Roy Seiders explains how organic consumer demand drove retailer acquisition for YETI around 2009 and 2010.
0:00 / 0:30exact quote · 30.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I think in 2009 and 10 is when we really, there was a tipping point and that is when we started getting phone calls from, you know, Pennsylvania, and Oregon, and Montana, and these were retailers calling us up and saying, hey, I've had three customers over the last two weeks come in and ask for your product. I guess I need to start reselling them. So we were literally answering the phone and setting up retailers 10 a day.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Roy Seiders
Disclosure
YETI's 2008 excuse of raw materials cost increases was "total bullshit"
“We blame that price increase on a cost of raw materials increase. Which was total bullshit, but we had to tell them something.”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 1:02:16YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
Insight
Independent retailers needed premium coolers to earn viable square-footage margins
“A small sporting goods store with limited square footage, they can't make any money off of a 40 dollar cooler, you know... It's all about, at these small shops, it's inventory turns, you know, Dollars generated per square foot, and so here we are, we showed up…”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 44:51YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
Insight
Investing aggressively in brand building beats spending startup resources on patent defense
“Getting a patent is an expensive process, but even more expensive is actually protecting it when you do have infringement. So we felt like it was kind of a waste of resources, you know, instead of playing a prevent defense, it was more about being offensive mi…”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 53:34YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
Opinion
Competitors entering the premium cooler market were effectively fighting for second place
“And I think everyone that came into the market that it seemed like all at one time, they were all fighting it out for second place. And we felt like we had nailed the product and that it was going to be hard to improve on it, which it was.”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 1:10:58YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
Opinion
Ordinary coolers broke down so often they were effectively disposable seasonal products
“Putting them on the boats has really exposed me to kind of the frustrations of ordinary coolers falling apart. When you our daily abuse and our daily wear and tear, the hinges would break, the latches would snap, and I think this was kind of my light bulb mome…”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 13:59YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
AssertionSupported
Ryan Seiders bought 49.5% of YETI by funding three shipping containers
“Ryan's buy-in to get 49.5% of the company was to use his Some of his proceeds from his Waterloo sale. And so he bought the first three container loads of product that came in from the Philippines.”
Roy SeidersAug 24, 2026▶ 39:57YETI: Roy and Ryan Seiders. How Two Brothers Turned a $400 Cooler Into a $2 Billion Brand
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 800 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.