Interview by Jeff Carvalho and Frank the Butcher.
Continuing on our special coverage of the Burton & Channel Islands Flagship Store Los Angeles opening, we bring you an interview with Greg Dacyshyn, Creative Director at Burton. He took some time out from the festivities to chat with us about Burton and more...
You're in Los Angeles for the grand opening of the [LA] store. How important was it to bring everyone your working with to one spot for the LA launch?
GD - We like to think of Burton as total friends and family. We dont do anything we dont want to do. The beauty is Jake [Burton] holds it down on his own. We're a privately held brand and that makes it so critical... to do what's right for the brand all the time. And [that is at] the forefront of everything we've done. Having the riders first and foremost, or surfers and skaters out. A lot of time they lead the direction of what we should be doing with our respective brands. They're integral to everything we do including the inspiration behind what you see in the architecture of the store and what you see going on the roof up here with Trevor [Andrews] playing. Yeah it's a business but first and foremost it's a lot of fun and what's a party without your friends. Integral man. Couldn't do it without them.
Talking along those lines, you know the riders and know how important they are to the company. Burton was one of the companies to first really listen to their users, the riders themselves..
GD - Yep.
There were obvious motivations to do that but back in the day, not a lot of corporations sat back and said and said 'fuck it,' lets listen to what our people are doing and work from there. What do you think is the difference between Burton and other corporations in terms of consumer/rider feedback?
GD - A lot of companies claim 'rider driven' or what not. Its almost like a corporate catch phrase in the boards industry. Its so fundamental from when we kicked off things to when we go to various roundtables... You think you might be making the right decisions then you sit down with these guys and they give some rationale as to why you might want to change direction a little bit or do something a little different. I like to think its the reason why we are where we as a company right now. You know maybe a lot of those compmanies dont have people that have the confidence to listen to the riders. But you gotta know that these kids are the ones that are driving the respective sports. Going against what they think is suicide in my mind.
Right.
GD - They're the ones pushing everything thats going on. Progression of the sports and progression of the lifestyle...
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