Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Socks are the new Tie: Heel Tread (Gonçalo Henriques)

Transcript

Socks are the new Tie: Heel Tread (Gonçalo Henriques) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
• 0:05
  over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
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  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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  I don't know how many times I've been getting ready for a
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  presentation and someone has leaned over to me in a conference room
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  and said, isn't that the GTI plaid?
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  Or where did you get those socks?
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  Let's face it, socks are the new tie.
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  Portugal based heel tread is a unique brand of socks that draws its inspiration
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  from motor sports and aircraft.
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  Their collection pays tribute to some of the world's most
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  renowned automotive icons.
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  And so with us today is John Slo Enriquez, head of SOC Affairs at Heel
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  Tread to talk to us about one of our favorite fashionista accessories.
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  Socks.
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  Welcome to Break Fix Gonçalo.
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  Uh, thank you.
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  So, I have to say, many of us here at GTM, myself included, have been
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  wearing heel tread gear for many years, and we absolutely love it.
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  I happen to be wearing my Sena socks today.
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  Oh, great.
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  So let's, let's talk about the inspiration behind the brand.
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  What's the origin story of Heel T?
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  Well, actually the first idea was to do socks with no drawings on it.
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  So I'm 43.
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  When I launched the brand, I was 40.
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  I love colorful socks with bold patterns and colors, but the market
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  only showed us pineapples, cherries, and things that only kids should wear,
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  and I'm not comfortable doing that.
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  So.
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  That was the first idea.
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  So socks are the new ties as you told, and there's a big market to explore.
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  But then my partner Joan, just got in the project and we are two real big petrol
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  heads, motorbikes, cars, everything.
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  So the thing is there's so much color and so much patterns and so many
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  levers that we can inspire on that.
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  We wanted to do our first collection inspired by cars
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  only the first collection.
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  And the thing worked so, so, so, so well.
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  Okay.
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  This, this deserves a brand just for this, and the options are infinite.
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  So there's so many cool cars and every year there's so many
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  new cars that are launched.
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  So we have, let's say, material to work for 10, 15, 20 years.
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  So there's a, a big market.
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  So that was the first one year socks without drawings, and
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  then socks inspired by cars.
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  So what was the first design produced by Hill Tread?
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  Well, the first two ones were the, the Porsche RSR, the martini livery, and
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  the E 30 with the BMW Motorsports ones.
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  It was the easiest ones, and actually one of the, still
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  one of the best sellers today.
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  It just happens to be similar thread colors too.
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  So that made it kind of easy to change the design, huh?
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  Yeah, and uh, the stripes of of the E 30 are just so easy to do.
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  It's, it's our coolest.
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  So I love them.
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  I still love them.
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  I still wear them, uh, every time I have the opportunity.
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  Before we dive a little bit deeper and geek out on the heel tread designs and
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  whatnot, let's tell our audience what kind of products that heel tread offers.
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  Is it just socks?
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  Is there something else?
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  Are there other themed items?
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  For now, we offer socks, regular socks, and low socks.
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  We launched last year, a polo line.
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  We have.
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  Three Polo Designs.
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  We launched also a key ring collection.
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  We are now on the fine tuning of launching some underwear and potentially sunglasses.
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  So any tips on that would be really good.
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  And if you have any ideas you can share with us, just drop us an email and
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  all feedback is very important for us.
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  Going back and talking about the designs a little bit, what were your top.
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  Three favorite designs of all the ones that you've put out so far?
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  Actually, one is the GTA, the Alpha Romeo.
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  It's not one of our top sales, but I just love the details of the,
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  all the headlights and, and the grill and the colors of the sock.
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  They're really cool for the nine 30 pack, the plate seats, we just got
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  one that was, uh, a tartan from Magnus Walker that he used in one of his cars.
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  And actually was that the, was that the Pasha socks?
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  No, no, not the Pasha.
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  We, it's, it's a nine 30 pack inspired on the plate seats that got out
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  on the nine 30 Turbo for the first time and there's five or six and we
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  got one that's not period, correct.
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  Sorry for all the purists, but we just got it from Magnus Walker and it's a really.
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  Yellow, blue, green.
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  Very cool pattern.
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  And the socks are really amazing.
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  Yeah.
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  Actually are my, my favorites.
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  Yeah, because the Pasha ones, a lot of people don't realize
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  are Porsche inspired as well.
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  Those come from the 9 28, if I recall.
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  And there's some other crazy, the Pasha, the pepita.
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  We have a category just seats.
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  We have the, the seats from the first M three, also the roof CT one.
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  The, the Yellowbird.
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  So there's so many cool patterns from seats that we can be inspired in,
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  in that, and, and that's endless.
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  Also, the GTA, the outro male, the Tartan Pack from Magnus Walker.
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  Is there a third favorite in there?
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  Top three.
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  I also love, actually, it's not my idea, but the VM Max socks from Arcade game.
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  From, uh, outrun.
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  Outrun.
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  Yeah.
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  Outrun socks are really cool.
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  Actually love them.
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  I forgot the pink pig because they're my daughter's favorite.
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  They, she's always asking when, when I'm wearing the, the pink
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  pig socks because she loves pink.
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  Yeah.
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  Actually, it's a fun story.
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  We launched the pink pig.
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  We weren't very confident about the success.
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  I actually have a bed with my partner.
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  We have a very expensive dinner, and if we sold, I don't know, I don't
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  recall how many pairs in the first day.
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  The one who lost would pay a dinner to the other one, and by
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  noon we already broke that record.
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  So it was a real, real success.
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  So the pink pig, it's, it's actually not a, that famous car, but.
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  We actually love them.
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  It has a very cool story behind it.
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  I think every car, there's a very cool story behind it has
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  a space on on our collection.
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  Funny you mentioned that because I know a bunch of people in our organization that
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  did order those socks and additionally Porsche resurrected that livery a
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  couple years ago in the nine 11 RSR.
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  So I think your timing was perfect because people, people were seeing that
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  car at LeMans and IMSA races, et cetera.
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  So I think it was actually right on the nose in terms Yeah, we were lucky.
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  Yeah, we were lucky.
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  Do these favorite designs.
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  Coincide with your personal favorite vehicles.
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  If not, what are your top three favorite cars?
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  I'm a big Porsche fan actually.
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  My favorite car, the car that I had as, as a poster when I was a kid
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  was a a 9 9 3 forest durable look.
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  That's my favorite car.
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  Very expensive.
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  My favorite supercar is the, the McLaren F1.
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  It's the only supercar I like.
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  Actually, if I would be very, very rich, I would be ordering a new garden Maret car.
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  The T 50, the T, the garden MA T 50.
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  It's so, so cool, and I think they're going to launch a simple version with
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  less a o because he has a big fan and it's, it's a crazy super car, a simple
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  one, just a V 12 natural aspirator.
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  That's, that's the kind of cars I really love.
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  I love the, the alpha, the GTI, the alcoholics one.
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  For me, it would be a dream car also.
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  That's the new EV alpha, correct?
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  The retro model?
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  No, no, no, no, no.
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  It's a retro model.
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  It's not the ev It's, it's one done by alcoholics.
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  It's about $300 power.
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  It costs 200,000 euros or more than that.
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  There's an a new one, an ev not from the same guys.
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  These are British guys.
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  There's a very cool Chris Es video that you need to see on YouTube of him driving
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  the alcoholics and, and actually there's a top gear episode that they went back
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  and got the car from the last season.
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  So it's a really purist green and drives manual shift and just.
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  Big engine.
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  That's, that's awesome.
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  That's awesome.
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  Yeah, that's, that's thing.
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  So do you go to the track?
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  Do you have a race car or anything like that?
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  No.
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  Oh, okay.
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  Actually, I, I love cars.
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  I love riding them on the streets or I'm not the track guy.
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  I actually, my biggest motor sport obvious is just off-roading, dirt biking.
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  That's the biggest fun you can have with the lowest risk of getting injured.
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  I did some track days.
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  We sponsored a CRE and, and I did a, a three day course or training
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  and actually it was a lot of fun.
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  I like drifting.
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  I'm not the guy with a, with a stopwatch just wanting to
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  shave half a second every lap.
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  I like to have fun driving cars to drift, to do something different
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  to, that's why I like more off-road that you can do more of that.
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  You cannot go rallying in the streets.
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  It's too complicated.
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  So offroading is the only thing available to do that kind of, of
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  riding over driving, even though, is there one race car or maybe
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  two that you would just turn over everything to get behind the wheel of?
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  Is it an alpha male, like the 1 55?
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  No, I would love to be in the DTM car.
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  It, it would be a, a, a rally car.
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  I think it would be the, the Quatro or I think it would be an rally or a Subaru.
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  They call it McElroy one?
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  Actually that thing, it's, it would be definitely, ah, there's one car I
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  would give everything to have, uh, you know, the, the last singer, nine 11,
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  the off-road one with total Porsche.
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  I would sell everything.
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  Do you know the movie where it's actually to, um, I don't know if it's 30 or two,
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  Porsche, the CEO that's really driving the car in the beach and everything.
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  That's what I want.
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  I would love to do.
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  That's the, that's awesome.
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  The coolest.
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  That's the coolest thing I saw in the last 10 years.
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  That I really, that's my, my kind of car.
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  Yeah.
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  Actually, I love everything.
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  Delivery.
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  The colors, the, the noise, the, that's it.
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  Yeah.
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  And we gotta get socks to go with it.
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  Right.
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  So, you know, we always say petrol heads of a certain age and we're in
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  that similar age range where, you know, group B was a thing when we were
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  growing up, when other certain supercar.
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  We weren't in the MU generation, but we were in the Kunta and
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  the F 40 Generation, the 9 59.
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  You know, cars like that.
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  Yeah.
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  What do you think of those cars?
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  Because you said you only liked the McLaren F1.
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  What are your thoughts on those kind of iconic of the period Supercars?
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  I like the 9 5 9.
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  It's a very cool technological essay.
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  I don't think it's a pretty car.
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  The F 40 is just.
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  For it.
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  That's, that's should be on a museum.
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  But cars should be, should be driven.
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  I think it's so stupid that you have a very expensive car
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  and you don't Dr. Drive it.
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  It doesn't make sense.
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  But actually they're not my favorite generation.
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  Maybe I, I'm a little bit younger because I, I, I was a
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  motorcycle guy until I was 16.
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  I only like bikes and then the car passion just.
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  Went on from there and, and when I started driving.
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  So those cars are pre my passion, not my age, but my passion.
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  So, but I love, I love the ash as, as I, I remember when I was a kid, I saw
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  Lamborghini, the LM 200, the, the, the off-road one at the beach in Portugal.
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  I was just standing there for five minutes and saying, what the fuck is this?
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  And it was more hardcore than a hum.
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  And it was exactly 20, 20 years before, and it was a red one.
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  I, I don't, some things you don't forget.
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  I, I remember where it was parked in the beach.
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  It's beach I, I still go to, and it was just.
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  Unbelievable car.
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  And that's so, so I'm with you saw Lamborghini.
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  Yeah.
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  Saw I saw a white one in person and I just, the same thing.
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  You're just like, what am I looking at?
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  Exactly.
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  And then you realize the Humvee, I think took some of its
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  inspiration from that Lamborghini.
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  So since we're talking about that, what do you think is the sexiest car of all time?
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  It needs to be the Alpha Romeo, the the 33 Strada.
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  I think that's, uh, just a, uh, an artwork with, with rubber that's, it's so, so
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  beautiful from every point of view.
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  It, it, I am starting to see a theme here.
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  You're very much an Alpha Romeo fan, which speaks to me personally.
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  Yeah.
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  I am very much as well.
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  So that's very, very cool.
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  So let's flip that on its nose.
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  And since you're in the eu, you're over in Portugal, what's
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  the ugliest car in your opinion?
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  Uh, gotta be the fiat multiplier.
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  I know it's, it's a repeated card, but for me that's, we
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  don't have the Pontiac Aztec.
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  I think that should be the It's the one from the us Yeah, the
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  US equivalent of the multiplex.
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  Exactly.
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  Yeah.
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  Some strange things that got, I import from the US here, the
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  Chrysler, I don't remember the name.
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  They were really, really ugly, but on top of it, they were rare in Europe, so
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  it was a strange, sweet and sour thing.
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  So they are so different.
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  They could be cool, but they are really ugly at the same time.
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  So you're not gonna make any ugly socks anytime soon, huh?
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  No, no, no, no.
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  Maybe as a gag.
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  Yeah, maybe as a gag.
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  We have a thing.
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  The socks that we do need to be beautiful.
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  Even if you don't have a relationship with a car, they need
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  to be socks that we find cool.
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  So we always sometimes tweak our designs or just go a little bit off from the car.
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  To make the sock a, a cool sock so there's no ugly socks.
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  Yeah, I'm with you there.
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  I'm thinking of doing, of doing a black sock for the hundred 17 Steal Fighter.
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  It's going to be all black sock.
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  I think it's going to be our joke for this year.
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  Let me see.
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  That'd be pretty funny.
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  I mean, I'm, and I'm with you there.
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  The socks that draw my attention the most aren't necessarily the ones
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  that I associate with the most now.
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  For instance, the Land Rover ones, the Series Two Socks.
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  I love those.
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  I like wearing those around.
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  Those get people's attention.
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  They're very subtle, you know, light green with that squareish pattern.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  The other one is the, uh, the nine 11 RSR, the old 72 73 early
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  car, you know, short nose nine 11.
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  Yeah.
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  Those are real popular.
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  And the GTI ones always get people's attention 'cause they're like, oh, that's
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  a very specific tartan type of pattern.
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  And you know, it, it really gets people's, uh, yeah, GTI was our best seller.
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  It still is our best seller.
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  By far, so the GTIs are really, really cool.
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  The thing is, when we launched, it was not on our first collection and
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  we got about 10 comments every day.
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  Do GTI, socks do GTI.
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  Socks do.
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  And we took about three months to do that.
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  And when we did, it was crazy because it's a very, very hard pattern to knit.
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  It's a very concentrated pattern, not that easy to produce.
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  So we needed a lot of production effort, but now that we did
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  it, it's really, really cool.
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  So is it more difficult with designs that require a logo?
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  Do you have to get permission for that sort of stuff?
• 13:34
  Like how does that process work when you're doing the design of socks?
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  Yeah, we don't have many official socks.
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  We have official collaborations with some brands.
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  We don't like to put logos on the socks.
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  That's merchandising socks.
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  If you want a Ferrari socks with the logo, you just buy them at Ferrari.
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  That's not what we do.
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  We'll have something inspired from the car.
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  And we don't aim to be official merchandise because that
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  will limit our creativity.
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  Okay.
• 13:57
  Right.
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  So that's one of the issues.
• 13:59
  Yeah.
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  We have some collaborations that make sense.
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  For example, for the, with the Low dose classic team that supported us from the
• 14:04
  beginning, from the ma, the organization.
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  But the big brands, I don't think that makes much sense to
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  work with them, because if not, it'll be a merchandise brand.
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  We can produce socks for them if they want, but it doesn't make
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  much sense on our collection.
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  Yeah, and I saw that we ordered the wind socks, the purple ones, when they won
• 14:22
  their class back last year or the year before, rather, you know, I could see
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  that there's always the potential and that's also why, you know, some people
• 14:29
  are like, well, why don't they make 'em.
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  A golf R sock, and I'm like, well, what would that look like?
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  It would be blue with an R logo.
• 14:34
  Yeah.
• 14:34
  That's all it would be.
• 14:35
  It wouldn't be that exciting.
• 14:36
  Yeah.
• 14:36
  In some of the newer cars, I think it's actually harder to pull
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  inspiration from more modern cars because the designs are more sleek.
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  They're not using more outlandish.
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  Patterns like they did in the eighties and even in the nineties
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  where they're like, they wanted to get your attention with the, the
• 14:52
  plaids and the tartans and et cetera.
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  But what would you say are some of the top trending, most popular
• 14:58
  designs at heel tread outside of the ones you mentioned, like the E 30
• 15:03
  and the GTI and things like that?
• 15:04
  Well, the, actually the load is.
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  Send a car with a Camel logo with a low dose.
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  1990. It's pretty popular right now.
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  Airplanes are picking up Spitfire Mustang.
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  Corsair socks are really, really selling.
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  I think everyone who likes cars like airplanes, people
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  like airplanes, like cars.
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  If it has an engine.
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  If it makes a lot of noise, I think people will always love it,
• 15:24
  and they are such, such iconic and classic patterns that it works.
• 15:28
  Let me pull out some interesting stats from our sales from
• 15:32
  last month, the 49 socks.
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  Also from Lotus Classic Livery, the Cena socks from inspired by the helmets.
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  Okay.
• 15:39
  The alpha 1, 5 5 socks that I really love with, with a serpent there.
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  They're really, really cool.
• 15:44
  Um, I have those too.
• 15:47
  Yeah, those are really cool.
• 15:49
  We launched the Eminence ER 0 3 7.
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  It actually, it was a very rare car and we got permission from
• 15:56
  the owner to do his car with the license plate and everything he got.
• 16:01
  Oh, that's awesome.
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  And he got some socks.
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  So that's a lot of fun.
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  We got customers with impressive.
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  It's not impressive.
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  Crazy car collection in the millions.
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  They just reach out and say, Hey, do you wanna do this, this car?
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  Or just, just, they send me a picture with the socks and the car
• 16:15
  and I say, oh, that's not real.
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  Cars in, in the millions.
• 16:18
  And, and actually that's one of the coolest things of working in this
• 16:21
  brand is the attention and the care that the fans or customers, whatever
• 16:26
  you want to call it, give us.
• 16:27
  It's, it's really, really cool.
• 16:28
  People that love his, their cars with impressive car collection or
• 16:31
  just a simple car that just tweaked in his garage for years and years.
• 16:35
  They reach out and say, Hey, can you do the salt Inspire on this model?
• 16:38
  Do you have that one?
• 16:39
  Or just send us the pictures riding the cars.
• 16:41
  So it's so, it's so, so cool.
• 16:43
  It's very, very interesting.
• 16:44
  So what's some of the strangest inspiration, you know, really odd requests
• 16:48
  that people have made of heel trip to say, Hey, can, like you're saying, can
• 16:51
  you make this, what are, you know, some of those top things that you're like, well,
• 16:54
  I don't know that we could ever do that.
• 16:56
  Or something that people are constantly asking for that hasn't been made yet.
• 16:59
  There's a crazy fan of ours.
• 17:01
  That was spamming our social media every freaking day, just
• 17:06
  asking for Maserati socks.
• 17:08
  And you know, doing a Maserati is not that easy because they're so sleek.
• 17:12
  I, I love Maseratis, they're beautiful, but, but we have the
• 17:14
  details that we needed and we cannot do just the logo that on that.
• 17:18
  We never did it.
• 17:19
  It's on our plan.
• 17:19
  We'll do the Maserati mc 12 this year.
• 17:22
  Okay.
• 17:23
  So on our list.
• 17:24
  And I think it's one of the coolest one in, and the colors are really
• 17:26
  great and a lot of Opal, I don't know if you Opal is, is a German brand.
• 17:31
  Crazy opal fence from Germany.
• 17:32
  Didn't just ask us for a hot hedge from the seventies and very rare opals
• 17:37
  and that, that's a big community.
• 17:39
  And we could, I could see, see a manta.
• 17:41
  I could see some of the Ra, the opal rally cars like the cadet,
• 17:44
  the GTE and things like that.
• 17:45
  Yeah.
• 17:46
  Yeah.
• 17:47
  Crazy.
• 17:47
  A lot of Opal fans and especially the the cadet, because didn't Walter Rural
• 17:51
  run one of those before B got big?
• 17:53
  Yeah.
• 17:54
  We actually have some Audi cultural socks signed by Walter Royal.
• 17:58
  Oh wow.
• 17:58
  That's awesome.
• 17:59
  Yeah.
• 17:59
  Well, that's, so I wanted to ask you about that since you brought it up.
• 18:02
  You guys chose the S one livery, right?
• 18:05
  Or the, the E two, they call it in some circles.
• 18:08
  Why not the actual Audi Sport colors, which were brown, red, and gray.
• 18:13
  It's Zakar, it's, it has the same colors.
• 18:15
  It's the R five.
• 18:16
  You go to our website and you go for R five socks.
• 18:19
  Yeah, R 5G TO socks.
• 18:21
  But actually here in Europe, the other one is more, a lot more famous.
• 18:25
  The yellow one.
• 18:26
  Interesting because even Michelle Ton drove a black car for one year as well.
• 18:30
  So that was another pattern that they had, you know, back then.
• 18:33
  Yeah.
• 18:33
  It's, it's lesser known, but I, I was just curious like what the decision process is.
• 18:37
  I obviously starting with the most popular ones makes the most sense.
• 18:41
  And then do you guys feel like it's necessary to do variations on the theme
• 18:46
  and have other versions of similar periods, or do you want to just have.
• 18:49
  One iconic moment and move on and have tons of variation.
• 18:53
  It's always a personal thing for me.
• 18:55
  The Audi Quatro is the yellow one.
• 18:57
  The other one is the secondary delivery.
• 18:59
  Let, let's say, so for us, it was really immediate to, to do this one
• 19:02
  as long as there's interest and if the car is a cool story behind it.
• 19:07
  We can do everything.
• 19:08
  The Eminence never, the Eminence lunch at 0 3 7.
• 19:11
  He never won anything, but it was so different and we had access to the,
• 19:15
  the driver, we did the minority also.
• 19:17
  We had the contact with the pilot that won Grand Prix on it.
• 19:20
  It, it's, it's not direct directly connect with the party results of
• 19:24
  the car or with the number of fans.
• 19:27
  If there's a cool story behind it, we'll probably do it.
• 19:29
  So are you open to a couple suggestions while we're talking?
• 19:32
  Yeah, sure.
• 19:33
  Alright.
• 19:33
  Hear me out, I'm thinking.
• 19:35
  Alitalia 'cause I, I bought the ST 180 5 socks going, that's close enough.
• 19:39
  And I could, I could get away with it.
• 19:41
  Unless you're a real petrolhead.
• 19:42
  So something Alitalia Stratos related, we actually did the first
• 19:46
  edition of the Stratos that was not so related with Alitalia.
• 19:50
  It was a more abstract and redone it.
• 19:53
  Now.
• 19:53
  It's really, really cool.
• 19:54
  Yeah.
• 19:55
  It's one of our top sellers.
• 19:56
  You'll make.
• 19:57
  My sister Ali is a must.
• 19:58
  Is a must have.
• 19:59
  Yeah.
• 20:00
  Well, you'll make my sister very happy.
• 20:01
  Then the other one, since you mentioned black socks, I was thinking about the
• 20:05
  Sonas Mercedes one 90 E, the Evo two.
• 20:08
  We had it, but it was not.
• 20:11
  Such a big seller and we discontinued, but we had it.
• 20:15
  Oh, see, see it's, it's, I hate to say it's a lot like blip shift.
• 20:18
  You gotta be there at the right time and then designs appear disappear.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:21
  It's, it is the W 2 0 1 socks.
• 20:23
  Yeah, we had, it had had it past tense.
• 20:27
  If you're going black socks, like I said now, I would also
• 20:30
  add, I would love to see.
• 20:32
  A DeLorean sock.
• 20:33
  'cause gray, there's not really too many gray socks in the catalog, but
• 20:37
  a, not a back to the future one.
• 20:39
  Right.
• 20:39
  A actual DeLorean.
• 20:40
  Uh, we have the back to the future one.
• 20:42
  Yeah.
• 20:42
  And that's just so, so cool.
• 20:44
  There's a car gathering in Germany only with movie cars.
• 20:49
  We have a picture of the socks.
• 20:50
  They have the dates and everything, like to the back to the future
• 20:52
  one, and they have a replica and we have a picture of the socks.
• 20:56
  So, so cool.
• 20:56
  I think you can, there's a, there's an Instagram post about it, uh, recent.
• 21:00
  You can, you can check that out.
• 21:01
  And on behalf of someone else in the organization, we were talking about
• 21:06
  this before the show and I said, you know, would be really cool to have some
• 21:09
  juro or etal design inspired socks.
• 21:13
  And then she chimed up and everybody's gonna know who this is.
• 21:15
  She chimed up and went Fiat Panda.
• 21:17
  And I'm like, okay.
• 21:20
  Because a lot of people don't realize this would end that car.
• 21:24
  Yeah.
• 21:24
  So Juro would be really cool, uh, if there's anything that you could do there.
• 21:28
  Eal design, it was awesome.
• 21:29
  Obviously he's famous for the launch of Delta, the Rocco,
• 21:32
  the rabbits, the DeLorean.
• 21:33
  I, he's Penn so many cars over the years.
• 21:36
  Now is, is there any.
• 21:38
  Talk about maybe US based motorsport coming to heel tread, let's say nascar.
• 21:44
  Is there anything you guys could do there?
• 21:46
  Yeah, it's a shame.
• 21:48
  We did a big collection of NASCAR cars that Tide One, um, the foremost
• 21:53
  famous, and they actually, they were not big sellers even in the.
• 21:58
  I don't know if maybe NASCAR fans are not more classic petrol heads,
• 22:02
  but it wasn't a big success.
• 22:03
  The success actually, we discontinued all of them and the And the
• 22:06
  socks were really, really cool.
• 22:07
  Yeah.
• 22:07
  So do you have a section of the website where you can see the archive socks, like
• 22:11
  designs that are no longer in production, that people could say added to a wishlist?
• 22:16
  Then maybe you get an idea of what they would be interested in.
• 22:18
  Look at those trends.
• 22:20
  Well, that could be interesting.
• 22:21
  That could be a cool idea.
• 22:22
  Yeah, that's, that's cool.
• 22:23
  We have a lot of them because if, if not, we have just too many socks
• 22:27
  available and, and it would be very complicated to shop on the website.
• 22:31
  We would have more than 200 designs.
• 22:33
  Actually we have about 150 now and just too complicated.
• 22:36
  But we can do that.
• 22:37
  That's a cool idea.
• 22:38
  We just have archive and we have a lot of them cool ones that
• 22:41
  we like to relaunch for limited editions or something like that.
• 22:44
  There's, there's always will to do it.
• 22:46
  Yeah.
• 22:46
  If you're giving me the option to click and say.
• 22:48
  Let me know when this becomes available.
• 22:50
  You tally that up and you get a hundred, 200 people saying, I
• 22:53
  really want these NASCAR socks.
• 22:55
  And suddenly it's like, well, we should probably make
• 22:57
  these and make 'em available.
• 22:58
  As we mentioned at the beginning of the episode, he'll try to celebrating
• 23:02
  its fourth anniversary and we've been following you guys for years
• 23:05
  and you can check out our Instagram to see examples of GTMs actually
• 23:08
  wearing heel TR apparel and et cetera.
• 23:10
  And in the last two years, you guys have.
• 23:12
  Obviously very quickly moved from automobiles and motor sports
• 23:16
  into motorcycles that came very fast, and then now airplanes.
• 23:20
  So what's next?
• 23:22
  Well for us, as long as it have, it has an engine and we can rev it or
• 23:25
  just go full throttle, we'll do it.
• 23:27
  I think we have now, we launched our first boat, Riva boat.
• 23:31
  Makes sense.
• 23:31
  It has Lamborghini engines, so it makes total sense.
• 23:35
  But I think we'll explore more the airplanes and, and all cool cars that
• 23:39
  really work and it people appreciate it.
• 23:41
  So there's many cool airplanes that we can do.
• 23:45
  We'll not do airliners and, and and TWA stocks and things like that.
• 23:48
  Doesn't make sense, sense.
• 23:50
  No Pan am Come on.
• 23:50
  No pan am no nothing like that.
• 23:52
  We have an impressive collection of other military vehicles that
• 23:55
  make sense and, and cool stuff.
• 23:57
  We launched the, the American British pacs.
• 24:00
  They have a tank four by four, an airplane in a fighter in a bomber.
• 24:05
  So they are really, really cool duplicated.
• 24:07
  You have the gyp willy socks, and I think we'll go more that way in
• 24:11
  maybe some crazy, a little bit of the Sharks thing, but, but we're still
• 24:15
  thinking, I think that the, the big plan for now is getting into underwear.
• 24:19
  Sunglasses.
• 24:20
  That could be really cool.
• 24:22
  But in the socks and, and maybe polos or t-shirts, I don't know.
• 24:25
  But we have a big list of cars that we want to do, so,
• 24:28
  and, and the fans ask for it.
• 24:29
  So.
• 24:30
  So you mentioned earlier about other ideas and, and tips and now you said
• 24:34
  again, you know, underwear and polo shirts and sunglasses, but what about watches?
• 24:38
  I had that idea.
• 24:39
  I'm a big watch fan.
• 24:40
  I have a cool watch collection.
• 24:42
  I would spend all my money on cars and watches.
• 24:44
  A hundred percent.
• 24:45
  I'm in agreement with you there.
• 24:47
  I thought about it and it's actually not that complicated and interesting.
• 24:51
  The thing is, it'll be always inspired in an Omni Speed Master or a Rolex.
• 24:57
  Uh, and it's, I don't know.
• 24:59
  How could we do it outside of watches?
• 25:01
  That would be really cool.
• 25:02
  And right up your guys' alley would be watch bands inspired by cars.
• 25:07
  Yeah, it could be cool.
• 25:08
  Yeah.
• 25:08
  To do a more interesting or more in-depth watch bands.
• 25:11
  I'm a big, big fan of NATO stripes and then they're really inexpensive to buy.
• 25:15
  I have a big collection.
• 25:16
  And it just changes your watch every day.
• 25:17
  So Exactly.
• 25:18
  And so a he matching heel tread watch band to go with your socks, partner it
• 25:22
  up, and you keep your watch the same.
• 25:24
  Now everybody's standardized 20 millimeter, 22 millimeter with a quick
• 25:27
  release it, you know, it takes like two seconds to change your watch band.
• 25:30
  Yeah.
• 25:30
  And I went out of my way.
• 25:32
  With Fossil to buy a watch.
• 25:33
  At the time, they were kind of positioning it that it was like
• 25:36
  a golf livery nine 11 style.
• 25:38
  And I was like, I gotta have that.
• 25:39
  Even if I don't want the watch, I need the watch band.
• 25:41
  But uh, yeah, so that'd be something else to do and I think that would
• 25:44
  actually sell really well and you could do a combo and now you have
• 25:47
  this matching thing to go with it.
• 25:48
  So something to think about, you know?
• 25:50
  Yeah.
• 25:50
  Thanks.
• 25:50
  It's a very cool, cool tip.
• 25:53
  Like I've given it some thought, but uh, so let's talk about other
• 25:57
  brands, sister brands to heel tread that people might not know about.
• 26:01
  I was digging around and I noticed on the website recently there's curator sox.com.
• 26:05
  What's that all about?
• 26:06
  Actually, curator, our office manager, man, she's a big art fan and what
• 26:11
  we rebranded our company to be a company that caters to passions.
• 26:16
  So our biggest passion is art.
• 26:17
  So we did a, a sock brand inspired by all the famous artworks, and we
• 26:21
  launched in February last year, and it worked out really, really well.
• 26:26
  Not as good as as Silk trade.
• 26:27
  I think the petrolhead are more possessive on, on that way than our guys.
• 26:31
  And in July last year, me Andan are also big music fans.
• 26:36
  We launched Stereo Socks.
• 26:37
  It's, it's inspired by the coolest album covers.
• 26:40
  It doesn't mean to be the album that sells more records or most
• 26:43
  famous, but we do socks inspired on the coolest, like Depeche Mode's vi
• 26:47
  like Depeche Mode's violator album.
• 26:49
  Right.
• 26:49
  That would make sense exactly as a sock.
• 26:51
  Beautiful.
• 26:51
  Right?
• 26:51
  Yeah.
• 26:52
  Well, it's really, really cool.
• 26:53
  It's a black sock with only the, the, the flower.
• 26:56
  And we did it in a really special way.
• 26:58
  That was really cool.
• 26:59
  Exactly.
• 27:00
  And I showed my wife the curator socks, 'cause that's more her style.
• 27:03
  And she was like, I didn't know they did.
• 27:04
  I didn't know they did this.
• 27:05
  And I'm like, yeah, I think you could order some or at least I
• 27:08
  know what, at least I know what I'm getting her for Christmas this year.
• 27:10
  That's for sure.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:12
  Really good.
• 27:12
  So, you know, as we kind of wrap up our thought here, is there anything
• 27:16
  else you want to talk about that I didn't, that I didn't ask her?
• 27:18
  Didn't mention.
• 27:19
  No, no, it's been terrific to be involved.
• 27:21
  It's like paying us to work because all the contacts that we made are
• 27:25
  always big petrol heads people have are really, really nice.
• 27:29
  We've been asked to visit the McLaren ad office actually, then
• 27:32
  COVID appeared, but we have an invitation to, to do the full tour.
• 27:36
  Every time there's a race, we can get free invitations and go to the
• 27:39
  paddock and, and, and talk to everyone.
• 27:42
  I actually, I was sitting down on I two 50 GTO.
• 27:45
  Yeah, the one in the millions, they were going racing it in Portugal.
• 27:48
  The guy was so nice and we visited, showed us all the car collection
• 27:51
  that they had a lot of cool stuff and I just want to thank the community
• 27:55
  because it's been so, so cool these past four years to be a part of it.
• 28:00
  Yeah.
• 28:00
  And again, you're spreading that enthusiasm about
• 28:03
  motorsports, about automobiles.
• 28:04
  They are more than just appliances.
• 28:07
  Getting us from point A to point B. There's a lot of art, there's a lot of
• 28:10
  science, engineering, et cetera involved.
• 28:12
  And so this way.
• 28:13
  We get to wear our passion, we get to take it out there on the streets and show
• 28:16
  people, Hey, check out this cool design.
• 28:18
  Or you get that question?
• 28:19
  What is that?
• 28:20
  What are you wearing?
• 28:21
  Exactly.
• 28:21
  Where did you get that?
• 28:22
  Well, I got it over at heel tread and you definitely gotta check it out.
• 28:25
  So with that in mind, any shout outs, promotions, special discounts,
• 28:28
  anything you wanna tell the world about coming up here in our holiday season?
• 28:32
  Yeah, we actually are going to have a big Black Friday promotion as everyone does.
• 28:36
  It's going to start at the end of November so you can subscribe to our
• 28:40
  newsletter and be the first to get that information and a lot of cool things
• 28:44
  coming up until the end of the year.
• 28:46
  We're launching also Port So, and Kneehigh socks you can wear them to when you go
• 28:51
  to the gym or to do whatever you want.
• 28:53
  If you are a guy who needs high socks because you have cold in the winter,
• 28:57
  are these sports socks gonna be thicker?
• 28:59
  Yeah.
• 28:59
  Thick socks.
• 29:00
  Yeah.
• 29:00
  Oh, I'm gonna have to read.
• 29:00
  See cruise socks, like the American Style Socks.
• 29:04
  We are going to launch a, a first, a small collection to test it,
• 29:07
  and it's going to be mid-October.
• 29:10
  I think they're going to be available on the promotion, um, for Black Friday also.
• 29:14
  Yeah, I, I know exactly what I'm ordering.
• 29:17
  Yeah.
• 29:17
  Good.
• 29:19
  There's always a 10% discount on your first order, so you can test the
• 29:22
  brand and see if you like the socks.
• 29:24
  If you don't like the socks, you just can return them.
• 29:26
  There's no, no problem there.
• 29:28
  Subscribe to our newsletter.
• 29:30
  You'll receive then a confirmation and a discount code for your first order.
• 29:33
  10% off.
• 29:34
  Yeah.
• 29:35
  I have a special discount code for all the fans of Break Fix.
• 29:38
  It's break fix 2021.
• 29:39
  So we just put the code on checkout on the, on the checkout and get 20% off.
• 29:44
  That's awesome.
• 29:45
  It's, thank you.
• 29:45
  It's not, it's not cumulative with without a promotion.
• 29:47
  So when we run the Black Friday promotion, you cannot use.
• 29:51
  Okay.
• 29:51
  Good to know.
• 29:51
  Good to know.
• 29:52
  But we very much appreciate that.
• 29:53
  So if you haven't ordered heel tread socks yet, this is your opportunity to get in
• 29:59
  on that and check out the designs and really show off your motorsports pride
• 30:04
  and your enthusiasm about different brands or things that you really geek out upon.
• 30:07
  So 20% off.
• 30:08
  Thank you very much, Sala.
• 30:09
  That's very, very generous.
• 30:11
  Thank you for that.
• 30:12
  Designed and produced in Portugal.
• 30:14
  Heel Tread, uses seamless toe knitting to create a sock without any stitches.
• 30:19
  80% combined cotton, 17% polyamide, and 3% elastin.
• 30:23
  Every sock is beautiful inside and out.
• 30:27
  If you have any questions, do not hesitate to drop Jonal a line at
• 30:31
  info@heeltread.com or follow them on social media at Heel Tread.
• 30:36
  That's H-E-E-L-T-R-A-D.
• 30:40
  And more importantly, if you have an idea for a new design or
• 30:43
  want to create the perfect gift.
• 30:46
  Send them an email with a design or inspiration you'd like them to
• 30:49
  work with at design@heeltread.com.
• 30:52
  So Zalo, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show.
• 30:55
  I mean, like I said, this is super awesome because as Petrolhead, we
• 30:59
  do try to find a way to share our enthusiasm with others, whether it be
• 31:04
  choose watches, socks, hoodies, all these kinds of things where we wanna
• 31:08
  show off and get people talking about.
• 31:10
  Tell me about this car.
• 31:11
  Tell me about this race.
• 31:12
  Why is that important?
• 31:13
  You know?
• 31:14
  And then we get excited about it.
• 31:15
  We get to share that passion with others.
• 31:17
  And for us here at GTM, that's super important because that's
• 31:20
  part of our mantra, that's part of what we do, is to continue to
• 31:23
  spread motor sports enthusiasm.
• 31:25
  So as much as you thank us, we wanna thank you for being part of Motorsport history,
• 31:31
  being part of the automotive world, and being able to share this with everyone.
• 31:35
  Thank you.
• 31:35
  It's, it's been my pleasure.
• 31:37
  It's been a, a hell of a ride from the last four years.
• 31:39
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:41
  And congratulations and good luck on the next four years and beyond, and we're
• 31:45
  looking forward to all those new designs.
• 31:47
  Sign me up.
• 31:49
  Sure.
• 31:50
  Thank you.
• 31:55
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to
• 31:58
  check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
• 32:02
  You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports.
• 32:06
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
• 32:10
  or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at Crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.
• 32:18
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 32:20
  Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
• 32:22
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 32:26
  to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal
• 32:31
  is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge.
• 32:36
  As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon
• 32:39
  for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies and GTM swag.
• 32:44
  For as little as $2 and 50 cents a month, you can keep our developers,
• 32:48
  writers, editors, casters, and other volunteers fed on their strict diet of
• 32:53
  fig Newton's, gummy bears, and monster.
• 32:56
  Consider signing up for Patreon today at www.patreon.com/gt motorsports.
• 33:03
  And remember, without fans, supporters, and members like you,
• 33:08
  none of this would be possible.