Zain Retherford drops Scrap Life
- Thread starter Chickenman Testa
- Start date
Yes, good question. Reading DTs post, it's pretty clear that someone either said or wrote something that our guys found to be very offensive. If someone here knows the details or can post a link to the original comments, it would enlighten a lot of us who are in the dark.
Good Decision Zain. You join Ashnault Ashnault and Seth Gross placing morals over money.
I’m guessing that DT, Jason and Bo are in a tough spot, having just launched a shoe. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that they have their own capital tied up in that. What an unbelievably selfish act by that dude. I find it hard to believe it was an accident, unless he was drunk at the time or something.
I'm curious about what the actual moral is.
The organization in question removed and denounced the post, and fired the person who made it. Did the athletes request some other corrective action that wasn't met?
If so, then why not publicize that?
If not, then what is the standard?
The organization in question removed and denounced the post, and fired the person who made it. Did the athletes request some other corrective action that wasn't met?
If so, then why not publicize that?
If not, then what is the standard?
The standard of the perils of public opinion and how it affects the bottom line? Logic isn’t necessarily a part of the equation, though it certainly could be individually.
Which implies that institutions must be pristine, and no corrective action will suffice. Genie out of the bottle kind of stuff.
Unless there were some internal company culture where that stuff was acceptable until it wasn't. But if so, why did those athletes sign and remain with the company so long -- including Green?
I ask these questions because standards are important -- consistent application are the backbone of civil society. Of course standards can and will change, but then those new standards need to be applied consistently.
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I think we see the same thing in this. I'm not so sure there's an easy answer. Social media has cleared out most of the obstacles to perpetual mob mentality. Cancel culture, unchecked, is a threat to society. An executive in a company like SL should already know this, and act accordingly.
I'm very glad I'm not a small business owner.
I see two other things in this, both directly related to PSU and at least one to this board. Waiting to see if anyone else picks up on it.
Color me intrigued, and waiting. My brain isn't working well enough today to figure out what you mean.
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Oh--The Scandal? Of course. MeToo, BLM, the list of manifestations is long. And it doesn't mean those particular movements weren't in their own right addressing credible threats to society. No one wants to believe it anymore, but there is room aplenty in the world to be righteous and simultaneously wield righteousness to the detriment of others.
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I have a daughter that got her degree at PSU in PR. She works for a global firm in Chicago. Monitoring social media is by far the biggest part of the job. Social media leverages everything their clients do, good or bad. Now they have a product launch and everything is manipulated to give it the largest impact on social media platforms.
There are certain things that are nuclear on social media such as sexual assault, child abuse, racism, etc...that can't be undone if interested parties mobilize a social media campaign against a product/corporation. For instance last year she had to go into triage mode over negative comments that Mario Lopez made about parents raising transgender children. He had just been part of a product launch for a client of theirs. He was jettisoned immediately.
There are certain things that are nuclear on social media such as sexual assault, child abuse, racism, etc...that can't be undone if interested parties mobilize a social media campaign against a product/corporation. For instance last year she had to go into triage mode over negative comments that Mario Lopez made about parents raising transgender children. He had just been part of a product launch for a client of theirs. He was jettisoned immediately.
I agree. If this was one bad actor, that person has been fired, and the athletes have denounced that statement, I think all should be good with scraplife.
The bigger question is the individual relationships that these athletes have with Don Beshada. He likely represents one of, if not more, the major Scraplife athletes as their professional athletes. That is the relationship that needs to be ended.
You got the obvious one.
I'll give a hint: the other one (which also relates to this board) is a very recent offshoot of that one.
I wonder how demographic specific the scandals that social media deals with is. I remember the president of Chick-fil-A coming out with a pro man/woman marriage stance and being hit hard with a social media campaign, only to have people flock to his stores in support. I am guessing some business can't handle the media storm and some it helps.
Here's a good example of what not to do when you are the CEO of a big company:
https://www.wistv.com/2020/06/08/ho...with-cpi-security-after-ceos-protest-remarks/
https://www.wistv.com/2020/06/08/ho...with-cpi-security-after-ceos-protest-remarks/
I think he will just get some lower annual sales, and have to lay a bunch of people off. He is the owner and founder of the company. So I'm sure he'll be fine. His employees will suffer.
They did handle it well. Chick-fil-A ownership stopped donating money to organizations that worked against the LBGT causes. And in response the group leading the social media campaign backed off. Very wise on their part. They showed that if they get positive results, they will work with companies to further their cause. i.e. taking incremental wins rather than a burn it down at any cost mentality.
Re. Zain's decision, no one here knows what he knows. He is very thoughtful and not one bit prone to impulsive decisions. It surely wasn't an easy one ... so continued respect.
Not exactly how I remember it with Chick-fil-A but thanks for the response. Either way, my point is sometimes the media blitz has no impact or a opposite impact, depending on the demographic. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they insulted Bush before a concert. They were toast. No media campaign would have helped them, because the target audience did not care. When Colin began his protests, many groups came out against him, but Nike gave Colin a contract and he was virtually unphased by the right wing negativity. I know social media is a big concern for many and it cannot be ignored. It is here for a while.
You have the right to post your views BUT you also have to deal with the consequences of your post. In this case he was supposedly let go, they lost half of their signed wrestlers and I imagine their revenues will hurt more because of it. My concern would be if this somehow had a negative impact going forward on the actual PSU program as the remaining wrestlers on payroll for them are NLWC athletes as well. Hopefully there will not be built by association.
I don't get the critique of Zain by some in this thread. I also would not have hesitated to cut ties here. ScrapLife is a brand and the athlete needs to be 100% comfortable associating with that brand. Beshada ruined that with his post.
I've always believed in teaching our kids to stand up for their values, even when that might cost them. Zain clearly has values that he feels can't be reconciled with a continued relationship, so he ended it. I think that's commendable.
I suspect most on here criticizing would also call themselves supporters of capitalism and the free market. Well, that's exactly what's at work here. Beshada made a decision and the market is responding. That's on him, not the athletes.
I've always believed in teaching our kids to stand up for their values, even when that might cost them. Zain clearly has values that he feels can't be reconciled with a continued relationship, so he ended it. I think that's commendable.
I suspect most on here criticizing would also call themselves supporters of capitalism and the free market. Well, that's exactly what's at work here. Beshada made a decision and the market is responding. That's on him, not the athletes.
Hopefully the remaining NLWC guys on the payroll are having lengthy talks with the remaining founders about a shared vision for the brand that addresses these recent events head on. Maybe a serious commitment to BTS programs might be a good start.
Nobody owes anybody an objective, written standard. A good enough standard is “I don’t like you anymore.” Another good enough standard, which also does not need to be written down ahead of time, can be “don’t be a rinky-dink, Big-Baller-Brand-caliber outfit that can’t even control their social media.” So many reasonable standards are possible. Zain does not owe us an explanation. Free country.
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First of all, the post purports to point out positions of “Democrats,” not BLM. Further. you state that the post “pointed out some of their positions.” Do me a favor and quote the part of the post which you believe states the position of the Democrats or BLM. I will answer the question for you, none of the post states the positions of the Democrats or BLM.
The post misstates the positions of Democrats and BLM in a bad faith attempt to reframe a message that is resonating across the country, namely that police treatment of African Americans is a problem in America that needs to be addressed. If you want to debate that point in good faith, then do so. Attempting to reframe the foregoing position into “all police are racist,” “the only people harmed by police officers are black,” “all white people are racist,” “there is no black-on-black or black-on-white crime,” etc. is not simply an “opposing view”. The post is a bad faith false statement of the positions of Democrats and BLM in an attempt to deflect from the real message. No official organization takes the positions set forth in the post.
The post is ignorant.
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I don't have a flo wrestling account but just by seeing the headline and the pictures it makes it look like, to me anyway, to insinuate that one of the wrestlers made the offensive tweet and scraplife dropped them. I'm assuming by reading just a little bit of comments on here that wasn't the case obviously?
@nerfstate posted the FB post and some reactions. The post was admittedly made by Don Bashade, the now former CEO and co-owner of Scraplife.
Yeah, the scrap life statement is linked in Green’s tweet—it wouldn’t embed here by itself, for some reason.
Every company is larger than its CEO but sometimes that's only true on paper. If Don Beshada essentially was Scraplife in every meaningful sense--the management and the money--then "removing" him might solve an immediate public relations problem but it's only realistic if him leaving doesn't consequently leave behind a meaningless corporate carcass without the ability to complete performance on contracts.
It could also be complicated by how the wrestlers' contracts were structured--perhaps they were partners to varying degrees in the company. It's tough to characterize the decision the wrestlers faced without knowing more about Scraplife's corporate structure and the wrestlers' contracts.
From what I can tell, and this could be ignorance on my part but I'll nevertheless speculate that Scraplife didn't need many employees. It was/is basically a clothing business, meaning it was a branding and merchandise fulfillment business. One person with a laptop can do branding, and fulfillment may or many not be outsourced. You might need a small warehouse somewhere.
That's why when this initially broke on Twitter I was immediately skeptical of reports that this had been an "employee" at Scraplife. Beshada is/was a lawyer and it seemed pretty clear was he built the brand.
It's easy to find mentions of Beshada as "partner" of Scraplife but I've seen no other named partner, which might suggest that the endorsing wrestlers were minority "partners." And/or maybe a friend or family member of Beshada is an additional partner.
"Scraplife II LLC" is the owner of the only three trademarks associated with Scraplife and a lawyer from Beshada's small law firm is listed as the corresponding attorney for those trademarks. Scraplife isn't Nike or even Under Armour.
In any case, making Beshada an ex CEO doesn't extinguish his ownership interest, which would need to be bought out if he was to leave the company entirely. I'm skeptical that's happened here, as buyouts of that sort don't typically happen overnight.
So if, like I suspect is the case, Beshada is the majority owner, it's possible that Beshada can't realistically be severed from the company, unless one person is willing to buy Beshada out and step into his shoes in all other respects. And that price would be complicated by Beshada having just tarnished the trademarks, the most valuable assets in the company.
For the wrestlers who immediately broke with Scraplife, I imagine they either thought Beshada was inseverable from the company, and/or the contract wasn't worth it--they have their own personal brands to consider. For the wrestlers who didn't break with Scraplife, I'd be interested in hearing what they've been told about exactly how Scraplife has been distanced from Beshada, because, like I suggest above, existing evidence points toward that being very difficult.
It could also be complicated by how the wrestlers' contracts were structured--perhaps they were partners to varying degrees in the company. It's tough to characterize the decision the wrestlers faced without knowing more about Scraplife's corporate structure and the wrestlers' contracts.
From what I can tell, and this could be ignorance on my part but I'll nevertheless speculate that Scraplife didn't need many employees. It was/is basically a clothing business, meaning it was a branding and merchandise fulfillment business. One person with a laptop can do branding, and fulfillment may or many not be outsourced. You might need a small warehouse somewhere.
That's why when this initially broke on Twitter I was immediately skeptical of reports that this had been an "employee" at Scraplife. Beshada is/was a lawyer and it seemed pretty clear was he built the brand.
It's easy to find mentions of Beshada as "partner" of Scraplife but I've seen no other named partner, which might suggest that the endorsing wrestlers were minority "partners." And/or maybe a friend or family member of Beshada is an additional partner.
"Scraplife II LLC" is the owner of the only three trademarks associated with Scraplife and a lawyer from Beshada's small law firm is listed as the corresponding attorney for those trademarks. Scraplife isn't Nike or even Under Armour.
In any case, making Beshada an ex CEO doesn't extinguish his ownership interest, which would need to be bought out if he was to leave the company entirely. I'm skeptical that's happened here, as buyouts of that sort don't typically happen overnight.
So if, like I suspect is the case, Beshada is the majority owner, it's possible that Beshada can't realistically be severed from the company, unless one person is willing to buy Beshada out and step into his shoes in all other respects. And that price would be complicated by Beshada having just tarnished the trademarks, the most valuable assets in the company.
For the wrestlers who immediately broke with Scraplife, I imagine they either thought Beshada was inseverable from the company, and/or the contract wasn't worth it--they have their own personal brands to consider. For the wrestlers who didn't break with Scraplife, I'd be interested in hearing what they've been told about exactly how Scraplife has been distanced from Beshada, because, like I suggest above, existing evidence points toward that being very difficult.
This is everything I was thinking, but too lazy to type out. Thanks @tikk10 for being less lazy. I'm surprised Under Armour hasn't done anything to disavow ScrapLife. They have plenty of their own battles they are fighting to regain profitability, but I have a hard time believing that their PR firm although small would miss this. ScrapLife does a good job with their web-site in making it look like they are Under Armour's wrestling division.
I have noticed that ScrapLife reworked their web-site to only show 4 athletes DT, Bo, Nolf, and Gilman. Maybe they have room to sign Kyle Dake. He can endorse their brand of latitudinal specific nutritional supplements.
Further to my post above, I'll note that Scraplife's Instagram post on the matter is "signed" by "Jeff and Ken," no surnames offered for either. I'm unable to find a Jeff or Ken associated with Scraplife online anywhere, but that isn't necessarily dispositive.
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