09 | 03 | 2008
Media Presence
By Doug Sherwin
John Alves wasn't necessarily looking to fill an executive spot in his Pacific Beach-based company when he attended his first Action & Sports Innovators (ASI) event three months ago.
But when he had a chance to met Jim Stroesser, former general manager at Quicksilver (NYSE: ZQK) and ex-CEO of Pony International, Alves didn't hesitate.
The two soon discovered a mutual admiration, and now Stroesser is the chief executive office of Alves' Dirtbag Music & Clothing, helping the fledgling company reach a wider, more commercial audience.
"It has been one of the best experiences in the last four years that Dirtbag has ever had," said Alves, Dirtbag's co-founder and chief operating officer. "It's been brand-changing.
"He brings that resume of an executive who's been there. He is an industry expert, and his resume is impeccable. He's an all-star. He's like an Axl (Rose) or Slash (of Guns N' Roses) who just joined our garage band."
Stroesser, who also was vice president of sales and co-owner of Converse, said he became hooked on Dirtbag when he found out the company worked with 10,000 bands.
"Music is as big or a bigger influence than sports," Stroesser said. "People at brands like Converse saw that musicians can really move our needle."
The pairing of Stroesser and Dirtbag is one of several successful collaborations made possible by ASI, a program managed through Connect that focuses on helping officials of surfing, snowboarding and skating companies gain knowledge and share information.
Marco Thompson, managing director of Express Ventures, saw ASI as the action sports equivalent to Biocom or CommNexus, which represent San Diego's booming life sciences and wireless industries.
"I (wondered), 'How come this industry doesn't have a trade organization,'" he said. "Here we are in the birthplace of action sports and these guys don't have any networking, mentoring or support organization."
Thompson said most action sports companies hit a wall around $5 million, when the challenges of supply chain management and distribution begin to get too overwhelming.
Using Connect's successful formula of workshops and mentoring groups, ASI helps emerging companies find venture capital money, legal and accounting help and upper level management skills.
"One of the things I found very early is that action sports companies are founded on passion and expertise," Thompson said. "The founders tend to be product people and marketing people. So they know what the market needs and how to design it. (But) they tend to have very little grey hair in the company."
Stroesser agreed.
"I've enjoyed the concept (of ASI), and I think it's something that's needed in the sports business," he said. "It's necessary to have a group like ASI to help grow companies to the next level."
ASI -- along with the law firm Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps -- will be sponsoring a panel discussion on financing Thursday at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) show at the San Diego Convention Center.
The group also will be holding the first ASI Venture Roundtable at an ASR show in January 2009.
"We started the program initially as a networking group, and we quickly began to understand they really needed more than networking," said Dea Simon, program manager of ASI. "There was a whole cluster of companies in San Diego that were starved for education, especially access to capital and learning how to develop a business."
Many of the companies are grassroots or family organizations whose members don't have any formal business training, according to Simon.
"It's definitely big business right now," she said. "It's becoming so mainstream -- that kind of (action sports) lifestyle -- that we want to make sure the little guys trying to break in have a chance to put their best foot forward."
Dirtbag Music's Alves is more than happy to take advantage.
While his company has been around since 1996, not many people outside of the music industry have heard of it. Stroesser is helping to change that as the company expands its apparel line and adds a social networking component.
"They want us to succeed, that's what ASI is all about," Alves said. "Hopefully we'll be a typical ASI success story. ASI wants to provide that support network and infrastructure to help people succeed. It's given us a shot in the arm to help us succeed. We've had success before, but now it's real, business-world success."
ASI doesn't just cater to the extreme sports, but encompasses more traditional companies like sporting goods and apparel, as well as San Diego's thriving golf and triathlon/marathon industries.
ASI has a database of approximately 650 companies in Southern California, 400 of which are in San Diego.
Copyright © 2008 by The Daily Transcript. All Rights Reserved. Reposted by permission.