He's Chairman of the Skateboard, So to Speak

By LESLIE EARNEST

July 6, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Pierre Andre Senizergues is so absorbed with skateboarding that even a piece of furniture can make him think of the sport.

“I like that curve,” said Senizergues, the founder of Sole Technology Inc., brushing past the sleek 1950s-style couch in his office on his way to lunch. “It gives the feel of movement. And it has that gray color that makes you think of asphalt.”

Senizergues, a former world champion skateboarder, clearly has skateboarding on the brain. It’s a condition that has helped propel his Lake Forest company--which makes etnies, eS and Emerica brands of skateboard shoes--to the top of a fiercely competitive niche market.

In the seven years since the 35-year-old Newport Beach resident began designing etnies, skateboarding’s popularity has skyrocketed, giving birth to a rash of new businesses. Sole has flourished amid the competition and now sells more skate shoes in skate and surf shops than any other company.

Sole uses a clever marketing strategy that has allowed it to grow without alienating its core customer, a constant challenge for surf wear and skate shoe makers.

To stay cool, Sole sells eS and Emerica only in skate shops, which cater to youth who are phobic about department stores. Etnies--the company’s biggest moneymaker--are sold through the shops and the shopping center chain stores. The shoes range in price from $29 for the least expensive etnies to $89 for the highest-priced eS shoes.

Sole’s distribution strategy is a smart one, said Angelo Ponzi, president of Board-Trac, a research firm that recently polled teenagers to find out which shoes they thought were the coolest. Sole’s three brands finished in the top eight, with eS occupying the top spot.

“If one of the brands goes mainstream, it doesn’t necessarily affect the other two,” Ponzi said.

Senizergues, (pronounced Sin-e-zerg), attributes Sole’s success to the fact that it rivets attention on skateboarders and the businesses they frequent.

“Some other companies have tended to lose focus as they’ve gotten bigger,” he said. “For us, it’s the other way around. The more we grow, the more money we invest at the core level.”

The company spends a bundle on sponsorships, assembling teams of skaters, surfers, snowboarders, and BMX and motocross riders to promote the company’s brands. The top athletes make “six-figure” incomes, the company said, mostly from product endorsements.

Athletes wear Sole’s new designs at company-sponsored events, creating demand even before the products hit the shelves. It’s a strategy that pays dividends.

“One of their team riders will do a signature model of a shoe and we’ll get calls in the store a month before we’re even due to get them,” said Darin Bradley, a buyer at Huntington Surf & Sport in Huntington Beach.

Sole’s selective distribution strategy irks some retailers.

Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California sells etnies, but isn’t allowed to sell eS or Emerica in its stores, which are located in shopping centers. This exasperates Tim Harmon, Pacific Sunwear’s president, who doesn’t buy the theory that limiting the distribution to skate shops keeps the brands cool.

“We know what the kids are asking for,” Harmon said. “There really isn’t this difference they think exists. The skate sneaker business is not limited to core skate shops. Their distribution policy needs to be modified to satisfy the other kids in the market.”

But considering its success thus far, it seems unlikely that Sole will chart a new course. Growing with multiple brands appears to have helped the company sidestep the pitfalls that have plagued some companies that grew under a single label.

Vans Inc., the oldest and biggest skate shoe company, lost fans as it grew. Later, the Santa Fe Springs company won back followers by sponsoring skate and surf events and opening skate parks under the Vans name.

Sole’s affinity for the skater can be traced to Senizergues, whose career path began on the streets of Paris--where he first skated--and led to Lake Forest, where Sole opened a new headquarters last year.

He did not seemed destined for a chief executive’s job during those early years in Paris, skateboarding through the suburbs and at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Guided by parents who wanted to be sure he could get a job, Senizergues earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Paris and in 1984 landed a job at IBM as a computer engineer.

Still, he continued to skate, competing in the freestyle category, an acrobatic style of skateboarding that includes performing handstands and other gymnastic maneuvers. His awards included several European championships.

“We always looked up to him because he was so gifted,” said Eric Obre, who used to skate with Senizergues in France.

Senizergues’ life took an unexpected turn in 1985, when he came to California on vacation and wound up with endorsement contracts from several companies. Soon, he dumped his job to skate professionally. Over the next few years, he continued to collect titles, including three world championships.

But Senizergues--who suffered back injuries as a result of skateboarding--knew he couldn’t compete forever and began looking at other opportunities.

In 1989, he began distributing etnies under a licensing agreement with Rautreau Apple Shoes, a French company that first made the shoes.

“For me, it was more like an experimentation,” he said. “I was just curious to see how it worked.”

Initially, it was rough skating. Vans and Airwalk dominated the skate shoe market, which was then in a slump. Senizergues also felt the mostly high-top etnies weren’t “as functional as they could be.”

“Here we had this French company trying to dictate what skateboarders should be wearing,” said Don Brown, a former professional skateboarder who helped guide Sole and is now its vice president of marketing. “It doesn’t work like that. It has to come from California.”

So in 1992, Senizergues began designing etnies from a skater’s point of view. He says he improved the grip of the sole and focused on low-top designs.

Still, the early years weren’t easy for Senizergues, who also was teaching himself to speak English.

“He had a few hard, really tough, years in Huntington [Beach] trying to set up the company,” said Obre, who now co-owns Street Machine, a San Diego skateboard store that sells Sole’s brands. “He’s worked like a madman since then, like a maniac. At some point, I was afraid he would just have a seizure or something.”

Building his business, Senizergues in 1995 launched eS and a snowboard boot called thirtytwo. A year later, he started Emerica, bought the rights to etnies and created Sole Technology, which an industry trade group promptly named “Rookie Manufacturer of the Year.”

The business, which consisted only of Senizergues and Brown just five years ago, now has about 100 employees in its 70,000-square-foot headquarters. Sole also sells clothing and has entered the hot snowboard market.

Senizergues declines to disclose sales at the privately held company, but industry experts estimate them at about $100 million last year.

Despite the growth, the goal remains simple, Brown said.

“Keep growing and stay core,” he said. “I think it’s the challenge for anyone.”

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Skateboard Shoe Success

At a Glance

Company: Sole Technology Inc.

Headquarters: Lake Forest

Operations: Leading maker of skateboard shoes. Also makes snowboard boots, clothing and accessories.

Brands: etnies, eS and Emerica skate shoes, thirtytwo snowboard boots

Ownership: Privately held

Chief executive: Pierre Andre Senizergues