In this episode of Retaili$tic, Deborah Weinswig interviews Mitch Modell, CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods, discussing the evolution of the company, challenges in the sporting goods industry, and the impact of major brands like Nike and Under Armour. They explore the importance of customer relationships, the rise of private labels, and the lessons learned from facing bankruptcy. Mitch shares insights on community engagement, health and wellness trends in retail, and the necessity of adaptability in a changing market. The conversation concludes with personal reflections and quick insights in a lightning round.
Video of this episode is here
Takeaways
Modell's was started by my great grandfather in 1889.
Our whole business was centered around the customer.
Nike's shift to direct-to-consumer changed the landscape.
Private labels became essential for survival.
Under Armour struggled to break into footwear.
Customer loyalty is built through community engagement.
Facing bankruptcy taught us valuable lessons.
Health and wellness trends are reshaping retail.
Adaptability is crucial in the retail industry.
The most precious thing we have is time.
Chapters
00:00 The Legacy of Modell's Sporting Goods
03:10 Adapting to Change in Retail
05:49 Challenges in the Sporting Goods Industry
08:13 The Rise and Fall of Under Armour
10:48 Dix's Dominance in the Market
13:08 Facing Financial Challenges
15:49 Lessons Learned from Bankruptcy
18:24 The Importance of Community and Culture
22:47 Customer-Centric Retailing
25:17 The Importance of In-Store Experience
26:33 Health and Wellness Trends in Retail
28:45 The Role of YPO in Business Growth
32:13 Personal Resilience and Health Awareness
36:03 Lightning Round: Insights from a Retail Leader
Philip Moore (00:00)
Welcome to Retaili$tic, the official podcast of Coresight Research for November 11, 2025. This week, CEO Deborah Weinswig welcomes another legend of commerce, Mitch Modell. They discuss the rise and fall of the country's oldest family-owned sporting goods store, the complicated relationship between brands and retailers, and the titanic impact AI will have on retail in the U.S.
But before we hear from the legend, Isla is here from the London office with highlights of the latest research, publishing this week on Coresight.com.
Isla Meldon (00:36)
This week, we're exploring some of the biggest developments shaping retail, technology, and consumer behaviour worldwide. We'll start with a look at how agentic AI is redefining commerce, showing how retailers can tap into the next wave of automation, create truly intelligent self-learning shopping experiences. Then we'll turn to China, where consumer confidence is rebounding, signalling a shift in spending habits and optimism, heading into the final stretch of the year.
And finally, we'll tackle a serious challenge for the industry, retail crime and shrink, with facial recognition tech on the rise, even as theft rates climb in parts of the UK. From cutting edge AI to shifting consumer trends and operational realities, this week's reports offer the insights you need to stay ahead.
Philip Moore (01:20)
Thanks, Isla. Now here's Deborah and Mitch.
Deborah Weinswig (01:23)
Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us today for another session of Retaili$tic. We are so honored to have my good friend Mitch Modell joining us. Mitch, thank you so much.
Mitchell Modell (01:32)
My pleasure. You know, I'm a big fan of your tappers.
Deborah Weinswig (01:35)
I appreciate that. So today we're going to dive deeply into Mitch's story. legacy leadership and lessons learned. And there's a lot to unpack. So we'll do our best to move it along and probably we'll need to have Mitch on for another episode because there's so much to cover. So Mitch, you bring us back to just the very beginning of Models?
And it was great preparing for this as I got to see a lot of black and white photos and whatnot. But maybe what was the catalyst to start the company from your family's perspective? And then did you have the same perspective or how do you think about the origins?
Mitchell Modell (02:15)
So the company was started by my great grandfather, Morris Modell, who had seven sons. One of the sons, Henry, was my grandfather. The six other sons, well, they all started in the Modell business, which was one store at 19 Courtland Street, downtown where the World Trade Center was. And it was a pushcart operation. He came from Russia, set up a pushcart when people came off Ellis Island.
He would sell haberdasheries, t-shirts, shorts, socks, and that's how we started. And so his son, Henry, then took us into the Army and Navy surplus business after World War I, when the government had so much surplus of military items, we decided to go into the military surplus days, and that's what we sold. We sold guns, ammo, camo, t-shirts, shorts.
that you could the military. Then he had a son, which was my father Bill, and he took us and 1963, when we had four stores, he bought the Vegas Sporting Goods stores. So we went from four stores to eight the Vegas purchase. And at the same time, he opened up an operation called Modell Shoppers World in 1954.
Deborah Weinswig (03:20)
Hmm.
Mitchell Modell (03:30)
which was really the start of the discount department stores before Walmart, Target, any of these names were heard. The only one that was heard was Kmart. They were our biggest competitor. And what it was, it was leased apartments within Modell's Sporting Goods. From there, we then took over, you know, Polly Brothers and Hermans and transitioned from Army and Navy Surplus to discount to Sporting Goods, what it was up until 2020.
Deborah Weinswig (03:55)
And as you saw that evolution of products sold, how did the relationship with the customer change and how did the customer themselves change?
Mitchell Modell (04:03)
Well, our whole business was centered around the customer. The customer was king. you know, as, styles, as the industry changed, we changed along with it. That's one of the biggest things in retail, being able to adapt to change, embracing change, embracing the consumers, you know, taste levels. Obviously Amazon changed the whole paradigm in retail. So it's an evolution.
an evolutionary process that retailers face with every day.
Deborah Weinswig (04:29)
And I just, can't, I can't wait. I can't help myself. I just have to jump in. Why, as I, once again, as I prepared for this pod and did a bunch of research on the sporting goods industry itself, it's, it's just littered with, you know, tragedy after tragedy. I think Models, right, really, if you look at it, made it unbelievably long.
compared to everybody else. Sports Authority went out and write 2016. Why is this industry so complex? Let's start there.
Mitchell Modell (04:58)
So in 2016, right, you had really three major players, four major players. You had Dix, you had Sports Authority, you had Big Five, and you had Academy. And then you had a lot of regional companies like us, ⁓ MC Sporting, Stunems, MVP Sports, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So what happened in 2016, Sports Authority went bankrupt.
And then six other companies within six months went bankrupt, MVP, MC Sports, Gallions. And so Nike got very, very nervous and said, listen, there's something going on in the sporting industry. Let's run the top 100 companies that we do business with around the world. And let's really diagnose who's late.
what's happening, how's the business. And that's when it all started to tumble. When they found out in 2017, when they did the analysis and they called me up and they go, is this Mitchell Modell? I said, yes. Hi, this is, I think his name was Steve. I'm the CFO from Nike. I go, wow, I never spoke to a CFO before of anybody, particularly Nike. I go, is there something wrong? I know we're on ACH.
Were we ever late a day with our bills? He goes, no, I'm not going about that. He goes, where did you get this 120 days dating? I said, that's grandfathered by Gary DeStefano, the president and Charlie Dentz and the CEO. I go, we did that deal years ago when we purchased Herman Sporting Goods. They gave us dating in order for us to really finance our acquisition. He goes, well, we're not your bank and you gotta pay it down to 30 days. And we owe them at the time.
Deborah Weinswig (06:35)
Thank you.
Mitchell Modell (06:37)
35 million. We had unlimited credit with Nike. We had unlimited credit with everybody. I said, pay it down. He goes, yeah, we want to pay down to three and a half million. I said, that's impossible. I go, well, I'll go bankrupt. Well, you got to decide what you want to do. Anyway, we worked it out with them. They gave us a year to pay it down, but we had a mortgage, a lot of our properties that we owned to take out the cash to pay down Nike.
Deborah Weinswig (07:01)
Wow, I never knew that before. I I felt like there was a change. And it seems also too, right, when Nike decided to pull away from all retail distribution, just where they thought they stood in the landscape, maybe, just maybe isn't where they actually were at the end of the day.
Mitchell Modell (07:17)
Well, so what happened was when Phil Knight brought in Donahue and all the people like Elliott Hill, who's the current CEO of Nike, who's brilliant. And I think he's going to do a great job of turning around the company now. He gets it. But Donahue, his background was eBay. And his whole thing was, we're going to go direct to the consumer. Why do we need retailers? Nike doesn't work that way. Nike is like a club.
And, you know, he came outside the club and he tried to take relationships that Nike has built for years with all retailers. And I knew the handwriting was on the wall when they started in Europe, when they started to shut down And I said, this is not going to be good. I go, this is going to start as a test in Europe and then they're going to bring it to the U.S. And we were a valued house operation. You know.
Dick's, Ed Stack runs an incredible operation, high-end prestigious, know, authenticity. We catered to the blue-collar worker. We catered to the masses. We believed in giving value day in and day out to the customer, which was really opposite what Nike really wanted to do. But again, when we bought Hermans in 96, part of our deal was getting extra dating and getting a mix of closeouts, which represented up to 25%.
of our overall buy. And that made us different than all the other retailers. We were hybrid. We sold shoes, Air Force, LeBrons, and then we sold Nike t-shirts, too, for $25 whatever it was, any clothes that we bought. And that's what separated us. But at that time, they decided, you know what? You're going to be authentic. No more clothes outs. We have our own outlet stores.
We have TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Raw Sources, Elton. We needed to be authentic and carry in-line merchandise. We knew that was the kiss of death. And by the way, it was the right thing for Nike, but it wasn't the right thing for Models. And they were such a big part of our business that we had no choice.
Deborah Weinswig (09:16)
Interesting. And so did you ever develop your own private label?
Mitchell Modell (09:20)
Yes, so as we went on offsite retreats every year, looking at what are gonna do this year, the next three years, the next five years, we knew in order to survive, we had to go and be private label as much as possible. We try to run as fast as we could. bought the Smith license where we basically knocked off Timberland boots. It was our workwear line. We knocked off Dickies. You could take our...
Timberland booth that we sold for $150. And if you covered the, put your thumb over the tree, the Timberland tree and compared it to our Smith's booth, which was $49.99. One was $150, one was $49.99. You know, our number one seller was Smith Line jeans that we'd sell in the winter time for $20. And so we built Smith's and we built a brand called UniPro. UniPro was a knockoff of Nike, of Adidas, of Under Armour.
giving customers opportunity, do you want to $30 for a t-shirt or you want to pay $10 for a t-shirt? And our margins with Unipro and Smiths were in the 60s and 65 % initial, unlike our regular margins, which were like 50, 52 with the brands. We couldn't go fast enough. And unfortunately, when we ran into problems, the fact is, and all our Smiths
products were factored, the factors cut us down on our credit that it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Deborah Weinswig (10:43)
I want to continue on this thread. Right, we also saw, if we start to think brands, right, we Armour, which had been kind of the hottest thing since sliced bread. And I remember as an analyst talking to people and they're like, they just can't break through, right, that like $5 billion kind of roof. What do you think happened there?
Mitchell Modell (11:06)
So Kevin Plank, dear friend, we started with him in the beginning when people in our Philadelphia stores would call up and say, we're getting calls for Under Armour. I go, listen, well, that's not our business. He goes, what do mean it's not our business? We're not into like the swords and the hats and the helmets. He goes, no, no, no, it's a t-shirt company. They sell t-shirts. I go, what do you mean? They keep coming in for Under Armour. I called the managers.
all on the phone in Philadelphia, got him on a conference call. I said, the next time a customer comes in wearing an Under Armour t-shirt, give him a gift card, give him a $25 gift card, go in his neck and look at the RN number. And the RN number, the registered number would tell us who the manufacturer is, we didn't know what Under Armour was. They wrote down the number, I called Kevin Colturkey, we met in the Lanter at the Super Show, fell in love with each other.
And Kevin's been a great friend ever since. And so what happened to Under Armour is, you know, a few things happened. The main thing is Kevin was really an apparel company, not a footwear company. And if you look at Nike's business and everyone's business, the ratio between footwear and apparel, he was like 95, 90 % apparel, 10 % footwear, and could never figure it out right.
You know, Nike own that world. They own the basketball world. They own the training. They own running. They own everything. Really, really tough to break through. And, you know, when Kevin sell Kohl's, it disrupted the whole sporting industry. We were no longer special. Our margins with with Underwanda, was 52 % maintained. We never took And once he sold even though it wasn't as good as product,
Deborah Weinswig (12:23)
Yeah.
So.
Mitchell Modell (12:46)
as the rest of the sporting channel, it just put too much product in the market. And that's what really hurt the brands.
Deborah Weinswig (12:52)
So, and should I remember when that happened? I was surprised at the time thought about it from an analysis standpoint, right? Based on increased points of distribution, but if you're selling more at kind of the magic holes, like 40 off, what did that look like? And yeah, I do think there ended up being a bit of over distribution. So let's look at Dix, which obviously with the...
the locker acquisition. I they've, they seem to have kind of permeated through what, what's made them special.
Mitchell Modell (13:24)
What's made it special is one guy, Ed Stack, who we had a love-hate relationship with. But today I have tremendous respect for Ed. Ed was all about leverage. He used his volume and he negotiated with the CEOs of every manufacturer the way I did, except he had the pencil. I had a mini pencil. I had the Northeast pencil, which is why we expand in the Northeast. We want to be the dominating player.
Deborah Weinswig (13:45)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (13:50)
on the I-95 corridor. Ed was a national brand. So when Ed goes and speaks to the CEO of Adidas and says, want superstars, okay, and he gets them, and I say, I want superstars, no, that's not for sporting the channel. Well, what about Ed Stack? ⁓ we can't afford not to sell Ed. Ed said, we either sell him or he's cutting us out. And so, you know, when you have that kind of power, God bless him.
He was able to leverage that power and get items and brands that we couldn't get. He'd get exclusives three months in advance and God bless him. We try to do the same thing, but on a much smaller scale.
Deborah Weinswig (14:29)
so maybe, mean, just like the timing of everything as it happened was interesting in retrospect, right? But maybe take us through the, because it had to be, right, because it also carried the family name, those had to be some very difficult decisions near the end. Can you talk about kind of like when you knew that your back was up against a wall?
Who did you turn to? Who offered you advice? And how did you ultimately make the decision?
Mitchell Modell (14:52)
Yes.
So the big squeeze, again, cash is king. We always paid our bills on time to vendors and to landlords, never late. That was like a Mitchell-ism. You were never late with vendor. Listen, we were tough as nails, but our word was our bond. If we said we're gonna put it out for a certain price, we never go below that. But in 2016, and 2017 when Nike,
took our credit down, took our payment terms down from 120 to 30 days. And then in 2019, March 11th at 11.15, we get a Wall Street Journal email our PR guy, Jason, and says, we're doing a story on Models. We understand they over expanded. They understand they got financial problems. We understand they hired a restructuring company.
and the looking at all options, including filing for bankruptcy. We need a response by two o'clock or the article's going out. Justin comes downstairs to me. I said, okay, you know what? I'm gonna get the PR for him on the phone. I call him up and I go, all right, here are the 10 questions that they're gonna probably ask me. Here are my answers. Then he goes, no, no, no, no, no. We're not responding. I said, we have to respond. I gotta control the narrative.
Deborah Weinswig (15:52)
Mmm.
Mitchell Modell (16:09)
They're saying I'm gonna go bankrupt. I go, my friend Brandon from Toys R Us went through the same thing. They announced Toys R Us could possibly file and the next day everybody shut him down. I go, I can't go through that. He goes, listen, I'm in business 40 years. If you're gonna call and call back the reporter, I'm resigning from the accounts. And with that, I met with all my key executives, my direct reports.
Deborah Weinswig (16:22)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (16:34)
We had the PR firm on the phone and they all ganged up against me. And I said, all right, if you guys feel this wrong, I think it's wrong. And at five o'clock headlines is Modell's filing bankruptcy. At five o' one, every factor called me up to shutting me off. Every vendor, shutting me off. Every truck that was on the way is shutting me off. Every lease I had in the works was canceled. My world turned upside down. Okay. By the way,
my fault. I should have stuck to my guns and stuck to my gut. But you know what? It is what it is. Biggest mistake I ever made. And the rest was history. So what did I do? ⁓ Nike at that time, I think we owed them $6.7 million. I put in personally $6.8 million and got every vendor on the phone, every landlord on the phone, every week.
Deborah Weinswig (17:11)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (17:24)
I'd have 500 people on a phone call and say, listen, I'm not filing, okay? Well, we can't ship you. We don't want to get caught in a clawback. You know, if you ship within 30 days, they file, you lose the money. I said, I'm not filing. I'm stroking a $6.8 million check, okay, as an unsecured creditor at the bottom of the barrel, and I will not get paid back until every vendor gets paid back. And so that calm the waters.
They say I was the only retailer to ever have an article like that and survive. Normally you go, you you tumble upside down, inside out. And, you know, the unfortunate part is everyone kept saying, what is Nike doing? What is Nike doing? If Nike will go along with you, what is Nike doing? And unfortunately, Nike got so burnt with sports authority where, you know, they told them the same thing.
Deborah Weinswig (18:05)
Yeah.
I remember that.
Mitchell Modell (18:15)
Don't worry,
we're not going bankrupt. And of course, made $85 million. And so I was the victim of sports authorities demise. you know, look, if I was Nike, I would do the same thing to us. You know, we respected the decision. And so, you know, we survived a year till December of 2019. And what happened? Every team got knocked out of the playoffs.
Deborah Weinswig (18:19)
I remember that.
Mitchell Modell (18:38)
That year we bought about 150,000 units of closeouts that we had printed that we were able to run at 50 off and still make 50%. Except our customers, they buy for need. If a team is great, they'll pay regular price. If a team is lousy, you can't give it away. So no teams made the playoffs. One of the warmest winters we ever had
Deborah Weinswig (18:49)
Wow.
Mitchell Modell (19:03)
And we were a needs-based business. If it's cold out, customers come in a regular price. I could be a 50 off and 80 degrees, they're not buying. It's 20 degrees, they come in, they buy at regular price. And so when you look at the weather, when you look at the teams, when you looked at, was no longer relevant because closeouts were now next to Marshalls and TJ Maxx and people saying, why am I paying half the price? And you're at regular price.
Deborah Weinswig (19:07)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (19:29)
Then you had the Amazon factor. Then you had the director consumer. Nike at that time said, we're going public statement. We're going DTC, direct to the consumer and we're cutting out the retailer. When you add all those things and plus the factors cut by credit line down to like a million and a half. I needed 10 million. And so when your inventory drops 50 million, you can't make it up. And the lesson learned.
Deborah Weinswig (19:39)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (19:55)
that I tell everybody the number one lesson I ever learned, whether you're a manufacturer or whether you're retailer, never let anybody, anybody be more than 20 % of your overall business. Because if they get a hiccup or they decide to change course, you build your infrastructure, you build organization around And on top of Minimum wage doubled, doubled in three years.
Deborah Weinswig (20:07)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (20:19)
So now I'm paying my help twice as much. And what happened with real estate taxes? The city kept raising real estate taxes. So when my real estate percentage goes from six to 17 % and your payroll gets doubled and you're now in a situation where I became irrelevant, that's what happened to Models.
Deborah Weinswig (20:23)
Yeah.
And so you, you still operate the website today, correct?
Mitchell Modell (20:42)
No, no. Our website was bought out by Tai Lopez at bankruptcy. He paid 3.6 million. He just got served by the SEC, 112 million dollar fraud. He's going to probably wind up, you know, serving time or whatever. And then it was bought by a guy by the name of Raj in the Midwest before my brand and Dress Barn and P1 Imports.
This guy Raj put in a lot of money and before it went to chapter seven, he bought it, including our name. We tried to work a deal, but it didn't work out. He wanted too much money. So now he runs it. It runs as a third party. I called every one of my vendors where they'd tell me if I bought the IB and they said, absolutely not. I said, I'd rather have you tell me no than lie to me. And they go, Mitchell, we love you.
We're not selling your clothes outs. We have our own outlet stores. And now you're a chapter 11 brand. We've got our own distribution. So we moved on. He never did his homework. He never called any of the brands to find out that wouldn't sell them. So if you go to our website now, it's horrible. Horrible.
Deborah Weinswig (21:48)
And so as you take a big step back and think about, what you can do to mentor some of these younger brands today and some of them, right, they are D to C only, they go from online to offline or offline to online. how much time do you spend with some of these younger brands and then
How do you see the evolving maybe in ways that others aren't?
Mitchell Modell (22:11)
I think two things. You gotta ask, what is the reason for your existence? Right? I always ask myself, every day I would wake up if Models went out of business tomorrow morning, who would miss us and why? And I said, they'll never allow us to go out of business, ever. We created a bond, we created a culture, a community with our people. You know, when people say, what do you miss most about Models? I miss the most when
The Yankees won the World Series and the whole city celebrated and we opened up right after the game or we'd open up at five in the morning and it just brought the whole city together. 9-11, right? When Arizona played New York and I was fortunate enough to be the chairman of the New York City Sports Commission with Rudy Giuliani, with greatest mayor in New York. going out to Arizona on the team playing with him, those are moments that we cherish.
That's probably the biggest thing that I miss is the celebration. know, whether it be the Bronx Barma is going to the Little League World Series or Tom's River and we would have buses and we, you know, bring the people there or Sandy Storm. We donated, you know, four trailers of merchandise for all the people in Sandy Storm. And we never did a press conference. Never did it for the press. We did it because we always were taught to give back to the community in which they serve.
Deborah Weinswig (23:07)
Thank
Wow. ⁓
Mitchell Modell (23:32)
our customers, everything we did was based around the customer.
Deborah Weinswig (23:36)
And do you feel that today brands and retailers are more or less focused on the customer? Where does the creator come in? Where do you think their heads are at and what advice do you have for them more generally?
Mitchell Modell (23:50)
Well, if you look at all the winning retailers, who are they? They give tremendous value, right? And no one could compete. No one could compete with Costco. No one could compete with Walmart, right? No one could compete right? Surprise and Delight, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods. They build brand. You know, when you say, if you went into business tomorrow morning, who would miss you? Think about it.
Would Starbucks ever go out? Would Disney ever go out? The customers wouldn't allow it. Unfortunately, we put ourselves in a position where we allowed ourselves to go out because we became irrelevant. So what I would tell retailers is, what's your secret sauce? What's the white space no one's doing? How do you compete against these monsters? And it's all about how do you service the customer? How do you treat the customer? The customer is loyal. Are you building your business model?
through the customer's eyes or through someone else's eyes. We always looked at a customer and what we do was centered around the customer. How will the customer feel if we did this? What would the customer react if we did that? And that was the focus of everything we did. And I think a lot of people walked away from that. You know, the customer is king. I always said the customer is the only one that could fire Mitchell Modell, the CEO of Modell Sporting Goods. They go, how? How could they fire you by not showing up?
Deborah Weinswig (25:12)
you
Mitchell Modell (25:12)
They
don't show up to the stores, they fire you. That's what happens. And so you got to build a model. You you got to be vertical in today's world. If you're not vertical, if you're not sourcing direct, you know, or you're not doing something special, something that someone else doesn't have, you can't be a me too guy in a me too world and expect to survive. Won't happen. Amazon makes it so easy. By the way, I never shopped Amazon in my life.
Deborah Weinswig (25:14)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (25:37)
until Models was closed and COVID came. I didn't even know how to do it. Everyone said, Amazon, Amazon. Today I bought scribble text pads, right? Doesn't. Shipped within two hours. I had it two hours in my door. I normally have to go to Staples, drive 20 minutes, go upstairs. They make it so easy. So people have to build a business model.
Deborah Weinswig (25:40)
Yeah.
Yeah, well and...
Mitchell Modell (25:59)
that could defend against the Amazons of the world.
Deborah Weinswig (26:01)
It's so interesting you bring this up because also, you know, being in New York with the continued growth, I think there was just a report out increase in the amount of not only amount of organized retail crime, but the increase in violence. And so you start to have people who are right there is a bit of, like, I have to say, even though I'm in the stores all the time, like I was, I said to my family, I'm like, just, just be on alert, right? When you're in the stores, right? You need it, right?
being a New Yorker you already are, but just be even like more so. And I do think that what we realized during the pandemic is just what social beings we all are. And that's why I think I came out at thinking that I knew there was a lot of people on different camp, but I'm like, I think the stores are be even more important, right? Community is important, bringing people together. And that's what stores do. And we continue to see, Gen Z, right, versus millennials, right? They're kind of...
in-store participation rate is actually almost, you 2000 basis points higher. So as we think the whole sporting goods industry has changed, right, there's so much more of it experiential you think about like health and wellness and, you know, companies like Equinox, right? I mean, how do you, you take a big step back and look at the whole kind of like health and wellness sector,
How do you think we see that continue to evolve? Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (27:17)
Everybody's in it.
Everybody's in health and wellness. You go into CVS, you see Walgreens, they carry all these, you know, knee aprons, these wristbands, all these fitness items. They never carry this before. You go into Home Goods and Marshalls during the Christmas time, they carry a lot of fitness items. Look what happened to Five Below. When we went out and a lot of regional retailers went out, Five Below was brilliant. They set up a whole sporting business that they built.
$5 basketballs, $5 soccer balls, $5 everything. And so, you know, the customer is king. And in today's world, it's if you don't look at the business through the customer's eyes, how do you make it easier for them to shop? How do you make them want us to shop? Look at Spirit. Look at Spirit Halloween, Steven Silverstein, brilliance. Right? Party City went down. This guy is controlling the whole world, controlling the whole world.
Deborah Weinswig (28:04)
Brilliant.
Oh my gosh.
Well that, that, that was like a dark day. It was a Friday. I remember cause we had all these holiday parties you have like big lots and party city on the same day. And I bless her. I sent my daughter across the park to go take photos of like the party city. like, you've been in there as a customer, but you're right as a New Yorker, you're just getting what you're getting and getting out and like looking at it through her camp. Like she's got a very good eye.
Mitchell Modell (28:09)
He just he gets it.
Deborah Weinswig (28:34)
looking at it through her camera's lens. I mean, like, the floors were stained. I mean, it was just a sad store. And I know you know what I mean, right? It was... Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
Mitchell Modell (28:45)
You could feel when someone's going out. It
smells like death, okay? The associates weren't motivated. Again, you had a guy who built the company, Jerry Rittenberg, and he was brilliant. He was brilliant. He built Party City. He understood it. Every year, he was on my board of directors, board of advisors. Terrific guy.
Deborah Weinswig (28:49)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (29:08)
He would build, okay, what's next? What's next? He was a true merchant. Then they fired him. The board fired him and said, listen, we're getting out of the wholesale business. Okay, wholesale business. Let's sell all our wholesale. That's what made him special. He was vertical. And so they didn't understand it and didn't take long. They destroyed that company.
Deborah Weinswig (29:27)
I mean, it's interesting. One thing on the personal side, is you and I are both involved in YPO. How have you leaned on other leaders and friends and whatnot from a YPO perspective to get you through the good times and maybe the less good and then to kind of reinvent yourself?
Mitchell Modell (29:45)
So YPO, I've been a member since 19, it's funny when I joined YPO, I was one of the youngest kids there. My brother and I both joined YPO, may he rest in peace. In 1987, when we took over Poly Brothers in Philadelphia, I was the president of the Philadelphia operation and he was president of the New York operation, just so we could both be in YPO. And then eventually I came to, I was in New York chapter, he was in the Long Island chapter. YPO changed my life. I mean,
Before YPO, we never did a business plan. We never had a strategy. We didn't understand core values, went to Rich Collins seminars, went to Disney seminars, went to public speaking seminars, went to Kellogg School of Marketing for six months, went to every retailing seminar, built great relationships. And so YPO was something when I tell people, if you have the qualifications, it changed our business. We went from
18 million million in YPO. And I attribute most of it to YPO, the learning, the education, and the networking. And I leaned on a lot of YPO's. Stu Leonard, who's a great retailer and YPO, a lot of people, very supportive. But at the end of the day, I never look back. The day we filed, March 11, 2020, I was with my boys, we're in court.
Deborah Weinswig (30:59)
Yeah, I'm the same. Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (31:05)
And we drove back into the city. went past five of our stores. And I said, guys, you want the good news or the bad news? What's the good news? I'm getting a place in Florida. that's great. What's the bad news? I'm moving permanently. I cannot see my stores. ⁓ this was Modell's. Bankrupt, out of business, not there. This is where we used to be. And so it's time to move on. And now I built with my boys.
MMM3 consulting group, you know, using my network of 30,000 contacts and, and I'm on a lot of different businesses that we love where we have, use our contacts and, ⁓ and connect people.
Deborah Weinswig (31:43)
Yeah, which is so valuable. mean, I I'll tell you, I had a conversation think he was network chair at the time for the retail network. And I remember him just saying to me, how how are you not in YPL? I'm like, I I don't know. I'm like, and I know there are a lot of people around me, especially in Asia, who were very involved. And so that was kind of the the catalyst, if you will. And I'll say it goes back to all of our days.
I mean, I'm a very, I'm an insanely positive person, but there are days that are less kind of sunny than others. And I've found that when you can lean on people and you don't, right? You don't wanna bring your fam, I mean, hey, for you, your family, like it was a family business, but you wanna be able to talk to people about your kind of like deepest, darkest fears and also...
when you're like, wow, I had this idea, do you think there's something to it? So it's like the insanely positive, the insanely like less positive. I do think that having network and people to lean on who truly genuinely care about you, I found Mitch that that has gotten me through, especially during the pandemic, was a challenge for many of us. mean, it was...
And was interesting because during the pandemic, you were basically rebuilding yourself, right?
Mitchell Modell (33:00)
Correct. Well, unfortunately, which is a lesson to all your listeners, I was diagnosed with stage three C melanoma. And so they gave me 20 % chance to live five years had it not been for COVID. And I had not been with my ex-wife at our home in the Hamptons. And I said, I want to go to your stepson and take, you know, some skin off, whatever. And he goes, what's this on your arm? I don't like the way it looks.
And so calls me 10 days later, you got to come to Memorial. We got to operate on you. And the lesson learned is if you're a male or a female, go to a terminologist once a year. never went in my life. Had I not gone, I would have been dead in six months. So the guy upset, get a colonoscopy. I just had my last one last week and PSA tests. And so those are the three things that you could control.
and you know what, what saved my life during this whole process, know, a lot of people say, oh my God, I've never seen someone so happy. He's got stage three, he's seen melanoma. I said, listen, my time is there, it's time to go. But I went to a Tony Robbins seminar in December prior to that. This was December of 2021. And he advertised in West Palm Beach and he was sold out. I couldn't get in. Who did I call? I called Kevin Plank from Under Armour, Kevin.
I know your best friends with Tony, you gotta get me into a seminar. I wanna go as a VIP, I really wanna understand them. Because I was always traveling, I never had the time to go to a four day seminar. And so I drove every day from South Beach to West Palm Beach to listen to him. And I'll never forget there was a gal from Mexico, no family, she had no money, homeless, and he had her in front of 10,000 people. And he said, what are you thankful for? Every morning,
Deborah Weinswig (34:22)
here.
Mitchell Modell (34:40)
Every night, I want you to state three things that you were thankful for. And that's what I did. I'm thankful that I had the wherewithal to get the top doctors and memorial to save my life. I was thankful that I had family and friends and an ex-wife that was so supportive. And I was thankful that I was still alive and that I was around. And I said to myself, you know what? I'm only going to be around positive energy people. I'm only going to be our people. It gave me a
Deborah Weinswig (35:03)
Yeah.
Mitchell Modell (35:06)
That sentence, and it gives you a true life sentence that, you know what? The most precious thing we have is time. Spend the time with people that you love, that are smart, that are bright, that are not jealous of you, they want you to win. And I got rid of a lot of friends, lot of family members as a result, and I've never been happier.
Deborah Weinswig (35:25)
It's funny to that I went to my mom actually took me to a canyon ranch, you know, like a three or four day. And I'd been under a lot of stress at work. And so I did this like stress reduction package or whatever. And I'd never like talked to a mental health professional. So that was like part of the package. And it it was fascinating because, you just went through like, you know, what's stressing you out or what your schedule is like. And this person said to me, you have to give yourself permission.
to say no, right? Which is not, I'm a pleaser, so that's not really in my dictionary. And she said, it's not only no to things that people want you to do or where people want you to go, but she's like, there's also gonna be people who are gonna go into the no category. And so I will tell you Mitch, that was like a weight lifted off of me and I literally came out of there and I started rethink lot of things.
but certainly kind of that positive energy And I think you and I are both extreme extroverts. And so I think that we pick up on the energy of others in a very different way than probably most, probably 95 % of the population is not experiencing, right? Because if I'm sitting with somebody who's negative, like I can physically feel kind of less positive. And so I think
for probably our physical and mental health that's really important. So thank you for sharing all that. And we have to move into our lightning round because we're in our last few minutes. All right. So we got 10 questions. I'll try and get through them all. What was your very first job at Models?
Mitchell Modell (36:47)
Okay, let's go.
My first job at Models, I would ride on the Long Island Railroad. was 10 years old, take a subway to a warehouse, which was at 611 Broadway. And I was helping unload trucks like 100 degree weather. 100 degree was like so hot and helping drool bowling balls. That was my first job. But I every job in the company. From there, went, you know, a porter in the store to salesman to department manager.
to floor manager, to assistant manager, to manager, to district manager, to regional manager, to an assistant buyer in sundries, to assistant buyer in luggage, to sporting goods, assistant buyer in men's and footwear, and then buyer, and then I became the GMM, and that's I spent my life, in merchandising, marketing, which I loved.
Deborah Weinswig (37:40)
That's awesome. All number two. What was the best selling product in Modell's history?
Mitchell Modell (37:44)
⁓ best-selling product was the jeans line jeans denim jeans
Deborah Weinswig (37:48)
All right, this is a tougher one. Number three, favorite New York sports team.
Mitchell Modell (37:53)
Yankees.
Deborah Weinswig (37:54)
Okay. number I'm with you there. Number followed by the giants at number four craziest in store customer story.
Mitchell Modell (38:01)
Probably when I was an undercover boss. I was in season four, episode one, 16 and 17, and I'm in our store on 42nd Street. hear the customers very upset and I'm dressed up as Joey Glick in disguise and the customer's flipping out and I walked up to him and I said, listen, I'm at your hotel. I'll take care of you, okay? He goes, what?
And with that, she like put her arm around me and I thought she wanted to marry me. But it was a crazy scenario. And they had edited that for the undercover boss, but it was crazy scenario.
Deborah Weinswig (38:39)
That's a good one. right. Number five. What brand did you most enjoy partnering with?
Mitchell Modell (38:44)
Probably Nike, because Nike did things a special way. Nike really, again, this is pre-Donahue. This is when Elliot Hill and his team were really running the company. They knew how to treat a retailer. They'd take us to the Olympics and they'd take over a house, or they'd take us to the Super Bowl or Games.
Take us out to Portland and have us in front of Phil Knight. They knew, the real Nike really knew how to treat a customer. And it gave us a chance to really meet other retailers in that setting. And so I would say Nike.
Deborah Weinswig (39:20)
That's a great, I have to say I wrote that down. The real Nike knew how to treat a customer. That's a great ⁓ line. ⁓
Mitchell Modell (39:26)
And then
by the way, Elliot from out of here, Elliot Hill is trying to bring that back with everybody.
Deborah Weinswig (39:31)
which is great, is great. All number six, the hardest lesson you ever learned.
Mitchell Modell (39:35)
The hardest lesson I ever learned.
We should have done our homework better when we decided to expand to Connecticut. We were a New York based operation. We decided to open up in Boston in 2004. Boston was unbelievable. started to be unbelievable. And then we said, you know what? Everyone in Connecticut knows us. Let's open up in Connecticut, fill the gap. This way we go from New York to Connecticut to Boston.
We didn't do our homework properly. We should have called other retailers. We didn't understand the East and West, who the Patriot fans are, who the joint jet fans are. We couldn't figure it out. And Connecticut killed us. Absolutely killed us.
Deborah Weinswig (40:12)
That's helpful ⁓ and unfortunate. Number seven, if you could run one retailer today besides Models, what would it be?
Mitchell Modell (40:19)
Costco. I'm a Costco shopper. I go to Costco once a month. I think they're the most fascinating retailer. They understand their customer. They understand, I mean, they're just unbelievable. Their prices are unbelievable. You feel bad. I never know what I'm gonna buy, but I always spend about a thousand, $2,000 when I walk out. And it's just, they just get it. I was like, in fact, when I walk into a Costco,
The first thing I do when I have a shopping cart, I go to the cash register. Empty. And I sit there for five minutes and see what is everyone buying. And I never knew, like the chicken, the 499 Chicken is the number one item they carry besides towels and toilet paper. I saw people walking out with two, like, what is this? you have to try the chicken. Where's the chicken? And it's unbelievable. So it's really a shopping experience.
Deborah Weinswig (41:08)
No, it's,
yeah, it's, and I think they, they've, you know, it's amazing. They're one of the last, I would say, to the technology they're so fortunate is A, right, we're entering this new era of Gen. AI and now Gentic. And they're able to kind of leapfrog.
so much spending that others had done. And so it's a fascinating story. And so as good as they are today, I think they can be a lot better, which is also really interesting. right, number eight. What's one thing retailers often misunderstand about their customers?
Mitchell Modell (41:45)
You gotta live in the stores. You gotta, I lived in the stores. I love going to, I said, as long as there were no registers in the home office, everyone's in the stores.
And we're not talking about go to your store that's like next to you. Go to the store that's two hours from you. But the customers, everything is built around the customers and you feel it. And to me, every time I go into the stores, talk to the cashiers. What are the customers saying? What are they like? What are they dislike? The salespeople, what are we out of? What are the customers saying? The customer is king. And the day you disconnect yourself from the customer,
is the day that you get into trouble.
Deborah Weinswig (42:19)
No, that's well said. Number nine, one word that defines great retail leadership.
Mitchell Modell (42:25)
Adaptability. You gotta be able to adapt to the changing times. You gotta embrace change. You gotta embrace technology. You gotta embrace AI. If you don't study AI and really understand how it's gonna affect your business, you're gonna be history. But it's really adapting to the environment. How do you adapt to this marketplace with, know, whether it be tariffs, whether it be the economy, whether it be...
people going to different retailers and different options. It's having the ability to be nimble, quick, and adapt.
Deborah Weinswig (42:59)
That's great. All right. And number 10. What do you miss most about running modells?
Mitchell Modell (43:03)
I miss our associates and I miss, know, today I go as a fan, right? So like in the, when the Yankees were in the world series, we had $25 million on the line. When the Eagles, you know, were going to the super bowl, we had $20, $30 million at retail on the line. And so the adrenaline rush when you're at the game, oh my God, what happens if they lose? I got to call every vendor and say, listen,
I pre-printed everything. You gotta be my partner. Otherwise the stuff goes, you know, to the third world countries. And so I miss, you know, the little kid coming in for his baseball glove, playing literally for the first time, trying on the glove, trying on his cleats, or the kid who buys his first soccer ball and see the smile on his face. Those are the memories that when I tell people who I am, oh, I bought my first ball glove there. I bought my first ice skate there.
And you know, it's those kind of things that you miss. And plus the celebrations, the celebrations of championship teams, no matter it was the Ravens or the Patriots or the Celtics or the Giants or the Yankees or the Eagles, there was nothing better. It was just a celebration with fans that really brought cities together.
Deborah Weinswig (44:17)
Well, Mitch, thank you so much. This has been such a wonderful hour to spend with you and we look forward. I feel there's like a 2.0 here to really understand some of your kind of wisdom. So thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thanks.
Mitchell Modell (44:31)
Thanks so much for having me.
We love you. Bye
Philip Moore (44:33)
Thanks Deborah, and thank you for joining us this week. Coresight Research serves our members with timely and focused research, leadership communities, data resources, strategy sprints, and more. Visit us at coresight.com to learn how joining our community can accelerate your success. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you next week.