We caught up with CEO Keir Dillon and President Eric Kotch about the new headphone company Frends and how the brand has evolved since its debut over a year ago.
Keir and his fellow “Frends” are professional snowboaders who created an online community before they ever created a product. Eric is a Burton veteran with lots of business experience.
(To read more about the interesting way Frends started, which really speaks to the power of online communities, see our previous story on the company.)
Now that Frends has officially been out in the market, how is business?
Frends and professional snowboarders Danny Davis and Keir Dillon, with industry veteran and Frends President Eric Kotch at Agenda. Shop-eat-surf file photo.To give you the quick answer, the whole thing has just been surreal! It’s one thing to have an idea of creating a company, it’s another thing to actually implement those ideas, to build a brand that has the support of our industry, and the support of our loyal fans and customers making it actually happen.
We have learned so much and have grown so exponentially over the past year, this has made us much more excited about the future. Now we are taking what we have learned and implementing that knowledge into the refinement of all aspects of our business.
Any key lessons learned from the launch?
To never compromise and always stick to what you believe.
It has always been our goal to tell the Frends story (that being “There’s no I in Frends”) through our products, to innovate within this space and to offer something that people will be excited about. When creating or challenging the ways products are designed and built, there always seems to be the opportunity to compromise staring you in the face, teasing you to take the easy road. This is a road that you cannot follow, there is no room for compromise.
We quickly realized that every interaction a person has with the brand (product, people, etc.) has an imprint that shapes their impression of Frends. It is our job to hold that impression to the highest standards.
What new retailers have you picked up? Where are you expanding?
We were fortunate to have aligned with some great retailers that spanned the U.S. right out of the gate. Zumiez, Val Surf, and the Burton flagship stores, to name a few, all came on board early and supported us when we really needed it.
We are focused on our existing accounts and deepening our relationships with them. As for expanding, clearly we are excited to continue to grow and expand with partners like Sun Diego that are willing to help support a new company and position us in a way that allows us to properly tell our story to our consumers. Recently, we opened Turntable Lab in Brooklyn, New York; Mob Factory in Evergreen, Colorado; Wheels and Waves in Wells, Maine; and Asylum in Oceanside, Calif.
Are you just selling domestically or internationally as well? Also, are you biggest on the West or East Coast?
We have a sales and marketing office in Amsterdam that manages 14 countries in the EU. We also have distribution in Japan, Korea and Australia/New Zealand.
Due to our snowboarding heritage and the roots of the brand, we’re strongest on the East Coast. We also have a good presence in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest and the Rockies.
With other headphone brands dumping buckets of marketing/sales dollars into Southern California, we have chosen to focus on regions and retailers where we can create true partnerships and grow a solid retail base for the brand to grow from.
See Page 2 for more about Frends
Have you guys made any changes to product or marketing?
On the marketing side, there have been many changes, but we look at it more as evolving and learning, rather than just making changes. We continue learning how to not only tell our story, but to also make sure it is being told to the right people. When you’re small like us, you don’t have a ton of marketing dollars, so they need to count that much more. We need to be smarter and make the most of every opportunity. It’s not what you pay it’s what you yield from it that matters.
On the product side, we will always continue to grow and change. We have reengineered the four styles we introduced last year, and added two completely new headphones to the line. The product we will be delivering this year is both functionally and stylistically superior to our first offering. One of the main reasons we choose headphones as our first product, was because we felt like there was so much opportunity for something new and relevant to our consumers.
Most headphones these days are not designed for what we put them through. We now use headphones for everything from riding a subway to riding a snowboard and because of this they need to be built tough. This was a lesson that we learned from our first line, and one that will never be taken lightly again. We are also learning to define our consumer and what they want and expect from us.
I heard you guys had a big gathering in the mountains recently for your “community.” Can you tell us about that?
(Snowboarder) Jack Mitrani and the Frends Crew had their second annual “Frendly Gathering” thanks to Mammoth Mountain, Amp, Nike, Burton, Nixon, Billabong and Dragon. It was always Jack Mitrani’s and Frends’ vision to create a music/ snowboarding/camping event where all of the “Frends” and “Frends of Frends” could get together and appreciate the true meaning of “Frendship” and good times.
This year, the crew managed to pull off an old-school snowboard event, with a Led Zeppelin cover band and a crowd of 500 Frends for a wild weekend at a small campground 20 miles from Mammoth Mountain.
This is 100% a Frends Crew (Jack, Danny, Kevin, Scotty, Mason, Luke and Mikkel) concept and production. We’re impressed with what they pulled off and if you want to see for yourself, check out the videos from it on FrendsVision.com. We’ll be following this up with an East Coast Frendly Gathering in Vermont, July 21 to 24.
Anything else new and exciting we should look out for?
Saying a simple yes would be a huge understatement. We aren’t doing this to just create a cool company with some great products. We have seen some amazing companies over the years really bring something special to our industry, or perhaps better said, we’ve seen them bring something special to our lives.
We have always respected Jake (Burton) Carpenter for helping pioneer snowboarding, and his continual drive to make snowboarding official on all levels. Wooly’s vision for Volcom and how a company could encapsulate a movement and tell its story is a true inspiration. We technically have only been in business for eight months, we have not even begun to scratch the surface of our goals and what people are going to see delivered from Frends.
