Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Ed Christner on Op One Vet: Mission, Marketing, and Future Collaborations

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Ed Christner on Op One Vet: Mission, Marketing, and Future Collaborations · Scene Projects Sports Network

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  Starts here in the Surgeons Buffalo Chip, the scene projects.
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  I am here with Ed from Op One Vet.
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  We're gonna learn more about their operation and what you guys are doing, not just for
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  veterans out here, but cotton slingers.
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  Cotton slingers.
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  Ed, why don't you go ahead and and tell us a little bit about your organization?
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  2018, you started and what's happened
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  since then?
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  2018, we started we started a relentlessly patriotic apparel, and, our motto is changing
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  one veteran's life at a time.
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  We did that through tracked wheelchairs.
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  We've had great success with that.
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  We're on our twentieth unit that will be giving away Thursday night at the freedom celebration.
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  We're also giving away our first Outrider Coyote.
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  It's a four wheel electric bike, off road, great for hunting, fishing, getting on the
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  beach, motor transportation.
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  Transportation.
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  We do that through our brand ambassadors.
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  We got four brand ambassadors across the country.
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  One in Texas, one in Florida, two in Indiana, and then myself.
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  We recently added my son as the vice president.
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  He'll be taking over marketing and while I work on wholesale so we can get across.
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  We've got 2,200 major clients and over a 100 sponsors.
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  So it's pretty huge.
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  Well, and you guys got some great clothing.
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  We kinda we didn't get to see all the physical stuff, but we saw all the designs on the wall
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  down, you know, in the main amphitheater site there.
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  So you're you're a clothing retailer who has a mission to help one vet at a time through that.
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  So what's kind of the function of it?
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  You're not a nonprofit.
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  You're a for profit retailer.
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  But how does it kinda turn and and, you know, you're spending, obviously, your own money,
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  profits into getting these these incredible machines to put paraplegic and quadriplegic
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  vets into these.
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  Absolutely.
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  We've came up with the marketing program.
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  We've got a large large following on our social media, around 20,000 followers, all the
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  platforms.
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  That's another thing my son's gonna work on.
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  But, yeah, we follow the IRS tax code.
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  And so when we give away a track share, we don't give them a $10.10 99 to say that we gave
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  them a $18,000 track share.
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  It's marketing.
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  So we market our company through that.
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  And the same with the sponsors.
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  They get advertising on our website, and that's exactly what we're doing is we're advertising
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  them 75,000 miles across the country.
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  Right.
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  It's a lot of the same mechanisms that a nonprofit would do without all the extra tax,
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  paperwork, and stuff.
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  I spent seven years under the government's thumb, and I'm I'm about smaller government.
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  And there's thousands of nonprofits, and I didn't wanna we employ veterans, patriots.
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  These guys, most three of us are disabled vets.
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  So it's good to get us out and do something that we feel good about.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  Well, and you're getting out is exactly what you do.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, you don't have one central storefront.
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  You have these, you know well, I don't know exactly what you had termed them, but you
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  have 2,200
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  you have 2,200 brand ambassadors across the country.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  That speaks a lot more than just having, you know, one Kmart to vop one pet racket.
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  Yeah.
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  We roll around in a city.
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  Every other week, we're in a different part of the country.
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  These cities know us.
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  Our top five are Dallas, San Antonio, Saint Louis, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa.
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  And then you got Knoxville, Nashville, you know, our top 10.
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  But, yeah, those are areas that people know us real well.
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  We roll into a business, and some of the times, they'll buy all their employees' shirts,
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  dealerships.
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  That's just been our go to.
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  But knowing that they'll see you twice a year.
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  Right?
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  You say every six months or so, you're trying to run over everywhere that
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  you guys, so
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  you just got a big circuit that you guys are running That's
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  it, brother.
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  All year round.
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  Yep.
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  We do Airbnb's.
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  The camaraderie is great.
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  It gets guys fired up, keeps them fresh.
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  Are you hosting events while you're in each of these cities too, or is it more just kinda land
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  there, see your friends, and sell some some shirts and move on?
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  We have done three pay it forward rides in Saint Louis, and we get invited to nightly
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  events, bike nights, you know, that sort of thing where we'll go set up.
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  But it's an operation.
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  I mean, we've got a pretty big setup, so we don't wanna go to something that's gonna have
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  25 to a 100 people.
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  It doesn't make sense for us.
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  We get more people out on the street.
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  Sturgis is our big one.
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  We're trying to get into Rednecks with Paychex.
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  It's another one that we'd like to get into.
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  We used to do Daytona.
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  That was so spread out.
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  But this is our home.
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  We own the building here.
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  Buffalo Chip's been great to us,
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  and this is our second home.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, I'm so glad to have you guys out here.
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  We're gonna be shooting a ton of content later today.
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  I took some pictures of the machines last night, but it was so dark over there that it it
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  just didn't do them justice.
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  Right.
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  So we're gonna get back down there today.
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  We're gonna take some more pictures so everybody at home will be seeing exactly what
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  you guys are putting these vets into.
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  And I'm absolutely thrilled to know you guys.
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  I can't wait to work more together.
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  Well, hopefully, we can build out some bigger events for you guys to come and check us out
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  too.
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  So awesome.
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  That that's OpOneVet.
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  Everybody get online, check them out, and you'll be seeing more from them on the scene
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  projects guaranteed.