0:13

Hello, welcome to another episode of The

0:14

menswear style podcast. I'm your

0:17

host Pete Brooker. On this

0:17

episode I'm going to talk to

0:20

Pierre Andre senese egg, the CEO

0:20

of soul technology, soul

0:24

technology with brands like

0:24

etnies s in America, and many

0:29

more that fall under the brand

0:29

umbrella Pierre found at knees

0:33

35 years ago while he was in LA

0:33

struggling with homelessness,

0:37

and finding his place in the

0:37

skate scene, Pierre finally

0:41

managed to get his foot in the

0:41

skate scene and partake in

0:44

freestyle competitions, which he

0:44

won many of nine European Cup

0:48

titles, five European

0:48

Championships, two World Cup

0:51

titles, One World Championship

0:51

and so on. I caught up with

0:54

Pierre for a quick chat about

0:54

etnies skating his journey and

0:59

and how he blew his knee out,

0:59

always morbidly fascinated with

1:03

knee blowouts having blown my

1:03

own knee out in the past.

1:06

Anyway, here is Pierre, in his

1:06

own words.

1:09

Yeah, so I'm live in California,

1:09

but actually, I'm from Europe.

1:14

Originally, I grew up in a

1:14

suburb of Paris. And I always

1:21

dream about skateboarding. And

1:21

when I was a teenager, also

1:27

skateboarding a lot with my

1:27

friends, went to Paris, then

1:30

travel around Europe,

1:30

skateboarding and eventually

1:33

ended up in California, in the

1:33

street, homeless first and, and

1:41

eventually went on to win

1:41

competition around the world and

1:47

decide to launch it needs in the

1:47

US. And I have a company called

1:53

us. So technology, where we have

1:53

with our team, five different

1:59

brands, including etnies. S,

1:59

America 32, an ultimen. And we

2:10

are distributed about 70

2:10

countries around the world. And

2:12

my job as a founder, the owner

2:12

and the CEO is to make sure that

2:17

everything is working, and I'm

2:17

paying the bills on time. Okay,

2:24

yeah, that's an important part

2:24

of the job description. And I

2:28

want to drill down a little bit

2:28

on etnies, if that's okay, and

2:32

would you mind just telling us a

2:32

little bit about etnies? What it

2:35

is, and the philosophy of the

2:35

brand?

2:37

Yeah, it is actually the name

2:37

come from? ethnicity or ethnic?

2:45

And the idea is that what we're

2:45

asking boring, with my friend in

2:50

Europe, were a group of kids

2:50

getting together, where were

2:54

these crime, supporting each

2:54

other in the street, and where

2:58

this ethnicity was, in our

2:58

culture, and with different

3:05

people in that in that culture,

3:05

you know, and, and that's where

3:09

the name etnies is in, at the

3:09

beginning, actually was called

3:14

ethnic. But the name was too

3:14

close to some other brand. So we

3:18

had to change the the name and

3:18

it became etnies.

3:23

Okay, and it's, it's meant for

3:23

the people that are uninitiated

3:27

again that are not familiar,

3:27

it's mainly trainers. And this

3:30

is this is, so we make, actually shoes and

3:31

apparel. We actually don't make

3:37

skateboard. We don't make

3:37

wheels. We will focus,

3:42

especially on shoes and apparel.

3:42

And those shoes has to be

3:47

specific for skateboarding, but

3:47

they turn into where a lot of

3:52

people are, we wear them in the

3:52

streets. Because they like the

3:56

style. They like the comfort and

3:56

the direct durability we make

4:02

with our shoes to make sure they

4:02

you can skate with it. So you

4:05

can feel the ball. It can last

4:05

against the grip tape. But also

4:11

it can absorb impact. And

4:11

sometime I impact because the

4:17

impact in your food when you

4:17

skate can be extremely high.

4:22

Right. And just dialling back a little

4:23

bit here. I mean, so you when

4:27

you move to LA you are homeless

4:27

for a while before you managed

4:31

to get your foot in the door so

4:31

to speak with certain companies

4:35

How did you manage to over come

4:35

that situation and it still

4:38

affects you now? Is it still

4:38

part of your with your memories

4:42

looking back on those days? Yeah, I think me actually every

4:43

day because when I arrive in

4:48

America, just enough money for

4:48

my aeroplane ticket after that

4:53

figure out just gonna be camping

4:53

over there. It's hurting

4:57

California. So I will I will

4:57

sleep on the beach, you know, I

5:02

will literally like find

5:02

somewhere where I can sleep on

5:07

somebody's couch, you know, I'll

5:07

behind the couch. And then

5:11

eventually, I bought a car and I

5:11

saw living in a car. And, and

5:17

for me it was living in

5:17

paradise. You know, that was

5:22

only because I was in

5:22

California, it doesn't rain that

5:27

much here. So so I could skate

5:27

here because the concrete

5:31

wouldn't be wet. So that works

5:31

pretty good for skateboarding.

5:36

And at the beginning, it was

5:36

pretty good. I remember some of

5:39

the difficulties I was having is

5:39

sometimes feeling prayer alone,

5:42

you know, because during the day

5:42

it was finally you see other

5:45

people you skate with them at

5:45

the end, when you're alone in

5:49

the street. There's nobody

5:49

anymore on the street. It's a

5:52

bit tough, you know, so I always

5:52

had my mind how to help even

5:59

today, you know, people are

5:59

homeless. Because they

6:03

understand the feeling. And

6:03

especially coming from a

6:08

different country. Coming to

6:08

America on top of it. I didn't

6:13

speak too much English. Right. Okay. Oh, the next straw.

6:16

Wow. Yeah, you're, you're

6:19

ticking all the boxes to go with it. And then the literal English I

6:23

was talking actually was not

6:26

very useful because most of the

6:26

skaters had slang. I could

6:30

understand this. Yeah. That's great. So I mean, I mean,

6:35

what is the difference of being

6:39

homeless? Say, when you move to

6:39

America, you've moved at the age

6:43

of 15. So what helped me? Yeah,

6:43

I

6:45

was a bit older. I was actually

6:45

22. Now keyboarding in France,

6:51

when I was 15. I came here when

6:51

I was 22. So yeah, it was, do

7:00

you think? Do you think people could do

7:01

that now, though, as in, like,

7:03

if you had the same story in the

7:03

same journey now? I mean, the

7:07

homeless landscape in LA,

7:07

California is quite rabid from

7:11

what I'm, yeah, quite, it's

7:11

quite a problem. The

7:15

Los Angeles has the biggest

7:15

population of people that are

7:18

homeless, in United States,

7:18

there's over 50,000 people are

7:22

homeless. And with COVID. It's

7:22

even worse, you know, more

7:28

people end up being in the

7:28

street. And sometimes is, is not

7:32

necessary, like it's a mental

7:32

issue, as sometime is just

7:36

simply they lose their job, you

7:36

know, and then they live in

7:42

their call, or just even lose

7:42

their car, you know, and you

7:46

just sometimes just simply,

7:46

people don't want a job, you

7:48

know, so And also, everything is

7:48

getting more expensive in Los

7:52

Angeles to live. So it's not

7:52

easy to rent. Sometimes when you

7:58

have an entry job. Some people

7:58

even have entry job in in LA

8:02

leaving their car. Because

8:02

there's no substitute, you know,

8:08

that expense. Right? I mean, if I think it's,

8:11

I don't know, if people really

8:15

see that when they come to LA,

8:15

like the holidays, or, you know,

8:18

the tourism. I don't know if

8:18

this is something that people

8:21

really get to grips with. It's

8:21

not like they, when people want

8:24

to come to America, for example,

8:24

for a couple of weeks that they

8:26

want to engage with that side,

8:26

but it is such a it's a huge

8:30

factor, isn't it? And in what's

8:30

going on in LA right now, I

8:33

mean, it's, I don't know if it's

8:33

spoken about as much as it's

8:35

Yeah, I definitely. I mean, there's

8:36

like, I mean, for us, I've been

8:38

with it, he's been in the

8:38

streets, you know, from from day

8:41

one, you know, we always be

8:41

interacting with people in the

8:44

street that have problems. You

8:44

know, so even early on, when I

8:48

was living in Europe, I would

8:48

give my, my shoes or my shirt or

8:51

whatever I could know, when I

8:51

will go skating. When I became

8:56

one, I got even more,

8:56

understanding exactly what was

9:00

going through, and then having a

9:00

company, you know, that'd be

9:05

able to do something, you know,

9:05

I not only give shoes to the

9:09

homeless in Los Angeles, every

9:09

year, but also I bring my team

9:17

to Los Angeles to give to the

9:17

owners. So they also learn, you

9:21

know, how to give if these are

9:21

our internal team working in the

9:25

company, but also people that

9:25

are in our team writing for the

9:28

company, our actions.

9:33

How did you manage to get out of

9:33

that, then? I mean, did you use

9:38

skateboarding as a way to get

9:38

out and off the streets?

9:41

Yeah, skateboarding was

9:41

definitely my ticket. To say, my

9:46

second ticket. Yeah, stick

9:46

coming to America. But what what

9:50

happened I was living in Venice

9:50

Beach, I was getting on the

9:54

boardwalk. And if you're

9:54

tourists coming to to

9:59

California, you Go to bass beach

9:59

usually. And is all those are

10:04

the people that are doing

10:04

exhibition there, you know, to

10:08

make a living. So I did the same

10:08

thing as a physiologist put my

10:11

heart. And it's got to start

10:11

doing some tricks. And I find

10:16

out really quickly that people

10:16

will read generous. And I, in 20

10:23

minutes, I could I could make up

10:23

to $200 doing skateboard tricks

10:28

on the boardwalk. So that was

10:28

not for me to leave. And to buy

10:34

some food. And just to skate as

10:34

much as I could, you know,

10:39

Oded on, right. So, I mean, I've taken up

10:42

skateboarding in my youth, and

10:45

I've realised it's one of these

10:45

things, that always looks a lot

10:48

easier than it is like, if

10:48

you're gonna need all the

10:53

components, you need, like

10:53

balance, you need to have a bit

10:57

of passion, and you need to have

10:57

so much fearlessness about you

11:01

to kind of attempt it all. So I

11:01

had none of those free things.

11:04

So I quickly gave up. But you

11:04

you went on and like it, was it

11:09

nine European titles, two World

11:09

Cup titles, and one world

11:13

championship titles. I mean, so

11:13

you pretty much hit the spear,

11:17

or the tip of the spear with all

11:17

this. Kind of what age then do

11:22

you then hang up your skating

11:22

boots after it's all done? Is

11:25

there some sort of retirement

11:25

age that skateboarding?

11:28

I think it depends, you know

11:28

what you do? I mean, some, some

11:33

skaters can skate for a really

11:33

long time. And still, skating is

11:37

from anywhere like you see Tony

11:37

Hawk, for example. You know, we

11:41

still skating. Very good. He

11:41

doesn't enter contest, but

11:43

everybody knows him. And it

11:43

still rip, you know, on a

11:47

skateboard? Yes, it's pretty

11:47

amazing. It's all those years of

11:51

skateboarding and maybe avoiding

11:51

as many injuries as possible

11:55

along the way. And did you I

11:55

didn't get too many, but I got

12:01

one one time when I grew up my

12:01

knee. And, but I was able to

12:06

rebuild it and come back. But is

12:06

in, in general, I think you can

12:13

skate probably for a really long

12:13

time. That generally, you get to

12:19

your top level in skateboarding

12:19

in between your 20s to late 20s.

12:27

You know, you just went up.

12:27

Today, a lot of skateboarders

12:32

are still extremely good, you

12:32

know, the past their, their 30s.

12:35

You know, so far we have Ryan

12:35

Sheckler on etnies that we

12:41

stopped sponsoring, he was seven

12:41

years old. And he's actually

12:45

started skateboarding at three

12:45

today is 31. And he still read.

12:51

And it's pretty amazing to see,

12:51

but he's also been staying in

12:55

shape. And you know, being

12:55

careful, you know, what he eats,

12:58

and, and I hope he knows some

12:58

along the way we help him. We

13:03

help them stretch their shoes

13:03

possible, you know, to absorb

13:06

impact. So he has less, less

13:06

pressure on his joints, and

13:11

allow him to skate longer.

13:11

Right.

13:15

I mean, that's one of the crazy

13:15

things I don't think people

13:17

fully appreciate about

13:17

skateboarding is the level of

13:20

fitness that it's required, that

13:20

you're required to have, almost,

13:25

I think like surf, snowboarding

13:25

or skiing, it really takes it

13:30

out of you and you kind of start

13:30

to come down then hills. I think

13:33

anyone that's done that and

13:33

appreciate it, that you have to

13:35

be relatively fit to be on those

13:35

kind of angles, and doing them

13:39

sort of things all the time. And

13:39

skateboarding is along that but

13:43

then you also have like I caught

13:43

your Instagram channel today.

13:47

And there's a gentleman that

13:47

does all these wonderful tricks

13:49

and he does all these flips, and

13:49

he looks cool as heck. And then

13:52

he just goes off into the sunset

13:52

smoking a cigarette. I think

13:55

there's this great juxtaposition

13:55

between remarkable athlete and

14:00

dude on the street regular guy

14:00

and I think that's kind of the

14:03

beauty of skateboarding when you

14:03

say

14:06

yeah, definitely me I think

14:06

skateboarding is I always see

14:12

like more as an art form. And

14:12

for a lot of people escape they

14:16

look like this you know, we

14:16

don't consider ourselves athlete

14:22

three. Even though we write a

14:22

lot of them are super athlete

14:27

have to say but it's more like

14:27

an art form. You know, we look

14:32

at more Okay, how do we how do

14:32

we make a trade how do we invent

14:38

a new trade you know, and it

14:38

goes with everything else that

14:41

go with this artistically and

14:41

creatively like was the shape of

14:48

your skateboard you know, or or

14:48

if you're Pro with design or

14:52

your scape or you want to design

14:52

what kind of shoes you want to

14:57

make, you know, that looks cool

14:57

in the street or Escape. Very

15:01

good. And it's not necessarily

15:01

because you're the best skater

15:05

in the world that that you're

15:05

the most respected skater. You

15:11

know, it's sort of way about

15:11

everything and whether what you

15:15

choose to be, you know, your

15:15

favourite things, you know?

15:19

Yeah, the new value. It's interesting, and maybe talk

15:23

a little bit about the trainer's

15:26

know, we spoke about him

15:26

earlier. But I mean, I guess

15:28

with your experience coming into

15:28

the company of being a

15:31

skateboarder, yourself, this has

15:31

got to influence a lot of the

15:34

designs and a lot of the stuff

15:34

that you require out of a

15:37

certain trainer, maybe you could

15:37

just drill down on a few of

15:40

those things. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I, I used to be

15:42

sponsored by different shoe

15:47

brand in the past. And that's

15:47

kind of what made me decide to

15:49

start making the first skate

15:49

shoes made by skateboarders for

15:53

skateboarders because I could

15:53

see the shoes were made wrong

15:57

with having my feet in it. And

15:57

one of the key thing was

16:00

actually durability, durability,

16:00

making sure the shoe last

16:04

because actually being a skate

16:04

shoe is the worst thing that

16:09

could happen to you. Because you

16:09

you issues escaped against the

16:14

griptape so alle destroy the

16:14

shoes, you know, so the so as to

16:19

be extremely durable. And also

16:19

the side of the shoe has to be

16:22

extremely durable, because you

16:22

flip the ball with the sides of

16:27

your of your shoes. So is

16:27

basically putting sandpaper

16:32

against your shoes all the time.

16:32

So definitely was making those

16:36

first catch was was durability

16:36

and steel today, but also was

16:41

comfort, you know, and both feel

16:41

so obviously you have to feel

16:45

the ball otherwise he can't he

16:45

can't skate theory don't feel

16:48

what the ball is under your your

16:48

feet, your soul is to take, you

16:51

don't feel it also this sort of

16:51

level of thickness you need to

16:56

fill it. But also absorbing

16:56

impact. You know, like you

17:02

mentioned earlier, you know, you

17:02

see a lot of skaters, you know,

17:05

taking some major slam and

17:05

different impacts. They if you

17:14

if you know a bit about the bow

17:14

mechanic, and we do actually bow

17:17

make any study on skateboarding

17:17

to understand you know, the

17:20

impact on the body, when you

17:20

wear a pair of schedules and

17:25

tricks. If you stand up line

17:25

abroad, it's one time your body

17:29

weight that you have on your

17:29

feet. If you do like jogging, I

17:34

will say like a three times body

17:34

weight impact. If you don't go

17:38

on a basketball net is like

17:38

seven times bodyweight impact.

17:43

But if you're scared to jump 20

17:43

stairs, it's 17 times one seven

17:48

is way higher than any other

17:48

type of sports. So it's a very

17:55

complete compromise to make an

17:55

outside as not to take to fill

17:59

the boat, but it's absorbing 17

17:59

times the body weight impact.

18:05

And at the same time, you've got

18:05

to make this reasonably stylish.

18:09

I mean, you can't just make

18:09

something that's perfectly in

18:12

keeping with protecting your

18:12

souls your kneecaps, and, you

18:17

know, and having that absorption

18:17

for the body. So how do you kind

18:21

of balance the well, we need to

18:21

have it very durable, but we

18:25

also need it to look good. So the aesthetic and the design

18:26

that we get inspired from comes

18:30

from the street. So we look at

18:30

you know what people would like

18:34

to wear might come design we

18:34

could do even to improve it to

18:37

make it look better. So we look

18:37

goes for the match or your

18:43

colours, you know, how does it

18:43

fit with with the paths on top

18:48

of the past, all those things

18:48

are important in order to make

18:53

sure that the shoe was cool in

18:53

the street. Because as skaters

18:55

also we we cannot want to almost

18:55

like don't stand out too much.

19:00

Sometimes we like to be passing

19:00

through. So if we get if, if we

19:07

jump fences and stuff like that,

19:07

you know, we get less visibility

19:10

from the cops. Just like we like

19:10

to be in the street and just

19:17

like rebrands keyboarding and

19:17

looks good. You know, as well.

19:19

It means Can I borrow? You know,

19:19

just being in the streets? It

19:22

just has to flow? Yeah.

19:26

And you mentioned that you'd

19:26

sponsored a young lad at the age

19:30

of seven Are you always on the

19:30

lookout for other people that

19:34

you feel like your shoe and your

19:34

brand? would be a go? Yes,

19:37

constantly? Yeah, we're constantly looking

19:38

into the new generation. You

19:40

know, what do I mean with with

19:40

responsible songwriters that are

19:45

six years old, even smaller

19:45

sometime and but we, we whoever

19:51

we sponsor, we don't we don't

19:51

put any pressure you know, we

19:55

want to make sure they enjoy

19:55

what they do. Then later on.

19:58

They see they want to keep

19:58

skating? Yeah, do you want to

20:01

keep doing it? And then then we

20:01

can, we can do more thing with a

20:05

more marketing and warping. But

20:05

we we come from a, from a writer

20:12

standpoint, been there

20:12

ourselves, you know, we just

20:16

want to make sure that you know,

20:16

we live in the proper way. So

20:19

people really enjoy that

20:19

culture. And again, take it

20:23

whatever level you want to take it. And is there someone that you

20:57

have your eye on? Or is it

20:59

someone on the wish list that

20:59

you'd love to collaborate? Yeah,

21:01

so we have a I mean, Johnny, we

21:01

know pretty much older skaters

21:07

in general, you know, we have

21:07

Connect already with with a lot

21:11

of them. In terms of design.

21:11

Definitely. I'm intrigued to be

21:17

that Virgil adore from off

21:17

white, and also will be thrown.

21:25

Because I mean, he come from

21:25

Chicago, and he has a bit of a

21:30

skate culture, background and

21:30

music, culture. And for me, it's

21:37

almost did the opposite. I was

21:37

living in Europe now but to the

21:41

US. Yes. direction, reversing the

21:43

fate.

21:48

But I know that we don't want

21:48

our bodies doing some shoes.

21:51

Now. Some skate shoes, too.

21:51

Yeah. Because they notice that

21:57

the skate movement is happening

21:57

and coming very strong right

22:02

now. There's way more

22:02

skateboarders is ever been. And

22:07

it's not only also, man is also

22:07

girls. No woman, right? Okay.

22:14

One every year skater is a

22:14

woman. what went on in skater?

22:22

Yeah. reframe so it's coming

22:22

very strong from lots of

22:25

different angle. I think it's,

22:25

it's an activity that's very

22:29

democratic and very kind of

22:29

like, you do your own thing. You

22:33

know, you push your limit, you

22:33

know, and it's really really bad

22:36

to do it yourself generation,

22:36

you know, today more than ever,

22:40

and, and the equality of gender.

22:40

So it's all worked pretty well

22:45

right now. And it is a mega

22:45

trend also, around the 90s as

22:50

well, in fashion with like,

22:50

clothes are a bit more bag year

22:57

more. bigger company. Exactly.

22:57

Then it goes with the with the

23:04

shoes to some people start

23:04

wearing like bigger shoes. And a

23:08

lot of the early skate shoes. We

23:08

started with, we're actually

23:12

pretty big, you know? Pretty,

23:12

pretty puffy.

23:16

Like, yeah, I would call it.

23:21

Yeah, I was gonna ask if How do

23:21

you if you're just on the street

23:26

and you're skateboarding? How do

23:26

you compete with other

23:29

skateboarders? Like, for

23:29

example, I've seen white men

23:32

can't jump with Woody Harrelson

23:32

and Wesley Snipes. I know how

23:35

like people in the parks can

23:35

play basketball with each other

23:39

and compete and bet maybe

23:39

hustle? Is there that kind of

23:43

competition when you're just at

23:43

the skateboard parks with other

23:46

people? Do you kind of have like

23:46

competitions against each other

23:49

and is like a way that you can

23:49

maybe have side bets and stuff?

23:53

Yeah, we do some stuff like this, I think

23:54

is a it's more of an inclusive

23:56

culture, in general is more like

23:56

this is somebody skating and

24:01

workout Stoke, somebody is

24:01

skating and we want to skate

24:04

with them. You know, it's more

24:04

like that. And then we also have

24:07

this game we cycle the game of

24:07

skate. where for example, you do

24:13

one trades, the other person has

24:13

to do century the means them do

24:17

their trades. And then

24:17

eventually, every time you miss

24:22

a trade, you get a letter.

24:22

anything good to say you lose

24:27

the game, you know, a little bit

24:27

of a challenge, okay? It's kind

24:31

of a fun, fun challenge to try

24:31

to push each person you know, to

24:36

to just get better. Because that mean, I've when

24:39

I've seen skateboarders down at

24:42

South Bank, they're always like

24:42

skating and no one's they always

24:45

complement each other and

24:45

encouraging each other. And like

24:49

clapping and stuff like that when someone does something really cool. But I never, never

24:50

see people kind of compete with

24:54

each other. Obviously, it is a

24:54

competition though because you

24:57

yourself, you've won World

24:57

Championships and European

24:59

titles and stuff like that. So

24:59

I'm just curious on how people

25:02

then start to get into the

25:02

attitude community,

25:05

you know, and go right, it's time to prove Yeah, it's not like, it's not like

25:07

when we compete is that we

25:11

compete like, like you. Again,

25:11

basketball or other sport is

25:16

like, aggressive efforts is way

25:16

more inclusive, and we go to

25:20

contest more to be with other

25:20

skaters. You know, having fun

25:24

and you know, try to push

25:24

ourselves and try to shoot new

25:29

tricks, new innovation. Jim is

25:29

more that way.

25:34

You know where I'm going with

25:34

this? Oh, Pierre Andre, I think

25:36

there is room for a good film a

25:36

spike lee film where two

25:40

skateboarders from different

25:40

sides of the tracks once from

25:43

Paris once from LA, they meet 20

25:43

years ago. And they figure, hey,

25:49

I'm the best in this homeless

25:49

neck of the woods. No, no, I'm

25:52

the best. And then you have to

25:52

compete and hustle. And then

25:59

we'll tie it was pairs. And

25:59

anyway, we'll flesh it out

26:03

offline. We'll we'll get we'll

26:03

get the beat to the script

26:06

together, and then send it over to Universal. There's this Mini Movie on, you

26:10

know, and they tried to do Mini

26:15

Movie on skateboarding. You

26:15

know, like one of them was a

26:19

thrashing. Back in the 80s.

26:19

crashing, crashing? Yeah. Back

26:24

in the 80s 8085, I believe. And

26:24

it was, it was more like a two

26:31

gang of skaters. And the Romeo

26:31

and Juliet, which is kind of

26:37

weird to be like one gang. You

26:37

know, it was, the girl was in a

26:41

gang and again with the guy and

26:41

they were gonna be in love, but

26:44

then they were different gangs.

26:44

So he was creating all this

26:47

drama, and I'm seeking that out on YouTube

26:50

somewhere. But it's time it's

26:54

time for a good skateboarding

26:54

film. I'm guessing one of the

26:57

reasons why there hasn't been

26:57

one that so commercial, is that

27:01

you would need the real

27:01

skateboarders to do the action,

27:04

right? I mean, you can't have

27:04

like Matt Damon, for example,

27:07

doing skateboarding and then cut

27:07

to a stunt double every five

27:10

seconds it would have to be

27:10

authentic when it has to be. I

27:14

mean, we all get we all know

27:14

that Wesley Snipes and Woody

27:17

Harrelson can throw and dunk.

27:17

But they can, they can shoot

27:21

hoops, but can they skateboard etc. They

27:21

need real skateboard, there was

27:25

a movie called mid 90s. That

27:25

came out actually a few years

27:28

back. That was about the 90s you

27:28

know, kids in the 90s

27:33

skateboarding, were going

27:33

through it. I was actually in

27:37

the movie, there was some good

27:37

skateboarder. And it's actually

27:42

a good movie. You know, it's a

27:42

bit of rain check on

27:46

skateboarding. Which I'm, I'm seeking these

27:48

out, by the way.

27:53

is a good one rushing to get up. Yeah, you've been very

27:57

gracious with your time. Thanks

28:00

so much for sharing your stories

28:00

telling us about your brand. And

28:04

I'm curious how you blew your knee out though. This event in Paris actually.

28:06

And I did a jump from a bank and

28:15

a jump of this bank, I don't

28:15

like 20 feet in the air, you

28:18

know, like, doing some very old

28:18

flip with the board and mlra

28:25

Alright, the first few times

28:25

and, and right before the final

28:28

actually, actually one more

28:28

time. And I learned, right,

28:32

except my foot slide of the back

28:32

of the board and I put all the

28:37

pressure in the fall. And I cry

28:37

for that crack chicken crack.

28:47

I mean, it was over but

28:52

but actually there is a lot of

28:52

lessons along the way to you

28:55

know, how to recover you know,

28:55

very quick on accident with this

29:00

mentality to go forward no

29:00

matter what, you know, just try

29:04

to figure out to solve the

29:04

problem or whatever problem is

29:08

facing in, in farming, like

29:13

you're like the surfer that gets

29:13

bit by a great white, but then

29:16

goes back into the ocean three

29:16

months later.

29:19

Because what is your passion? You know? You just keep going.

29:25

You still okay, let's just get

29:25

Yeah, I'm not the same as I used

29:29

to. But I still have fun there.

29:34

Right? I imagine it must be

29:34

great working for you. Like your

29:38

office must have like skate

29:38

ramps in it. Or there must be a

29:41

park outside where you're just

29:41

going to come on guys, sunny

29:43

day. Get the training. Oh, yeah, actually, we did feel

29:45

the skate park across the street

29:47

from the office. And we was

29:47

actually with the city of Lake

29:52

Forest when in a small city

29:52

called Lake Forest, Southern

29:56

California. And we want to be

29:56

the to have the city involved

30:01

with the skate park to make sure

30:01

they backup our culture. So they

30:07

do actually and then we end up

30:07

creating job for job paid by the

30:12

city. You know, you make sure

30:12

the kids are safe, they can

30:17

skate having fun. Everybody

30:17

wants to go have fun and it is a

30:20

pretty big skate park is 70,000

30:20

square feet. Skate Park which is

30:28

probably one of the biggest In

30:28

the world, but he has brought a

30:33

lot of people in in

30:33

skateboarding and well, but

30:35

100,000 people going

30:35

skateboarding a year to

30:40

skateboard. Wow. Yeah, this is

30:40

mostly it's not a big city so

30:46

that I really like that idea

30:46

because we say these like over

30:50

20 years ago, it was the idea

30:50

that the smaller city can can

30:54

make the bigger skatepark in the world. You got you got to be on the

30:58

books on the on the mayor's

31:02

board. I mean, you got to get

31:02

who's the mayor down there right

31:05

now in California. Was it?

31:05

Gavin? Yeah.

31:08

Yeah. Yeah, you

31:10

gotta you gotta go forth. Actually, he was near San

31:11

Francisco. before and I got one

31:17

time I got an environmental

31:17

award. Because our officer

31:23

abilities of his 20 years ago

31:23

actually works on solar energy.

31:27

We're older, we're recycling

31:27

wood, recycling a limestone. And

31:31

I designed the the office to

31:31

look inspired by skateboarding.

31:37

So he also wants to design a

31:37

wall. But I got to the water on

31:41

environment and he got an award

31:41

also for being greeners mayor in

31:46

America. Any No Actually, San

31:46

Francisco is a big magazine in

31:54

skateboarding called Thrasher

31:54

magazine, you've probably seen a

31:59

lot of girls wearing sweatshirts

31:59

t shirts, you know, question

32:02

show whenever we were when we

32:02

were in San Francisco, he knew

32:07

exactly where the the mag the

32:07

magazine was, and the name of

32:11

the streets. I was really

32:11

impressed.

32:15

That's pretty good. Do you think

32:15

he might have just done his

32:17

research like 10 minutes before

32:17

meeting you and just name a few

32:21

things, but yeah, you should

32:21

tell him you're after his job.

32:23

You're doing some great things

32:23

down there. But anyway, Pierre

32:27

Andre, thanks so much for

32:27

sharing those stories. And

32:29

again, at nice calm. We'll leave

32:29

all the links over on the show

32:32

notes at menswear. style.co.uk

32:32

but in the meantime, enjoy the

32:37

cheers. Yes. great talking to you. Thank you. Thank you, Pierre. Once more,

32:44

you can check out the

32:47

collections we mentioned

32:47

[email protected]. We'll leave all

32:51

the details and links over on

32:51

the show notes at menswear style

32:54

dot code at UK and run the

32:54

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32:57

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33:01

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33:08

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