Industry Profile: Jeffrey Bischoff

— By Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner

Jeffrey Bischoff is president and co-founder of Cinder Block, a full service merchandising and licensing company that started in a small warehouse in 1989 with the philosophy that client relationships and the quality of goods and services would always be the top priority. That philosophy continues to serve them 17 years later as one of the top volume screen printers in the U.S.

Jeff and his staff of 120 count among their clients: Radiohead, Green Day, Pixies, The Darkness, Jet, Sigur Rós, The Mars Volta, Weezer, Le Tigre, R.E.M., The Killers, Andrew W.K., AFI, NOFX, Sparta, Alkaline Trio, Sugarcult, Goo Goo Dolls, Death Cab for Cutie, Flogging Molly, The Vines, The Smashing Pumpkins, Misfits, Phil Collins, Jefferson Airplane, The Go-Go's, Thrice, Converge, Rise Against, The Stills and many more. They also service independent record companies (Epitaph Records), magazines (Alternative Press) and corporate accounts (Pixar, Peet's Coffee, Amoeba Records, Sega and major Bay Area sports teams).

But before merchandising, Jeff had his heart set on a career as a pastry chef.

Jeff quit school at 15, and with a little cash and his guitar, he hitchhiked out of Detroit, making stops in Austin, Boston, Denver, Madison, Wis., and Ann Arbor, Mich. Hitchhiking further to Key West, he settled into a kitchen position at a large resort and worked his way up to assistant pastry chef, which he decided on as a career. He joined the resort's food and beverage director when he went to San Francisco to open the Renaissance hotel.

By 1989 Jeff was a pastry chef, but his culinary career was about to take a 360-degree turn. Lending a sympathetic ear to Tilt's future lead singer Cinder, who worked for "an abusive t-shirt street vendor" in Berkeley, Jeff told Cinder to forget about his boss and that they could make their own shirts. Cinder Block merchandising was founded that day.

"A friend had an old, four-color screen-printing press," Bischoff says. "It couldn't print more than 12 dozen shirts an hour, if that. He gave it to us for three payments of $200. I still have it - I'll never get rid of it. So we started making shirts for the students. There was one with a picture of a double helix that said, 'DNA,' and there was one geared toward the math crowd that said, 'Natural Log.' And we made shirts for the tourists that said, 'People's Republic of Berkeley' and 'Berzerkeley.' We sold 'em off a card table on Telegraph Avenue, and we broke 100 bucks that first day."

After three months of cooking during the day, printing at night and selling on the weekends, it became obvious to Jeff that he needed to do shirts full time. "It wasn't just the money, though," he reminisce, "It was this whole independent, DIY thing, working for ourselves." But he didn't abandon his first love - cuisine. In 2002 he co-founded a restaurant in Emeryville, Calif, called Rudy's Can't Fail Café, named for a Clash song.

In 1990 Cinder Block moved to a 2,000-square-foot prefabricated building. "There was cold water and that was it," Bischoff recalls. Music remained an important part of his life: "In 1992, I bought an electric guitar and a Marshall amplifier and started Tilt.

"It began as an underground thing," Bischoff continues. "We were playing a local club called Gilman Street, doing shows with Green Day and Rancid. The East Bay was becoming a real hotbed. We put out a 7-inch on Lookout Records in 1993, and we went on tour with Green Day just as their album Dookie came out. That's when we had to hire our first people to hold down the fort at Cinder Block."

Tilt went on to release several critically acclaimed albums, first on Lookout, then on Fat Wreck Chords. But long before that, Cinder Block made T-shirts for friends. "These other Gilman Street bands - Green Day, Jawbreaker, Samiam, Operation Ivy, Mr. T Experience - started asking us to make shirts," Bischoff recollects. "Unfortunately, as some of these bands grew in prominence, they were forced to move on to the more established merchandising companies."

But Jeff got smart. "We were just a manual shop, printing shirts by hand. We didn't really know enough about music merchandising outside our own experience, and we didn't have real distribution," he confides. "We were just printing shirts and throwing them in the back of the van, and the bands would pay us when they got back from a tour. To be able to compete, to hold on to these bands, we needed to ramp up our production capacity. We needed to grow and expand the scope of our services. We got an automatic press, started a retail sales program and hired other people who shared our artist-first vision."

Jeff approached some of these bands and labels and got some merchandising rights. "I made a little black-and-white catalogue with a few images and some terms and ran off about 300 of them, which we sent out to mom-and-pop stores," he says. "I got the store list from Epitaph Records. And within a few days, these orders started coming in on the fax machine."

As the orders came in, stock was created, they called UPS, sent the shirts out COD, and the business started to build. From these early beginnings, Cinder Block's retail program has grown into a sophisticated sales and distribution business servicing more than 3,000 independent accounts as well as national and regional chains, including Hot Topic, JCPenney, PacSun, Spencer Gifts, Urban Outfitters, Newbury Comics and Zumiez.

Another giant step in Cinder Block's development came when it secured merchandising rights for the Vans Warped Tour. Tilt had been part of the tour's inaugural lineup in 1994. Two years later, with continuous growth, Cinder Block had the confidence to approach the promoters.

"We went to them and said, 'We want to do the event merchandise. We know this market; we know what the kids want,'" says Jeff. "At the time, it was all about flames and skulls. We knew the audience wasn't satisfied with the one extra-large logo shirt the previous merchandiser was offering. We created this new line with hooded sweatshirts and girls' baby doll shirts and a bunch of different images. Within three days, we out grossed what the other company had done on the whole previous tour. Warped itself was growing, but we did that well because we hit the mark. We knew those kids: they were at our shows; they were working for us; and they were our friends."

This experience has served Jeff and Cinder Block well. "In order to be competitive, we have to anticipate the trends, much like the fashion business," he explains. "We have to know when kids want something lighter, softer, more fitted, different. Lately, we've gotten into messenger bags and screen-printed patch hoodies. We're constantly trying new things. It's really important to us that we don't become the dinosaurs. We want to remain the alternative to the dinosaurs."

Within a year of distributing its first catalog, Cinder Block moved into a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Emeryville and purchased a 10-color automatic press, a machine that could produce 50 dozen shirts an hour. Three years later, Jeff bought the building Cinder Block currently occupies in Oakland.

Today, the company houses four fully automated presses capable of producing 45,000 impressions a day. With all operations performed in-house, Cinder Block provides fast response to customer demand and the highest level of quality control. Jeff is particularly proud of the company's skill in what's called "hot-market" printing, explaining: "When a local team won a championship recently, our entire production facility printed nonstop for 36 hours to produce championship merchandise. We were printing within an hour of the conclusion of the game."

Jeff believes Cinder Block's primary role as a merchandiser is in helping develop clients' brands. "You can download the album and even the artwork, but you can't download a T-shirt or a ball cap or a key chain - yet," he notes. "More and more, these are the things strengthening fans' relationships with the artists and the music. They extend the brand into a lifestyle."

To that end, Cinder Block also maintains an artist relations department in artist development. "We have the best reps. They are at the shows, and they know how to help build a band's relationship with the fans from the earliest stages," Jeff says. "For instance, we were working with Green Day before they had management, before the bidding war over them got started; it was the same with At the Drive In and AFI. We view nurturing these relationships and helping grow bands' careers as the cornerstones of client service, and we take pride in offering the highest level of client service in the industry."

Cinder Block moved into a new 90,000-square-foot facility in the spring of 2005 in order to accommodate the company's growing infrastructure. As impressive as this is, Bischoff is quick to say: "We're extremely happy to have reached this milestone, but the size of our operation isn't the most important indicator of success. We don't have to be the biggest, just the best."

How did you get the Vans Warped Tour account?
My band Tilt played on the first Vans Warped Tour. We thought that it wasn't handled as well as it should be, so we pitched them.

What are the best colors for a concert tee?
It has always been black.

Have you noticed any marked changes in tour merchandise in recent years?
Merchandise use to be a very secondary concern for artists and their managers. With the ever challenging climate of the music industry overall, we are seeing artists become more involved in their merchandise lines as they finally begin to recognize it as a valid and lucrative revenue stream.

How do you deal with steep venue commissions for merchandising?
The booking agent generally negotiates the hall commissions but the merchandiser can lend some additional leverage. While the artist might play a venue once a year, Cinder Block is in that same venue several times. Often times we are able to negotiate an additional rebate for the artist on the day of the show.

What types of artists generate the most merchandise sales?
The good ones...it is really hard to tell.

Is the industry seeing more and more boutique merchandisers like Cinder Block gaining market share?
While Cinder Block may have started out as a boutique merchandiser with a very specific niche, we have continued to grow and diversify our roster. Very similar to the insurgent independent record labels of the late '80s and early '90s, there will always be room for independent boutique types.

First industry job
Playing guitar in bands and putting on punk shows in the early '80s.

Career highlights
When we took over the event merchandising for Vans Warped Tour 10 years ago -- that was an important milestone for Cinder Block.

Career disappointment
I really don't have any; I take life on life's terms.

Greatest challenge
Industry politics. The merchandise industry is constantly evolving and relationships can change overnight. Partners can become competitors and vice versa.

Best business decision
Hiring a good tax accountant! Thanks, Zach Zeisler.

Best advice you received
My big brother taught me that karma is real; you get what you give in this life. I've let that advice govern the way I do business.

Best advice to offer
Work hard and treat people fairly, and everything else will fall into place.

Most memorable industry experience
Meeting Iggy Pop at a big rock festival in Germany (don't remember how may years ago). I am such a big fan, I kissed him on the mouth.

Favorite team/athlete
Detroit Tigers and Detroit Pistons -- that's where I grew up; Kareem Abdul Jabar -- it was all about the sky hook shot.

What friends would be surprised to learn about you
That I'm in love with Joni Mitchell but want to marry Sharon Stone.

Office paraphernalia
My refrigerator in my office that's stocked with fruit juice.

If I wasn't doing this, I would be...
...an Iron Chef.

Any culinary specialties?
I make a mean apple strudel.

Favorite restaurants
Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Emeryville, Calif., and Chez Panisse, Berkeley, Calif.

Favorite Hotel
Plaza Hotel, New York -- because it's where Eloise lives.

Industry pet peeve
Exorbitant hall commissions (on merchandise sales) and bootleggers.

Jeff can be reached at: (510) 957-1333; e-mail: jbischoff@cinderblock.com

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