Original Story by Jacob Kessler

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Tony Madalone; Open Door alumni, founder and CEO of Fresh Brewed Tees, Co-Chairman of Ohio Homecoming, and point guard for our famous final four team in 2003.  Tony, Mr. Loescher and I sat down in The Market, a pizzeria, grill, and pretty much every other type of restaurant you can imagine, to enjoy some great food and a great time with this up and coming twenty-first century businessman.  After several minutes of satisfied “Mmmm”s from each of us as we enjoyed our steak, green beans and mashed potatoes, we finally got down to business and started rolling out our questions.

Right off the bat I asked a question all of us, or perhaps it’s just me, wanted to know: How well do you think Open Door prepared you for the business world?  “Very well, I would say that in comparison to other schools a lot more.  Essentially Open Door was more geared towards college education compared to most high schools in the area.”

At this point I was just routinely going through my questions and asked: What advice could you give to students who are looking to get into the business world? What about entrepreneurship especially?  “Do it.” (We all laugh) “It sounds simple but so many people have ideas that nothing ever comes of, they never give them the chance.  Everybody has ideas, actually it doesn’t matter if you even have a great idea it’s all about the execution.  I would also say implement and adapt so no matter what it is you can always change things around but you got to get it, you gotta do it.  Get it to market.”

The more I talked to Tony the more it dawned on me that this guy sitting in front of me truly was something special, and I can really learn a lot from him.  Curious to learn a little more about what made this man who he is, I asked “So what got you into the tee-shirt business?”  Instantly, with the decisiveness and conviction that only comes with practice, Tony replied: “So I started selling vintage t-shirts out of my dorm room, I became a powerseller on ebay, and vintage got super oversaturated and everybody was doing it and I couldn’t make any more money.  But I learned the industry I was getting stuff, we were doing so much buying, getting stuff shipped from Arizona, we were buying stuff for like 50 cents a shirt and selling them for about five bucks a shirt.  I got my master’s, was supposed to go to Wall Street.  I was like I can’t do the desk job, I can’t do the corporate world. But I knew a little bit of the industry, I know sports real well I know Cleveland even better. So the goal was a start. I spent about six months researching the market, got a small loan from a family member, and the first shirt we did showed up on ESPN. It was crazy, we sold a hundred shirts before we even printed it. We killed it with LeBron here, the Cavs were good, we started working with some players so it just sort of transpired from there.  I can’t say that apparel was my dream but it was an opportunity to stay in sports. It allows me to be with the players to be at the games, it allows me to produce stuff for the fans.  It’s something I can be proud of and make some money off of.  Same thing with Open Door it brings people together, it brings the fans together and it brings Cleveland together.”

So then my next question was, what is it about Cleveland you love so much? You’ve been to New York and other big cities, but you keep coming back here.  “Wow that’s like an entire separate interview.  I like everything about it; the culture, people here are different than people elsewhere because they’re real, they’re seasoned, they’re tough and not just that that we’ve also got great culture, good sports teams, the Rock Hall, we’ve got awesome food, we’ve got world class theater, a world class orchestra, a world class art museum, stuff that nowhere else in the world has.” “Thank you Councilman,” interjects Mr. Loescher (We all laugh.) “I just love it, it’s a unique place and a lot of people I know have left and have always come back because they can’t find this elsewhere; New York, D.C., none of those places have what we have.”

That’s pretty awesome, but at that moment I recalled the events that truly led to Tony’s entrance into the ODCS record books. The final four team.  What was it like to be the point guard on the final four team?  “It was awesome. Great group of guys, it kind of brought the school together. It was all of our senior year so it made it a really special senior year for us.  It kind of put Open Door on the map; especially locally.  You know we had Jimmy Donovan and those guys downtown coming to interview us.  We put, I don’t know, three thousand people in the seats. Got the chance to ride down to Columbus.  So really it put us on the map and brought the whole school together.”

Our interview was decidedly coming to a close, so I decided to ask the tough questions about his experience walking out our open doors for the first time.  I then asked him: After leaving the bubble that is Open Door, and going off into college and the business world, how would you say your faith has been affected?  “It’s tough, college made it real.  Leaving the comfort of home, leaving what you’ve always known at Open Door, leaving that family, it’s a momentous change.  The first couple of years were a difficult time but they definitely strengthened my faith and helped mold me into who I am today.”

“Alright,” I said, “I guess I only have one more question for you, what message would you like us to pass on to all of Open Door?”  Instantly a smirk spread across his face as he replied: “Buy t-shirts!” (We all laugh.) “I think it’s pretty simple, do what you love and work hard.  That’s all encompassing, it’s not just for the students but for everyone.”  We then wound down to smalltalk and idle conversation, and soon payed the bill and left The Market.  Thinking about it now I know for a fact that I’m going to remember this interview for a great time to come, and not just because I got an awesome t-shirt out of the experience.