Why we rebranded to Railshop from First Eight
In late 2019, we recognized that our skills were in high demand with a market in our own back yard. Local businesses were approaching us, and we were executing in our free time. We carried our momentum into creating First Eight, LLC, a small marketing agency run by 2 dudes with experience driving business KPI.
For 3 years, we kept things extremely simple. First Eight ran entirely on word of mouth. Do our best work, continue improving, and see what happens. We picked up clients from across the US just by meeting them and telling our story. We didn’t even have our own website, because we were so focused on the clients we had.
Now it’s 2023, and the world around us has changed. Dozens of clients and over a hundred projects later, we’ve retained long term partnerships — including our very first client — as well as honed our approach to project based work.
What has been our biggest learning? If we wanted to keep growing, we needed to start paying attention to our own positioning. We needed to turn our skills inward and treat ourselves as a client. Beyond just the two of us, what was it that we stood for? What were we uniquely the best at? How could we make it easier for people to work with us? How could we deliver max value to those who appreciate it the most?
Well, we went back to our roots for the answer. We went back to Railshop.
Railshop calls to another time when we both passionately enjoyed the work we were doing together. Even back in 2006, our skills were complementary.
Today, it’s still like this. We’ve both evolved our careers in business and technology, but the pattern hasn’t changed: We have overlapping and complementary skills that allow us to plan and execute on stellar work, even when it’s just the two of us. Designer and Developer. Director and Cameraman. R2D2 and C3PO.
As soon as Drew pitched the new name, it was a no-brainer. I could feel the energy explode, and we were just casually chatting in Slack on a Friday. “Multiple people are typing” vibes and it was just the two of us. Immediately we got to work on bringing it to life, and by Monday we had the foundation of our new brand: Railshop.
It was like a fog had lifted. It all started making more sense. We could see the direction we were headed in and how to stay on track. We knew we wanted to align most directly with fun, outdoor, and active businesses, because that’s what we also enjoy. Railshop’s brand speaks directly to the days we hustled overtime just to make snowboarding more fun.
Along with the rebrand, we narrowed down our offering to the most meaningful and complimentary services: Web, Content, and Advertising. Not only are these the services that drove the most value for our clients, but they’re the ones we want to work overtime on just to make things better. Same same, just different.
We love surfing in California, snowboarding in Colorado, mini ramp sessions in a Pennsylvania barn, playing pond hockey in -10 degrees, slicing a Pro V1 into the thick stuff, packing out what you pack in, and generally enjoying what this world has to offer. If any of this is imbued into your business, we want to work with you.
Even if that doesn't sound like you, but you appreciate good design, strategic planning, and reliable execution, we want to work with you. If you have a successful business model and are looking for a competitive edge with your content, advertising, or web presence, we want to work with you.