Pierre Senizergues
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Sole Man
BY MELISSA ADAMS – Photos by Mark SavagePublished: January 05, 2006
The soles of action sports shoes maybe his bread and butter, but a far different kind of soul inspires Pierre Senizergues’ leadership of his fast-growing action sportswear empire. His vision for pushing creative limits without compromising Mother Earth is the foundation of Lake Forest-based Sole Technology, Inc., which has offices in New York, Switzerland, the Netherlands and China, and boasts annual sales in excess of $150 million.
Growing up in suburban Paris, Pierre Senizergues discovered natural athletic gifts that would propel him to the forefront of professional skateboarding. As a teen mastering ollies around the City of Lights in the early ’80s, he developed the freestyle artistry that would earn him 12 French championships, nine European Cup titles, five European championships, two World Cup event wins and one world championship.
As an adult, his hard-driving quest for excellence has earned him business accolades such as 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year and taken him to the top of the sports shoe industry. Sole Technology, Inc., the Lake Forest design and manufacturing company he leads as CEO, is a dominant force in the skateboarding world and one of the fastest growing shoe companies in the world.
“Sole Technology has a really big presence in the industry,” says Lora Bodmer, a representative of Action Sports Retail, a company that puts on the leading action sports trade show. “Their strength is that the company is run by skateboarders, which helps them stay ‘core.’ They put a lot of pride, innovation and technology into creating better skateboard sneakers. That has made them a strong market leader.”
From skateboard to boardroom
Unlike many of his competitors in those early years, Senizergues (pronounced Sin-e-zerg) didn’t bank on his professional sports career to provide long-term livelihood.
“I became a pro skateboarder overnight, but unemployment was high in France and I wanted to study something practical and in demand so I could get a job,” he recalls.
Channeling an interest in electronics and computer software into an early career goal, he earned a degree in industrial software from Paris’ University of Technology in 1984, then signed on as an engineer at IBM France.
Programming laser printers at Big Blue might have paid the bills, but the corporate world couldn’t contain the independent spirit and creative energy of the 1985 World Freestyle Champion of skateboarding.
Backed by Sins Skateboards and Tracker Trucks sponsorship, as well as numerous product endorsements, Senizergues quit IBM after just three months and took up permanent residence in California. “I always thought of California as a dreamland,” he remembers. “After I came here, everything changed.”
Skateboarding on the beach in Venice, Calif., Senizergues attracted a crowd of admiring onlookers – something that never happened in his homeland. “In Paris, nobody would pay attention,” he says. In the crowd was pro freestyler Steve Rococo of the Sins Skateboards team, who helped provide entree into the thriving professional skate scene. “From the mid-1980s to the early ’90s, I was skating everywhere in the world,” Senizergues recalls.
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The soles of action sports shoes maybe his bread and butter, but a far different kind of soul inspires Pierre Senizergues’ leadership of his fast-growing action sportswear empire. His vision for pushing creative limits without compromising Mother Earth is the foundation of Lake Forest-based Sole Technology, Inc., which has offices in New York, Switzerland, the Netherlands and China, and boasts annual sales in excess of $150 million. Growing up in suburban Paris, Pierre Senizergues discovered natural athletic gifts that would propel him to the forefront of professional skateboarding. As a teen mastering ollies around the City of Lights in the early ’80s, he developed the freestyle artistry that would earn him 12 French championships, nine European Cup titles, five European championships, two World Cup event wins and one world championship. As an adult, his hard-driving quest for excellence has earned him business accolades such as 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year and taken him to the top of the sports shoe industry. Sole Technology, Inc., the Lake Forest design and manufacturing company he leads as CEO, is a dominant force in the skateboarding world and one of the fastest growing shoe companies in the world. “Sole Technology has a really big presence in the industry,” says Lora Bodmer, a representative of Action Sports Retail, a company that puts on the leading action sports trade show. “Their strength is that the company is run by skateboarders, which helps them stay ‘core.’ They put a lot of pride, innovation and technology into creating better skateboard sneakers. That has made them a strong market leader.” From skateboard to boardroom Unlike many of his competitors in those early years, Senizergues (pronounced Sin-e-zerg) didn’t bank on his professional sports career to provide long-term livelihood. “I became a pro skateboarder overnight, but unemployment was high in France and I wanted to study something practical and in demand so I could get a job,” he recalls. Channeling an interest in electronics and computer software into an early career goal, he earned a degree in industrial software from Paris’ University of Technology in 1984, then signed on as an engineer at IBM France. Programming laser printers at Big Blue might have paid the bills, but the corporate world couldn’t contain the independent spirit and creative energy of the 1985 World Freestyle Champion of skateboarding. Backed by Sins Skateboards and Tracker Trucks sponsorship, as well as numerous product endorsements, Senizergues quit IBM after just three months and took up permanent residence in California. “I always thought of California as a dreamland,” he remembers. “After I came here, everything changed.” Skateboarding on the beach in Venice, Calif., Senizergues attracted a crowd of admiring onlookers – something that never happened in his homeland. “In Paris, nobody would pay attention,” he says. In the crowd was pro freestyler Steve Rococo of the Sins Skateboards team, who helped provide entree into the thriving professional skate scene. “From the mid-1980s to the early ’90s, I was skating everywhere in the world,” Senizergues recalls. |
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