Who's brainchild was Razors? And who helped in the beginning, so the first series of skates can come out?

I first noticed inline skates at the SIA trade show in 1989 in Las Vegas. At that time I was marketing a very successful line of surf and snowboard wear in Europe and thought I could easily sell rollerblades to my retailer customers in Europe as well. Back in Europe I visited all makers of ice skating boots to pick the best boot for my skates. I found a maker of frames in Taiwan, bought wheels from Kryptonics and was the first to introduce razorskating (as we called it) at the '89 September ISPO in Munich, Germany.

Who founded the company?

Me (Andy Wegener)

 

Where are the Razors headquarter then and now?

Back than Razors headquarter was in Rosenheim, Germany. I started the US operation in 1996 and move the headquarter there in 1998

 

 The first pair of aggressive skate came out in 1996 (If i know right). Did you believe then the Razors will be a successful worldwide like it's successful now?

Yes, the first aggressive skate came out in 1996. I was very confident that Razors would become a market leader as I did the same thing in other industries such as snowboarding, windsurfing and mountain biking where my brands also made it to the very top. What all these extreme sports have in common is that athletes dislike corporations and their culture. Since I was an athlete in extreme sports myself I know exactly what they want and how to treat them. Plus I always was a privately owned company, dealt personally with riders and could make decisions about product developments much faster than big corporations. All I had to do was to move to the capitol of the sport and the rest would come over time.

 
What's was the hardest thing in the beginning?

The hardest thing was to find riders that would want to ride for you. Even if you offered them more money they would still not ride for a start-up company without image and established riders.

 

Who were the first team riders and why did you chose them?

The first riders were Marco Hintze and Mike Scott. I found them at the local skate park, the Y in Encinitas. Although they were super talented skaters it was more like finding someone who would want to ride for you than choosing.

Tory Treseder followed shortly after and once we were somehow established Raphael Sandoz and Marcos Longares joined the team. That's what broke the ice.

 
Who decides who is good for Razors (team) and how?

The pro team.

 
How many people work on a pairs of Razors skate? How do you come with a new skate? Who designs the skates?

I listen to many people when it comes to design a product. Of course the main contributors are the riders but I also get many suggestions from my employees, shops and distributors. Once we have an idea we discuss it with our riders and if approved make prototypes for testing. If it's a pro skate that rider has the biggest say on the design and features. Many times he designs the whole skate. Murda is actually really good at that and had a significant input on the Plan B boot family which should be released sometime in 2007.

I'm the one who puts the dots together and communicates with skaters, engineers and manufacturers.

 

Which razors model was the most successful?

Murda 1

 
I know you guys do a hard work. For example, how many hours you work on a day? How much time you spend in front of computer?

We actually don't work that many hours as we are very efficient and know what we have to do -- or don't have to do. I normally start in the morning working from home from 7-9 am as that's when most of my European customers are still at work and then go to the office to work from 10-5.   I do spend about 80 % of my time in front of a computer. Because I can receive my corporate email on my Blackberry work actually never stops. I also check my email at night, on weekends and can react fast in time sensitive cases. I'm actually writing this interview on my Blackberry on a train ride between London and Bristol, UK.

 
What was the biggest downfall in Razors life?

We never really had a downfall. If anything it was when Josh Petty left the team (around 1998).

 
What's different between Razors and other company?

Owner run and operated, understanding of extreme sports, being located in the capitol and doing nothing but aggressive skating.

 
Razors headquarter is in USA. How's the relationship with Europe?

Great. I actually just took over the distribution in Germany myself as my distributor got out of the skate business. It's easy for me as I know the country in and out, understand the mentality and being able to work with shops and riders directly turned out to be beneficial for everybody. I also set up team managers in the UK and started working closely with more and more European customers. I enjoy it a lot.

 
What is your plan for the future for Razors?

Our main goal is to grow the sport and we support anything that is going in the right direction. Another project is to create a really meaningful world contest series with qualifier system and world championship. What would soccer be without a national championship or football without the Superball?

A top priority, however, is to keep skaters with great personalities at our sport, which is why I try to help some setting up their own companies. These are the ones that will always stick with the sport and can represent us in front of the public and media. We wouldn't be an industry without them.

 

Andy ;o)