEAKER_01 (18:55):
You can't sue AI.
It's a great point, right?
Like uh a doctor has to sign offon a thing, a CPA has to sign
because they can be sued.
Yeah.
Um, technology can't be sued.
SPEAKER_02 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we were at CES, and youknow, it's incredible.
AI was mentioned quite possiblyliterally in everybody's face.
Probably.
Probably.
If not, um should be.
And then the you know, hundredsof thousands of people there
assessing what's happening,deciding which trends are are
(19:28):
likely to be faster or not.
You know, it's still sopeople-centric.
SPEAKER_01 (19:32):
Um, we saw a good friend of mine, Howard Beats,
there.
He's been to every CES since1989.
Wow.
And he said, he said, here'swhat I'm doing.
I'm walking around, and everybooth that has AI in the name, I
remove AI to see if they'veactually got a viable product.
SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
Because everybody's just because they all wanted to
know, be known.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
Some of them are really compelling applications,
and then other times it's justlike, that's just you know, same
thing everybody else has.
Yeah.
It became noise.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
I saw uh a rendering, it could be real, it
could have been AI generated.
Uh people magazine, person ofthe year, AI.
Um, oh wow, which might actuallybe the the headline.
And this year, yeah, I did kindof person of the year.
Person of the year, it'sinteresting to think about.
That's funny.
(20:20):
Uh yeah, actually the thecreated AI.
Yeah, yeah.
So in a world filled with dataum and of product product lines
today that are just eat up withfun, uh, what's it like
sometimes to have to battle thethere might not be data to prove
this, but we think people aregonna love doing uh this, that,
the other.
You know, you've got uhhoverboards that have LED lights
(20:46):
and a Bluetooth speaker.
Like until you did it, therewasn't data that said that you
should.
Right.
Right?
This this is uh some gut, someintuition, some customer
research.
Can you help us?
You know, I think beingcomfortable with AI and using it
is a good push for anybody who'slistening, or like you should be
paying attention and you need togo find ways to get comfortable
(21:09):
and utilizing.
And then I think we can get toocomfortable looking at
historical data, yeah, to thenbecause it's not a window for
the future, that's all past datathat's been collected.
Right.
So I'd love to hear yourperspective of like, okay, well,
and when we innovate and createnew fun toys, um, or you know,
(21:29):
transportation being totallyreimagined um with some of the
scooters, how would you you knowcoach someone maybe new in their
career through this uhjuxtaposition?
SPEAKER_00 (21:41):
So just from our experience, I mean I'm not the
authority uh the authoritarianfigure on this, but what we have
seen is again where I come from,it's all recreation, right?
Yeah.
And so when we want to innovate,give me a second here.
When we want to innovate and wewant to see what the next it is,
(22:07):
we get out and participate.
Right.
Yeah.
And so and and we get aroundwhich is so much fun.
And as part of that, as we'veseen the emergence of this
e-mobility, let's call it, youknow, with the the scooters and
the hoverboards and the interestthat people have in that
electric space.
I mean, there's there's alwaysbeen the talk of how from an
(22:29):
environmental standpoint, whatpeople view as the benefits of
leaving the gas powered.
And I just as recently as youknow, three years was or two
years was selling gas-poweredproduct.
There is a there is a definitefeel still that people want
that.
You know, it's explosive and butthe growth is coming into this
electric space, right?
And so well, that's exactlywhere I was gonna go is as we've
(22:53):
seen this explosion on on thee-scooter side, right behind it
has been the e-bikes, and andthe growth in that has been
phenomenal.
And now following a typicalcurve of any category, you know,
when the e-bikes first came out,I remember my parents came to me
and I wasn't working with acompany that sold e-bikes at the
time, it was all gas powered.
Yeah.
And they said, Hey, in yourindustry, do you have any leads
(23:15):
on an e-bike?
You know, they're in theirthey're in their 70s and and
they're looking for e-bikes toto help, you know, get out and
and do stuff.
And I'm like, I I really don't.
And and so they went out andthey went to uh a local shop.
They spent$3,500 each.
They they dropped$7,000 on somereally nice e-bikes.
Yeah.
(23:35):
And and today, you know, ourcompany could do those same
e-bikes.
They would have probably theywould have paid a thousand each
you know for a very similarbike.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
That's the that's the way the technology those
pioneers that go out and buy itthat makes it affordable for the
rest of us.
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And so so that category is it'sit's a no-brainer on the e-bike
side.
Now, our company also um does atremendous amount of business in
golf carts.
Yeah, and and so if you want totalk about an exploding
category, Wall Street Journalhad an article uh last year
where they predict that the golfcart industry will be a five
(24:16):
billion dollar annual industry.
SPEAKER_01 (24:18):
I mean, any given weekend if the weather's nice.
I don't live on a golf course,but there'll be more golf carts
on the street than cars.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (24:26):
Just people just zipping around, kids mostly, but
that's and that's beensomething.
So I I recently was in Hong Kongmeeting with some of our
investors, and they keep asking,like, what is America doing with
golf carts?
They're like, are you growinggolf that big of a business in
in America?
And we're like, no, they'rereally not growing golf.
My neighbor takes his kids toschool on his golf cart.
(24:49):
Yeah.
They can avoid the lines andeverything.
Yeah.
People are shopping with them.
There's communities in Floridathat are restricted just to golf
carts.
SPEAKER_02 (24:58):
It's kind of my favorite thing to do on vacation
down in that Destin area isgonna get an Airbnb close enough
that we can golf cart for theweek and not have to rent a van.
SPEAKER_00 (25:10):
And everybody loves it.
Yeah, yeah.
If there's something about it,and I remember sitting in these
meetings last week trying toexplain like what this
infatuation is with golf carts.
And, you know, um, I'm tellingthem like people just like the
open-air driving experience,like getting out and just
feeling that, particularly kids,and they're like, just doesn't
make sense to us.
(25:30):
And so, so that that as far asan innovation and direction,
that's again, it's in that EVspace, it's outdoor, it's
participating, it's beingtogether, which you know, we
talk about all this AI, howsometimes that makes us
exclusionary and isolation.
Yeah, but really, you know, welook at this as an advantage of
let's kind of bring all thetechnology and opportunities in
(25:53):
there's a family environment anda community environment.
SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
Well, you've said it a bunch of you've said it
several times about having fun.
Yeah.
Uh and I I I'm more convincedthan ever that you really gotta
have fun in life to stay happy,to stay healthy, to be
motivated.
Uh and it's bonding andconnecting.
I think sometimes we take thatpart of life for granted.
Yeah.
Um, that's cool that that's yourentire career has been about
(26:18):
having fun.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Yeah, I think so.
You know, they they always jokeabout you'll never work a day of
your life if you enjoy what youdo.
And uh, I mean, sure, there'sbumps and bruises and losing
deals and making bad decisionson um the the business
direction, but at the end of theday, I have a garage full of fun
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (26:37):
No doubt.
And what I love is we're talkingabout innovation and effective
use of AI while also not beingfully reliant.
And you're like, you didn'tignore the data.
There was still data involved.
Yeah.
There was also like review ofyour competitions, you know,
you're seeing who's out theredoing what, and then there's
play, engagement, which to me islike getting into the customer's
(27:00):
eyes, which I think a lot ofmerchants uh and suppliers have
a hard time remembering it's nota widget.
Like whatever you're selling iseither uh a solution to a
problem or it's an enhancementto their to their life, and like
what will motivate a customeractually into the space to
purchase it.
Um and the closer you are there,the more likely your solution is
(27:22):
to be a great fit.
Yeah.
So yeah, so I love this sort oftriangulation that you you laid
out for us.
SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
Oh, thank you.
I mean, it it makes my job a loteasier.
Again, I'm not I was neverreally an engineering mind or
excelled of beyond measure inthe school in in the classroom,
but I have been able to, youknow, feel what I enjoy.
And yeah, it seems like we'reall very quite similar, right?
Yeah.
In this world and wanting to getoutside, be active.
(27:50):
Yeah, we really are more incommon, and this helps bring it
all together.
SPEAKER_02 (27:54):
So if you could give a piece of advice to um, let's
say your first five years inretail self, uh, what would that
be?
SPEAKER_00 (28:02):
100% listen more.
And and um I think early on, um,I had many opinions about this
is the way it should be.
And and and I was passionateabout certain things, right?
They should like this.
This was better than this, youknow.
Our classic ball with its microuh fiber technology was better
(28:25):
than the Wilson ball any day.
Yeah, right.
We were saying, no, nothingagainst Wilson now, you know.
But my opinions, I think,mattered too much early on.
When really, yes, if I hadn't ifthe buyer was able to let me
come into that meeting and talkto him and share information,
that's one thing, that's great.
(28:45):
I can share minimal information,but listen more to what they're
looking for.
SPEAKER_02 (28:51):
Yeah, I think anybody who just heard you say
that to me, that interacted withme, maybe my first year as a
buyer is letting out a giantamen.
Um sure in my opinion, and andmaybe listening would be would
be helpful.
I think we all have a little bitof that, but sure.
Boy, have we learned it overtime of like, okay, yeah, no,
(29:12):
let me just take a beat.
Yeah, yeah.
That's really good.
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
I remember the meeting I was in and I was on
the sales side, and I could tellI was losing the buyer, and I
was very young and and very new,so I started talking faster.
I still and no do it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
Give it more information.
SPEAKER_01 (29:32):
And my boss was in there, he goes, You know what
you did wrong, right?
He goes, Shut the that's great,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:40):
And I still like you know, it's it's tough.
You there's that salesperson inyou that wants to do all the
talking, yeah.
But really, I think they getthese, you're not there to like
really give a ton of newinformation, maybe some, but
they there's a lot of ideasalready moving forward.
SPEAKER_02 (29:57):
Well, um, as a salesperson, maybe in the sort
of as we get towards ourlightning round, which we'll do
in just a second.
Oh boy.
Um, for those that haven't heardof GoTracks, like what would be
the, hey, here's where you'regonna find us, and here's why
you're gonna love us.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
Well, you'll find us in just about every Walmart
store.
Yeah.
Right.
And back near the bicycles.
Everybody seems to know wherethe bikes are because they're
that big section, the big rack,and the display.
So we're usually on the end ofthat um with our e-scooters and
then um our hoverboards.
And then great blessing for usis this year we're introducing a
(30:35):
private label e-bike.
So under the Concorde brand.
So we're gonna be the openingprice point uh at Walmart um for
their e-bike, which we're superexcited about.
SPEAKER_02 (30:47):
They've been so disruptive in that bike space.
It's it's been awesome to watchaccess to good bikes happen
across the country.
SPEAKER_00 (30:56):
Yeah, and and your team has been a big part of that
as we worked together on that.
There's been a lot of hands inthat.
We've never done anything on thethe global sourcing side.
SPEAKER_03 (31:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:04):
And you've got our private brand hub.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's great.
We were able to use your teamhere and and then work closely
with the team overseas that theyhave.
They are detail oriented.
Yeah.
We've really learned a lot.
And and now I, you know, Imentioned my parents' experience
buying any bike, you know,$3,500each, these will be at$450.
(31:25):
Wow.
And they're fantastic bikes.
That's amazing.
You know, multi-speed and pedalassist.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
And your company's story is fascinating.
Um, I can't even remember howmany years ago it was, but you
were just on marketplace.
You went a client of ours,Goatrax was on the marketplace.
Uh, you apparently they'dreached out to the merchant and
and no response.
Well, then the the buyer seesit.
I can't remember if it's twomillion or five million in sales
(31:53):
around this one holiday period.
So he called up the current orthe the salesperson at the time.
He like, he, why have you neverbrought this to me?
He goes, uh, you're not returnedmy calls.
There you go.
Never since then, it's just beenyear after year of of growth,
yeah, with growth really drivenby innovation.
SPEAKER_02 (32:09):
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
And some of those scooters, likeI'm a I'm a large guy, and they
they have no problem.
SPEAKER_00 (32:17):
They're good quality scooters, yeah.
Um and your team has been greatto to help facilitate that.
You know, that's one area forthe years that I've tried to
sell to Walmart, you know, andbrought something here and and
tried to get it.
Not having the support.
Your team matters.
It really does.
And and you know, having thatfollow-up right away, uh,
(32:39):
relationships that they trust.
And and again, it comes down tothat when you say listening,
that's how you build trust,right?
And and and so, yeah, I thinkyour question was about where's
our product and all that.
SPEAKER_01 (32:51):
It's all you know, circuitous there.
But yeah.
Love that.
So lightning round.
Let's go lightning round.
Uh, what are you reading,consuming um you know, right
now, whether you've justfinished it last year or you're
working on something now that'skind of moving you.
SPEAKER_00 (33:05):
So interesting question.
Um, good question.
I'm I'm rereading portions oftipping point by Malcolm
Gladwell.
Oh, yeah.
And I've we've we've um, aswe've looked at the robots and
how to, how are we gonna, youknow, this is gonna be one of
those categories that is gonnareach a tipping point.
And there's some cost factorsbeyond that.
(33:26):
But what's gonna help it get tothat?
And so that's I've been spendingsome time there.
Um, and one of the ideas thatcame out of there, they talked
about where um Apple became whothey are when they stopped
selling an iPhone and made it anenabling experience.
And when you think about theapps and what happened with the
apps and how that changed thesmartphone, yeah, you know, so
(33:49):
that's something I've taken fromthat.
So yeah, love that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
Um, so we've been in retail, it's a small world, but
um tell us about one of yourgreatest retail blunders that
you learned from.
SPEAKER_00 (34:03):
And I can tell you right now, if my kids were
listening, which they're they'reprobably not, they probably are.
No, they're definitely tuned in.
They're their biggest, they theythey get a kick out of this
every time.
It's Mango Mattress.
And uh, and we uh we during thetime when boxed mattresses were
becoming a thing with the memoryfoam, we decided that there was
(34:24):
a there was a a technology inAsia that you could take a
spring coil mattress and youcould compress it down.
I remember this.
And you could roll those up andput them in a box.
They were so heavy.
Can you imagine all that steelin there?
And we thought we're gonna run,you know, people are gonna want
a a coil, spring coil mattressover a memory foam mattress.
Who wants to go down that?
(34:44):
Yeah.
And now you look today, there isnot a single spring coil
mattress that exists anywhere ina box, but there are plenty.
SPEAKER_01 (34:53):
Were you really?
What was happening?
Yeah, I worked for a companycalled Sleep Innovations, and we
did a lot of bed and boxes atit.
We were at one market, uh, youknow, market week they have in
New York, uh, spring and fall.
And I remember seeing, I said,So this is just a spring
mattress.
They go, Yeah, but it's in abox.
So, you know, I was like, Idon't think anybody's buying it
because it's in a box.
(35:14):
It's just a convenient way toget it home.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
Yeah, exactly.
Everybody was like, Well,they're so much easier.
Think about the people in NewYork City that you know, you
can't get a moving truck and youget up three levels of stairs,
and I'm like, think about thosepeople trying to carry this
thing.
It's like you gotta be huge.
Not very many of them probablydid.
SPEAKER_01 (35:30):
So there you go.
That's and then what uh what hasyou fired up this year?
What's uh what's what's the thefrom a business perspective,
what's the what's the theme for2026?
SPEAKER_00 (35:40):
It's it's definitely in this uh robot uh the robotics
AI.
Yeah.
I just I'm excited to see whereit goes.
Yeah, I mean, where can this bein 15 years?
Yeah, right.
I mean, I'm not gonna behopefully, I mean I'd love to be
15 months.
Yeah, right.
There's so many things that thatI think we're gonna be, you
know.
I was joking about I knew timebefore email, right?
(36:02):
I think we're gonna be sayingwe'll know time before we had
somebody, you know, some type ofrobot in your office that's just
used for something every day.
SPEAKER_01 (36:11):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:12):
It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you for joining us.
You bet.
Thanks for having me, James.
And uh thank you for joining us.
As always, you can uh see allsee or hear all of our podcasts
on our website,highimpactanalytics.com, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey Podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, CharlesGreathouse.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
And I'm James Harris.
And today we're excited to betalking to Todd Gentry.
Todd is vice president of salesfor GoTrax.
You might have seen theirscooters, hoverboards uh in a
city near you.
Thanks for joining us, Scott.
Glad to be here.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
Yeah.
So I mean, Bentonville's changedquite a bit since you maybe were
first here.
I'd love to hear a little ofyour retail journey uh just to
start.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
Great.
Um it has changed a lot.
So I I entered the the retailworld uh back in 1995 uh for uh
with a fitness company by thename of Icon Health and Fitness.
So they have a history here withuh Walmart uh under the Proform
uh Westlow brand, I think at thetime they were they were selling
(01:02):
them.
So right out of college, Istarted uh that retail.
SPEAKER_02 (01:06):
I mean 90s was like the golden era.
Oh yeah.
Not that the future's not brighthere in Bettonville, but that
was just like stores uponstores.
I'm pretty sure like themerchandising was like we need
warm bodies to make decisionsabout what's happening and a lot
of chaos and an enormous amountof growth.
SPEAKER_00 (01:26):
It it was interesting to watch just how
fast everything was changing andevolving.
And so I went from that side ofthings with on the the fitness
uh side of the world to asmaller startup company that uh
by the brand of Classic Sport.
Classic actually ended up um, Ibelieve Sportcraft took on that
(01:47):
name, and many of the balls andsporting uh has now become
private labeled here interestingat Walmart.
Yeah.
Um and during that time, I youknow, I really learned how to, I
guess, cut my teeth from theside going from a bigger
corporation now to a startupwhere we were just uh clawing to
get any business and doinganything and everything we
could.
(02:07):
How many hats would you say youwore in that?
Every hat.
Every hat, yeah.
We we were in a part of Denver.
Actually, we were uh we wouldinflate basketballs and
footballs.
We had this little kit of threeballs a basketball, a football,
and a soccer ball.
And there were times we'd getbehind on orders and we'd have
to run down to the floor, andand it was a part of Denver
(02:28):
called Five Points, which haschanged dramatically.
And a couple of times we'd hearshots ringing out in the
neighborhood, and everybodywould have to hit the ground and
let things calm down.
So yeah, any, you know, retailspare or uh the the space to
lease was a lot different, youknow, then but uh so and then
that evolved in I I leftactually uh from the corporate
(02:48):
side and became a sales rep.
Yeah, and uh for about 12 years,12, yeah, it was about 12 years,
I was selling to sportsauthority independently,
independently, and I representeda company primarily um Lifetime
Products, oh yeah, which alsodoes a lot of business here with
blow molded, blow molded tablesand chairs, basketball systems.
(03:09):
Uh, we introduced the kayakbusiness to them.
And so we we did that for quitea while, and then uh sports
authority went bankrupt, whichtends to unfortunately happen to
some of our retail partners, anduh jumped into the the Power
Sports world at that time withColeman Power Sports and again
another um manufacturer that hasproduct here with the
(03:30):
gas-powered mini bikes andgo-karts.
And the theme kind of across theboard is I've I've worked in
this industry, it's been inrecreation and sporting goods.
Yeah, that might speak to myintelligence level.
SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
You know, I might I think it's really fascinating
because you know, the to to meetsomebody that they started at
craft and then they went to PGor they went to Unilever, like,
you know, the on the consumerspace, it's not as often you
come across somebody that's inthe I mean they're big
categories, but they're notthey're not that, right?
(04:00):
I think it's almost morechallenging to do what you did,
uh, because you you you youaren't just coasting on the
power of your brand or themarketing campaign or the you
know whatever um might be a partof it.
Yeah, there's clawing at everyuh every step of the way.
SPEAKER_02 (04:18):
And startup, oh my gosh.
That just yeah, that retail issuch a small world, so it's
funny to have like, oh, it's astartup, which you know could
have become vaporized.
And actually, it's you knowstill lives on in different
ways, different brands,different retail banners.
SPEAKER_01 (04:32):
Well, it's interesting.
You know, uh you talking aboutyour background in some of these
categories that now we play into kind of hear a little bit of
the evolution of like we knowwhat we're working with now, but
to go back 20 years when weweren't calling on that time.
I wasn't far behind you, but Istarted out of high school, not
out of college.
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's great.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
I was always uh I've always been a little jealous of
those that have gotten to playin fun, cool categories.
Not that my categories weren'treally cool, but my first buying
desk was Adult Incontinence.
And oh gosh, that's a differentokay.
I I would fight with marketingbecause I was if we needed to
tell this story, and they'rejust like, Yeah, we're not that
(05:14):
called to tell this story.
SPEAKER_00 (05:17):
Yeah, my kids were always uh interested in stuff I
was selling.
Yeah, yeah, that actually mademy job a lot easier.
That's really fun, yeah, right?
I mean, because we would go outand ride you know, go-karts and
minibikes.
We'd have the entireneighborhood over and we'd set
up courses and pray that nobodywould roll one or get hurt.
We had that every now and then.
Yeah, moms weren't too happywith me.
(05:38):
Well, but dads loved me.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02 (05:42):
Um I think durable medical equipment was the the
closest to being you know coolbecause I could roll around in
some wheelchairs at the layoutcenter.
Um, couldn't quite argue gettingthe motorized ones as like a
viable uh path.
So never quite did it.
But now when my kids come to theoffice here at High Impact and
we've got a couple of GoTrackscooters, there you go.
(06:04):
They absolutely love being ableto.
In fact, my now seven-year-olddaughter, um, I think we were we
had just gotten here, and youknow, we have a couple snacks in
the kitchen, like and scooters.
And she looked at me and said,Dad, I'm glad Walmart fired you.
(06:24):
I was like, I was displaced, butyeah, thank you.
Uh nobody should have heardthat.
Well, you say because now we getto ride the scooters.
I'm like, thanks, baby girl.
That's awesome.
It's funny how God works thingsout.
SPEAKER_00 (06:37):
Uh I'm glad you get to ride some scooters.
That's that's funny youmentioned that.
My four-year-old granddaughter,she she called me on FaceTime uh
with her dad, and she's like, Ihave something to show you,
grandpa.
And so then he took the phoneand she's on uh one of our
three-wheeled scooters, and shetakes off and then she wraps her
(06:58):
leg around the front post andthen takes both her arms off of
it, and she's four hands, andshe said, I'm ready for a bigger
scooter now.
And my and I don't know that ifher mom, my daughter-in-law, I
don't think my daughter-in-lawknew this was going on.
And my son's filming this, andshe's like, I'm ready for a
bigger scooter now, grandpa.
So, you know, if I can do thiswith no hands and wrapping my
leg around like a kind of toughto argue that logic.
(07:20):
Yeah.
So we're working on that for abigger scooter.
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
So speaking of GoTrax, um, you've been with
them about a year.
Yeah, yeah, just over a yearnow.
What was the draw?
SPEAKER_00 (07:30):
What was compelling about Goatracks?
So I had experienced, Imentioned the Coleman Power
Sports side.
Um, I actually introduced ourColeman Power Sports team on the
production side with um the CEOum of Tau, who owns Goatrax.
So we they started manufacturingall of our product.
(07:50):
And to mention that too, we nowjust purchased Champion Sports,
which now has the the theColeman license.
So the company I work for and wewere producing, we now own them.
So so we're they mentioned itwas a small world.
Yeah, it is very small world,very small.
So that's cool.
The GoTracks, um, though thispast year, knowing the company
(08:10):
and knowing what they didalready, I was really excited to
jump on board when Terry reachedout to me.
And um, it's it's been a ridethis last year, a crazy ride.
And uh the vision is reallywhat's super exciting about what
we're gonna be doing.
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
Is there any innovation that you've got in
the funnel that's maybe not outthat you're free to talk about?
Or do you sure yeah?
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
We've got some fun stuff, uh, particularly in the
AI.
We're calling it the AI plus inrobotics.
Yeah.
And um, we have been able towork with our manufacturing um
our way into that AI world withrobots.
So we've we've uh a couple timesbeen down in the the Walmart
lobbies with our humanoid andour quadrupeds and just blown
(08:56):
people away.
We're now known when we walkinto the lobby at Walmart as the
robot guys, and thereceptionists ask us where the
robots are each time.
They were disappointedyesterday.
Oh, they're fantastic dancers.
The robots, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Thank you for the clarification.
Anytime.
Yeah.
But um, so we're really excitedabout that.
(09:17):
There, there's there's a greatretail application.
They're expensive right now,right?
Uh, when people say robots arehere, they are here.
Sure.
But when you're talking abouthumanoid that that could be in
excess of$40,000, I don't thinkmost of us are rushing out to
get those.
But the applications for retail,such as security and marketing
(09:39):
and uh, you know, the patrol,when I say security, um, there's
things that we can do to helpeven introduce them more uh to
everybody, to everydayconsumers.
And then from a manufacturingside, we'll do what we do.
And that's you know, gettingthat technology down to where
they become uh easier to runfrom a cost standpoint.
Yeah.
So a lot of cool stuff.
(10:00):
And then the toys, the the theAI toys, which fall under robots
and tying chat GPT technologyinto that.
We're having some good runs atthat as well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:10):
So a lot of uh the educational opportunities in
that, specifically that world,seem like could be a pretty
major unlock.
Particularly when you look atsome of the depressing
statistics of you know our ourreading level, math scores,
things of that nature.
Do you see uh AI-enabled tech uhor AI-enabled toys being a help,
(10:33):
uh a benefit from uheducational?
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
Most definitely.
And uh, we were just talkingoffline here a little bit about
the fact that so many people canend up putting their kids just
in front of a screen.
Right.
Right.
And what are they getting fromthat screen?
If we can now take AI and thatability to interact um with a
young child in a safeenvironment, again, that's
(10:57):
something that you got to becareful of, right?
Uh, but giving them theopportunity to have feedback um
and to be able to grow and tolearn and to be challenged in
ways, um, whether it be math,um, reading, whatever that can
be, there's so many things youcan do with that.
And AI can learn with you too.
Like they can take on theability of understanding, so to
(11:19):
speak, the age of the ageappropriateness of who they're
dealing with, and and and youcan learn together with it.
Yeah, exactly.
You can you can have differentchallenges along the way.
So that's fun, and then thenever-ending uh why.
SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
Why?
Why you can uh I'd love to havea AI robot get annoyed with help
uh help navigate the the whyjourneys.
Um that that age, like when itgoes away, but I definitely have
them the why at home.
SPEAKER_00 (11:53):
I don't know if it goes away.
Well, I did you know I've gotchildren in their 20s now, and I
still hear why while I talk tothem.
So yeah, hopefully not 10 ofthem.
You're consecutive in a row.
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
No, yeah, just three.
Get in.
Sturgil sits and says, why isthe only is the most important
word to Lexus?
All right, I got that one onlock.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
I'm glad Sturgil would be satisfied with that.
That's right.
It was interesting.
Yesterday, in one of ourmeetings, we had an an AI, uh,
let's call it a toy.
It it looks like a little petdog in the meeting.
And we introduced it at thebeginning of the meeting and we
didn't turn it off.
And during one of ourconversations that we were
(12:33):
talking about top selling umcategories um at Walmart, it all
of a sudden jumped in and itnamed the top five selling
categories at Walmart.
And instead of using the wordLego, it used building systems.
Now, this was the top sellingitems in the toy and it used
(12:54):
building systems.
And our buyer said, Absolutely,we don't use the term Lego at
Walmart, and it knew in ourconversation to use building
systems, and that was from ithad only been in that
conversation for 20 minutes.
That's amazing.
Yeah, how that picked that up.
That that blew me away.
It blew our buyer away, too, bythe way.
He went, I just caught what itjust did, and it was quite
(13:16):
interesting.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:17):
I love, I mean, when you can read enough, get enough
context, it seems prettyintelligent.
Yeah.
Um yeah, flipping kind of to AI,what have you seen as uh you
know useful, not useful?
You've uh a wide array ofexperience across retail and are
getting deep into this AI space.
(13:39):
What are you most excited about?
And what are the things youthink are more distracting?
SPEAKER_00 (13:43):
Are you asking more from what I see like from a
retail, what we could be sellingand what we could be doing?
And then yeah, just in AI addingvalue across the retail
landscape.
Yeah.
Um I think what we're seeing onthe retail landscape, for me
personally, um, the analysisportion of what we've been able
to look at quicker, and I knowyour team helps us tremendously
(14:05):
with that.
And I know they're pulling a lotof information that way.
But for me, to be able to lookat documents and just to have it
sorted so quickly, you know, forme to say, hey, I need to look
at this specifically uh and topull that information, it's
mind-blowing to me.
You know, I I think back beforewe even had Excel, right?
In the early days before we evenhad email.
(14:27):
I mean, I remember that day.
SPEAKER_03 (14:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (14:28):
I feel like I'm talking about covered wagons
here, you know, but yeah, beforecars, uh, but now you have
before email, you know, it couldbe a dating system, I guess.
But um, but before we had thoseabilities to to draw
information, I don't even knowhow we did business, right?
Like how how we could truly doanalytics.
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
So my my first role um in the industry was in
replenishment at Walmart.
And there were still people thatworked there that the years
prior, they would open thisgiant like you know, you've seen
like the really huge calendar.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Look like that, open it up, andit was a warehouse, and all the
(15:08):
items that they were responsiblefor replenishing with all the
data, and they would just circlethe numbers, and that was what
they're and at the end of theday, they'd give it to their
assistant, and the next daythey'd type it in, and that's
how replenishment's amazing.
As recently as the 80s, likeit's not a lifetime ago.
Yeah, it's fascinating when youwhen you when you when you see
that, and then see where we'reat today where we can literally
(15:31):
dump gigabytes of numbers intosomething that say find
correlations, and there it is.
Yeah, so when I learned uhanalytics in the early 2000s, it
was okay, start at the top line,so growing 10%.
Now what items are contributing,and then let's look at a little
regionality.
And you basically kind of do areverse recause analysis where
(15:54):
now you can say find everyrelevant correlation that is in
10 stores or more, and it doesinstall late.
Um it it's uh that to really beable to harness it, it's gonna
the that's the feature ofanalytics for sure.
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
Yeah.
Had a great conversationyesterday about the so what.
The so what?
Right.
Because if you you can do allthese things and you can you can
create a bunch of different uhcorrelations, the the so what?
What's the so what?
And at the end of the day, it'sall about decisions.
Like what what decisions aremade differently?
They may be made prior, and withadditional data, it can trigger,
(16:30):
you know, a replenishment event,a a feature opportunity, um, uh
a likely out of stock that needsto be researched or or whatnot.
And ultimately, that's whatwe're always trying to do is do
better faster.
Yep.
And go this is a great go findthat so what in a in a in a more
creative way, a faster way, abetter way.
(16:50):
Sometimes you you you can justmake way more decisions.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:53):
Um which I think has been important for growth.
You know, you wonder could aWalmart have grown, you know,
um, or continue to grow, or nowsee where they're gonna be the
next 10 to 20 years without it.
I mean, you get to a point whereif you didn't have the AI, yeah,
could you process enoughinformation?
Could you really see the visionof where you need to go?
(17:13):
And even without the error,exactly, you'd really have a lot
of trial and error, right?
So I think it's helpingeliminate that.
I know from us from themanufacturing standpoint, it
helps us greatly from a uh youknow, a competitive standpoint.
We can understand, we canunderstand the lay of the land
better and quicker.
We can see quicker how our youknow um uh competitors are
(17:35):
reacting and acting to certainthings.
Now obviously they can do thesame thing.
Yeah, so we're just in anaccelerated world, yeah, I guess
at retail.
SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
Yeah, I I've I've gone back to it a lot.
Um Jack Shoemaker's quote of theonly sustainable competitive
advantage is speed.
And and as I as I've like chewedon that, it's like, yeah, I
think I think he was right.
Um and it's interesting becausewhat used to be an advantageous
(18:04):
rate of speed is no longeranywhere near the front.
You know, yeah.
What uh what got you here mightnot get you there when you when
you think about AI and ingeneral having a data-rich
environment that's meant forbetter decision making.
SPEAKER_00 (18:24):
Yeah, I think that's the key too, is people do get
scared or intimidated.
And I know I I get intimidatedby it all the time, but if if AI
can lead to decision making, andif we can learn how to work that
and not take the human elementout of it, if we can work those
two together, where I think alot of people get worried and
intimidated is like, well, AI isdoing everything, but really it
(18:46):
can't make those decisions thatyou know, okay, ultimately I
take the AI information and whatis that doing to help my
company?
Well, there's also a liabilityissue.
SPEAKER_01 (18:55):
You can't sue AI.
It's a great point, right?
Like uh a doctor has to sign offon a thing, a CPA has to sign
because they can be sued.
Yeah.
Um, technology can't be sued.
SPEAKER_02 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we were at CES, and youknow, it's incredible.
AI was mentioned quite possiblyliterally in everybody's face.
Probably.
Probably.
If not, um should be.
And then the you know, hundredsof thousands of people there
assessing what's happening,deciding which trends are are
(19:28):
likely to be faster or not.
You know, it's still sopeople-centric.
SPEAKER_01 (19:32):
Um, we saw a good friend of mine, Howard Beats,
there.
He's been to every CES since1989.
Wow.
And he said, he said, here'swhat I'm doing.
I'm walking around, and everybooth that has AI in the name, I
remove AI to see if they'veactually got a viable product.
SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
Because everybody's just because they all wanted to
know, be known.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
Some of them are really compelling applications,
and then other times it's justlike, that's just you know, same
thing everybody else has.
Yeah.
It became noise.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
I saw uh a rendering, it could be real, it
could have been AI generated.
Uh people magazine, person ofthe year, AI.
Um, oh wow, which might actuallybe the the headline.
And this year, yeah, I did kindof person of the year.
Person of the year, it'sinteresting to think about.
That's funny.
(20:20):
Uh yeah, actually the thecreated AI.
Yeah, yeah.
So in a world filled with dataum and of product product lines
today that are just eat up withfun, uh, what's it like
sometimes to have to battle thethere might not be data to prove
this, but we think people aregonna love doing uh this, that,
the other.
You know, you've got uhhoverboards that have LED lights
(20:46):
and a Bluetooth speaker.
Like until you did it, therewasn't data that said that you
should.
Right.
Right?
This this is uh some gut, someintuition, some customer
research.
Can you help us?
You know, I think beingcomfortable with AI and using it
is a good push for anybody who'slistening, or like you should be
paying attention and you need togo find ways to get comfortable
(21:09):
and utilizing.
And then I think we can get toocomfortable looking at
historical data, yeah, to thenbecause it's not a window for
the future, that's all past datathat's been collected.
Right.
So I'd love to hear yourperspective of like, okay, well,
and when we innovate and createnew fun toys, um, or you know,
(21:29):
transportation being totallyreimagined um with some of the
scooters, how would you you knowcoach someone maybe new in their
career through this uhjuxtaposition?
SPEAKER_00 (21:41):
So just from our experience, I mean I'm not the
authority uh the authoritarianfigure on this, but what we have
seen is again where I come from,it's all recreation, right?
Yeah.
And so when we want to innovate,give me a second here.
When we want to innovate and wewant to see what the next it is,
(22:07):
we get out and participate.
Right.
Yeah.
And so and and we get aroundwhich is so much fun.
And as part of that, as we'veseen the emergence of this
e-mobility, let's call it, youknow, with the the scooters and
the hoverboards and the interestthat people have in that
electric space.
I mean, there's there's alwaysbeen the talk of how from an
(22:29):
environmental standpoint, whatpeople view as the benefits of
leaving the gas powered.
And I just as recently as youknow, three years was or two
years was selling gas-poweredproduct.
There is a there is a definitefeel still that people want
that.
You know, it's explosive and butthe growth is coming into this
electric space, right?
And so well, that's exactlywhere I was gonna go is as we've
(22:53):
seen this explosion on on thee-scooter side, right behind it
has been the e-bikes, and andthe growth in that has been
phenomenal.
And now following a typicalcurve of any category, you know,
when the e-bikes first came out,I remember my parents came to me
and I wasn't working with acompany that sold e-bikes at the
time, it was all gas powered.
Yeah.
And they said, Hey, in yourindustry, do you have any leads
(23:15):
on an e-bike?
You know, they're in theirthey're in their 70s and and
they're looking for e-bikes toto help, you know, get out and
and do stuff.
And I'm like, I I really don't.
And and so they went out andthey went to uh a local shop.
They spent$3,500 each.
They they dropped$7,000 on somereally nice e-bikes.
Yeah.
(23:35):
And and today, you know, ourcompany could do those same
e-bikes.
They would have probably theywould have paid a thousand each
you know for a very similarbike.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
That's the that's the way the technology those
pioneers that go out and buy itthat makes it affordable for the
rest of us.
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
Yeah, exactly.
And so so that category is it'sit's a no-brainer on the e-bike
side.
Now, our company also um does atremendous amount of business in
golf carts.
Yeah, and and so if you want totalk about an exploding
category, Wall Street Journalhad an article uh last year
where they predict that the golfcart industry will be a five
(24:16):
billion dollar annual industry.
SPEAKER_01 (24:18):
I mean, any given weekend if the weather's nice.
I don't live on a golf course,but there'll be more golf carts
on the street than cars.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (24:26):
Just people just zipping around, kids mostly, but
that's and that's beensomething.
So I I recently was in Hong Kongmeeting with some of our
investors, and they keep asking,like, what is America doing with
golf carts?
They're like, are you growinggolf that big of a business in
in America?
And we're like, no, they'rereally not growing golf.
My neighbor takes his kids toschool on his golf cart.
(24:49):
Yeah.
They can avoid the lines andeverything.
Yeah.
People are shopping with them.
There's communities in Floridathat are restricted just to golf
carts.
SPEAKER_02 (24:58):
It's kind of my favorite thing to do on vacation
down in that Destin area isgonna get an Airbnb close enough
that we can golf cart for theweek and not have to rent a van.
SPEAKER_00 (25:10):
And everybody loves it.
Yeah, yeah.
If there's something about it,and I remember sitting in these
meetings last week trying toexplain like what this
infatuation is with golf carts.
And, you know, um, I'm tellingthem like people just like the
open-air driving experience,like getting out and just
feeling that, particularly kids,and they're like, just doesn't
make sense to us.
(25:30):
And so, so that that as far asan innovation and direction,
that's again, it's in that EVspace, it's outdoor, it's
participating, it's beingtogether, which you know, we
talk about all this AI, howsometimes that makes us
exclusionary and isolation.
Yeah, but really, you know, welook at this as an advantage of
let's kind of bring all thetechnology and opportunities in
(25:53):
there's a family environment anda community environment.
SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
Well, you've said it a bunch of you've said it
several times about having fun.
Yeah.
Uh and I I I'm more convincedthan ever that you really gotta
have fun in life to stay happy,to stay healthy, to be
motivated.
Uh and it's bonding andconnecting.
I think sometimes we take thatpart of life for granted.
Yeah.
Um, that's cool that that's yourentire career has been about
(26:18):
having fun.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Yeah, I think so.
You know, they they always jokeabout you'll never work a day of
your life if you enjoy what youdo.
And uh, I mean, sure, there'sbumps and bruises and losing
deals and making bad decisionson um the the business
direction, but at the end of theday, I have a garage full of fun
stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (26:37):
No doubt.
And what I love is we're talkingabout innovation and effective
use of AI while also not beingfully reliant.
And you're like, you didn'tignore the data.
There was still data involved.
Yeah.
There was also like review ofyour competitions, you know,
you're seeing who's out theredoing what, and then there's
play, engagement, which to me islike getting into the customer's
(27:00):
eyes, which I think a lot ofmerchants uh and suppliers have
a hard time remembering it's nota widget.
Like whatever you're selling iseither uh a solution to a
problem or it's an enhancementto their to their life, and like
what will motivate a customeractually into the space to
purchase it.
Um and the closer you are there,the more likely your solution is
(27:22):
to be a great fit.
Yeah.
So yeah, so I love this sort oftriangulation that you you laid
out for us.
SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
Oh, thank you.
I mean, it it makes my job a loteasier.
Again, I'm not I was neverreally an engineering mind or
excelled of beyond measure inthe school in in the classroom,
but I have been able to, youknow, feel what I enjoy.
And yeah, it seems like we'reall very quite similar, right?
Yeah.
In this world and wanting to getoutside, be active.
(27:50):
Yeah, we really are more incommon, and this helps bring it
all together.
SPEAKER_02 (27:54):
So if you could give a piece of advice to um, let's
say your first five years inretail self, uh, what would that
be?
SPEAKER_00 (28:02):
100% listen more.
And and um I think early on, um,I had many opinions about this
is the way it should be.
And and and I was passionateabout certain things, right?
They should like this.
This was better than this, youknow.
Our classic ball with its microuh fiber technology was better
(28:25):
than the Wilson ball any day.
Yeah, right.
We were saying, no, nothingagainst Wilson now, you know.
But my opinions, I think,mattered too much early on.
When really, yes, if I hadn't ifthe buyer was able to let me
come into that meeting and talkto him and share information,
that's one thing, that's great.
(28:45):
I can share minimal information,but listen more to what they're
looking for.
SPEAKER_02 (28:51):
Yeah, I think anybody who just heard you say
that to me, that interacted withme, maybe my first year as a
buyer is letting out a giantamen.
Um sure in my opinion, and andmaybe listening would be would
be helpful.
I think we all have a little bitof that, but sure.
Boy, have we learned it overtime of like, okay, yeah, no,
(29:12):
let me just take a beat.
Yeah, yeah.
That's really good.
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
I remember the meeting I was in and I was on
the sales side, and I could tellI was losing the buyer, and I
was very young and and very new,so I started talking faster.
I still and no do it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:29):
Give it more information.
SPEAKER_01 (29:32):
And my boss was in there, he goes, You know what
you did wrong, right?
He goes, Shut the that's great,yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:40):
And I still like you know, it's it's tough.
You there's that salesperson inyou that wants to do all the
talking, yeah.
But really, I think they getthese, you're not there to like
really give a ton of newinformation, maybe some, but
they there's a lot of ideasalready moving forward.
SPEAKER_02 (29:57):
Well, um, as a salesperson, maybe in the sort
of as we get towards ourlightning round, which we'll do
in just a second.
Oh boy.
Um, for those that haven't heardof GoTracks, like what would be
the, hey, here's where you'regonna find us, and here's why
you're gonna love us.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
Well, you'll find us in just about every Walmart
store.
Yeah.
Right.
And back near the bicycles.
Everybody seems to know wherethe bikes are because they're
that big section, the big rack,and the display.
So we're usually on the end ofthat um with our e-scooters and
then um our hoverboards.
And then great blessing for usis this year we're introducing a
(30:35):
private label e-bike.
So under the Concorde brand.
So we're gonna be the openingprice point uh at Walmart um for
their e-bike, which we're superexcited about.
SPEAKER_02 (30:47):
They've been so disruptive in that bike space.
It's it's been awesome to watchaccess to good bikes happen
across the country.
SPEAKER_00 (30:56):
Yeah, and and your team has been a big part of that
as we worked together on that.
There's been a lot of hands inthat.
We've never done anything on thethe global sourcing side.
SPEAKER_03 (31:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:04):
And you've got our private brand hub.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's great.
We were able to use your teamhere and and then work closely
with the team overseas that theyhave.
They are detail oriented.
Yeah.
We've really learned a lot.
And and now I, you know, Imentioned my parents' experience
buying any bike, you know,$3,500each, these will be at$450.
(31:25):
Wow.
And they're fantastic bikes.
That's amazing.
You know, multi-speed and pedalassist.
SPEAKER_01 (31:31):
And your company's story is fascinating.
Um, I can't even remember howmany years ago it was, but you
were just on marketplace.
You went a client of ours,Goatrax was on the marketplace.
Uh, you apparently they'dreached out to the merchant and
and no response.
Well, then the the buyer seesit.
I can't remember if it's twomillion or five million in sales
(31:53):
around this one holiday period.
So he called up the current orthe the salesperson at the time.
He like, he, why have you neverbrought this to me?
He goes, uh, you're not returnedmy calls.
There you go.
Never since then, it's just beenyear after year of of growth,
yeah, with growth really drivenby innovation.
SPEAKER_02 (32:09):
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
And some of those scooters, likeI'm a I'm a large guy, and they
they have no problem.
SPEAKER_00 (32:17):
They're good quality scooters, yeah.
Um and your team has been greatto to help facilitate that.
You know, that's one area forthe years that I've tried to
sell to Walmart, you know, andbrought something here and and
tried to get it.
Not having the support.
Your team matters.
It really does.
And and you know, having thatfollow-up right away, uh,
(32:39):
relationships that they trust.
And and again, it comes down tothat when you say listening,
that's how you build trust,right?
And and and so, yeah, I thinkyour question was about where's
our product and all that.
SPEAKER_01 (32:51):
It's all you know, circuitous there.
But yeah.
Love that.
So lightning round.
Let's go lightning round.
Uh, what are you reading,consuming um you know, right
now, whether you've justfinished it last year or you're
working on something now that'skind of moving you.
SPEAKER_00 (33:05):
So interesting question.
Um, good question.
I'm I'm rereading portions oftipping point by Malcolm
Gladwell.
Oh, yeah.
And I've we've we've um, aswe've looked at the robots and
how to, how are we gonna, youknow, this is gonna be one of
those categories that is gonnareach a tipping point.
And there's some cost factorsbeyond that.
(33:26):
But what's gonna help it get tothat?
And so that's I've been spendingsome time there.
Um, and one of the ideas thatcame out of there, they talked
about where um Apple became whothey are when they stopped
selling an iPhone and made it anenabling experience.
And when you think about theapps and what happened with the
apps and how that changed thesmartphone, yeah, you know, so
(33:49):
that's something I've taken fromthat.
So yeah, love that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
Um, so we've been in retail, it's a small world, but
um tell us about one of yourgreatest retail blunders that
you learned from.
SPEAKER_00 (34:03):
And I can tell you right now, if my kids were
listening, which they're they'reprobably not, they probably are.
No, they're definitely tuned in.
They're their biggest, they theythey get a kick out of this
every time.
It's Mango Mattress.
And uh, and we uh we during thetime when boxed mattresses were
becoming a thing with the memoryfoam, we decided that there was
(34:24):
a there was a a technology inAsia that you could take a
spring coil mattress and youcould compress it down.
I remember this.
And you could roll those up andput them in a box.
They were so heavy.
Can you imagine all that steelin there?
And we thought we're gonna run,you know, people are gonna want
a a coil, spring coil mattressover a memory foam mattress.
Who wants to go down that?
(34:44):
Yeah.
And now you look today, there isnot a single spring coil
mattress that exists anywhere ina box, but there are plenty.
SPEAKER_01 (34:53):
Were you really?
What was happening?
Yeah, I worked for a companycalled Sleep Innovations, and we
did a lot of bed and boxes atit.
We were at one market, uh, youknow, market week they have in
New York, uh, spring and fall.
And I remember seeing, I said,So this is just a spring
mattress.
They go, Yeah, but it's in abox.
So, you know, I was like, Idon't think anybody's buying it
because it's in a box.
(35:14):
It's just a convenient way toget it home.
SPEAKER_00 (35:16):
Yeah, exactly.
Everybody was like, Well,they're so much easier.
Think about the people in NewYork City that you know, you
can't get a moving truck and youget up three levels of stairs,
and I'm like, think about thosepeople trying to carry this
thing.
It's like you gotta be huge.
Not very many of them probablydid.
SPEAKER_01 (35:30):
So there you go.
That's and then what uh what hasyou fired up this year?
What's uh what's what's the thefrom a business perspective,
what's the what's the theme for2026?
SPEAKER_00 (35:40):
It's it's definitely in this uh robot uh the robotics
AI.
Yeah.
I just I'm excited to see whereit goes.
Yeah, I mean, where can this bein 15 years?
Yeah, right.
I mean, I'm not gonna behopefully, I mean I'd love to be
15 months.
Yeah, right.
There's so many things that thatI think we're gonna be, you
know.
I was joking about I knew timebefore email, right?
(36:02):
I think we're gonna be sayingwe'll know time before we had
somebody, you know, some type ofrobot in your office that's just
used for something every day.
SPEAKER_01 (36:11):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:12):
It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you for joining us.
You bet.
Thanks for having me, James.
And uh thank you for joining us.
As always, you can uh see allsee or hear all of our podcasts
on our website,highimpactanalytics.com, or
wherever you get your podcasts.
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