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Tom Campion

Co-Founder & Chairman, Zumiez · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveotherzumiez.com ↗

In 1978, Campion co-founded Zumiez and grew it into a publicly traded global action-sports and youth lifestyle retailer. Through the Campion Foundation and Campion Advocacy Fund, he directs philanthropic and advocacy efforts toward public lands conservation and addressing homelessness in the Pacific Northwest.

17statements → 8claims → 2claims resolved → 3.76/5average certainty → 1.47/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Tom argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Zumiez was one of the first Burton retailers in US malls
“I always thought, or I know I was close, be the first Burton retailer to bring product into malls in the United States, and this would have been in the United States.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 29:16 Zumiez: Tom Campion

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
none yet certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Tom Campion on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Tom Campion said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Retailers cannot sustainably charge consumers a price premium for carbon neutrality
“I could say, I'm gonna be carbon neutral, and you're gonna pay an extra 10 bucks for every unit of clothing in our stores, and because how consumerism works, and how markets works, and economies work, it would be a very, ah, noble thing to do, but you wouldn't…”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 50:55 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zumiez retail staff were just as authentic as independent skate shop workers
“There was pushback. Usually it was from a competitive core skate shop. And I'm going to say it again. We weren't cheaper. The brands we got and the hard goods we got, we taught and trained our kid who was just as core as a kid that worked in the local skater s…”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 40:58 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Opinion
Skateboard culture held more appeal for youth than traditional team sports
“The skateboard kid was just friggin cooler than the five guys that can be on a basketball team, or 10 guys on a football team.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 25:28 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Supported
Zumiez was one of the first Burton retailers in US malls
“I always thought, or I know I was close, be the first Burton retailer to bring product into malls in the United States, and this would have been in the United States.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 29:16 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Zumiez likely sells more skateboard products than any retailer globally
“We probably sell more skateboard products than anybody in the world now.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 45:18 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Insight
Non-vertical retailers sacrifice margin to gain assortment agility and reduce risk
“You lose points on the margin, not being vertical, but you gain on the assortment plan, where it's more diverse, and if this shit stops selling, you mark it down, you get rid of it, and you don't go forward.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 46:01 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Disclosure
Zumiez launched with $10K in equity and a $35K SBA loan
“And now I employ 10, 11,000 people, Gen Z, because of an SBA loan. We each put in five grand, and we borrowed 35 grand. Something like that.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 11:52 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Insight
Teen apparel retail relies entirely on back-to-school and Christmas demand peaks
“Interesting thing about teenage clothing business, you have two violent peaks. Got back to school. Which, you know, it's longer, used to be longer, then you have the Christmas season. So, I was very aware of that from my years at Pennies, as was Gary, so you'd…”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 19:16 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Disclosure
Testing Gotcha and Quiksilver sparked Zumiez's pivot to action sports
“The first line I brought in to test this, Was a line called Gotcha Surfwear. And a big fish man with his flag on, you know, on it, and it just like, it was, for me, a holy shit moment, man. This is evolution, and I'm doing all the buying then, and so it was im…”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 22:23 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Insight
Snowboard retailers made their real profits on apparel, not hard goods
“You sold, you didn't make money on the, you made little money on the boards and the bindings and the boots, and so fall, you'd sell, you Pair of pants, pair of jeans, but then they go, oh, you got a new category called snowboard pants.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 29:32 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Disclosure
Campion bought out his co-founder to take 95% ownership of Zumiez
“We were able to work out a contract where I bought him out, and then I became, he kept a little bit of it, I think, but I became, like, 95% of the ownership”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 31:25 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not checkable as stated
The name 'Zumiez' originated from a designer's spelling mistake
“And we had a design guy that were working with us then named Doug, and Doug screwed up the spelling, Z-U-M-I-E-Z. And I look at it, and I go, that's it?”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 34:38 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Over 2,000 Zumiez retail employees sold over $100,000 in merchandise last year
“And this last year I had over 2000 kids that sold over a hundred grand.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 39:47 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zumiez's top individual retail store employee sold over $1,000,000 in one year
“My number one employee sold over a million, a 1,000,001 employee.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 39:53 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Insight
JCPenney's white sales acted as a barometer for the broader economy
“And you could measure how the economy was doing during a white sale when customers, usually women, come in and they stock up.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 6:17 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zumiez paid 16% to 18% interest rates in its early years
“For the first four or five years as we grew, I think we were paying 16, 17, 18% interest rates.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 12:15 Zumiez: Tom Campion
Assertion Supported
Zumiez has never put its brand name on private-label merchandise
“Yeah, it doesn't, we don't use the word Zoomies. We've never put Zoomies on it.”
Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 45:36 Zumiez: Tom Campion

The other half of the tape: Tom Campion's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on How I Built This. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
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0112024episodes it came up in
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2024 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Zumiez: Tom Campion Feb 6, 2023 32m
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