THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES!

RECAP OF PART-1

Part-1 of the Vietnam Adventure can really be captured in the following bullet points:

• Took us some 32 hours door to door to arrive (Tired AF)
• Touch down, met some pretty amazing locals (Babes)
• Had the most UNREAL New Years of our lives (Actually)
• Shook the hangover, and it was time to get down to business! (Hustle-mode: ON)

In case you missed it, the full story behind part-1 can be found here.

TIME TO GET DOWN TO BUSINESS

Any good hustler knows how to work the phones. But, working the phones in a different country... now that's an entirely different story. Especially when you're too cheap to get a phone plan, and all you have is data - Which reminds me, WE GET RIPPED OFF FOR DATA in North America btw... We got off the plane & purchased 9GB of data for the price of a latte!

Once we were able to shake off our regret-free New Year's hangover via a couple fresh coconut waters, it was time to start strategizing on how to get in front of the TOP DOG manufacturers that call Vietnam home.

One of our concerns: Since we're not exactly a massive multinational company (yet,) these manufacturers might not give us the time of day unless we're talking about minimum orders of 10K+ for some of the gear we produce. Well, there was only one way to find out!

Given that the old fashioned cold call was not an option, the only choice we had was to just show up! And that's exactly what we decided to do.

First, we wanted to observe our potential future business partner in their natural habitat.

• How do they treat their employees?
• Do they run an organized operation?
• How does the place look when the customer isn't watching?

.... All of these questions could be answered by simply showing up unannounced and observing. 

Now, very rarely do you hit a bulls-eye on your first attempt at the unknown. But, in our case, we literally could not believe what we found, as this internationally recognized manufacturer was willing to work with us even though we were clearly punching well above our weight class.

WATCH THIS VIDEO:

WELL THAT WAS EASY

Or was it? Sure, in principle we had what appeared to be a working agreement, but we needed to come back with some new designs that they could take into production or we would look like couple rookies. Which meant, it was time get creative and come up with some innovative ideas around "Urban Wear With A Martial Flare" (TM.)

So, we decided to fly up north to visit some world-class tailors that are capable of birthing anything you can dream up.... Que the $0.50 latte's and let's get to work!

All of this was happening so fast! It was important for us remember to stop and smell the flowers while on this epic journey.

During our first flower-smelling pit stop, we noticed something moving  amongst the leaves... What was it???

...Every kid's childhood dream of finding a turtle in the gutter, naming him Leonardo, and looking forward to the rest of your life being filled pizza, clashes with the Foot Clan, and being called Master:

We had a severe dilemma on our hands: A dream just came true, and that dream just so happened not be compatible with modern airplanes.

We figured there might be a slight chance that we would be able to charm Airport Security into allowing this miracle to run its natural course, but, we could not ignore the "Invasive Species" fine print that clearly neglects to pardon miracles.

We had no choice but to set Leonardo free. (Writing this feels like a eulogy; but we will move on. He will never be forgotten.)

JUST GO FOR IT!

Four words that pretty much defined our trip.

Did we have any idea what we were doing? Hell no! "Just go for it"... What's the worst that can happen? ... We learn some sh*t? Sign us up!

Little did we know that these four words would be exceptionally applicable when it came to crossing the street. Now, being the relatively polite Canadians that we are, we found ourselves waiting upwards of 15min to find a clear opening to cross the street. Then, we saw some locals just walk into oncoming traffic, texting, and not even looking where they were going! It was then that we realized if we were to function inside this organize chaos, we had follow the local's lead. 

We could not believe this works, but it does! Mind blown. 

SEE FOR YOURSELF: