Based in New York, Pete Forester is the Editorial Director of the Content and Integrated Marketing team. Although he joined StockX in 2019, he’s been connected to the company from the beginning. As part of StockX’s five-year anniversary celebration, we caught up with team members, including Pete, to talk about life as a StockX team member.
The following has been lightly edited.
How did you hear about Stock, and why did you want to become part of the team?
I learned about StockX a long, long time ago, before it started! Josh Luber and I knew each other from when he was doing Campless and I was freelancing with Complex and Sole Collector and Esquire, etc. We went to Bonchon in midtown NYC and he told me about the idea and that he was moving to Detroit. It sounded interesting and I was happy for him but I didn’t really get it. Then later he gave Sole Collector the exclusive story to announce StockX and asked that I write it. So about five years ago I interviewed Josh and Dan Gilbert to get the rundown on what StockX was and ultimately was tasked with explaining StockX for the first time. Took a second to wrap my brain around it and then figure out how to make sense of it for readers, but it happened. That story ran on Feb 8, 2016. (With a photo by Cody Cochran!) Since then I did a number of features about StockX—including attending the first-ever StockX Day.
After years of watching StockX from the outside, and a lot of harassment from Josh, I finally met the team in Detroit in the late summer of 2019 and we found a spot for me at the company that fall.
What is the most exciting aspect of working at StockX?
We still very much have start-up energy. And with that comes the ability to innovate, create processes, be agile, and self-determination. Working at older companies, or companies with tired institutional processes can make you feel super locked in and limited. Obviously, these benefits also have their drawbacks, but, like a relationship, in any job you need the right mix of crazy to match your crazy. StockX is a great match for my crazy.
Your most memorable day on the job?
I’ve only been with StockX for a little over a year, but one of the moments that’s clearest for me was waking up a few weeks into the pandemic to an email from Deena. That woke me up right quick. The request was an idea for getting customers engaged while they were stuck at home. I quickly fired off an email that included “#FlexFromHome” while I was still in bed. We quickly stood that campaign up and were able to engage thousands of customers and donate money to a great cause.
Another highlight was working with Jamie Delaney shooting the Reese Cooper show in Paris for the documentary, “We’re Not Particularly Talented, We Just Try Hard.” The day of the show was one of the longest days of my life—between shooting and then seeing the city we were awake and working for almost 24 straight hours. It’s a miracle we caught our plane a few hours later.
What’s been the most surprising part of your job at StockX?
People are legitimately kind. I’ve worked all over the streetwear and fashion industry and am based in New York. Everyone’s a jerk all the time. (Well, most are.) At StockX, everyone is actually kind, and I was worried about it when I was getting ready to start because company culture can always be a crapshoot. StockX is the best resale platform in the game and there’s basically no reason for people to be as kind and generous as they are. But they are. It makes work much easier and productive. And it makes me feel bad whenever I’m the jerk. Surrounded by so many kind people, I always end up being the jerk. ?♂️
How will the secondary market change in the next five years?
The secondary market is all about access. It’s about giving folks the opportunity to get pieces of culture that they missed out on. That has always been a thing. There’s always a limited product that people will pay top dollar to get if they missed out on it. That won’t change. What will change, and what we spend so much time at StockX looking at, is what other items will become a part of that trade. So while the mechanic will stay the same, what we’ll see over the next five years is different kinds of products becoming hot and trading. Some will be surprising and unexpected (I had no idea graphics cards would be a thing!), and I’m excited to see these things happen. We can anticipate plenty, but where it’s really fun is when our community surprises us with the unexpected. I love that!
To see more of our five-year anniversary celebration, click here.
