BY KEVIN ENDEJANKENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM

When other kids were dreaming of careers as � re� ghters, policemen or

professional athletes, Riley Good-man and Jake Director were always the oddballs.

“I remember very distinctly in the third grade there was a day on the bus when Jake and I were sitting there and we tried to come up with an idea for a clothing company,” said Goodman, 22. “It was the strangest thing for a couple of third graders.”

Impressively, a few years later and the dream became a reality.

Sparked by the near-death experience of one of their close friends and Issaquah High School lacrosse teammates, Goodman and Director put a business plan into action.

“We just said we don’t know how long we’ve got here, this has always been something we wanted to do and we locked ourselves in the car for like two hours and said we’re not going to leave until we thought of something,” Direc-

tor said. Parked and looking at a view of Seattle,

the then 18-year-olds reached a decision — they would create colorful, stylized crew socks for lacrosse players that featured the

Seattle skyline. Fast forward four years and that simple idea

has evolved into so much more for the Uni-versity of Washington business majors. Within the next two weeks the UW seniors will launch their line of athletic socks, Strideline, in six other major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Saint Louis and Portland, Ore.

Sales, which have already reached $300,000 so far this year in the Seattle market, are pro-jected to reach $2 million by the end of 2013.

“It’s really like chasing your dreams and reaching them,” Goodman said.

THE BEGINNING� e success of Strideline is truly is a remark-

able story for the life-long friends who were born just hours apart in the same hospital, grew up in the same neighborhood, attended Cougar Mountain Elementary, Issaquah Middle School and Issaquah High.

When they made their commitment to the sock idea just months before graduating from high school in 2009, neither knew the � rst thing about business.

BY LINDA BALLLBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM

In an idyllic neighborhood, at the end of a dead-end street, sits a neatly kept home, one among a number of attractive homes with tidy yards.

� e home of Michael and Rachel Marinos � ts right in. But some of the neigh-bors are concerned about a

home occupation Michael wants to launch as a sideline to his regular job.

� e application is for Bigg Dogg Firearms, which would provide ri� e and handgun transfers via internet sales transactions. According to the notice of application, custom-ers would purchase � rearms over the internet and Bigg Dogg would provide the trans-fer to pre-approved recipients.

Issaquah senior planner Jer-ry Lind said a decision on the application could come soon. Lind said code allows up to 20 visits a day to a home business, but one customer coming and going counts as two visits. � e application states that trans-fers would be by appointment and that the applicants don’t expect more than four visits per month.

Michael Marinos, who served in the Navy, is now a contractor who has been work-ing in Iraq and Afghanistan most of the time since 2004.

“It’s primarily internet sales,” said Rachel Marinos. “I can guarantee you there will be no noticeable tra� c to our home.”

She said she sees Fed-Ex and UPS trucks coming and going on the street all the time, so

SOCKIN’ IT TO EM’Strideline apparel business booming for Issaquah High graduates

Issaquah natives Jake

Director, le� and Riley Goodman

show o� their new Strideline

socks, which are set to be

released in six major cities in

the next couple of weeks.

KEVIN ENDEJAN, Issaquah & Sammamish

Reporter

Concerns raisedProposed home gun business has some Issaquah neighbors worried

ReporterReporterReporterReporterReporterReporterISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH

www.issaquahreporter.comFriday, October 12, 2012

SEE STRIDELINE, 6 SEE GUNS, 2

Page 6 www.issaquahrePorter.com Friday, october 12, 2012

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“We had no money, no experience, really no connections outside of our buddies,” Goodman said. “We’ve really had to learn everything organically.”

After designing the Seattle sky-line with Microsoft Paint — a basic preinstalled computer art program — the pair searched for manufactur-ers far and wide. With 500 emails sent out, they only received two responses — one in China and one in Turkey. Goodman and Director pooled their high school graduation money — $700 each — and shipped it off to Istanbul for an order for 1,000 socks.

“As we learned more, it’s such a miracle these socks came because we didn’t know anything about the manu-facturing process,” Director said. “We just sent out the money via Western Union. The guy probably should have just taken it.”

The first order of socks sold out within three months and the rest is history.

THE PRODUCT The socks, which sell at $12 apiece,

are in 100 storefronts — a number that will soon increase after sales begin in the six other large cities.

Lids, a national hat chain, also will soon sell them in 45 of its stores. If they’re a hit, the socks could expand to all of the chain’s 1,200 stores nation-wide.

Aside from using what they con-

sider the highest quality material, the pair said the product’s popularity of the bright colors and city skylines is quite simple.

“We like to say that we allow people to express individuality in a uniform,” Director said.

Strideline socks, which are one size fits all, come in 100 different city and color combinations

Celebrities like rappers Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa have publicly sported the Strideline brand.

Kids have also caught the bug. The product, which is most popular

among 12-22 year-olds, can’t stay on the shelves long enough in many Seattle area stores.

“I’ve already sold eight pairs today and we’ve only been open for two hours,” said Levi Gruno, and em-ployee at the University Village Seattle Team Shop, noting the business sells about 30 pairs per day.

WHAT’S NEXT?Having been to Asia three times

in the last six months, including a recent trip to the Philippines, Director admitted that work can be trying at

times — especially balancing it with his college courses. But he also said he wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

“It’s always been our passion and the fact that we get to run it together is an added bonus,” he said.

There are plans to soon expand from a bedroom operation into an office. And in the near future, the duo plan on expanding to different types of athletic gear — hoping one day to make their trademark “S” just as recognizable as the Nike swoosh.

“Ultimately we want Strideline to be the elite athletic brand in the country,” Goodman said.

Admittedly, they know that goal might be a ways down the road.

For now, the 22-year-olds said they will gladly sit back and enjoy the experience.

“There’s never been something in my life that I’ve dedicated more time, lost more sleep and been more stressed out about,” Goodman said. “At the end of the day, walking down the street and seeing someone in our socks and knowing that was our brainchild ... you’re just really proud.”

stridelineCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

strideline was featured in Forbes magazine in august, in a story titled “all star college entrepreneurs.” the magazine only had room for a picture of one of the company founders, so riley Goodman and Jake Di-rector flipped a coin to see who would be pictured. Goodman won, but Director says it might have actually worked out better for him.

“Now, i always get the window seat on airplane flights,” he said.

BIG TIME RECOGNITION

A momma bear and her three cubs decided to pay a visit to the front yard of Issaquah Valley Elementary Wednesday morning.

Principal Diane Holt said one of her education assis-tants spotted the family of bears, putting the school into immediate lockdown at about 10:50 a.m.

Holt said Issaquah police were on the scene along with Fish and Game and a bear sniffing dog. She said the school would remain on lockdown until Fish and Game declared the area bear-free. The bears were being herded away from the school within a half hour.

Holt said this is the second time a bear has visited the campus.

Bears put Issaquah elementary school on lockdown

The Pacific Cascade Middle School PTSA will pres-ent a workshop on children and social media, Monday, Oct. 15, from 7-8 p.m. in the school’s library.

Stefanie Thomas from the Seattle Police Department internet crimes against children task force will give parents tips on how to keep their children safe while navigating the connected world.

Social networking, cyber-bullying and children as victims are all topics that will be discussed.

The school is located at 24635 Issaquah Fall City Road.

Workshop to discuss kids, social media