Wednesday, April 5, 2017 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 // The Statement
5B
The Pedicab Man
the story behind Boober Tours
b y Av i S h o l k o f f, Daily Sports Writer
“
Boober Tours! The only way!”
Pedestrians stare at Kevin Span-
gler, the six-foot-five man wearing a
long black jacket who is pedaling on a
pedicab on a mid-afternoon day.
“Boober Tours! The only way!”
Spangler shouts again, hoping someone will notice
him. It’s a typical day for Spangler. He bikes all
around Central Campus and downtown Ann Arbor,
from the Diag to Rick’s to Blank Slate Creamery.
Some recognize him. A man in a red pickup truck
rolls down his window at a traffic light and strikes
up a chat. A group of men seated on the sidewalk
outside Salads Up excitedly yells at Kevin: “Boober
Tours!” followed by “What’s up Kevin?”
Others seem more mystified by the man peddling
on the pedicab, but are friendly nonetheless such as
the young couple pushing a stroller, or the elderly
duo in matching Michigan gear.
To most Ann Arborites, Spangler is an omnipres-
ent, optimistic feature of their downtown. Most
don’t know of his multiple stints in prison, his strug-
gles with alcoholism or his homelessness.
All they see is a man cheerfully laughing, some-
times wearing a banana suit as he solicits riders.
“For extra tips,” he explains to me.
***
Spangler grew up in Manchester, a modest town-
ship roughly 20 minutes southwest of Ann Arbor, as
the son of a corrections officer and a nurse. From 5
years old until the time he graduated high school, he
dealt with attention deficit disorder, taking Ritalin
and Adderall throughout his education. Spangler
developed severe anxiety and socially isolated him-
self. After serving in the military, he began dealing
drugs.
“When you’re taking medication for ADD, it
makes you into a robot,” Spangler recalls. “I never
talked to anybody, I never really had any friends
in school, and then it wasn’t until I quit taking the
medication that I became this social butterfly. I got
into dealing drugs.”
Joining the Navy straight out of high school, he
was able to end his Ritalin addiction. However, alco-
hol became his new drug of choice. After leaving
the service, he worked as a chef for the Washtenaw
Country Club and became the locker room manager,
a position he worked for a year. Because of his suc-
cess in his position, he found himself traveling to
outside of Los Angeles to work as a locker room man-
ager at Moorpark Country Club — considered one of
the best country clubs in the United States in 2002.
But then his drinking problem brought his for-
tunes down. He lost that job because of a DUI viola-
tion, the first of many.
By 2010, Spangler married, but soon divorced
because of a “marijuana business that got out of
control,” according to an article he wrote in Ground-
cover News.
As a drug dealer, he still grappled with alcohol
addiction. By June of 2015, he had been given a total
of five DUIs and a prison sentence.
In December 2015, he left prison for the final
time. Although he had been in and out before, this
time was different. He learned he would be having
a son — named Romando — and he was motivated to
change his life.
With few job prospects available because of his
criminal record, Spangler needed to flex his creative
muscles. As he emphasized throughout our inter-
view, he remained undeterred.
“When you get in trouble, you lose your rights to
get a regular job,” Spangler explained. “When they
do a criminal check, you could be the best person
in the world, but if you have a criminal record, you
don’t get the job. I’ve had to struggle, start my own
businesses, wait tables, anything I can.”
After prison, Spangler found a safe haven in the
Robert J. Delonis Center, a homeless shelter on West
Huron Street, where he lived for three months.
While in Ann Arbor, he discovered Groundcover
News — a community newspaper that employs local
homeless people as vendors and writers — from
existing vendors around town. Spangler wrote regu-
larly for a year, according to publisher Susan Beckett.
“The thing that touches me most is how commit-
ted he is to his son,” Beckett said. “When he started
(at Groundcover), his girlfriend was pregnant and he
made it clear he wanted to turn his life around and
be the kind of father he always wanted to be, and
he’s doing that. He’s gone from living in the shelter to
now having a place where his son can be with him.”
Though he no longer consistently writes for the
paper, he often attends the organization’s socials
once or twice a month, according to Beckett. Dur-
ing our ride last Thursday, he waved and exchanged
pleasantries with a vendor on State Street too.
“I don’t regret anything I have ever done, as it has
made me the person I am today,” Spangler wrote in
the January 2016 edition of Groundcover. “I own it
and I am using everything I ever went through as a
tool to help me with future.”
Spangler enrolled at Washtenaw Community
College briefly, but as was the case earlier in his life,
classes proved challenging for him because of his
ADD. Spangler realized that college wasn’t the path
for him. Groundcover provided some financial liter-
acy and budgeting courses, something that Spangler
emphasized was essential to avoiding the plagues of
drugs and alcohol.
Spangler explained that he had heard extensive
complaints from Uber and Lyft drivers in town who
complained about their experiences with their par-
ent companies. If the drivers were unhappy, Span-
gler asserted, their riders were equally unsatisfied,
thus opening the space for a pedal-powered on-
demand transportation service.
By January 2016, he saved up to purchase his first
pedicab. Day and night, residents and citizens of
Ann Arbor would begin to notice the tall man wear-
ing a costume outside Skeeps at 2 a.m.
At first, he kept the pedicabs behind a bus station
on the outskirts of town, underneath some tarps.
Then, he expanded his fleet and moved them into a
small storage unit, but that soon became too tight as
well.
He initially intended to have three pedicabs by
the summer of 2016. After finding large demand,
however, he expanded it to 10.
Riding with Boober Tours is free, though cus-
tomers are encouraged to give their pedalers tips,
and they often do. Spangler’s company is funded by
donations. Because of his work at Groundcover, Ben-
nett explained that Boober is eligible for donation
matches from Groundcover. Thus far, he’s received
$5,000 in donations and $2,200 in loans. He addi-
tionally reinvests earnings from cab rides back into
his company.
His first pedicab merely served as his first step.
Spangler dreams of a ride-hailing app, of even add-
ing cars and perhaps trolleys to his network. Pres-
ently, though, he focuses on his 14 pedicabs, manned
by a pool of seasonal and full-time pedalers — only a
year after he began Boober Tours.
While Spangler’s company has experienced tre-
mendous growth in just over a year, he still sees
greater returns on the horizon. As spring turns into
summer, Spangler will look to hire additional pedi-
cab drivers to expand his business.
In the winter, fewer people drive because of
weather and reduced demand, but that doesn’t faze
Spangler. He’ll drive rain or shine. He never wants to
have a boss again.
***
But starting Boober Tours isn’t enough for Span-
gler. He seeks to additionally help those who strug-
gled like himself, recovering drug addicts or those
with ADD.
As a former addict, Spangler says he comprehends
how an addiction can affect not only an individual
but his or her family and social circle as well. He uti-
lizes his business to find positions for those just out
of rehab or struggling with drugs or alcohol. A hand-
ful of his current employees are recovering addicts.
“I want to inspire people,” Spangler said. He aims
to create economic opportunity for those whom
society — and many of its employers — has all but
closed its doors on.
For Spangler, his own personal struggles with
drug addiction are vital to his empathy with those
who have gone through similar tragedies.
Walking into the warehouse where Spangler
stores his pedicabs, there’s a whiteboard filled with
ideas: plans for Boober, plans for other businesses,
advertising and for his personal future.
“I have a tiered process of how I’m going to get
there over the next year-to two years,” Spangler said.
“Back in December, I knew I was going to turn this
company into a million-dollar company, but then
I was like, ‘Why stop at a million dollars? Why not
make this a billion-dollar company?’ ”
With 14 pedicabs, Spangler may well be on his
way. Riding through the Diag on a Thursday after-
noon, he seemed comfortable on the University of
Michigan campus, waving to a number of students
and even stopping to answer questions.
One man asked him about any events happening
around Ann Arbor in the upcoming weekend. “Hash
Bash,” he replied with a smile. “It’s a good day for
business.”
Riding throughout the city, Spangler holds a smile
on his face, complimenting the beautiful 55-degree
weather, uncharacteristic for a March in Ann Arbor.
Spending time with Spangler, it becomes evident
that he simply wishes to make the most of life. That
sentiment is echoed by others, such as LSA sopho-
more Brendan Genaw, the incoming president of
OptiMize — a social entrepreneurship student orga-
nization — who has spoken with him a number of
times.
Genaw explained that Spangler came in contact
with Jeff Sorenson — the founder of OptiMize and
a University alum — who encouraged Spangler to
attend a workshop. While at OptiMize, he discussed
his business model and success. He even gave some
of the students a ride home afterward.
At another workshop, Spangler became more
personal. He told them his origin story, how he pro-
gressed from prison to his current position.
“That was something cool for our people to hear
because a lot of them actually know what Boober is,”
Genaw said. “It’s not like he’s the CEO of some super
high-tech company that no one is ever aware of. He’s
someone that’s in Ann Arbor and they’re constantly
around him too.”
The positive experience that Genaw explained is
a constant feature during a Boober tour with Span-
gler. He’ll ask customers about their goals, their
motivations and their dreams. He’ll play music from
an auxiliary cord, and he’ll do what he can to engage
his riders.
This positivity radiates from Spangler not just on
his pedicab but in conversation as well. His enthusi-
asm is contagious. You speak to him and he has such
a joy, a passion for his work and for life.
“I just kind of felt when I was growing up as a
child that I was going to do something massive to
help the world,” Spangler said. “I always had that,
but I feel like I had to go through the struggles I
went through (in order to do it). To help somebody,
you need to go through what they’ve been through.
I’ve kind of mastered it and now in the future I want
that for my company, since it’s second chance jobs for
people in recovery.”
But Spangler wasn’t always this positive, hap-
py-go-lucky individual. At times in his life, he felt
depressed and at one point suicidal. Starting Boober
Tours reversed his outlook.
He explains that, as a pedicab driver, he exercises
every day and engages in breathing exercises such
as the Wim Hof method and the Nam Myoho Renge
Kyo, a Buddhist breathing technique he learned
from his aunt.
Now a year in and about 19 months sober, he
reflects on how he began. His parents barely took
care of him in prison.
“There’s a difference between Democrats and
Republicans: Democrats take care of their kids in
prison, Republicans don’t,” he quipped.
But they did send Spangler books. Anthony Rob-
bins’s self-help book “Awaken the Giant Within” par-
ticularly inspired him. He set goals for himself, goals
he continues to look at each day. Without these “mas-
sive goals,” Spangler explains, he would have strug-
gled to accomplish anything. He says goal-setting is
imperative for struggling individuals.
***
It’s likely you’ve seen the tall, lanky man on a
Boober. Perhaps you’ve been slightly intoxicated
at 2 a.m., or perhaps you’ve been walking in the
Diag in the middle of a school day.
But maybe now, you’ll know why the man is
wearing a ridiculous costume. Maybe, instead of
shaking your head, you’ll ask him for a ride and
ask about his story.
It’s safe to say, however, that no matter the
time or day, Spangler wears a smile on his face.
He’ll wave and exchange pleasantries with those
he knows and make small talk with those who
doesn’t.
It’s not weird, it’s normal. It’s how Spangler
acts.
Like Boober Tours, it’s the only way.
PHOTOS BY: ALEXIS RANKIN/DAILY