With A Little Help From My Friends
32 Boots
By Andrea Peters

What’s your name and title?

Pierre Andre, owner.

How did your company get its name?

I want to come up with name people will remember, but I don’t want to use alphabet. I want to use number. So I use 32 because this is the number that you get snow and go snowboarding, 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

How did you get started in the snowboard industry?

I’ve been snowboarding for twenty years. I grow up snowboarding in France, in the Alps and the Pyrenees. I made my own snowboards. Then when I skateboarded professionally, I didn’t really snowboard, but I was always very interested in it. Then I started making shoes and I work with the best factory in Korea and they make boots, so I hired some snowboarders, and we started with boots.

What kind of start-up capital did you have, and how did you fund the first year of business?

I borrowed money from my friends. The first three years were very difficult to get name recognition. You must prove yourself to retailers.

What would you do differently if you could start up all over again?

I’ve been lucky to be in place at right time and have friends who helped me. Maybe I would have gone to business school instead of engineering school.

Who are your customers, and how do you see your product differentiating itself in the market?

Skateboarders. We emphasize the hardcore market, and we listen to our riders. We have five team managers—we make sure our team is taken care of. The quality and design is the difference. We have the best factory in Korea.

If your company is successful, what will it look like in five years?

To me it’s successful if the people are happy working here, and I want to be happy with the product, and proud of what I’m doing.

What are three key things you have to do to get there?

Maintain and develop a good staff, keep creating a strong image, and have a strong product. How will the snowboard market for your products be different in five years? It will be more mainstream, so there might be restrictions on distribution for the little guys to survive. The hardcore market will switch to exclusivity.