Full Transcript – Carlton Calvin – Wild Business Growth Podcast #204

This is the full transcript for Episode #204 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Carlton Calvin – Toy Trendspotter, Co-Founder of Razor. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Carlton Calvin 0:00
Just try and see if you can make it happen and act quickly and decisively.

Max Branstetter 0:19
Hey, kids, welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your Host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 204. And today’s guest is Carlton Calvin who has a name you can dance to and a story you can scoot to. Carlton is the President and Co-Founder of Razor Yes, Razor as in Razor scooter. One of the most iconic toys of the 2000s. Carlton is the man responsible for bringing razor to the US back in the year 2000. And in this interview, we talk in addition to the Razor, the Razor Scooter story which of course we talked about that. We talked all sorts of other nostalgic products that Carlton had a pretty big hand in including the RipStik the hoverboard electric scooters, Pogs and Slammers. fingerboards. The list goes on and on and on. This is short and sweet with Carlton Calvin. Enjoy the show.

All righty, we are here with Carlton Calvin, the Mr. Razor we’ll call you the Co-Founder and President of Razor. I think as somebody who grew up in the 90s and 2000s. And anybody who’s kind of been around that era, Razor Scooters, were one of the most impactful things of childhood and still so many amazing memories and so much in histology and it’s awesome to see what you’re up to today. So anyway, I’ll cut myself short. Carlton, thank you so much for joining. How you doing today.

Carlton Calvin 2:13
My pleasure. I’m doing great. Perfect.

Max Branstetter 2:16
Awesome. Thank you. Well, I’m actually riding a scooter as we know, I’m just kidding. But we’re gonna get into the razors, story, all sorts of things in your entrepreneurial journey. So on that note, I’d love to start off with your interest in toys in the first place. I know that before razor, you kind of got into this. The whole Pogs and Slammers business. Yes. Which is another great, fantastic nostalgic memory. But that’s a world of its own. What is it about toys and these these kind of trending toys that excited you in the first place?

Carlton Calvin 2:54
Well, first of all your from seeing you I can tell that you’re the perfect age. And you’ve evolved through all the businesses that I was involved in even before I started Razor but I didn’t actually have a particular interest in toys, although I do think I always used to say, I understood the mind of a 10-year-old boy pretty darn well. I sort of stuck in that phase. When I started, you know, getting into business on my own. My background is, you know, I was working for a big law firm. You know, I took a leave of absence from that law firm and then started tinkering around just exploring the idea of going into business for myself. And just through weird happenstance. I started getting into toys with the Pogs & Slammers. And then when I did that, then I just followed up because I was already in that industry. And that’s how it just kept going after that.

Max Branstetter 3:48
So law and Pogs and Slammers. I think a combination. Yes, that’s the typical route from law school. What is it about Pogs and Slammer specifically that caught your attention?

Carlton Calvin 4:00
Oh, it was a hot craze in LA at the time when I was casting around. And I was actually working on a different project of doing some children’s book publishing. And I was working with a artist and they said, Oh, we’re doing work for Pogs. We’re doing illustrations for Pogs. And I was driving through Arizona. So you would understand, I don’t know how much of your audience will know. But Pogs is like a gambling game for children with little discs. They’re paper discs that were originally at the top of milk caps. To keep milk fresh part of the game is to have a slammer, where you throw it at the pods and you try to flip it over the Slammer is, you know, the more interesting piece and I was driving through Arizona, and I was seeing paperweights with real scorpions embedded in them. And I thought to myself, Oh, wow, a 10 year old boy would like a real Scorpion embedded in his slammer. And so I That’s how I got started, I decided I was going to put real scorpions inside Slammers.

Max Branstetter 5:04
As a former 10-year-old boy, I can agree that the thought of scorpions, I think spoke to my younger self. And that’s awesome. Also makes me think of Jurassic Park that like, mosquito in the amber.

Carlton Calvin 5:16
That’s exactly what it looks. Yeah. And that’s it. That’s actually I called up the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and ask them how they preserve, you know, specimens in their plastic. And that’s how I get started, then with the technology.

Max Branstetter 5:31
I love the research. It’s, it’s awesome. So speaking of being quick, and creating hot crazes, and toys and trends, and everything in that ballpark, let’s talk Razor. When and how did you first hear about this idea that kids were somewhere in the world or starting to play with scooters and having a great time?

Carlton Calvin 5:56
Again, his background The thing that I was my hot trend that I was working on at that time? Were fingerboards, which you probably remember to have that?

Max Branstetter 6:06
Yeah, plenty of those, which became a funny competition, because some kids at school were pretty good and can do like, you know, pop shove, it’s in different tricks with them. And then I think vast majority of kids like myself were were extreme. I mean, I couldn’t even skip on a regular skateboard. So fingers skateboards were even harder, I think.

Carlton Calvin 6:24
So again, you’re the perfect person to be interviewing me about this, you’re the perfect age. Thank you, thank you. Um, I was doing fingerboards. And we actually invent, you know, working with the guy who invented the fingerboards. Later Tech Deck was another company that copied what we were doing. And they were a much bigger and more savvy company. So they became the famous brand. But fingerboards was our brand and the original name for what this was called. But anyway, then enough about fingerboards I was doing those. And I was like doing all kinds of like extreme sports, for your fingers, like bikes and surfboards. In addition to the skateboards, I read in the LA Times, that there was a new extreme sports craze in Japan, called, you know, the end people riding on, you know, high tech, advanced scooters, and the brand was Razor, and I called the factory that made them then, you know, and and within a couple of weeks, we were partners globally to, you know, manufacture and sell the Razor scooter. And that that’s how that started. Oh, my

Max Branstetter 7:26
God. So how in the world did you strike a deal? Within a couple of weeks there?

Carlton Calvin 7:32
It just again, I this is what I read, I would say to, you know, entrepreneurs is I mean, I’ve always felt did this once I started is don’t be afraid to just try and see if you can make it happen and act quickly and decisively.

Max Branstetter 7:47
I mean, this, this is one of the biggest splashes of all time in the toy world and infant and scooter Well, obviously. But at the start, what are some key steps when you look back on it that helped this baby take off so much?

Carlton Calvin 8:00
The answer, the real answer is capacity. My partner had a tremendous capacity to manufacture, but real crazes people like to take credit for causing them, which I never do. It was just word of mouth. I mean, and word of mouth turns in, you know, we had a public relations agency, but that was just to field. All the people that wanted to work with us. It was in People Magazine, it was you know, there was an illustration on the cover of The New Yorker with an adult riding a Razor Scooter there was, you know, we partnered with Burger King. I mean, it was just endless demand, you know, word of mouth, and news stories were everywhere. And, and so yeah, you didn’t need to do anything. And I’ve been involved in same with Pogs and Slammers. I’ve been in in and fingerboard these things when it gets inside the mind of a 10 year old boy and they start talking to each other on the playground, there’s nothing that will cause demand to rise like that.

Max Branstetter 9:00
What is it about that original model that you think people just totally gravitated to?

Carlton Calvin 9:08
I mean, it’s sometimes very hard to explain, but obviously, you know, they were much better scooters, they were skateboard wheels, polyurethane wheels that just let you go really far and fast and glide easily. And they were aircraft quality aluminum, they were compact. It really was a big improvement on the clunky air scooters that were before them. And actually an it started really did start with adults using them. And like even they were popular in high tech, you know, warehouses in Silicon Valley. It was like part of the Dot-Com craze, but it’s a genuinely great, you know, Scooter, and it’s sort of like you know, in 1997 or whatever. There was a slight improvement on the yo yo, they made like a yo yo that would spin at the bottom on its own and then return it and they cause the biggest yo-yo craze, you know, with no advertising nothing but you know, again, just playground, word of mouth, like sold 50 million yo-yos or something. It was ridiculous. So yeah, they’re the technological improvement on a great item like a scooter can make make a craze. First of

Max Branstetter 10:19
all, every, every new thing you mentioned, like triggers a different memory in my mind, like now I’m thinking of like, these cool yoga. So yoga is these cool yo-yos we used to spin like you said, or that would light up and there were some really, really good ones. So this is this whole interview is just like walk down memory lane for me. So thank you. On the razor front, you mentioned that your your partner had the capacity, which is obviously hugely important. How early on in that process of, you know, starting to distribute in the US. Did you realize that? Oh, my God, this is great. You know, like, we need to make like millions of these things every day to meet demand.

Carlton Calvin 10:54
No, immediately, it was immediately as explosive demand is all I can tell you explosive. I mean, we were selling a million units a month. And just that’s it’s just as many as we can make. We’re literally selling as many as we can make.

Max Branstetter 11:06
How did that impact how you manage the business?

Carlton Calvin 11:08
It was ridiculous. I mean, I had to like, I hired a bunch of people overnight. I was working seven days a week, you know, 12 hours a day just to try to keep up and with the with the demand.

Max Branstetter 11:22
Do you any sleep these days? Are you still have that

Carlton Calvin 11:24
scope? Oh, I got so I get so much sleep. Now my sleep nicely. Problem is that I’m old and it’s harder to sleep through the night. Just the opposite?

Max Branstetter 11:34
No, it’s It’s definitely hard to sleep through the night, but you’re definitely not old. Okay, thank you. So that’s the the Model A or the Model T of the scooter world. We’ll get to Model C and D in a second. Now we won’t we won’t go down all the way down the line. But I am really curious about because if you check out your website now, I think anybody who who just knows Razor for you know that scooter in the early 2000s would be absolutely blown away by how many different products you offer now and how many things you’re involved in? And how how you have a company and team have evolved over the years? How would you characterize the approach you take to adding new products to the mix?

Carlton Calvin 12:12
Well, again, believe it or not, I still the real huge growth from the company has been, you know, from this trend spotting. I mean, obviously we do we make variations on the trends once they come out. But most of the time I’m working the really huge items that we make, and that really driven growth in the business have been from inventors, and I’ve seen them actually spotted them out on the street, you know, being used, and then worked with the inventor, you know, sometimes they actually can work with the inventor before it’s, you know, actually on the market at all. But usually, I’m you know, working with some small inventory as a teeny little bit of distribution, I see a couple women, like so that would be like the RipStik is a really was a really important product for us that a lot of people know. Yeah. Huge crates

Max Branstetter 13:02
brings up whole new memories again, as well.

Carlton Calvin 13:05
And then, you know, I noticed, like adults riding around electric, I mean, gas, mini motorcycles in LA. And that led us to make a little electric motorcycle, which became a huge, huge trend. And it became part of our, you know, it became part of now is like the main part of our businesses, electric motorcycles and electric scooters. Again, electric scooters probably wasn’t a craze, but they were definitely out there. And I saw that, you know, obviously, as a scooter maker, we could, we could really capitalize on that market. So we entered that market. And you know, but again, we were much less expensive, because we had huge manufacturing capacity. And so we don’t we dominated and grew the electric scooter market for the last, you know, 15 years. And that’s become a huge market for us. And then that eventually evolved into like the adult electric scooters, probably in the last four or five years with bird and lime. But that we were doing a million electric scooters a year before the adult scooter craze that’s that’s come on now. Now, of course we’re doing adult scooters. But yeah, we I generally have looking for trends in the culture, and then I hop on them and then I expand on them. So and then another one of our big recent products is the hoverboard. And that was created by an inventor I’d worked with maybe five or seven years before that. And another another item that did really well for us, but it exploded into the market. And so, you know, we’re the creators of the hoverboard, too. Now, a lot of people have, you know, copied us and we’re frantically enforcing our patent but that’s another example of an item that just exploded on its own. And then you know we’re, you know there to service the market and provide

Max Branstetter 14:58
huge quantities for people in battle. hoverboard. You mean like the two wheeled like no handle

Carlton Calvin 15:03
that’s standing straight up. That’s why we call our grand is the Hovertrax. But that the inventor, you know, created that brand. Perfect. Well, that’s what it is.

Max Branstetter 15:13
I know, you and team are super innovative. I’m sure it’s only a couple of years now before we get like true hoverboards. Like, not even touching the ground.

Carlton Calvin 15:22
That’s right. Well, you keep that in mind. Yeah, we get that. Yeah,

Max Branstetter 15:25
I think you just cover the world and magnets and put magnets on the bottom of it. I think that’s that’s how it works, right?

Carlton Calvin 15:32
Yeah, someday, someday innovation, perfect.

Max Branstetter 15:35
But this in the evolution, you know, the assortment of your products over time and how things change is really, really fascinating. Electric as a, I guess, a subcategory is a huge area of business, and also a huge thing that people are using these products in so many different ways. How is the process for you and team been, you know, to educate yourselves on the electric vehicles/toys, and actually roll those out?

Carlton Calvin 16:01
Well, there was a learning, you know, again, this is for us. It’s a very, you know, again, very soon after the original Razor Scooter, within a year or two, we were doing electrics. So it’s been a long, you know, learning curve. The hardest thing for us is learning how to make reliable products. You know, the scooter is such a simple product, that there’s nothing breaks and it doesn’t need any repairs. And when we started to do electrics, there was a lot of learning, so that we would make things that were reliable, and also that we could have a big customer service department that could handle sending out, you know, replacement parts. And when things were out, all that kind of stuff was a big learning.

Max Branstetter 16:40
I mean, it’s got to be pretty surreal to look back at all this growth and all these different products over the years. What’s in addition to your, your tips on trend spotting, which has obviously been instrumental to everything you’ve done and all the hot crazes you’ve been in it, what would you say is your number one tip for, for growing a business and continuing and continuing to innovate over the

Carlton Calvin 17:00
years? Part of growing a business I would say is I was always very focused on the finances and making sure you know that I was not overspending, you know, so that I would always be around to take advantage of the next you know, hit so I’m, you know, I was I’m very old school, I’m adding people adding facilities, adding stuff only after the demand is there not I don’t put a huge amount of money into the business without the demand being there to justify it. But and then when you’re doing that, you’re there to take advantage of opportunities, they present it and if you spent all your money, then you’re gone and you don’t have a chance. And then the other thing is, is act decisively. So that’s it’s a little separate from like spotting trends. You have to even if you’re not spotting trends, you have to be able to make decisions quickly. And not like be a perfectionist is my way of look that I had to sort of learn because I’m a perfectionist by nature. But I could see that in the real world. There’s a lot of value to acting, you know, perfect is the enemy of the good. You know, you have to make decisions quickly and act quickly. In the real world.

Max Branstetter 18:17
The Real World – they should make a show about that. If you’re craving some more real world behind the scenes stories from the Wild Business Growth Podcast, would like some real world podcasting tips as well from the the mind behind MaxPodcasting – I won’t reveal who it is. I have the place for you go to MaxPodcasting.com, scroll down and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That’s at MaxPodcasting.com, Podcasting to the Max. Let’s “quickly” wrap this thing up well you cannot have queued that up any better because we are going to wrap up quickly with some rapid-fire q&a. Are you ready for it?

Carlton Calvin 18:57
Okay, yes.

Max Branstetter 18:59
All right. Let’s get wild other than the ones you mentioned what would you say is maybe the most bizarre or out of the box product that Razor as a company has sold in the past couple of decades

Carlton Calvin 19:09
oh my goodness tried to keep things you know oh you know realistic we made motor shoes so that you could you know or heel wheels so that you can strap them to your shoes and like motor around anything else? Yeah,

Max Branstetter 19:28
I don’t know if it was you or somebody else but I remember or they called Heelys there used to be a pair a line of shoes that had wheels in it.

Carlton Calvin 19:34
Exactly so and I put motors in those that so I was gonna do Heelys with motors and that was kind of wild. I’ve made scooters that you know with sparks that flame shoot up the back all kinds of, you know, a 10 year old boy feeling them and you made that was really sort of off of what we normally do. We made sound chairs that you would hook up to your computer gaming, they were vibrate and, you know, envelop you in sound while you’re playing your video games. So we do not we don’t all kinds of inventive things I’ve, as I’ve gotten more seasoned, I sort of recognize that there’s a lot of value in, you know, not getting too far out far outside your lane. So you can focus on your own market and not try to too much to go into like, home furniture, for example. We did great. It was a huge craze. But then it was hard for us to stay focused as it evolved, right?

Max Branstetter 20:33
Yeah, well, the home furniture, I mean, it’s just too comfortable. The space to be in there. Yeah. I’m cracking up because you keep you keep talking about kind of eluding this concept of thinking like a 10-year-old boy and being a 10-year-old boy. And we previously had on the podcast, Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. Which there Yeah, super cool. And she literally, she’s got books and audio books that are around the idea of My Life As A 10-Year-Old Boy. So you two need to connect.

Carlton Calvin 20:59
It’s a bit it’s a very important stage in life. At least for me,

Max Branstetter 21:04
it is and like a 10-year-old, I have the slowest rapid-fire of all time. So we’ll get to the next question. So okay, what’s the most impressive thing or trick that you’ve ever seen anybody do in a Razor Scooter?

Carlton Calvin 21:15
Oh, they are so good. You know, I’ve seen people go down these giant ramps and then do multiple flips, you know, off though, you know, like, I’m saying 50 6070 feet high there. It’s incredible what people can do ya just like skateboards.

Max Branstetter 21:31
Yeah, the amount of time it takes to do that and how acrobatic you need to be is unbelievable. And then I saw in your background, that as a teenager, you spent some time as a Domino’s Pizza delivery boy. Yes. What’s uh, what’s something surprising about being a pizza delivery driver that that only people who have been delivery drivers now,

Carlton Calvin 21:50
you have to be very good at mapping out where you’re going, because it could be a bunch of pizzas, and it’s all a race against time. Back when I was doing I think they changed it, because of the danger. But it was all you get paid more for being very speedy. It’s a pretty fun race car type of job back in the day when I did it.

Max Branstetter 22:11
And then last one, you also. And this is like the coolest fun fact of a younger life job I’ve ever heard. But you spent some time managing a stand at the Minnesota State Fair for selling Rubik’s Cubes. So what is the what’s the shortest amount of time you’ve ever completed a Rubik’s Cube?

Carlton Calvin 22:30
I hate to correct you on your facts. But I sold solution books to the Rubik’s Cube.

Max Branstetter 22:38
You’re you’re just one step ahead.

Carlton Calvin 22:41
But I never I never solved a Rubik’s Cube. I’ve never read the book. I think I think this is a theme. I don’t really have particular interest in toys. But I just did it and Rubik’s Cubes at that time, were obviously a huge trend. So I was that’s how I that was my first hopping on a trend. I was able to sell the books, I had to like, put a sticker over the retail price of the book, because they were in such high demand that I was able to charge more than the sticker the retail price for the book. Thank God Rubik’s Cubes, Rubik’s Cube book price gouging. But I was only a teenager. I never gouge anymore. Our prices are fixed.

Max Branstetter 23:24
You know, if you just read one of your own books, you probably would have known how to solve one I think.

Carlton Calvin 23:28
Absolutely. I was just not I was in it for the business side of it.

Max Branstetter 23:35
Hey, well, hindsight is 20-20. But Carlton, thank you so much. This has been awesome in a true dream interview, walk down memory lane. So really appreciate Oh,

Carlton Calvin 23:44
you’re the perfect. You’re the perfect guy for this interview. Yeah, it’s absolutely the right age. And you were obviously interested in the world and using all involved in all my trends. So that’s fantastic. Perfect.

Max Branstetter 23:56
You’re the creator of lots and lots of lots and lots of like endless childhood memories for so many people around my age and a you know how it trends work. Probably, you know, if stuff ever dies down in popularity, like 65 years from now, some of the stuff might be bigger than ever. So

Carlton Calvin 24:13
it’s coming back. Yeah, I just did. You just have to tell your children about it so they can bring it back?

Max Branstetter 24:18
That’s exactly, exactly. Well, Carlton, thank you so much. I know if you’re interested in buying anything from Razor or learning more, you can go to Razor.com R-A-Z-O-R. And I don’t know why I spelled it obviously razors are spelled that way. But any do you have? Is there anywhere that people can reach out to you or you prefer to keep it to just company?

Carlton Calvin 24:40
I think they can reach me through the company. I think that’s the best way I’m not at I’m not on Instagram or anything like that. I’m I’m very old school. So but it was it has been a wonderful podcast and we’re really good interview.

Max Branstetter 24:52
Thank you. Thank you, perfect. You’re a decent guest now but okay, thanks again. Last thing final thoughts stage is yours. It could be a cool over a line, whatever you think the next hot trend is going to be whatever you want. Send us home here.

Carlton Calvin 25:05
The next hot trend, you’re never going to know it till you see it and you can never you can never think about it. It just appears before your eyes and you have to be have that spidey sense to identify it as a trend.

Max Branstetter 25:20
I spidey-sense Carlton working on a new trend as we speak. Thank you so much, Carlton for coming on the podcast for bringing Razor Scooters to the US and in enhancing so many people children’s childhoods and beyond through so many amazing products and toys. And thank you Wild Listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow the Wild Business Growth podcast on your favorite app and tell a friend about the podcast and then go go find a Razor Scooter whether it’s electric or manual, you know old school, and, you know go scoot around. You can also find us on Goodpods where there are some fantastic podcasts and podcasts, people and recommendations. And for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter on that homepage. Until next time, let your business run wild – bring on the bongos!