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The Book of Eastbay: Two Friends and the Catalog That Changed the Sneaker Business Forever
Sneakers are a $100 billion business and a global obsession that started in the pages of a catalog called Eastbay.
This is a startup story unlike most you've read, but as instructive and inspiring as any of the rest. It's the story of two entrepreneurs with $4,000 worth of track shoes stuffed into an AMC Gremlin who eventually launched a mail-order catalog, Eastbay, that became a bible and a cultural icon to Gen X and Millennial kids. The catalog that was such a powerful and authentic tastemaker that pro athletes swore by it and a burgeoning generation of sneakerheads coveted it.
This is also the story of a company ahead of its time that understood the affirming power and cultural significance of sneakers. A company that mastered the mail-order business we take for granted today before most of us understood it. A company that never wavered from its mission as it grew fast, suffered massive setbacks, then grew even faster until the catalog reached tens of millions of kids across the world.
And this is the story of Art and Rick, born two days apart, bonded by the company they founded together and by a lifelong friendship that's lasted throughout a tumultuous, heady, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, and ultimately profoundly rewarding career. Together they built a business that mattered, with as talented and devoted a team as any leaders could hope for.
In Eastbay, a generation of kids were encouraged to dream big and dream often, which is just what the founders were doing all along. This is their story.
This is a startup story unlike most you've read, but as instructive and inspiring as any of the rest. It's the story of two entrepreneurs with $4,000 worth of track shoes stuffed into an AMC Gremlin who eventually launched a mail-order catalog, Eastbay, that became a bible and a cultural icon to Gen X and Millennial kids. The catalog that was such a powerful and authentic tastemaker that pro athletes swore by it and a burgeoning generation of sneakerheads coveted it.
This is also the story of a company ahead of its time that understood the affirming power and cultural significance of sneakers. A company that mastered the mail-order business we take for granted today before most of us understood it. A company that never wavered from its mission as it grew fast, suffered massive setbacks, then grew even faster until the catalog reached tens of millions of kids across the world.
And this is the story of Art and Rick, born two days apart, bonded by the company they founded together and by a lifelong friendship that's lasted throughout a tumultuous, heady, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, and ultimately profoundly rewarding career. Together they built a business that mattered, with as talented and devoted a team as any leaders could hope for.
In Eastbay, a generation of kids were encouraged to dream big and dream often, which is just what the founders were doing all along. This is their story.
Kindle Edition
Published April 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Book of Eastbay is a behind the scenes look at how Eastbay, the famous sports gear shopping catalog, got it’s start, the meteoric rise to become a household name for Gen-X and Millennials, and what eventually caused the downfall for the sports gear shopping catalog”bible” that nearly every household had a copy of in the 90’s and 2000’s.
Being a sports obsessed kid that grew up in the 90’s in rural Minnesota, Eastbay was one of the only ways I could scratch that itch of checking out the latest trends and gear in the world of sports, whether it was sneakers, training gear, or even just athlete profiles, Eastbay had it all. This book did such a great job of telling Eastbay’s fascinating story of how they got their start and continued to grow in Wisconsin. It detailed how they handled hurdles that the company encountered as it scaled at a rate that many larger companies believed to be unsustainable until they were no longer able to ignore it and how they never wavered from the culture that fostered the success in the first place.
This was such a nostalgic and interesting story, I was unaware of how grassroots Eastbay really was when it was started. It was extremely well written and read very quickly. It detailed many stories that supported exactly the values of the company and those who started it from the ground up with hard work and an unwavering belief in an idea despite an ever changing sales environment through the 80s, 90s, and into the 2000s.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that remembers the Eastbay catalog growing up. Absolutely awesome read!!
Special thanks to Harvard Business Review Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest and fair opinion.
Being a sports obsessed kid that grew up in the 90’s in rural Minnesota, Eastbay was one of the only ways I could scratch that itch of checking out the latest trends and gear in the world of sports, whether it was sneakers, training gear, or even just athlete profiles, Eastbay had it all. This book did such a great job of telling Eastbay’s fascinating story of how they got their start and continued to grow in Wisconsin. It detailed how they handled hurdles that the company encountered as it scaled at a rate that many larger companies believed to be unsustainable until they were no longer able to ignore it and how they never wavered from the culture that fostered the success in the first place.
This was such a nostalgic and interesting story, I was unaware of how grassroots Eastbay really was when it was started. It was extremely well written and read very quickly. It detailed many stories that supported exactly the values of the company and those who started it from the ground up with hard work and an unwavering belief in an idea despite an ever changing sales environment through the 80s, 90s, and into the 2000s.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that remembers the Eastbay catalog growing up. Absolutely awesome read!!
Special thanks to Harvard Business Review Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest and fair opinion.
April 28, 2026
What a ride. I was not sure what to expect when I ordered this book. The Book of Eastbay managed to be a surprisingly quick read while offering substantive insight to a company's origin, growth, and challenges.
Maybe because I am a 90s kid who remembers pouring over the catalog, or maybe I'm burned out of doom-scrolling on a small, handheld device; but reading this book made me deeply nostalgic for the predictable and informative presentation found in the Eastbay catalog.
This book is a great read for people who like business origin stories, stories about friendship, and of course, sneaker culture - you will be drooling over these shoe descriptions!
Maybe because I am a 90s kid who remembers pouring over the catalog, or maybe I'm burned out of doom-scrolling on a small, handheld device; but reading this book made me deeply nostalgic for the predictable and informative presentation found in the Eastbay catalog.
This book is a great read for people who like business origin stories, stories about friendship, and of course, sneaker culture - you will be drooling over these shoe descriptions!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews