About Rad Rowdies

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Hi, Im Steve, your friendly neighborhood Supreme Commander. Why Supreme Commander? It's my site, I can be whatever I want. CEO or Owner just didn't sounds right. Thats me in the photo on the right taken back in the very beginning. I only had 1 work bench in the corner of our basement in Edmonton, Alberta. Can you see the tools hanging on the wall? Ya, we didn't have much room back then.

I was born in Lancaster, California but I grew up in St.Albert, Alberta. I went to Bellerose High School when I wasn't skipping classes.

I've been a self taught computer nerd since the Vic 20, Commodore 64, and Apple computers came out. Im not just a nerd though. I also love to party! I used to host pub crawls, camp-out parties, and pretty much anything that would help a bunch of good people get stupid.

I started Rad Rowdies on January 1st 2003. Well at least that was the day I started programming the site. It was my first e-commerce setup so it was a total learning process. I had only made one or two sites before so it took me 6 months to get it running and then another 6 months of tweeking. The site you are looking at now is the 2nd generation. I remade everything from the database up. I hope you like it!

I've always been a lazy bum. I never really wanted a real job. Thats the whole basis behind Rad Rowdies. I get up every day at the crack of noon and do whatever I feel like all day! In fact, Im so lazy that I got my wife, Natalie, to take over the pressing and packing of the shirts. She even answers most of the e-mails now and does the taxes! That leaves me to work on more important things like drinking beers to make more room in the fridge and working on the website. Things run much smoother when she's around.

Why Rad Rowdies? Have you ever seen the 80's BMX movie RAD? Well it used to be my favorite movie back then. Crue Jones kicks ass on Hell Track! Him and his crew even sold t-shirts to raise money to qualify for the race. I used to be into BMX freestlyle growing up and I would watch that movie every day before I would go out riding. Thats where the RAD came from. The ROWDIES simply comes from me and my buddies being a bunch of "rowdies" when we go out drinking! I put the two together and came up with Rad Rowdies. The .com was available so the site was born!

Why T-Shirts? Back when I was hosting pub crawls, I started selling matching t-shirts to everyone on the bus. We would walk into a bar and everyone would take notice. One day a buddy was wearing one of my shirts at West Edmonton Mall (world largest mall just so you know). One of the store owners asked him about the shirt to see if he could sell them in his store. I brought the owner a few dozen and he sold them all. I asked the owner if I could return the favor and sell his shirts online. He agreed. I made the site and started selling. Within a few months he couldn't keep up with my sales. I had customers waiting weeks for their shirts! I couldn't have that! So I pulled out my credit card and started stocking my basement! And the rest is history...