When CFO was offered the opportunity to speak to Bear Walker, CEO and founder of Bear Walker Industries, my first thought was, "We don't usually ever feature the executive leadership of skateboarding companies."
My second thought was, "Maybe that isn't a good thing."
Because, what is now plainly evident, is these companies are building a brand that has a place in the public consciousness, just like McKinsey, Procter & Gamble, and Lamborghini. So sign me up.
In connecting with Walker, and his CFO Brian Chaney, I learned the company's vision ("We make cool sh**"), valuable lessons they've learned through failure, what "growth" means for a young company, and how Bear Walker Industries will scale into different markets.
And it just so happens this interview is perfectly aligned today with National Go Skateboarding Day, June 21.
Bear Walker Industries
Founded by Walker, an internationally recognized skateboard design and manufacturing company that specializes in custom, hand-crafted, and carved wood skateboards, in part inspired by art and pop culture.
- Founded: 2017
- Size: 30 employees
- Headquarters: Daphne, Alabama
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ANDY BURT: Bear, how did you turn your passion into an actual business?
BEAR WALKER: It was kind of an accident. My core passions are surfing, woodworking, graphic design, and pop culture. There aren't too many jobs that incorporate all of those.
I graduated college with a graphic design degree in 2011, but the market was terrible, and there weren't many artist jobs that paid well. I did a bunch of odd jobs, unknowingly honing my skills in different areas that would add up to doing this.
I honed my graphic design skills, I became a warehouse manager at a prop company, and so kind of got a little bit of my organization skills. It all culminated in me having the idea for this carved-out [skate] board where the carving created the grip, making one just for myself. But then people started asking me where I got it from. The gears started turning and I slowly started to think this could become a viable business.
Brian, How did you and Bear get connected as business partners?
BRIAN CHANEY: We met through some mutual friends. He was still selling boards out of his truck and working in his uncle’s barn at the time. There was just something different about his approach to pop culture, skate, and art that was intriguing.
Over a game of beer pong — which I am sure I lost — we started to talk about his potential growth. I left it with a, "Let's talk more if you ever want help." The rest, you can say, is history.
Bear, when and how did you start this journey?
WALKER: I made my first board in 2012, then started my first business in 2013. It failed in 2014. I saved up and started a new one in 2016. And that's the version that we have today.
What were some of the lessons that you learned from version one to version two?
WALKER: I'd say the biggest one is being cautious of who you go into business with, and then also knowing when to say, “no.”
I was trying to find what my niche was. I was kind of grabbing any opportunities that came up, which isn't a terrible thing. But there were definitely opportunities that hurt my business. And now I've gotten better at refining. What I want to do, and what would be a benefit, versus what would just be filler.
How big is your operation now?
WALKER: We hit our peak in the middle of the pandemic, with around 50 employees. Now we have about 30. We hired a ton of people trying to find the right fit because we were growing so rapidly.
Over the last couple of years, we refined it to the 30 that we have now and work super efficiently and have a really good company culture.
Bear, what does your role look like on a day-to-day basis?
WALKER: My job title is CEO and creative director. I'd say that's probably about 50% of what I do. The rest of it is, you know, counseling in some areas. No, I'm kind of joking. But yeah, with all the people, there's a lot of emotional maintenance that comes with trying to have a good company culture, making people feel they're heard, and trying to make a good living wage for them as well.
My main job is making sure we're making good business deals, making sure we have future work to do, designing and creating all that, but also maintaining the inner workings as well.
Has adding a CFO helped the company grow?
WALKER: Yeah, and that's been kind of the nice thing over the past couple of years, I've been able to start letting go of some of those bits and pieces. We have an operations manager, we have a project manager, we have [Brian].
This means I'm slowly getting to where my job will only be as CEO and creative director, which is definitely the goal for the next year or two. And then I can focus on the strategy and the creative development.
Brian, what has growth looked like for the company?
CHANEY: We actually experienced explosive growth over the last few years. But Bear and I decided that for at least a year, we would slow down so that we could speed back up. It was needed to ensure the boards and the other product lines we are launching meet the same quality as before.
How do you collaborate?
WALKER: We communicate pretty well.
I come up with product ideas based on new movies coming out, or new comic books dropping, stuff that is culturally relevant. We have to figure out how that fits into what can we spend on advertising. Or what can we spend on trying to do some kind of crazy marketing idea that sometimes can be in the tens of thousands of [dollars]. Can we do this right now?
And it's usually a "thumbs up," but it's good to have someone to be like, “No, we should probably hold back on this one ... so we can do that other crazy $10,000 marketing idea you have.”
How do you play off of each other’s strengths?
CHANEY: We sit in a similar profile from a DiSC assessment. This brings us together from a speed or pace standpoint. We both like to move fast and get things done. This is beneficial for getting new ideas to market quickly. However, I sometimes have to play the opposite side so we have the best balance between us possible.
Often, CFOs say they don’t want to be the “no” person. But there must be that communication between them and the CEO.
WALKER: Oh, definitely. I'm constantly coming up with crazy stuff or trying to push boundaries and what we can do. Having a couple of “no” people is important to sustaining what we do. That's probably one of the best things about building a team here, too, is I have people I trust to run ideas through. And usually, if they're excited about it, that tells me I can push through trying to put a budget together for it.
CHANEY: I do not like to use "no" as a go-to answer. I find it better to start with "yes" and work back to a "no" by figuring out the risk associated with moving to that next position.
Bear and I work through the risks/rewards to determine if it makes the best outcome for the company. That is not always purely financial. If that were the case, we would not have some of the innovation and quality that the Bear Walker brand embodies.
Bear, what skill have you acquired in your role that you didn't expect?
WALKER: I've always been a builder and like to create things. But, knock on wood, I have discovered that I like to fix problems. You have to enjoy the journey and not the end result, or you're never going to survive as a small business owner, because there are constant problems. Every day is a new fire, so sometimes I feel pretty burned out. But in general, having there be new issues, and me solving that problem, it’s like a higher education after I'm finished with it to be ready for the next problem. It's tedious, but it's also become the fun part.
What kind of trade-offs have you had to make?
WALKER: I actually kind of overcorrected. I'm bouncing back the other way.
I used to work in the shop 14 hours a day till two in the morning. Now I'm behind the desk probably eight hours out of the day. I enjoy working with my hands and working on each board individually. And I had to hand off a lot of that for the business to grow.
But I don't know, I am leaning more toward getting back in the shop at least one day a week. I feel like it's good for camaraderie, but also just my mental state. And it helped me come up with new ideas and create more when I [was] out there. So even though it makes more sense for me to be at this desk, out in the shop is where I get inspiration.
What is your business portfolio? What is it comprised of?
WALKER: We got our start doing custom boards for celebrities and stuff like that, which was good, like when they posed with boards. And that helped us do that initial growth spurt. So yeah, pop culture is where we landed in doing those limited-edition products.
Licensing was the next step because we had to do it correctly so we didn't get sued. Now I get to work with many of the bigger companies I always dreamed about working with and doing licensing deals with them. That's the big majority of our products.
We are moving next year to do more, just straight-up Bear Walker branded stuff. I feel like the licensing stuff is great for my '90s kids' nostalgia, [for people] who want a cool piece that reminds them of their childhood. But the Bear Walker stuff would be great for me to make the most out-of-the-box — maybe not even functional skateboards — that are just meant for wall art.
What does growth mean for you? What does that look like over the next three to five years?
CHANEY: I think the most exciting part for me is the growth of other business lines. Bear’s vision is to make amazing products that tie to pop culture. Once you open the aperture up to that … the possibilities are endless!
WALKER: From the outside looking in, I think almost everyone would think we are a skateboard company — which, in its essence, is true.
But our internal motto here is, "We make cool sh**." We do skateboards, and people often think our next thing would be surfboards or something else in the action sports industry. But I'm just really into mixing functionality and aesthetics.
So in a year or two, I envision half of our business becoming high-end custom guitars that we’ve been doing cool prototyping for a couple of years. And we're about ready to go to market with them. I want to be not only a skateboard maker — more so just a cool sh** maker.
We have the boards, the guitars, and then we're opening up our first storefront in a couple of months, which is exciting.
Where will your first storefront be?
WALKER: It will be in Pensacola, Florida, so that should be fun. And then, over the next three to five years, we’ll have about five customer shops all over the world. It would be a Bear Walker storefront, and we would also be making custom boards in person. It would give me the opportunity to travel, meet new people in different markets, and have them experience our products in person.
All images courtesy of Bear Walker Industries.