Meet t-shirt entrepreneur Johan E. Esbensen, President, Rogue Status, AWOL, Easy Company.
Two years ago, Johan Esbensen was a sneaker salesman at Undefeated in Santa Monica, California, who had a little hobby making provocative, in-your-face t-shirts that he gave away to his friends and customers. Today he is the President of Rogue Status, a company that has the hottest growing clothing line in the world.
Rogue Status sales jumped to two million in under two years. Part of the thanks for that explosive growth goes to pro street skater Rob Dyrdek featuring Yo's shirts on his MTV show, Rob and Big. However, having an MTV show doesn't explain why teens worldwide are tattooing Rogue Status and AWOL (a brother company) slogans on themselves.
I sat down with Yo on a sunny April 2008 morning at a local Venice Café over coffee. He'd walked over from his house just up the road. I'd driven the two blocks from my place and was feeling a bit wasteful about that. I had recently gotten a bike (a birthday gift from my teenage son), but still haven't bought the lock needed to actually use it on a morning like that day. Ridiculously lame excuse, really.
You see, Yo's motto is that everything is easy. If gas is too expensive, it's just easier to ride your bike. So stop whining and do it. Rogue created a bike for you to buy, so there are no excuses. You can have your fashion, your passion, your exercise, extra dough in your wallet and green transportation, too.
Now an entire sub-culture of Westside teens own bikes in Venice, and both Venice and Santa Monica, California are having to install more bike racks to accommodate the trend. On Sundays, local Yuppies cycle down to breakfast at the Farmer's Market, or hang out to watch sports in an outdoor bar and grill. More and more, they are riding Rogue bikes and wearing Rogue t-shirts (and underwear as well – trust me. I wash my teen's clothes).
It's a life Yo has always dreamed of, but still has trouble believing that it happened so fast and so easily. Yo created a world where he and his friends blur the lines between work and play, called the enterprise Easy Company, and the world decided to grant him his first wish. In his mind, there's no reason that his morning can't include walking over to the grocery store to buy dog food, in between global deal making and designing more slogans that are bound to inspire and enrage – many times in equal measure. His "million dollar idea" began with two guys shooting the breeze on a couch, but looks to become more like a $65 million dollar idea before all is said and done.
Q&A with Johan E. Esbensen, President, Rogue Status, AWOL, Easy Company and Natalie Pace.
What's up with your signature slogan, "Curb your God?" Unlike some of your more controversial slogans, like the gun show shirt, this is one that parents (at least the liberals) and kids alike respond pretty positively to.
Curb your god. Too much of anything is too much. A little of what you fancy does you good. Just not all of it.
What was your inspiration for it?
We had dog tags and we called them God tags. They had "still standing" on one side and a bullet hole on the other. So, just walking down the street and seeing all of those Curb Your Dog signs… I thought, "No. Curb your God."
Speaking of God (in a slightly different way), let's talk about the limited edition Dillon Henry shirt, the memorial tee you produced for some local kids, Davis, Elliot and Gabe, when their best friend, Dillon, was killed in a car accident.
I had a Dillon shout-out the other day. This kid wears the Dillon shirt so much that I accidentally called him, "Dillon". Good things come out of tragic events – like seeing the boys grow through it and staying positive about it and remembering somebody forever. I love that there is still more stuff happening, like the memorial concert.
Natalie's note: On June 14th, RJD2 and GZA will headline the Dill ‘n Eddie Show at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California, with proceeds benefiting the charities of Dillon Henry and Eddie Lopez. Both teens had their futures cut short by fatal accidents. Eddie was a victim of crossfire gang violence and Dillon was killed in a car accident. For more information on the memorial concert, go to Ticketmaster.com.
Artist: Davis Lau
These guys needed something and you stepped up and out of your heart and wallet funded something that was so meaningful for them – the first 100 t-shirts honoring Dillon.
That's how we spend our money. I didn't even think about that. There wasn't even a question. That's what we do. We make shirts, so we did a hundred initially of the black ones. But we don't just wait until someone dies. Right now, our friend Xavier needs a new wheelchair. He's part of that Life Rolls On Foundation. We're going to customize the chair. Rogue Status it out with artwork. He'll have a fresh new chair for summer.
Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, says, "Never underestimate the value of a free t-shirt." Are you saying, "Never underestimate the value of a free wheelchair?"
These are just projects that are fun. We can do them now.
What's your role at the company?
I'm the President. Rex is the head of design. Jaspar is the Vice President/brand manager. Brian in sales. Rex stays on top of all the artwork and production. Jason helps out with everything.
How long did it take to get here?
November 2005 is when Rex and I first sat down and designed 20 shirts. It just kind of snowballed from there.
Photo: Rob and Big. Rob is wearing the Rogue Status “Gun Shop” tee-shirt.
What are your top selling shirts?
The gun print is #1 to this day. #2 now is the brass knuckles in the shape of California. Another big seller is "Too much time; too much money." It's about the line-up of kids who wait for shoes, when there is going to be another hot one next month.
What is behind the gun print? What message do you want people to take away from it?
By now, I don't care. There have been so many different reactions. I was just watching the news and it was all just Iraq and guns. I was looking to make a simple linear print. I took the guns and lined them up. We coined it the Million Dollar Idea when we made it, sitting there on the couch.
Was it?
Yup.
Was it a multi-million dollar idea?
I'm sure it will be, yeah.
Quicksilver is a publicly traded company worth a billion dollars. Would you like to be that big or are you happy the way you are?
We're really happy the way we have it. The two partners I share the company with have the same vision for it. One day, we'd like to grow it as big as Quicksilver without having to sell out to anybody.
Remaining privately held and not accountable…
to shareholders. Yeah. But we'll see. I don't know. I'm learning all the time. I know we'll get to at least $60 million on our own.
I have a whole other gang of companies behind Rogue Status. We can grow Rogue Status as big as we want. And then we have DTA (Don't Trust Anyone) with a darker design element to it. So we'll hold onto that and grow it as a little brother. And then we have AWOL and Easy Company and Board of Authority.
Arlington Cemetery hoodie
“Gun Show” hoodie
Now, what is AWOL? I thought it stood for Always West of Lincoln - just a local Venice brand.
I gave out 200 of those shirts to locals when I was at Undefeated. But you can't keep that localism vibe when people from the East Coast are tattooing it on their bodies… That's outside of the neighborhood and now a way of life. AWOL is following a different path. Anti-establishment.
What is the AWOL ethos? You're a provocateur, but you're also a laidback dude who rides his bike on Main Street for a bite to eat.
I've lived all over the world, in Ottawa, Vancouver, New York, Tokyo, Australia. I've traveled quite a bit. And then coming to find Venice and Santa Monica, I thought, "This is where I want to stay forever." I don't have to call anybody in the neighborhood. I can get on my bike and bump into them. It's such a neighborhood feel. You don't have to go downtown LA or Hollywood. You have everything you need on the left hand side.
In fact, you've started quite a trend of young guys riding bikes in the hood. My son bought his first tank of gas. He was so disgusted with gas prices, that before he bought his second tank of gas, he bought a Rogue Status bike. That's a cool idea that neighborhoods are so local you can ride your bike. More people could do that, really.
Yeah. They just don't.
So, Rogue Status is in five countries already. How long have you been doing this? Two years maybe?
Yeah. The first year, I was just doing the hustle, still working full-time at Undefeated and doing this as a passion. I've just been feeling the rewards of watching it grow, and people accepting it and understanding it. Every shirt kind of inspires dialog whether it is good or bad. They don't know that the people behind the brand are a little more lighthearted than the brands look. That first year was a year of hustling.
What's the hustle like? What's the difference between you, the guy who actually did it, and the guy who doesn't do it?
It's just a matter of getting up and doing it. A lot of people say I want to do this or that but then they go back to sitting on their couch or doing nothing on their day off. The hustle is me getting Rex, driving to downtown LA, getting the shirts, driving out to the print shop, developing that relationship there. Coming back, going to work, picking up boxes, cruising around promoting people. Every minute you're not selling a sneaker, trying to put a t-shirt on somebody and pushing the brand.
What was the real key?
I followed my friend Chris Gibbs to Union in New York. I was always dreaming about starting a brand then, but never had the time or the money. Then I moved to LA. Undefeated wanted to start a company on Main Street. They asked Chris to help them open it, and they hired me also. If I didn't know Chris from high school, I wouldn't have ever have gotten that opportunity.
Was the MTV show a big boost? Rob and Big. Rob wears the Rogue Status gun shop tee-shirt almost everywhere he goes.
After Chris, the key to success was definitely the relationship with Rob. That was cool because I met him through Undefeated through the manager, Alex. Once I had the gun print in four colors, I thought, "Rob will like these." I had my friend get them to him. A week later, Rob came into the store and he said, "Yo, the reaction that I get from people when I get out of my Porsche is just insane. What do you want to do with this?"
So, I hustled to get to Rob and he became a partner in the company. It took a year to brand the sh** out of the company and then I pulled the trigger on getting a store.
We had a mess of orders that we couldn't even begin to produce. Then Travis Parker partnered in with a turnkey solution. We got warehousing fulfillment, accounting, all the stuff we don't want to deal with. We formed a distribution company called Killers.
You guys are pretty dedicated worker bees for a bunch of laid back sneaker salesmen from Venice.
That's the thing. We combine a really chill lifestyle with a strong work ethic.
How long is your day?
12 hours a day. Answering emails all over the world. Sometimes I go to Ontario [California] to visit the warehouse. We're just a well-greased machine that doesn't stop. We can combine work and pleasure. We blur it and live in the grey zone. It's not black and white.
We call our company Easy Company. Even our store. We have hangars that hang straight all the time. You never have to adjust them. They just always look good. I have a swivel chair. Everything is just always right there.
How did you go from NYC and not having enough dough for t-shirts to coming here and getting your ideas on cotton and your shirts on MTV?
You scrape the pennies. I gambled on 200 t-shirts initially. I took them straight to Union. Union got them on Friday and sold out in two days. I then re-ordered. I dumped all of my shirts on Undefeated and Union. Real baby steps. I went into the hole over $10,000, personal loans from people who really covered my ass. Then I stayed on top of the invoicing, making sure people paid me. Rob bought in. I spent that money but maintained it long enough to get Travis to come in. All that happened in like a year.
Cash positive in year one or year two?
I'd say year three. We were always spending more money to make more money.
What about the growing pangs? You have more orders than you can fulfill and Travis falls into the game. You have your first t-shirt and an MTV star loves it. You make it sound like everything just flowed so easily.
One guy bought in at one point who didn't share the same vision. We had to buy him out.
It doesn't seem that bothered you much. Some people would let that eat them alive.
I didn't let it bother me much. It was more just like it didn't work out, so here's your money back. There was animosity and he shit-talked about us for quite a long time after, but I was too busy to be bothered. We were going forward.
Have you faced any moral challenges? People promising you the moon…
I didn't want to sell the company out right away. There was an opportunity to do that. We wanted to let the company grow more naturally. The whole company motto is: "Do you." I have the perfect team right now to keep the company going. I keep coming up with new ways to push the limits of what you can put on a shirt. The rest of the guys do the same. We're just having fun with it.
Like the new Arlington (Cemetery) shirt?
That's up there in the top two. It's like the opposite of the gun print. People really understand the patriotism in that one. It's all about respect. All those guns symbolize the soldier, as much as the crosses.
The gun print by itself without Arlington is more in people's face. Some people take it like you're promoting violence. Were you intending to do that?
No. But I knew that it would push a lot of buttons and get people talking. I don't even know why people get that offended by it.
They do, though, don't they?
Yes. Kids get kicked out of high school for wearing it. People get kicked out of the malls for wearing the Curb your God; Holy F**k shirt.
Is this in the red states?
No, here in LA. I think it's the Holy F**k on the back. We do that a lot. "Kill Them" on the front, "With Kindness" on the back. We're having trouble finding product liability now because of those. They are worrying that someone might get shot for wearing the Hangover shirt, which says "Please Kill Me."
That's tough because your brand is built in controversy. If you tame yourselves enough to get insurance, you lose the very thing that your customers love about you.
We had a deal with DC Comics to do a Ghost Riders motorcycle jacket, shoes, the whole bit. Rob was presenting our media kit to the shareholders at Quiksilver (DC's parent company) for our product partnership with DC. It went all the way to the top and then the old guys objected, saying, "No way. We can't work with Rogue Status." They objected to an old t-shirt I made called, "Make Hate."
We shot ourselves in the foot on that one. People got on the Internet over that shirt and the World Trade Center shirt and started dragging me through the mud.
Old white, conservative dudes?
No, young neighborhood kids. With Make Hate, I was referencing that when you make anything positive or different, whether you make anything, even a painting, and you'll always get someone to hate on it. That's what's behind Make Hate. People get pissed off, but I will sell t-shirts for the rest of my life and make a great living and have fun with my friends.
The statistics are that a college graduate makes 80% more than a high school graduate. How far did you go?
I never got my diploma. I made it through grade 12, but there are 13 grades in Ontario [Canada].
You seem to be very educated, particularly in history. Where are you getting your information and knowledge?
Jason read every book and saw every film and talked about history the whole time and sparked my interest in it. I've learned by living through current events. I've got to credit the Internet, the History Channel, the Discover Channel. I read The Bible recently, and looked at it differently.
What is the biggest surprise? Your manna from heaven?
The fact that I can pay myself and all my friends right now to make t-shirts. I pinch myself everyday. People love that sh**? All of us are just getting warmed up. Every day is a surprise.
What is your biggest challenge? It sounds like things came fairly easy, but also you are not getting taken out with the stumbling blocks.
I don't know what to say. Yesterday was fun. Tomorrow's another one.
How fast are you growing?
We have nine people on the payroll including me. We have independent sales reps all over the United States. We're pretty much peaked on our staff. We'll probably need more people in a year and will outgrow our office space. We're growing like crazy.
How about the store?
Our store kills it. We pay our rent in a day or two days. It's been nothing but uphill. Growing growing every month better than the last.
We had a family drive straight from El Paso. The dad was real buzzed out on coffee. People come from all over. It's just a bonus really.
Any avoid this; do that tips?
Try to be original. Find your own motivation. Do you. Stay true to who you are. That's it.
What about those people who say, "I don't know who I am?"
It sucks to be you. I hate it when that happens. I've never understood people like that. Psychology is another thing I'm interested in.
Pushing past what you think you can do… Did you ever do that? You don't seem to have any fear really. Making t-shirts that push the edge so far and all.
I hate flying. I'd rather drive. If I can drive, I'll drive. I never fly to Vegas. That landing. The turbulence. The plane is really small.
Well, if I were a betting gal, I'd bet you're in your own 747 soon, just like Sergey Brin and Larry Page, since you can't ride your bike to Singapore. Thanks Yo. See you on the street.
Johan E. Esbensen is the President, Rogue Status, AWOL, Easy Company. Find out more about Rogue at RogueStatus.com.
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