Corporate's Matt Tomamichel Talks Air Ship Collaboration, Cincinnati, and More
Corporate’s Matt Tomamichel has been a busy man as of late. While he’s gearing up for the release later this week, it took decades to get here. We were fortunate to talk to Matt about a plethora of topics, ranging from how the collaboration got together, taking inspiration from Dave Chappelle, the special relationship between the Jumpman and the city of Cincinnati, and more.
(Note: this interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Sneaker Freaker: First thing, congratulations. The next thing is how did you get to roll out the Air Ship without it getting leaked? In today’s day and age, it seems almost impossible. And how does it feel to get to roll out the Corporate x Air Ship the way you wanted it to?
Matt: To be honest, not getting the sneaker leaked was the biggest thing for me. We've all read about artists when they share the first time they released their first album right? Then you have stories where they say ‘I had to stop these guys from bootlegging me, I had to do all these crazy things,’ that’s how it felt.
The Jordan Brand team really set me up for success by telling me to do a few things like not putting Corporate on the box, or put it in the description, it was just SP which stands for Special Projects.
The paranoia kind of loomed over me since around April. But they were preparing me pretty much every week, going through every touch point in the process. They warned me, saying the shoe could leak this week, the more people that are seeing it in-house and someone could feel the need to leak it. I'm like, nah, I got faith, we’re going to do this the right way.
We did it on our own time. We were able to debut it in front of people who supported us in our community, which is super important to me. Felt like they should definitely have the first preview you know? That was super special to me, I'll never forget that.
SF: When did you get the call from Jordan Brand saying ‘Hey, we want to do something with you on a colab’?
Matt: We did the Air Jordan 1 ‘Rebellionaire’ launch in March of last year so when that happened, it went across all the platforms and everybody was sharing it, giving us love for it. But man, I'll be honest, I went back and forth and was just like, ‘Dang, did I not strike while the iron's hot? Did I not ask for my next assignment? Should I have done that?’ So you're left to kind of wonder.
I saw something get dropped on my calendar for a call for this day. They were celebrating Rebellionaire there so much at Jordan Brand, I just thought that it was just like another Rebellionaire talk, to be honest. I go into the meeting and they're like, ‘What do you think about the Air Ship?’
They laid out the journey of where they wanted to go with the next Air Ships, it was the TB colourways, White/Yellow, White/Orange, White/Green. It'll be about eight of y'all that are on this program, we believe in y'all. Then they asked, ‘What do you think about collaborating on one?’ Yeah, now you got my attention, I believe we can blow up this Air Ship thing.
So in June 2022, we had our first design meeting of the Air Ship, it was a great session. But have you ever gotten into something and you're like, ‘Man, I'm glad I just made it out’? That's how it was. I was very laid back, just liking everything they were showing me. I just kept agreeing with everything and wasn't really saying no. It really felt like the first-day jitters. I felt like I didn't I didn't take control of the meeting the way that I wished I could have.
Then in July, I was set back to go to campus for a retailer summit. But the night before my flight, I had ruptured my Achilles. So I ruptured my Achilles on Sunday night, and at six in the morning, I was at the doctor’s office. I got clearance to fly that afternoon and get taken to the airport by my wife and I'm in a wheelchair.
The two days that I'm there, it hurt so bad and I couldn’t stop thinking about the pain. But at the same time, I had Don C come by and he was just like, ‘I'm sorry about your leg, but man, you’re killing it, you gotta keep going.’ When you have a guy like Don C telling you you're doing great work, you can't do nothing but recognise it. I had so many people speaking life into me and on the flight home, I just started talking about the Air Ship to myself in my notebook. What do I really want to see from this collaboration?
I walked into the next meeting and I said I really want to take this in a different direction. I'm not doing myself justice, I'm not doing you guys justice, I'm not doing the International Flight Club justice. Let me tell you about Cincinnati for real.
I started talking about the way that our city was coming together and felt like the community really got me through it. The ruptured Achilles, my dad passing, Rebellionaire drop and the way that they rallied around us and really supported us, that's what's going to get us through. That’s what’s going to leave the biggest mark, community.
I just started telling them from a colourway perspective, I'm thinking teal. It could be almost like a rebranding moment, away from the black and red of the Cincinnati Bearcats. That's what I led with colour. I'm fortunate enough that I've been to the bespoke lab and saw and felt all the materials.
I knew what I would want in a product. I want really rich suede, nubuck, patent, embroidery, etc. I'm one for details and Easter eggs. There’s messages like ‘We Did It OP’, who was one of my best friends growing up and he was probably one of the first people to tell me you should go open your own shop. I just want to pay homage to him with this and he lives on through it. We all probably have that person that just believes in us first and I just wanted him to know that he's with me in my journey.
On the right shoe, it says ‘Love You Larry’, which is a tribute to my dad. On the back obviously got ‘Got Em’, kind of just that branding of Corporate. If you never visited Corporate, you’ll probably visit Corporategotem.com. The card that comes with the shoe is just a message to a 16-year-old me and the journey that got me here.
SF: So when you decided to jump ship from Footaction to start Corporate, what were the biggest growing pains? Can you give us some stories about how it all kind of got started and what the milestones were to get to where you're at today?
Matt: My background came from working at Lids, working at Footaction, working at Express, just kind of culminating all those experiences. What do they do really well and what do they need to improve on?
For me, you have to care about the customer. If you don't care about the customer, they could shop anywhere else, right? So I just took that as my formal education. Before I jumped out from Footaction, I was actually building out Corporate at the same time. I was building my store and still working part-time at Footaction.
I call my dad, he’s the guy that was in my life the most. We all huddled up and put the floor in at Corporate and just made do with what I had. I didn't take out any loans but I'm going to make this happen and we'll figure it out along the way. That was kind of my attitude for the first three years.
The first three years of any business, they say it's the hardest, I was on credit hold consistently. At the end of that three year lease, I made the decision to move down to Hyde Park, which is more centrally located in Cincinnati. It became the hub of the community and that was like the first big milestone, reestablishing myself and making sure that people gave us a chance again.
Another three years went by and the store needed to get better looking so I took out a loan. This time after I could show a bank that I had six years under my belt. I took out a loan and I got a call from them like, ‘Hey, you've been approved for more money over a longer period of time. We believe in you.’ Those personal cosigns got me to where I'm at. I didn't go in there with A1 credit, but because of the relationships that I made with the people at the bank, seeing me every day bringing in the deposit myself.
When the pandemic hit, I was wondering how do you stay personable through a time where you can't even touch somebody? During that time, I was heavily inspired by Dave Chappelle. I got to go out to the field where he was performing and he was just showing social distancing practices. I brought that straight back to my releases, and Jordan Brand were eyeing me at that time. They were like, ‘You were one of the first people we heard ever talk about the community, and then you were one of the first people to show us how we could navigate social distancing and do releases to make sure people are safe.’
When my number got called for Rebellionaire, it was at that time where I lost my dad and I damn near didn't even do it. But my wife, my community, my friends, they were telling me I have to keep going and we crushed that activation.
Yeah, man, that's that's how we got here. Even with the injury last year, I feel like it just taught me even more as a leader that I have the team I can lean on around me. I have people that can carry the load when I can't myself. In the last year we've been able to expand our operation. We have a distribution center now, we opened our third door, it's just all things that have come together because of the teamwork that we have and our community. Super proud of that man. The Corporate team is not a team, it's a family man.
SF: It's a cool journey to witness. So, for the readers and people out here who don't know the relationship between Jordan Brand and Cincinnati, can you speak to why it’s so special?
Matt: Ever since I was a kid, the Cincinnati Bearcats, rocking the black and red, were the dopest team in college basketball, and it still is to this day. If you ask some in Cincinnati what they’re favourite brand is, they’re probably going to say Jordan Brand because they grew up with the Jumpman. That’s what we told Jordan Brand when they re-signed the Bearcats, a lot of these people haven't forgotten. The searches for Cincinnati Jordan Brand gear are still crazy. I've got close to 100 pieces of vintage Jordan Brand Bearcats merchandise because that's what I grew up on.
SF: This is obviously a huge moment for you and Corporate, another milestone. So if you believe in manifestation and putting things out there, what do you want for Corporate in the near future?
Matt: I mean, I want to continue to be able to connect my community to the brand. I want to be able to have our Bigger than Sneakers program and be led by Jordan Brand. I want people to understand that we're aligned with them because of greatness, not because we got family or whatever. It's because we've truly proven ourselves.
I want these partnerships to continue. I want to be able to be tapped at any moment and say, ‘Matt, we need this product to be given some energy’. Whether that's how we connect to the next consumer, which is my three year old daughter. I got to start thinking about how does she connect to Jordan Brand? It can't just be through retro, she has to find her own connection. I want my business to continue, then we have to be willing to find that next spark.
From a Corporate perspective, I'd love to continue to collaborate. I feel like, you know, the brand is in good hands when I'm around, they know that I'm going to make the right choices and I'm going give a million per cent to anything that we work on. I hope that they just know that. For my community, I hope that they understand that just because I'm the guy right now, I don't have to be the guy forever. I would gladly pass it to the next person to go further, you know? I hope that they understand that. I just wanted to do this so I could show people that it could be done and now it's kind of up to them to take it further, man. That's my ultimate goal.
Much thanks to Matt for taking time out of his busy day to talk to Sneaker Freaker. The Corporate x Jordan Air Ship is set to drop on September 8 at Corporate locations in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Indianapolis on a first come first serve basis, with an online drop to follow on .