As you may have heard Scoff Skateboarding is closing down it’s retail side so we decided to do an interview with the Scoffman himself to talk about the history of Scoff and to see what’s next. Saddle up because this interview was about 2.5 hours long, but it’s definitely a good one.
PS
I did this on my phone and for some reason I couldn’t e-mail this conversation to myself so I had to type it myself.
SM: Hey, it’s Jason how’s it going man?
GS: Hey man, it’s going good, woke up hungover again so that’s not that good. How about you?
SM: Annoyed with a cold. I’ve had 2 colds in 2 weeks and I am just coughing up mucus and sneezing. Shits ridiculous and just annoying.
GS: Yeah I can imagine, being sick in general fucking sucks.
SM: Indeed
GS: Alright let’s get started.
SM: Sounds good, let’s get rolling.
GS: First off let’s have an explanation of what exactly is Scoff (For those who don’t know already) and how exactly did it start?
SM: Best put Scoff Skateboarding is a completely different kind of skate company. We are a developer of innovative technologies and designs for skateboarding and the action sports industry. With a main focus on products that aren’t currently being addressed by the industry… like the skatelaces for example.
Man how did it start? Well that goes a long way back. It’s not like one day I just said “I want to start a company!” No… It was a progression of events in my life. Back in Jr. High (I was about 14 years old) I started drawing shoes I wanted… so I combined some of my favorite features or designs from other shoes into my creation. That was the beginning, the first drawing I made I still have.
My teacher originally threw it away cause I was drawing it in class and after class was over I thought about picking it out of the trash and whether it was worth it. And I did, I hate to think what would happen if I gave up on the first design.
Soon following junior high i came into high school and my parents wanted me to have an elective that take grasp of my creative imagination and suggested I rake on this class at Fresno State University for High School Students. It was called ELP and mainly was a workshop that taught students how to build and create their own business plan.
My first year I did a plan for a business called Scoff Board Shop (SBS) I was the first 1 person team they allowed and was competing against 21 other schools around the valley. I placed in the top 5 teams and had to do presentations among other things. This is where I got my business savy side. I took this class again next year and again my senior year. I decided to revamp my old SBS business plan and took 3rd place my final year at ELP as a single person. I received a $600 check and started the bare beginnings of Scoff with that money back in the summer of 2004 after graduating school.
The rest since 04′ has been a progression and evolution of Scoff.
GS: That’s rad, I like how Scoff is a company that started out of passion. I feel that’s how a skateboard company should be run, someone may have the money but if the passion isn’t there it won’t work.
SM: Very true, I agree with that 100%.
GS: So in 2004 Scoff started, what exactly where you making? To whom were you selling it to?
SM: Well in June I made the first versions of the skatelaces or otherwise known as the OG Skatelace haha. I sent them out to 20 normal skaters across the US to test them and give me feedback on. I called them the “Scoff Army” at the time. Once I got all the feedback and everyone had nothing but good things to say about them I started to try to sell them to local skateshops Sk8 shack, SBI Wavelengths, and Sugar Hill.
Sk8 Shack was always supportive and took me on soon after I talked to them. Sugar Hill took me next, they were more of a boutique shop, and Scoff was the first local brand carried at SBI cause it was so unique and it worked. That was an honor. I didn’t start personally selling the laces to skaters till later and when I came out with the first Scoff shirt.
GS: It must have been, I would have been real stoked. I’m guessing the natural course would have taken you to sell to more shops and eventually selling them online as well?
SM: Yeah, it was about 2 years I think, till I decided to spread out to other shops and states. The laces sold very slowly since we didn’t really have a name or following for Scoff yet at the time. I think most shops I contacted I found through Myspace at the time. Selling online was difficult since there was no bigcartel.com to make things easy and simple.In the beginning I just kept everything pretty much local and learned from experience and try to constantly improve the skatelaces, though I did have some pretty bad failures.
GS: You mentioned failures, what were some rough patches you had to through? Also, I know you had to close the retail side of Scoff back in 07′ why was that?
SM:I think it was in our second year, one of the improvements I made was changing the process of how the laces were made, and I was using a new formula to make the laces less stiff. Well I didn’t do much testing with the 2 new things combined, and shipped around 200 bad skatelaces. I soon lost all respect locally as their Scoff laces were breaking sooner than normal laces. That was a bad blow, there are still some locals today that remember that and won’t skate them still. There were kids at local shops that wouldn’t even skate the laces for free. It was a very hard thing to overcome. So I personally checked every single lace after that, it was a pain staking process.
Back in 07′ it was more strategy. Mainly we were booming retail wise. We had over 14 shops across the US I was managing, A small distributor in Canda and were about to land a large skatepark, plus I had a skate team of 4 talented riders; Ruben Najera, Brendan Yul, Doug Des Autels, and Randy Longbine.
What I realized was that I wasn’t sticking to the core ideas of Scoff. To make these technologies and sell them or license them to main companies in skateboarding. I had no time to work with other companies and still run the retail side of Scoff, which also induced he painstaking production of the skatelaces. So I came up with a plan to close the retail side, shut down production, end the team and take a break so I can refocus the business and bring it back in a year.
I decided that in a year I would start on a project to capture the attentions of skaters and bring our name out more, while we weren’t producing any products I started the Scoff project. The plan was to finish in one year and relaunch Scoff at the same time with a smal line of skatelaces and apparel to support the expense I would need to be talking and traveling to meetings with other companies and trying to work out deals and gain ground with giants of this industry.
The reason why Scoff closed back in 07′ was so I could preserve the company. If I didn’t Scoff would have continued to grow and still generate not that much income. For Scoff to really be successful we have to work and merge with larger companies out today so everyone can take advantage of the technologies we have developed for them.
GS: I remember the Scoff Project, did you guys actually finish it?
SM: No unfortunately. It’s rideable yes, but only about 85% done. It didn’t get finished due to the fact that we didn’t have enough sponsors, I couldn’t put any more money into it. It was delayed due to government involvement at one point, and I just didn’t have time for it anymore. I’m currently trying to sell it to someone who could finish it and take better care of it now. It’s really sad, but we do have the majority of it’s construction all on video. It’s nice to be able to go back and revisit some of those memories from it.
GS: I remember watching the videos of it and it was pretty awesome, I remember you took a few gnarly slams. I definitely agree that you should sell it to someone who will really take care of it and appreciates it.
SM:Yeah that was scary as hell, Such a good rush though. My 3rd run was never shown and Dylan hit the mini mega in the near darkness about 30 times before we called it a night. We tried it again 2 days later and got about over 100 runs of him on the ramp. Never landed it though. We had a few things off. The sucky thing though is the electrical chord shorted while the camera was running and killed the camera and all the footage from that day. So we have no footy from the second test runs.
GS:So I remember you started doing some work with some shoe companies, what was that all about?
SM: That’s Scoff doing it’s job there haha. I meat a really good man about 60 yrs old who’s a rep of all trades. He started getting me in contact with large footwear companies in and out of skateboarding. We did talks and lace samples for New Balance, Wolverine, Hi-Tech Boots, largest nurse footwear company in the world, DC, Globe, and Vans. I also was working with one of the largest lace manufacturers in the US for a few months trying to make an agreement for them to produce our laces in their plant. They also did the laces for New Balance. That was a fun and new experience, meeting their president and getting a tour of the plant and how they were really made.
Most of them like the laces and because of this experience we upgraded the laces again according to the feedback we got from those companies and made the Diamond Application Process (DAP)
GS:How did it all turn out? Who did you end up making deals with and such?
SM: Well Vans and DC just wanted to take the machine we were developing off of our hand and drop it in the China manufacture plants. Sorry, I wasn’t going to allow all my hard work get sold into China and then be ripped off into multiple different versions I wasn’t going to get credit for. With the US manufacturer, things didn’t work out with them, mainly they were looking for something that they weren’t going to get out of a deal with us. So we went our different ways in good standing. Wolverine didn’t like the end product with their laces. Hi-Tech loved them but Globe put the most down on the table for us. They offered to work with Scoff and incorporate us into their business among other things (which I will not mention in case of sensitivity.) We’ve only talked about things to do and nothing is official or over so I don’t feel it would be right to speak of it.
GS: I guess that leads to the question that has been asked and answered many times, but for the sake of those who don’t know… Why are you closing the retail side of Scoff?
SM: It’s pretty much the same situation we had back in 2007. I personally have been running Scoff since I was 19 and am now 25 years old. I tried going to school while running this company and haven’t been able to do both. School has always suffered. So now that I’m in a serious relationship and the fact I’m 25 and still am not completely independent should speak mountains.
I estimate I have put over $15,000 into Scoff personally since I started it and have only made about $1,000 back on it. Shocking I know. It’s dedication, and it’s persistence that’s needed to make one thing successful. So now I’ve made the decision to go back to school full time as a fire fighter. I’ve been on the wait list for 2 years as a back up if I couldn’t get Scoff to where I needed it by that time. So for me not to fail school I must be completely dedicate my time to it. I must let a part of Scoff go so I can live a real life. Though the retail side is closing I will be keeping the business side alive. As in working with Globe.
The fire academy will take about 8 months, Scoff will not die or fade away. I am literally married to Scoff, no joke. After the academy is over, be on the look out for it once again, we’ll be working a lot behind the scenes.
It takes far less time than retails does and it allows the company to grow, so it can once be truly successful and build from there.
GS:Sometimes we are forced to take hard decisions, and I think it’s for the best, and as you said you won’t be closing down but more like taking a break. So Jason, what would you say you have learned during the whole process with Scoff? What would you change?
SM: True
Man, I have learned a lot, no joke. It has been a real ride. I’ve learned a lot about so many things. I’ve become an expert on reinforced laces and shoelace construction. I’ve learned many things about business and travel, with doing interviews. I’ve learned more about who I am as a person and made some amazing friends. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I don’t know if I would change anything really. It all happened and I learned invaluable lessons from everything and have countless stories to tell now.
GS: Alright man, I guess this would be the end of the interview, Is there anything you would like to say? Any shout outs?
SM:I like to say to anyone who is trying to start a business, don’t let others telly you you can’t do anything. I was told by another local company at the time I was starting up that “No one ever gets out of the Valley. What makes you think you will be successful? You’ll be a loser like the rest of us” That just made me want to prove them wrong and I did. Don’t let things like that discourage you in anything.
I want to give a huge shout out to RUBEN NAJERA, the most loyal and hardcore skater I know. Also Chet Thomas, the guys at Malakye, my parents, grandparents, the lady at Sk8 Shack, Dan Stolling, Hard Driven Apparel, Valley Business Incubator, and everyone else who has supported Scoff and contributed to it’s growth… Thank You
