Public Snowboards CEO on Scale While Maintaining Community
Joe Sexton is a pro snowboarder who was looking for a new challenge back in 2015.
So, he started Minneapolis, Minn.-based Public Snowboards, bootstrapping the business and largely keeping a skeleton crew to grow the brand. More recently, Sexton’s bolstered his team, most notably bringing on emerging brands strategist and former Salomon sales rep Christopher Cooper about a year ago to refine the go-to-market strategy and scale what’s largely functioned until recent years as a garage start-up.
“Pretty quickly in our short time, the garage door has been lifted and we’ve had full schedules, going to every regional demo and trade show. We’re doing collaborations. We’re doubling down on rider-owned (branding) all day long,” Cooper said of the flurry of more recent activity that’s taken place.
Cooper, based out of New Jersey, has built a career out of helping young brands get off the ground at companies such as Neff, Stance, Skullcandy, and, most recently, Salomon. He’s good at concisely painting the picture of what Public is to the market: “This is a tow ropes, $40 lift tickets, cheese curds, humble Midwest brand.”
A couple years ago, Public moved into its first warehouse and office space and has seen more recent growth in the U.S. and Canada. Last year the company released its first freeride board, which nabbed the Best Freeride Board title at last year’s Interlude show in Utah. Public, now in about 150 stores globally, including Backcountry and Evo, sees itself in a position to seize on a changing business landscape with its skateboard-adjacent designs, boards priced about $100 cheaper than many competitors, and strong engagement with its consumer base.
“We’ve really invested in people,” said Sexton, who serves as CEO. “I finally learned to look at the backend of the business. This year we really dialed in. We pulled up all our timelines and delivered a month earlier at a time when brands are struggling to deliver on time and, with that, we did see growth. We’ve got a couple new sales guys. Public’s having this moment of being long enough in the game to be a recognizable name and now building on the business side and having it be something people can trust.”
Room to Grow
Hiring an accountant, sharpening up invoices, and delivering on time, if not early, have all helped to strengthen Public’s credibility among retailers, Sexton said.
For consumers, Sexton said work is being done to expand the freeride offering given the success of last year’s board debut.
There’s also apparel, a small but growing category for Public, that Sexton said holds potential to help make the company a year-round business. The apparel designs have also gotten Public on the radar of a few skate shops that have asked to carry some of the clothing.
“I see apparel as being a big part of the business,” Sexton said of the future. “I’m really into fashion myself. It’s an add-on to the boards for sure, but I truly think that it has legs.”
Momentum around Public is being driven by dual forces, the first being an opportunity for independent brands that can bring loyal and engaged followings to retailers.
“I think there’s a shift happening,” Sexton said. “It’s hard because the large brands have such a stronghold; there’s so much volume and you can’t blame the shops for wanting to work with them because they’re household names, but I think there’s a little bit of a shift taking place.”
The other force, and perhaps a bigger factor, pushing Public’s business forward is what led Sexton to bring the brand to the market in the first place.
Building Community
Back in 2015 Sexton was riding for Stepchild Snowboards but was getting restless.
“I had this urge to do something more,” he remembered. “I looked at riding for a couple other brands and had some opportunities, but nothing really jumped out at me.”
That’s when the idea to start a snowboard brand was formed. Stepchild helped in the first two years, introducing Sexton to a factory and providing a lot of the basic knowledge base to get him off the ground.
The idea was to create a snowboarding community that also sold boards.
“Public means for the greater good,” Sexton said. “It means all these positives like including people and making people feel accepted. I liked the idea of a board brand doing that.”
A memory he had of seeing a largely one-way interaction between a bigger brand and one of its customers online further crystallized what Sexton wanted Public to be.
“I had read this Instagram post that some kid had left on a brand’s page, asking them for some help saying, ‘Hey, I sent a bunch of emails, and I haven’t heard back,’” Sexton recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Man, that sucks.’ That kid might have mowed a lawn or done some other work to afford that product and then he’s not even getting help with it. That really stuck with me.”
Sexton used Tumblr to start a forum where people could talk about snowboarding or even ask him questions about pro snowboarding.
“This was also at a time when there wasn’t a ton of community in snowboarding,” Sexton said. “There were a lot of really big brands running the show and there wasn’t anybody that was talking to the everyday snowboarder. I looked at what was out there and just thought, ‘I want to create something that ties all of that together.’”
In 2017, after two years of Stepchild’s help, he struck out on his own.
“(Stepchild) helped me get started, which was incredible, and then I had to spread my wings a little bit and do this on my own,” Sexton said.
That same accessibility Sexton started Public with is still maintained today even as the business’ expansion takes Sexton to more trade shows and demos. Being rider owned and operated isn’t just a tag line for the founder.
Said Sexton: “I answer every DM on Instagram. I answer all the emails from the customer service side. I want people to know that when they reach out, they’re reaching out to me and talking to me. I think that’s been something that sets us apart and something I’m super proud of. I want to be a part of this community. I don’t want to be just a brand above it, looking down on the community.”