{"id":10744,"date":"2014-09-01T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/creative.clemson.edu\/clemsonworld\/?p=10744"},"modified":"2014-09-01T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T11:00:09","slug":"oobe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/oobe\/","title":{"rendered":"OOBE: A word, reimagined, becomes a blueprint for business and life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nTHE GENESIS OF THE APPAREL COMPANY OOBE, strange as it may seem, was an infomercial for the Psychic Friends Network, hosted by Dionne Warwick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Mike

Mike Pereyo and Tom Merritt<\/p><\/div>
\nStudents at Clemson, Tom Merritt and Mike Pereyo were hanging out at the lake with their soon-to-be spouses Allyison Clark \u201992 and Melissa Magee \u201992. Merritt was cooking steaks, and they were halfway listening to a Psychic Friends infomercial when someone started talking about having an out-of- body experience, an \u201coobe.\u201d
\nThat caught their attention. \u201cWe had come to faith a couple of years earlier,\u201d says Merritt. \u201cSpiritual things were a big deal to us.\u201d
\nIt started a conversation about a different kind of \u201coobe\u201d: an out-of- Bible experience. \u201cThat\u2019s been our ultimate experience since we came to Clemson,\u201d says Pereyo.
\n

<\/div>They coined the word and began using it, and their friends picked it up as well. An \u201coobe\u201d day for Merritt and Pereyo was the kind of day you\u2019d have if you were going to skip class (not that they would recommend that) and go to Whitewater Falls. Or if you played ball at Fike and were hitting every shot. The kind of day that makes you feel like you\u2019re doing what you were born to do.
\n\u201cIt was our ultimate-day experience,\u201d says Pereyo, \u201cand Tom just wore that word out.\u201d<\/p>\n

HEADS OR TAILS?<\/h3>\n

 
\nFast forward several years. Both were married and working, Merritt as a high school counselor and coach in Easley with two small children, Pereyo in a corporate job in Charlotte with a baby on the way.
\n 
\n\u201cWe recognized that we were entrepreneurs at heart, having grown up watching our dads either go from the bottom to the top like [Pereyo\u2019s] dad in a real boot-strap-type story, and my dad had a dairy farm before getting into the landscaping business and figuring it out,\u201d Merritt said. \u201cSo we both had this itch that we had to create and do something.
\nMerritt can\u2019t help but laugh when he recalls the one particular phone call on April 29, 1994, that served as their future-company\u2019s first springboard.
\nPereyo had called to say, \u201cWe\u2019re incorporated. You owe me half of $300.\u201d \u201cAwesome. What\u2019s our corporate name?\u201d
\n

\"The<\/a>

The window frame from that first office is framed and on the wall of the 105-B conference room.<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI just put OOBE.\u201d
\n\u201cBrilliant!\u201d
\n\u201cAre you in or are you out?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m in.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s great!\u201d
\n\u201cWhat do we do?\u201d
\n\u201cI have no idea. That\u2019s why I called you.\u201d
\nThat phone call led to months of meetings at a Waffle House halfway between Charlotte and Easley, where they begin to imagine what OOBE would look like, crafting a business plan for what they saw as their niche: a segment of the outdoor industry that had to do with apparel. After a year, they handed in their resignations on the same day and moved into their first office: a rundown auto body shop in Easley that rented for $50 a month.
\nThey bought two desks and a FAX machine, had two OOBE bags made along with their first T-shirt samples and caps. \u201cFor the first several months,\u201d says Pereyo, \u201cwhile samples were being made, we called every outdoor store within driving distance several times a week, asking them if they carried OOBE.\u201d
\n\"oobe_files\"When the samples were done, they packed the car and started driving. When they\u2019d introduce themselves as being from OOBE, the response was, \u201cOh, folks have been calling for that. Come on in.\u201d
\nMerritt ticks off the names of those outdoor specialty shops that were early adopters: Sunrift Adventures, Halfmoon Outfitters, Highcountry, Outdoor Experience. \u201cThey took a chance on us,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are such a part of our story.\u201d
\nAs the business began to grow, they realized they needed to divide responsibilities. They swear it\u2019s a true story: [pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]\u201cWe flipped a coin,\u201d says Pereyo. \u201cHeads, you\u2019re in charge of sales, marketing, business development. Tails is design, sourcing, all of that. The way it landed, it\u2019s still that today. It\u2019s really worked.\u201d[\/pullquote]
\n\u201cMike,\u201d says Merritt, \u201cwent into management.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMING BACK TO TIGERTOWN<\/h3>\n

That approach is no more conventional than the way they raised enough capital to move forward. When they were selling out of their cars to outdoor stores, Merritt began stopping by dive shops and selling scuba diving-themed shirts. It seemed to be a successful ploy, so they created \u201cDive Jive, the company that wants to go under,\u201d with a series of shirts and hats sporting phrases like \u201cZero Visibility,\u201d Deep= High and \u201cDeep Thinker.\u201d [pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#685C53′]They went to the Jockey Lot in Anderson, bought tanks, a velvet Elvis, plywood and lava lamps, then drove to New Orleans and set up a booth at an international dive show.[pullquote]
\nThe result? \u201cWe wrote 6 figures worth of orders,\u201d says Pereyo, \u201cand that gave us the capital to get OOBE off the ground.\u201d
\nSitting in the auto body shop, handwriting invoices on carbon paper, Merritt and Pereyo realized they needed help to move their company to the next level. They drove to Clemson\u2019s Small Business Development Center with their yellow legal pad to meet with Becky Hobart (now Van Evera). When she asked to see their financials and their balance sheet, they handed her the yellow legal pad.
\n[pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’ color=’#685C53′]\u201cThey were a super dynamic couple of guys,\u201d she says. \u201cMy job entailed taking them and tying them to the ground so they could get from where they were to where they wanted to be.\u201d[\/pullquote]
\nAt that point, says Pereyo, the BSDC \u201cwrapped their arms around us and helped us put together a strong financial model.\u201d
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t get very far in our story,\u201d says Merritt, \u201cwithout coming back to Tigertown.\u201d Pereyo concurs. \u201cClemson engaged in the OOBE story and has pretty deep roots in there for the past 20 years.\u201d
\nNot long after, Van Evera and Clemson successfully nominated the pair as Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. But they\u2019ve never been able to take themselves seriously for too long. They got up to receive the award, and the first thing out of Merritt\u2019s mouth was, \u201cWho came in second? Or were we the only ones?\u201d
\nThe award paved the way for their first loan from the Small Business Administration, which enabled them to get over a bump in the road and on their way.<\/p>\n

IT TAKES A VILLAGE<\/h3>\n

\"oobe_clothing\"The corporate offices of OOBE that overlook the Reedy River in Greenville are a far cry from the Easley body shop. But beginnings are important, and Pereyo and Merritt make a point of remembering theirs. The window from that first office is framed and on the wall of the 105-B conference room, a gift last year from their current OOBE family. The name of the room refers to 105-B Hollow Oaks Lane, the address of the body shop.
\nThey have no sales force, no business development staff. That money and energy, according to Pereyo, goes into the service strategy instead: treating people well and exceeding their expectations. They want to have partners, not customers, who will become storytellers and ambassadors on their behalf. \u201cOur customers are our sales staff if we treat them well,\u201d he says.
\nIt\u2019s a philosophy that sounds like it reflects a small business with four or five employees, not one that outfits the employees of companies like Chick-fil-A, Krispy Kreme and Race Trac and has three offshore offices.
\n\"oobe_MikeBut it\u2019s a philosophy that fits Pereyo and Merritt, who have run a business together for 20 years with the kind of love, respect and trust that most people reserve for their spouses. \u201cIf you really want to make a relationship work,\u201d says Merritt, \u201cit\u2019s got to be about the other person at some point. If it\u2019s always about you, that gets old in a hurry, in a marriage or a business partnership. It\u2019s never been about what can I maximize personally, but what we want to do next, and what does God want us to do.\u201d
\n[pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]They\u2019ve known each other long enough and worked together enough that they finish each other\u2019s sentences.[\/pullquote] Which is somewhat the secret of their success. They have a firm understanding that no decision goes forward that they don\u2019t both feel good about.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve always been on the same trajectory,\u201d says Pereyo. \u201cWe want to honor God; God doesn\u2019t honor greed or selfish ambition. For us, it\u2019s more about people than a product.\u201d
\nThey dote on OOBE like an only child. \u201cIt feels like parenting in some ways,\u201d says Merritt. It\u2019s something we desperately want to grow up and do well without it becoming an idol.\u201d
\nAnd now, with OOBE\u2019s growth, there\u2019s a village raising that child. \u201cThere are people here taking care of OOBE in ways we are not capable of doing. As a parent who birthed the company, that\u2019s one of the coolest things in the world \u2014 to see other people love the company and want to do right by it. There might be something here other than just schlepping clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n

AN OOBE APPROACH TO BUSINESS<\/h3>\n

Ten years ago, Merritt and Pereyo took OOBE in a new direction, positioning themselves \u201cas a strategic branded apparel company specifically looking to provide the world\u2019s best brands with large-scale uniform services.\u201d
\nThat leap, like most things in their company, comes with a story filled with self-deprecating humor. They had worked with Chick-fil-A in smaller ways, providing clothing for special events, when they found out the company had issued an RFP for uniforms.
\nPereyo called the corporate office and spoke with the vice president handling the RFP. The questions came like quickly:
\nHave you every shipped to 100,000 employees before?
\nDo you have a customer service department?
\nDo you have a warehouse?
\nCan you pass financial due diligence?
\nIs this contract bigger than your whole company?
\n\"oobe_TomThe answer to all of those, except the last one, was no. The question that followed was this: \u201cThen why should we include you in the RFP?\u201d
\nPereyo\u2019s response? \u201cBecause we\u2019re NOT a uniform company. We\u2019re a strategic branded company.\u201d
\n\u201cWe changed the battlefield,\u201d says Merritt. \u201cWe clearly focused on their team members, providing them a better product, leveraging performance fabrics, helping the team members feel better about themselves so they could provide better service.\u201d That answer resonated with Chick-fil-A.
\n[pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]Chick-fil-A was followed by a number of other companies and organizations: a wall at the Greenville office sports logos of their clients including YMCA, BMW, Race Trac, Herschend Family Entertainment, among others.[\/pullquote] They\u2019re deliberate about which companies they pitch: \u201cWe want to align ourselves with companies that value the same things we value,\u201d says Merritt.
\nIn the midst of this shift, something seemed to click for OOBE. Pereyo sees it as an OOBE moment of a sort, where the owners and the company shifted from a focus on themselves and building their brand to focusing on others. \u201cWhen we put others first, and put ourselves behind them, we were able to move forward and help propel these great companies. That\u2019s when we found success. That\u2019s servant leadership. That\u2019s where God allowed us to succeed \u2014 not when it was all about us.\u201d
\nThere are other organizations that might not be on the wall, but who have been beneficiaries of OOBE\u2019s commitment to give back. They outfitted all the teachers in Greenville, Pickens and Anderson counties with branded shirts. And they recently provided the Clemson student tour guides with branded apparel that the guides say makes them feel more professional. \u201cAt this stage of life,\u201d says Merritt, \u201cwe have to be focused about what we give our time and energy. Family and church are really important to us. But Clemson has won a place in our hearts as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAITH, FAMILY AND FRIENDSHIP<\/h3>\n

OOBE hit its 20th year recently, and it was an emotional milestone. Neither Pereyo nor Merritt can (or wants to) imagine what it would be like to have gone it alone these past 20 years.
\nIn the company celebration, Merritt told the staff that it was their relationship and the support of their wives that kept them pushing the ball up the hill all these years.
\nPereyo calls Merritt a truth teller, one of the few people who will unabashedly speak the truth to him. \u201cHe gets to speak whether I like to hear it or not. It creates friction, but I come around to \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re right.\u2019 Few people, except Melissa, know me better.\u201d
\nMerritt characterizes Pereyo as an encourager in his life. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s been a massive blessing to have a partner. If he was down, I was up. If I was down, he was up.\u201d
\n[pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’ color=’#3A4958′]As they talk and tell stories, it\u2019s clear that faith, family and friendship (plus humor) are all intertwined in their lives and in the story of OOBE, and there\u2019s really no way to separate them.[\/pullquote]
\nMore and more often, they\u2019re asked to share the story of their company and their personal partnership. Recently, they were invited to speak to the Clemson Alumni group in Atlanta. On the ride down, they were talking about the upcoming presentation.
\nPereyo looked over at Merritt and said, \u201cTom, do you know the common denominator of every mistake we\u2019ve made with OOBE? It\u2019s us!\u201d
\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>
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