(Ep023) Chris Chase: Living in a Truck Bed Camper, Finding Quarters for Food, and Being Brutally Honest about the Best and Worst Basketball Shoes on Weartesters
A lot of shoe reviewers (aka shoetubers) these days get free pairs of all the latest kicks. But growing up in the Bay Area, Chris Chase was mocked on the blacktop for having $40 Payless shoes. This hurt but paled in comparison to the other challenges Chris faced daily in a single-parent home where times were tough, dinner was often pasta and ketchup, and substance abuse sometimes forced him to live with relatives.
Fascinated by action figures and comic books at first, Chris soon became captivated by kicks and was eventually gifted a pair of iconic Air Jordan XIs by a half-brother he never knew he had until his mid-teens. As Chris struck out on his own, he only had money for rent and utilities and had to walk four miles each way to work at an AMC theater, where soda and popcorn was his staple diet. But as tight as his money was, this job provided the skills and mentorship he needed, preparing him to maintain and then manage apartment complexes. Unable to find performance reviews when he could afford basketball shoes, he started doing his own, and a few years later, a partnership with Drew Whitcomb grew into Weartesters, the leading sneaker review channel and website.
In this episode, Chris shares:
Why growing up without much gave him the gift of hustle
What he did to survive when he went out on his own
How a mentor and his best friend changed his path
Why everything happens for a reason
What it means to have a supportive spouse and caring business partner
Keep up with Chris’s latest videos on the Weartesters YouTube channel, checkout their Instagram feed, and support him by subscribing to the Weartesters’ members-only Discord.
