Jerod Foster
When I visited YETI®’s 35,000-square foot shipping and receiving center in East Austin, I was a bit taken aback. Taken aback in a good way. Because of YETI®’s multi-million dollar reputation, I expected a gilded fortress. What I found was a modest, tidy facility teeming with friendly employees, most of whom looked to be under the age of 35. YETI® sits on a short street in a neighborhood that’s a mingling of warehouses and humble homes, dotted with small businesses and tiny family-owned restaurants and food trucks—small vans, carts or trailers that sell anything from tacos to kebabs to barbecue to crepes…yes, crepes. The company is housed in a former Big Red distribution center— the original Big Red sign is still affixed to the building’s exterior, a nod to East Austin’s history as a mostly industrial, blue-collar district. East Austin has been undergoing a steady trend of gentrification since the 1990s. Still, many of the original businesses and residents remain, which lends an eclectic feel to the area. When I reflected on all of this, plus what I learned about the founders of YETI® Coolers, I decided it was a perfect fit. Like East Austin, YETI® products are a composite of durability, business and pleasure. And, they’re very, very cool.
East Austin was No. 7 on Forbes magazine’s 2012 list of “America’s Best Hipster Neighborhoods.”
Seiders in his company's shipping facility in East Austin
In 2002, Seiders married Kathi Gingerich Seiders ’00, who’s also a Red Raider. Kathi credits fellow alumni Melissa Hitzfeld Pekar and Ryan Bader for introducing the couple. She graduated with a degree in multidisciplinary studies and taught elementary school four years before becoming a stay-at-home mom to their four children, three girls and one boy. Of her husband Kathi says, “I’m super proud of Roy. He’s pretty amazing and he’s an incredibly hard worker who put a lot on the line for his company.”
When most family vacations you took as a kid are to trade shows, and your father owns his own business, it’s hard to avoid the pull toward entrepreneurship. Such was the case with Roy Seiders, who comes from a long line of Texas-based capitalists—going back to the 1850s in Austin. Seiders’ father started Flex Coat, a company that sells epoxy coating for fishing rods. “Seeing my father own and operate a small business, I set my path in the business world,” says Seiders, who received his bachelor of business administration degree in management information systems in 2000. Seiders grew up in Driftwood, Texas, and graduated from Dripping Springs High School. “There weren’t a lot of kids from home who went to Tech,” Seiders explains. “I was sold on it after visiting my brother Rick (who also attended Tech). He’s two years older than I am.” Seiders says Lubbock was the perfect place for an outdoorsman to attend college. “I missed the rolling hills and big oak trees, but I fell in love with Lubbock—the region, the people and the climate,” he says. “My friends and I took advantage of all the hunting we could. We’d go right outside of town to bird hunt. We’d ask farmers if we could hunt on their land, they almost always said ‘yes.’ We were big bird hunters; we’d hunt dove, quail, pheasant, ducks and geese. My brother and I, along with a few college buddies, even lease a place now in Canadian to hunt. I love that area.”
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