Rob Tolleson was born in Atlanta, but by the time he finished his education and settled down in Pasadena, Calif., he had lived in Virginia, New York, Boston, Hong Kong, Seoul and Austin, Texas.
Somewhere in his travels he acquired a taste for challenges. He built a career in investment banking, spent seven years at CNN and founded startups in music and technology.
In 2004 Tolleson discovered that when power tools were returned to home improvement stores for any reason they were sent back to the manufacturer and junked. When he looked into it further, he found most of the returns were essentially as good as new, prompting him to form a company that sold the “used” tools online at a significant discount.
In 2017 he invested in Reyn Spooner, the kamaaina alohawear company whose roots go back to 1956. In November of last year, Tolleson, 55, became the president of the company.
You knew coming in that Reyn Spooner is a Hawaii legacy company. How are you assuming the responsibility that comes with owning it?
Responsibility is a good word. We feel that responsibility because the brand is beloved, not just in Hawaii but in California and beyond. We feel that it’s our responsibility to shepherd it properly. We are investing in our prints, our fabrics, in our distribution, in our marketing — even our warehousing. We’re investing in everything to ensure that this company continues the legacy and will be around for a long time.
What can Reyn Spooner collectors look forward to?
The late Dietrich Varez was a fantastic artist. We’re launching a Dietrich Varez retrospective in September where we’re going to have five prints that he designed (for Reyn Spooner) that we’re going to bring back as archival prints. We’re also launching a new fabric this summer — it’s called performance fabric, or stretch fabric — that is a little more giving and soft then the Spooner Kloth fabric that we’re known for. The performance fabric line will have our beautiful prints on them but on the different fabric. We are always “print first.” We want the artwork and the print to be the lead story that differentiates us from others. And of course we’ll have a new Christmas shirt each year.
Some island companies seem to lose touch with Hawaii when corporate is based elsewhere. How are you handling this?
We also have a corporate office here, the vast majority of our team is here, we film our products here — as we should — and I’ll be coming here at least eight times a year.
What do you enjoy doing that doesn’t involve the company?
I have three kids — 17, 15 and 13 — and a wife, so that keeps me busy, and I’m very athletic. Tennis, cycling and bodybuilding, so my lead hobby is exercise.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I view life in chapters. A mentor of mine told me when I was about 24 years old, he thought I would have five or six careers. I thought he was crazy but I’ve had a banking career, I’ve had a media career, I’ve had a technology startup career, and now I’m in retail and apparel. So I’m moving chapter by chapter. My guess is in 10 years I’m in another chapter. I’m not sure what that’ll be, but that’s OK. Every path I’ve chosen has been on a growth trajectory. I came in (to Reyn Spooner) as a investor and a board member and now I’m (working) full time. I have a steep learning curve. It’s exciting, I’m learning a lot, and I feel alive and energized. I also am learning a lot about Hawaii.
