Nolan Walsh and Connor Wilson founded Thursday in 2014 during business school. The two took a springtime surf trip to Nicaragua, which ultimately changed their lives by offering unexpected but penetrating clarity into the future of footwear. There was a gap in the market, and through a chance encounter with the bespoke version of their idyllic boot, which they had been unable to find, they made it their mission to introduce versatile boot styles at honest prices to the market at large. We sat down with Nolan to hear more about Thursday’s serendipitous inception.
TB:
When did you and Connor first meet?
NW:
Connor and I met the first day at Columbia Business School in the fall of 2013. We were in the same cluster and had a lot of respect for each other. We did a few projects together, had a lot of fun, and started hanging out on the weekends.
TB:
How did your surf trip to Nicaragua turn you into bootmakers?
NW:
We had both spent the winter looking for the right pair of boots. We saw every option on the market, but everything was either too expensive, or too cheap and liable to fall apart. Aesthetically, we only saw too-cool-for-school fashion boots or bulbous, heavy work boots. We really felt like the early versions of Goldilocks. We just couldn’t find the right version of boots for us. We didn’t know what to do about it at the time, and we didn’t really realize this problem was something we could start a business around.
For spring break we took a surf trip to Nicaragua. While we were there, we saw a guy wearing boots in the style that we had been looking for. It has a clean silhouette with no external logos and the toe wasn’t too bulbous. It had that nice blend of a high fashion boot in a work boot, so I asked him where he got them. He said he got them in a small town in Guatemala. He couldn’t remember the name of the town, but his friend he’d met traveling lived there and was making boots.
Connor and I did some research on Guatemala and found this small town that’s full of cobblers, called Pastores. I went on Facebook and looked up friends that had gone there. This guy I knew, who I had sailed from Panama to Columbia with, had been. So, I asked him about Pastores. He said, “My mate’s there and he’s making boots and selling them in Australia. I’ll connect you.” It turns out, he was the guy we had just met in Nicaragua’s friend. We connected with his bootmaker and made about 20 boot samples in Pastores. We flew back to the U.S. and posted them on Etsy. They went kind of mini-viral. That’s when Connor and I were like, “Oh wow, maybe we can actually do this.”
TB:
What convinced you to manufacture in North America?
NW:
After our trip to Guatemala, we contacted factories all over the globe. Everywhere. We probably spoke to at least 200 boot manufacturers. We identified León Guanajuato in Mexico as a place where we could make high quality products. They had all of the infrastructure for good footwear, right within the city. This is important so that everything happens in sync, which is better for the final product as well as the environment.
We found some factories there. We made samples with some very small manufacturers but they were way better than the ones in Guatemala. The factories in Guatemala: A. Don’t have the infrastructure for volume (they’re tiny shops). And B. They don’t have any quality control processes.
TB:
How did you find your manufacturing partners in León?
NW:
We brought our samples from Guatemala to meetings with the top-tier manufacturers, who built products for a lot of top legacy brands, and found a great partner. They had the same philosophical priorities we had in terms of ethical sourcing, fair labor, and high quality goods. We convinced them to make about $250,000 worth of boots, with $40,000 up front, which is all we had. Luckily, it worked out.
This was a passion project, which we didn’t approach from a financial standpoint. We came at it with the perspective of, “Bootmaking is so cool and if we’re able to just learn something here and have fun, that would be great.”
TB:
When did you launch your Kickstarter campaign?
NW:
I went to Pastores in late April 2014. We launched in October 2014. So, the company’s inception happened in a short period of time. We were working seven days a week, so everything was really happening all at once. While we were working on the product and learning everything we could about leather, and running sample after sample to get what we wanted, we started building out a Kickstarter. We called everyone we knew who had done a Kickstarter for tips. We emailed those people and offered to meet. Very few people took us up on that meeting [laughs], but the people who did were very helpful.
We came at it knowing that it would have to be very low budget. Our whole production budget was like $2,500. We produced our own video, which featured our friends, and wrote all of the copy ourselves. We treated it like we were starting a family. If you’re having a baby, you want to tell everybody and keep them involved. That mentality of community engagement helped us have a successful launch.
TB:
Did you see Thursday as a viable business venture at this point?
NW:
This was a passion project, which we didn’t approach from a financial standpoint. We came at it with the perspective of, “Bootmaking is so cool and if we’re able to just learn something here and have fun, that would be great.” I think that attitude ultimately really attracted people to the brand. I think as we’ve grown up as a brand, maintaining some of that free-flow culture is something that I really appreciate.
TB:
What was your day-to-day schedule like early on?
NW:
Well, I single-handedly built the first website. Apologies to anyone who visited it. I’ll happily recognize it wasn’t the best. But, we were working out of my living room and Columbia, so our first events were at my apartment. The first month was quite successful. We had about $300,000 dollars in sales. It really validated us. We thought, “OK, this is something we can really do as a job after school.”
TB:
When did you start recruiting staff members?
NW:
As we were doing everything ourselves, including the customer service, we hired Alicia, who’s our Chief Care Officer. She was a good friend of mine who I’d know for about five years. She said she loved what we were doing and that she wanted to help. That sounded great to me. We were able to pay her but Connor and I didn’t take a salary that first year.
Darnell is another person I probably knew for four or five years before he joined us at Thursday. I was with him one day and asked him if he knew anyone who could help with marketing. He said, “I could do that!” So, that’s how he came on.
Just before this, Rich Carelli also joined the team. He was a year younger than us at Columbia, and he came on as a supply chain intern. The growth of our team was very organic.
TB:
Do you think building from the ground up was fundamental to your success?
NW:
We were aware of the pitfalls of typical venture capitalist private equity. We knew we wanted to build a business with our values. We didn’t want to just pump a bunch of money into it and be very margin-focused. That wasn’t the business we wanted to build. Instead, we worked piece by piece.
We don’t play games with our customers in the form of sales and discounts. To this day, we haven’t had a single traditional sale event. We’re serious about the product and we’re serious about treating our customers with respect.
TB:
What distinguishes Thursday Boots stylistically?
NW:
From the product perspective, we’re well encapsulated by the name ‘Thursday.’ It’s a day that we can work hard, but it’s also the unofficial start of the weekend. We make products with that versatility in mind — comfortable and durable footwear with clean designs — so you feel good, no matter where the day takes you.
TB:
You have a unique sales approach. Can you explain it?
NW:
From a philosophy standpoint, we really wanted to build a business we were proud of, which to us meant giving customers genuinely good value. We don’t play games with our customers in the form of sales and discounts. To this day, we haven’t had a single traditional sale event. We’re serious about the product and we’re serious about treating our customers with respect. But we also like to have fun, meaning that we don’t want to be one-dimensional.
TB:
What’s the most unique aspect of your production process?
NW:
I think our commitment to quality is what really separates us. We have three people in the factory whose job it is to oversee quality control. Many other brands often don’t have anybody there for that purpose. Because of all we’ve done in that regard, we improve with every production run.
TB:
What’s next for Thursday?
NW:
Using customer feedback, we’re constantly testing and evaluating new products. While my lips are sealed regarding specifics, we have several exciting new projects underway. What I will say is that, no matter how big Thursday gets, our appreciation for the Team Thursday community is boundless. We’ve built a special little family, which includes our loyal customers, and we want that sense of community to last forever.
