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Interviews Sam Schulte is the man behind Tree Bicycle Company. The company responsible for bringing 7075 to mainstream BMX. Forcing many companies to follow suit. What's your name, age and location? Samuel James Schulte and I am 24 years old. I have lived in St. Louis, Missouri all my life. How did it all get started? What got you into riding? When I was in grade school my friends and I would ride our bikes in the river water that flooded a street by my house every time it rained. We jumped all the best curbs in the neighborhood and build a small jump out of a hill. I would bring my bike to the country with me when I visited my dad so I could ride fast on the gravel roads. I rode with a couple of kids down there and one day when we were hanging out at their house they gave me a BMX Plus!. I was stoked and read it several times. I eventually convinced my mom to get me a subscription. I the second issue I received there was an article that described how to get in to BMX racing. I ordered a Flite padset and Bomber number plate the next week! Actually the Flite padset was out of stock at the time so I waited 3 weeks for them because the Flite pads were the cheapest (my mother was very thrifty). I started racing when I was 13 and raced until I was 17, I was always riding trails and started to get more interested in freestyle because I could do it whenever I wanted instead of just on Friday and Sunday night. I was working at a fast food restaurant when I was 16. This place had a real fun bank transition behind it that I always rode. I was taking the trash out one day and there was a kid riding a Hoffman his name was Burks, I met him and we rode together a few days later. I stopped racing and got to ride everyday with Burks and his friends. These guys ended up being my best friends. There are 11 of us and we called ourselves the Dingalings. Tree came about from me not paying attention in school. In Junior High instead of taking notes I was drawing bike parts! I always saw what parts were available and I would think of all the ways to improve them. I would stare at catalogs and dream up how I thought the ultimate frame would be or pedals or stem etc… I took a drafting class in high school, and I drew stem that I had a machinist make for me. After High School I went to college because that's what you suppose to do. I was bored with it and they didn't really have any classes that I thought were very beneficial. I realized that if I wanted to learn something I could research it or get a book about it and learn more about it in a month than in a semester. They always dragged everything out in school. So I convinced my mom to back be up on starting a bike company. Instead her paying my tuition so I could get an education and then a get a job to work for someone, she just used that money directly to help me start my own career. Who and what is involved in running Tree? What're the best and worst bits of holding up the company? Tree is currently run by me and my friend Andy Chapman. Andy takes care of packaging product, assembly of parts, shipping, and computer problems. I design parts, answer emails, answer the phone, deal with the piles of papers that stack up on my desk, and anything else that you could imagine. The best part about doing my own bike company is that I get to design whatever I want and I don't have to run it by anybody. The worst part is trying to figure out how to get to the bottom of my stack papers and things to do list. How does a part flow from an idea into reality? It starts from a problem with a way a part is currently made. It provokes me to think of a way to design a part that doesn't have this problem. I think about then draw sketches, then I take measurements on the part, more sketches, take sketch drawings and draw them in Auto CAD on the computer, make drafts with exact dimensions and send them to a machinist, machinist make prototypes, ride the parts, change some stuff, go into production!
What products do you make and what are the main priorities in their design? My number one goal is to make bike parts that you don't have to worry about breaking. I want to make the bike something you can beat the shit out of and not have to worry about taking care of it. So you don't have to think, I would like to grind that guardrail but I don't want to break my spokes. I design the parts with round edges to keep you from getting cut up when wrecking. Also make the parts light. What's fuelled Tree to grow into what it is today? One of the things that always bothered me is when I look at ads of bike companies they would sometimes try to say that there products were better than the rest but they where putting out pretty much the same stuff as any other company. That always turned me off. So I decided to instead of putting all of our energy into advertising trying to convince people we make the best parts I would just put all my energy into making the best parts. I put the word out about Tree by working at Woodward in the summer and going to contest, I would hand out flyers and stickers and tell people what were making and why were making it. To me this way it is more personal than advertising in magazines. This way everything is word of mouth if people like Tree stuff they'll talk about it and if they don't they won't. Where do you see Tree going in the future? And more broadly, BMX parts and manufacturing? Hopefully Tree in the future will be able to come out with my ideas faster! I would like to have our own CNC machines so we can have full control over manufacturing. Our parts will be even more refined. I have lots of ideas I just need money and time. For all BMX manufacturing everyone is getting more refined, all of the bugs are getting worked out. Who're your friends and people you'd like to give a mention to? I would like to mention my Mother, thank you mom for believing in me. Thank you to the Dingalings, thank you guys for showing me all the great times and being my best friends. Thank you Andy for putting up with me!
The next questions were submitted by people on Bg. Some are the average rider, some are industry representatives. From Wolverine I have ideas for every part on the bike; it's just a matter of time. Are you still running that ridiculous lever? Which ridiculous lever are you talking about? If you mean the purple one yeah; plus I modified it some more so it has more pulling distance. Have you ever owned a pair of UFO pants? No From Fatboy I think. I read books; I read a lot about health and I read about anarchy and our government. I hang out with my friends. So damn many people like your company, what do you think attributes most to this? I guess it my sincerity and truthfulness. I don't want to bullshit anybody because people are tired of being let down in this society. I'm trying to make the best parts I can think of so people like that.
From Bink We had these trails called Mack trails, I was jumping through this new 6 six pack we made which was still soft. On the last double I was trying to nose dive to clear my back tire but I wasn't going to clear it so I took my feet off and rack myself on the stem and headset cap. It hurt bad, when I checked everything out little Sam had a layer of skin scraped off of it. Ha are you sorry you asked now?
From Dex Its coming very slowly, I'm traveling a lot and when I get back to work there's a weeks worth of things to do built up. As far as when to expect it it will be a long time. Even after we get the prototypes we are going to test them for a year to make sure all the ideas I have actually work! From Nuno (Odyssey BMX) They rule! The other day I did a superman and slipped the pedal hard. But it didn't hurt cause the pedal is plastic! From RideFour15 I wanted to remind people of nature for second. The parts that I make I want to last a long time so the same thing isn't bought over and over as well as thrown away over and over.
From Ben133 Yes but I have no date for it at all. From Annoying jeff I love him?
From Thepoolman We are actually making 25 and 28 tooth sprockets again; they will be available in a month. I hard such a bad experience with 25/9 that I didn't want to make them but a lot of people have been having a OK time with the ratio. The whole craze came out so quick and I didn't want to push the craze by offering those sizes when I seen problems with it. I still think 30/11 is the smallest size to go down to but this way at least our sprockets will be available to those who want them. Plus we are actually going to make every size from 24-40 tooth and they will be available in 5 months. So people can make what ever gear ratio they want. From Strong Bad I don't have any plans for that. From Klumick What do you think? I saw Bupsy last weekend and he was just as gorgeous as ever. From Ignitor Everything is CNC machined Do you have any engineering background? Not necessarily I've just been mechanically inclined I always thought the structure of objects. How did you learn your skills? By doing things, hands on physically and in life. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? In a tropical paradise, barefoot. Living in the country with trails and close friends near.
From Redface (Tom from Empire BMX) We both know why. Its because its much scarier in real life than it was when we were imagining what it would look like. I did commit to it and I am running it and I'm not afraid of it and I think that shows I'm not a pussy.
From Fatboy (Again) It could be from wearing tight underwear and riding all day, which allows for the build up of sweat and bacteria.
From El Pollo No not in the way that you are referring to. How many "that's gay" comments have you received about your stickers, hoodies and shirts? Surprisingly none! I figured people would be saying that a lot since most of the art designs in BMX are heavy metal and tough. And we come out with stars on pink shirts. Music sharing? Yes or No? Yes
From Crazyotto This will need some explaining. Three years ago I was reading a book about expanding the mental genius and at the end of the book it was going through the about of sleep to get and what food to eat. He was talking about eating fresh and alive vegetarian food. So I tried to eat as healthy as I possibly could for one week just to see how I would feel. Eating this way made me feel clean, that summer I was sweating and the sweat seemed like pure water. So I've been eating a near vegan diet ever since then. Last fall I was thinking about a lot more about eating only fresh fruit and vegetables because it makes sense to me that that would be mans natural diet. I read about raw foodist and how they had tremendous health benefits from eating only raw uncooked fresh food. They've cured themselves of everything from asthma to AIDS by eating a natural diet. Since December 03' I've been only eating raw and it is amazing to me. It's like lifting a cloud off of me, my sense of sight, smell, hearing, and tastes have been enhanced like they were clogged up before. My personal confidence has risen and I feel more courageous. Why does Andy look like Jack Osbourne? Its pure coincidence in body structure but his hair definitely makes for striking similarities. |
