How did Mr. Nice Guys get started?
The Dream
“I always wanted to start a smoke shop,” says Leroy, a Corpus Christi local and jack-of-all-trades. The year was 2010 and he was selling products out of his vehicle to smoke shops around town, and he noticed a trend.
“I’m meeting with other shop owners and I’m like, dude — these guys don’t even care. Like seeing how they do business, they don’t care. They don’t care about the product, nothing.”
Leroy saw that not only did these owners not care about their own business or products, but they weren’t nice or friendly to do business with, and they left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Flashbacks and places like that — they were all rude. Just asshole people tucked away in a corner, and I wanted to be something better.”
Building it Better
So, he got to work building a brand that could not only outperform the competition — but be nice about it, too. But, the road was not a smooth one; I mean, come on — it is Corpus, after all. “Nobody wanted to rent to me, nobody wanted to give me the time of day. No crew, no nothing — I had friends. That’s what got me all the help I needed.”
And through the help of friends and lots of sweat, the first Mr. Nice Guys opened “on the busiest street in Corpus Christi. There wasn’t another shop out there in the middle of the open like that. Everybody just stopped there. We put money into a new sign, and I lived and breathed in that store for about two years.”
The sign he’s referring to — the iconic Mr. Nice Guys’ logo — was designed by Leroy’s own, at the time, 13-year-old little sister, who has now graduated from college in computer design.
When he said ‘live and breathe,’ he meant it: “I put every dime I had into this. Actually — money I didn’t have — I borrowed the product, a lot of the product. I went and bought display cabinets when they were closing the mall. It took forever to get permits from the city; we were sitting there without lights.
“But, I’d be there for hours every day, ya know, just talking to whoever stopped by. I lived there — had a couch in the back and a TV. This was before you could Chromecast, so you know, I had a DVD player. And that’s all I did. I’d go shower at my sister’s — do whatever made it work.”
And make it work, he did. Leroy found enough success with Mr. Nice Guys on Staples St. to open up the shop at Six Points in those first years, as well.
We all fall down
Unfortunately, the universe’s plan isn’t always what we expect. Mind you, 12 years ago the climate surrounding this industry was different — by a lot. In regards to Big Brother’s involvement — “they didn’t want anyone to have longevity, to be big. They wanted you to be a small mom and pop tucked in a corner somewhere.”
Even in its infancy, Mr. Nice Guys was not small, not tucked away, and was anybody but your mom and pop. This all swirled into a time Leroy refers to as a sign from the universe that “I needed to be humbled more.” And Mr. Nice Guys at Six Points shut its doors.