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The Book of Eastbay: Two Friends and the Catalog That Changed the Sneaker Business Forever
Not yet published
Expected 14 Apr 26Unable to contain himself, Rick pitched move back to Wausau and start a business selling shoes. Art said, "What are you, an idiot? Selling shoes? How is this even worth trying?"
This is the story of Eastbay, a startup tale unlike most you've read. First it was $9,500 worth of track sneakers sold out of the back of an AMC Gremlin. Then it was a quiet storefront behind the main street in Wausau, Wisconsin, trying to compete with Foot Locker, which was on the main street. Then it became a catalog, a bible to GenX kids growing up in the 1980s and '90s, a powerful tastemaker so authentic that pro athletes swore by it. Sneakerhead culture started here.
This is the story of Eastbay, a company ahead of its time that mastered mail-order selling before Amazon existed. That understood the emerging cultural power of sneakers before anyone else saw it. That grew so fast and was so successful in the wholesale shoe business that Nike pulled its sneakers from the catalog and sued. Two years later, Nike came back, and asked Eastbay to produce the Nike catalog.
This is the story of Eastbay, founded by Art and Rick, born a day apart and placed in bassinets next to each other—as different as two lifelong friends can be but with a friendship that's lasted through the wild, tumultuous, heady, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, and ultimately massively rewarding lifetime of building a business that mattered.
Sneakers are a $100 billion business and a global obsession, and it all started in the pages of Eastbay. This is the story. This is The Book of Eastbay.
This is the story of Eastbay, a startup tale unlike most you've read. First it was $9,500 worth of track sneakers sold out of the back of an AMC Gremlin. Then it was a quiet storefront behind the main street in Wausau, Wisconsin, trying to compete with Foot Locker, which was on the main street. Then it became a catalog, a bible to GenX kids growing up in the 1980s and '90s, a powerful tastemaker so authentic that pro athletes swore by it. Sneakerhead culture started here.
This is the story of Eastbay, a company ahead of its time that mastered mail-order selling before Amazon existed. That understood the emerging cultural power of sneakers before anyone else saw it. That grew so fast and was so successful in the wholesale shoe business that Nike pulled its sneakers from the catalog and sued. Two years later, Nike came back, and asked Eastbay to produce the Nike catalog.
This is the story of Eastbay, founded by Art and Rick, born a day apart and placed in bassinets next to each other—as different as two lifelong friends can be but with a friendship that's lasted through the wild, tumultuous, heady, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, and ultimately massively rewarding lifetime of building a business that mattered.
Sneakers are a $100 billion business and a global obsession, and it all started in the pages of Eastbay. This is the story. This is The Book of Eastbay.
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication April 14, 2026
2 people want to read
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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.
Displaying 1 of 1 review