Freestyle, Long Live Analog!

by Dan Wagner

Back in 1946, Irving Resch and Sam Fatman, founders of Freestyle Sales Company, now Freestyle Photographic Supplies had no idea that their company would one day become the premier caretaker and champion of analog photography. Nor could they have imagined how adroitly their company would navigate the difficulties of adhering to their core business during the dawn of digital photography. Curious about this remarkable company, I requested an interview with Freestyle’s Patrick DelliBovi, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing. Photographers will be fascinated by what he had to say.

DW: Patrick, I think it’s quite remarkable for any company, and especially a photography supply business founded in 1946, that’s approaching its 75th anniversary to survive and prosper in such a competitive and constantly evolving industry. What factors have contributed to Freestyle Photographic Supplies’ success? 

PD: I would say number one was entrenching ourselves into the school supply business back in the mid-70’s, when we developed our privately labeled Arista brand. One of the focuses of the company back then was being able to supply schools with quality products for less money. The Arista brand helped open the door to the school marketplace. Our relationships with schools have carried forth to the present day.

The other big contributing factor occurred during the early 2000s. At that time, the rest of the photographic world was jumping on the digital bandwagon. I came on board the company in 2001, and we had endless discussions regarding which direction we should be taking. Should we go down the digital path? And, I have to tell you – the room was divided. Ultimately, the analog guys won. We said, “Analog has gotten us to this point, and we’re going to continue with analog.” We went out and sourced analog manufacturers throughout the world, and basically put our arms around them. Even though the rest of the industry seemed to be saying analog was going to die, and that film was dead and that we’d be out of business in five years – we didn’t believe it!

We invested a lot. Especially with those manufacturers who said, “you know our volumes have gone down.” We would buy a year’s worth of products from them just to keep their factories up and running.

We felt that this was a temporary blip – people get excited about something new. And digital was still fairly new. People were thinking that digital was going to revolutionize photography. Which in some ways it has. But film is still very special – it’s got a 150-year history. So it’s not going away. Sure, it’s become a niche now, but people are still excited by it. I think that was the pivotal point for us continuing to do what we do, and being able to survive the tumultuous waters in our industry.

DW: How was Freestyle able to buy a year’s supply of a manufacture’s film line? It must have been difficult to come up with that much capital, and being able to allocate to that one area without knowing what the return would be, or how long it would take to break even and make a profit. That must’ve been scary.

PD: It was. I don’t want to say that we were biting our nails, but I think we believed that what we were doing was the right thing. And that outlaying capital was the right move. And that eventually it would pay off. Obviously it’s soon going to be our 75th anniversary, and we’re still here! It’s funny, we’re probably selling more lines of film today than we did thirty years ago – and that’s exciting.

DW: Reading the year 1946 in the About Us section on your website makes me think of old movies. Please tell me about the company founders, and how Freestyle got its start.

PD: The founders were Irving Resch and Sam Fatman. They were two brothers-in-law who saw an opportunity after World War II. Sam was a salesman selling family photos, and Irving was a veteran from the military working in the costume jewelry industry. There was a surplus of aerial film, which the government put out to bid. They decided to hook up to bid on the surplus film, as the government was giving preference to bids from vets. They won their first bid of surplus film, and that’s how the company got started. They continued winning bids for all the war surplus films until it was all gone, and then went on to other films that were outdated and could be purchased at a very advantageous price. It’s a great story.

Sam Fatman’s daughter, and Irving Resch’s son, currently own the company. They’re 50-50 partners. The nice thing is that they’re very supportive of what we do, and how we run the business. They’re very proud of their Freestyle legacy.

DW: Based upon what I’ve read on numerous photo forum websites, it’s clear photographers appreciate having a photographic supply company dedicated to being the de facto caretaker of film photography.

PD: Yes, we monitor and appreciate the photographer forums. We’re partners with Photrio.com – we love to read the feedback that we get. Our customers have kept us alive, and we value them very much. Their feedback is very important to us. We listen!

DW: So when you help a manufacture continue a product line, is it hard to compete with megastores such as B&H?

PD: Sure, but we really don’t compete in that realm of the market. That’s because we made the decision years ago to sort of get out of the equipment business. We decided to focus on being a consumable business. Now we do sell large format Canon and Epson printers, monitors, and things of that nature. And we’ve done a good job at becoming an educational resource for printing. But that was a natural extension of the consumable areas of printing. We’re all about capture on film and then printing. We don’t sell digital cameras. So, we don’t have to compete with any of the big guys out there.

On the analog side, one of the things we did in 2002 was start a distribution division. The analog side of the photo industry is much smaller than the digital side. Although, if you look back at the industry as a whole about thirty-five-years ago, there were probably 30,000 photo dealers in the country and most of them did film processing. Today, there are probably 500.

Attrition hit, technology hit, and a lot of places went down. I’m happy to see some new places opening up. I love seeing new labs and film camera stores opening up. That’s wonderful and shows the resiliency of the analog business!

Through our distribution division we were able to secure the distributorship for Holga cameras. This was our first major line and the approach grew with other brands, and lines such as Foma and Rollei– and today we have 25 different brands, many of them exclusive in the United States.

By the way, we sell wholesale to the megastores. We do not view them as competition but as customers. The more product that we can have available in other stores, the better off it is for the analog customer. The ability to purchase a Holga camera, or Revolog film in other stores throughout the country benefits the photo industry overall. From our standpoint, that’s what it’s all about.

DW: Has Freestyle always been located at 5124 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles CA, 90027? What is the store’s Hollywood / Los Feliz neighborhood like?

PD: Actually, Freestyle started in New York. It was around 1949 that we relocated to California. Around 1972 the store moved from nearby Western Avenue to where we are now. We currently have two locations. There’s a 30,000-square-foot distribution center in Santa Fe Springs, California. It’s a fully automated facility with a 24,000-cubic-foot cold storage room with 50 pallet positions for storing film and paper. We ship all over the world from this facility.

Our offices and retail store are in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard.

The Hollywood / Los Feliz neighborhood is quite diverse, which is great. Our retail store is a small part of our overall business. Being located in Los Angeles is very helpful. We love our clientele. We get a lot of people coming in from Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater Village – millennials, hipsters, boomers, commercial photographers, and nearby movie studios.