Let's start here: I'm usually pretty supportive of [many] new, "entry-level" longboard companies that are starting to pop out of the woodwork. Why? Simply put: I think that they're the key in maintaining longboarding's growth. Most "beginner" longboarders would die at the prospect of having to shell out $300 to $400 for a Loaded, or a Landyachtz. But, boards in the $100-$150 range are pretty easy to stomach for the average "newb". And, many of these boards are actually pretty solid performers, as well.
Of course, what I liked the most (at first glance) about GoldCoast, is the out-of-the-box aesthetics that they have going on. Not just in the ads… but also, on the products. It's unique, stylish, tasteful... and maybe, most importantly... inspiring. And, that's something that skateboarding, on the whole, could use a lot more of these days.
My interviewee is Chris Brunstetter. He's the Marketing Director over at Primo Distribution (the umbrella company that manages GoldCoast). I was impressed with Chris right away, because he can do something that 99% of the industry bigwigs can't seem to ever bring themselves to do: Answer An E-Mail. Chris is also articulate, forthright, and honest… all, pretty big "bonuses", in our industry. The "honesty" part was the kicker for me. As you'll see, Chris actually answered every single question that I sent over (even the hard-nosed ones), with no complaints, and no problems whatsoever. Simply outstanding.
Here's Dustin (aka, the "art guy") on the left, with our subject, Chris (aka, the "marketing guy"), on the right.
I might add that: We sent similar sorts of inquiries to a few of GoldCoast's competitors, and heard nothing but the sound of crickets. The moral? If you're gonna be buying an "entry-level" longboard anytime soon, maybe this company should be the one that you support. Because, as it stands right now: It's the only one that you can trust.
The interview picks up, right after I sent out my initial "You've made the Buyers Guide!" e-mail. Here's Chris' response, and the subsequent Q&A:
Bud,
Thanks for reaching out. We appreciate the review of GoldCoast, we're excited to get our 2010 product in market and have some wider product feedback come our way. I would love to help you get some first person reviews of our product, and would be happy to send a board or two your way to do so. I am available to answer any questions you have regarding GoldCoast, so feel free to hit me up if you need any clarification our brand or products. Keep up the good work on the site, we're very excited to see how the buyer's guide turns out.
[Editors' note: Any time anyone offers to send me product to "test"… that pretty much makes them instantly legitimate, already. Because, I'm a tough bastard… and, everyone damn well knows it. We'll be taking Chris up on this one, soon enough. Keep your eyes peeled…]
I guess the only thing I'd ask is, did it [the review] look fairly accurate...? The only other question that I would have is, are your products imported from overseas (ie, China)? I'm assuming that's the case, just based on the pricepoint...
Yeah, I'd say on a whole you were pretty spot on as to where we see ourselves in the skateboard world. To answer your question, yes, our boards are imported from overseas. That being said, we (the four people that make up GoldCoast) have over 40 years of combined experience within the Skate/Snow/Surf industry, so we do push our manufacturer very hard to make the best quality product possible. We've had a chance to work with and build some of the industry's best brands, and think we have a strong foundation to build a brand of our own. The response from our retailers, and people like yourself, do a lot to confirm our belief. Let me know when you're ready to test some product, and I'll make sure you get taken care of. We'd be stoked to know what we got, right and what we can improve on.
You can see that, right from the get-go... Goldcoast had a style, and an aesthetic, that was all their own. Hard to define, even harder to pigeonhole... it all comes down to one word: "Beautiful". I wish I had one of these in the quiver. Or, even better: On the wall.
Who's the "we" in "we"…?
GoldCoast is made up of 4 people internally. We are myself, Dustin Ortiz, Brock Harris, and Nate Coan. I handle Marketing and Sales, Dustin is our Art Director, Brock is Product and Development, and Nate handles Operations. We have reps across the country, Canada, and we just brought on our first international distributor in Australia.
Where'd y'all work, prior to forming GoldCoast...?
Nate and I have worked together for 10 years, building a sales agency that represents currently: Nixon, Electric, C1RCA, Nike Snowboarding, and Loser Machine Co. We have been a part of all our brands from their first or second year, and have seen the lifecycle of these brands evolve from small startups to being industry leaders in skate/snow/surf. We have learned a great deal from these companies and starting our own brand was something that we always wanted to do, but never found that right mix of people and idea.
We met Brock when he was an am for Burton back in 2001, and he has remained a close friend since. When injury forced him out of the snowboard career, he started an indoor skatepark and small local skateboard brand called "Binary". Though this venture was not successful in terms of the money, Brock was able to make manufacturing contacts and learned a lot about making skateboards. He has always been a product nerd and loves looking at something and putting his mind to making it better.
Dustin was working as the Senior Designer at Nixon in 2008, and we loved his style and work ethic. He was moving to Idaho for the winter to snowboard, and through his travels wound up spending a good amount of time in Salt Lake hanging out with us. He wanted to try his hand at something new and over the course of the next couple of months, the idea of GoldCoast sparked us all to try something new.
I had a real hard time picking out just which board that I wanted to ride. At the end of the day, I picked the "Rat" Mactrac, and the Modra purple. The Rat is clearly influenced by Rat Rod aesthetics and culture, with the simple flat-black all-over spray and the red pinstripes, while the Modra seems to successfully blend surf and jazz themes into one graphic. The Mactrac technology allows for a wide array of wheelbase, nose, and tail lengths. I can't wait to see how they ride, but I'll tell you this: If they ride only half as good as they look, they'll definitely be winners...
Look for the fully comprehensive review within the next month or so.
Okay, next question: Why GoldCoast? Why another longboard company? What are you guys doing... or, trying to do.. that's not being done, already...? There's about 1,000,000 longboard companies out there right now, so what's setting you apart from the herd?
Those are fair questions. There very well may be literally 1,000,000 longboard brands right now, but we don't see ourselves competing with all of them. The (great?) thing about the longboard market is that for each discipline you can find a company that is super passionate about making products for it. The market is so niche, one of the kids we have riding our boards has a sponsor for downhill, slalom, AND street skating. Do we trip out because he has other board sponsors? Not really, because we don't make product for those disciplines. He likes to use our boards for sliding, cruising, and hill bombing which is where we choose to compete.
What sets us apart from the herd is our team. I have the privilege of working with some of the smartest, most fun, most talented people in the world and that's not something that anyone else has or can copy. Our relationships with our retailers and our reps are something that can't be bought. When we launched this brand, the four of us would fly in to a zone and go with the rep to meet with retailers face to face and show them, "This is who you're supporting when you buy GoldCoast." and overwhelmingly they said, "Sign me up." It was a huge investment on our part, but it did its job in terms of showing people that we were serious.
From a product standpoint we are setting ourselves apart aesthetically by not trying to chase trends but rather do what we think is cool. We've also come out with the patent pending MACTRAC™ which is an adjustable wheelbase system inspired by snowboard binding inserts. It allows the rider to choose mobility or stability or somewhere in between very simply. We also decided to take the barefoot topsheet craze to a whole new level with the Heavy Pile, which has genuine shag carpet grip. It's crazy, fun, and goofy, but when you see it on the rack, there's no way you're not checking it out.
Why did you guys decide to headquarter in Utah? Why not, the sunny beaches of Southern California or something...?
Brock, Nate and I are from Utah. Dustin is from Leucadia, CA and spends a good amount of time down there. Plus, our warehouse is in San Diego, so we do have a presence in sunny Southern California. Maybe you could make us sound really big and important by saying, "they are headquartered in Utah, but have satellite offices in California". We're so corporate.
Here's a question that I've been dying to ask somebody: I'm sure you know already, but amongst many "street" skaters... like, the "Slap Pals" at the Slap messageboards, for instance... longboarding is widely percieved as being "gay" (pardon the term, it's their word, not mine).
Here's my question: How would you respond to this sort of closed-mindedness? If, at all...?
I don't know. It's hard to not get defensive and want to be the champion of correcting the wrongs on the internet, but I only have so much time in the day and would rather spend my time on more constructive things. I would say, if you don't like something, don't be a part of it. Vote with your dollars. But it seems silly trying to talk someone OUT of getting a skateboard, no matter what kind.
I don't know if I want to give away too much... there's probably an ad campaign in here, somewhere... but, didn't Atari's "720" get it right? In that game, you had street skating, mini (or vert, the perspective was kinda weird) ramp, slalom, and downhill as the "complete skateboard experience". I think skateboarding used to be a lot more inclusive. Why not get back to that...? In case you care, and I get the feeling you do, we come from skateboarding, we skate, we cruise, we have a good time, and hopefully that message comes across in GoldCoast.
What do you think is longboarding's prospectus for long-term growth (if any)? What's the future of the pastime looking like, from your perspective?
I think longboarding is still going to grow, become less of a separate part of skateboarding. The great thing about longboarding is that anyone from 5 to 50 can pick one up and have fun. If the most you want to do with a longboard is cruising around with a board under your feet, you're there very quickly. It can be very approachable. In the future I hope that everyone that skateboards has a longboard or cruiser in their quiver. And eventually I hope the terms longboarding and skateboarding have been replaced by a single term: Hoverboarding. Come on science, I know we can do it!
Do you skate? If so: What's "the best part"...?
Of course I skate, we all do! The "best part" for me is a good session where everyone is feeding off each other and you push yourself to do something you haven't done before. I always feel most accomplished after a day like that.
The "Overexposed", from Goldcoast's "Focus" Series... those guys have the kind of 35mm photography skills that I wish I had, but don't. Simply amazing.
How much of the style, and the aesthetics behind GoldCoast, are influenced by snowboarding...?
There's a little influence there on the product side for sure. I mean our product developer is an ex-pro snowboarder, so it's bound to happen. A lot of longboard events and contests remind me a lot of mid 90's snowboard contests. Raw and full of people that are there because they love it, not because Target is paying them a million bucks. We left Maryhill and Slidefest so amped and inspired to try and work on our own event. Aesthetically though, we draw inspiration from everywhere. In our "Heritage Series" this year we got a lot of inspiration from our garages. Looking at all the things that us and our friends were working on, we found everything from skateboards to hot rods and motorcycles. That series has a very "gearhead" feel. The "Form Series" is dedicated to hand drawn and painted art, much more organic. Finally, the "Focus Series" is centered around our love of 35mm film photography. All the photos on those boards were taken by us or our friends. It's a way we can show off art that we're stoked on, while giving props to our friends.
By the way: Who actually does the art, and the ads there at GoldCoast? The ad campaign is really quite extraordinary, like nothing that I've seen before in longboarding... or skateboarding in general, for that matter.
Wow, that's a great compliment. Dustin, our Art Director is directly responsible for the aesthetic of GoldCoast. We pride ourselves on how much different we look than everything else in the market. All the brands we admire have a look that is uniquely theirs, and Dustin has done an unbelievable job at giving GoldCoast it's own voice and perspective. The ad campaign is a collaboration between Dustin and I. We wanted each ad to tell a little story, rather than following the APA (Action, Product, Athlete) format that seems to be everywhere. Strong imagery and branding was another key point in our vision, as well as conveying a sense of fun. We shoot all our ads on 35mm film, which is something else that I think is unique to GoldCoast.
Bonus question: What excites you about getting up every day, and going to work? What drives you to keep moving forward? Where's Chris Brunstetter gonna be, 20 years from now...? Or, GoldCoast?
The challenges, the roadblocks, and finding a way through them gets me excited. Starting and running GoldCoast has been a lot like skating, you're never perfect when you first start. You try and try and keep trying, most of the time with not an insignificant amount of pain, but when it comes together, there's nothing better. 20 Years!? That's a ways off, but I hope that I'm happy, healthy, and can still drop in.
Check out Goldcoast's brand-new website, which outta be dropping in about 8 hours or so, at www.goldcoastlongboards.com. You're definitely gonna like what you see...
