I'm sure to most people the only thing that comes to mind when it comes to Dissidence is the Street Jam every year. But there is so much more to the story of this amazing shop and company, and especially the people behind it. I had time to sit down with my good friend Kevin Demay, and ask him some questions regarding Dissidence, and the result is probably my favorite interview on ISB so far. Check it out below.
What’s up Kevin,
how’ve you been dude?
Kevin: I'm fine (as always), things are going a bit
better now for us, so there is more space in my mind to answer peacefully ; )
Haha good, good. It’s
been a long time coming, but it’s good to see Dissidence partnered up with Inside-Scooters.
It seems like Dissidence has been around forever, when exactly did the company
get started?
Kevin: Yes!
Dissidence seems really old, but we started this project only 5 years
ago. For sure, if you compare that to
the freestyle scooter history ... it's like prehistoric.
At this time, I was running FrenchID with Johann Moreau, and
I was tired of seeing every FrenchID part sold by CDK in France (that shop was
only caring about the profits, and they never tried to take a look at what was
really happening on the core side). At
this time scootering was nothing, so they were the only shop selling the JD-Bug
in France (the MS-130B, same as the Razor in USA).
That's why, with Cyrille, we chose to create a simple online
shop, just to have a place where a rider can find everything he needs
(actually, it looks stupid ... but, at this time, it was like something totally
new in Europe).
Through this, Maxime Legrand, Jean Yves Randriambelson,
Lucas Wisdorf, and Shinpei Nakata followed us on this new adventure. Then, Jeremy Lenfranchis and Balthazar Neveu
were added to the team a while after.
Team ... for me, it's not really a team, but more like a
group of friends (we have been riding almost every day together since 4 years
before the beginning of dissidence).
It's like an OG crew from the old age of scootering. We don't care about level or results ... it's
just the good time we share.
As I was working at K-124 (FrenchID) on the designer office,
the boss forced me to sell only FrenchID parts on Dissidence, otherwise he
would fire me. That's why there was only
FrenchID stuff in the shop. (In fact,
that was not a really big problem because FrenchID was almost the only brand on
the market at this time).
Then, when we quit FrenchID one year after, to start new
future projects (District / Addict) we become free with Dissidence for the
first time.
With the growing of Eagle, and the beginning of District, we
chose to become a distributor, to try to find new shops which would be able to
sell scooters. (At the beginning, there
was only Dissidence and CDK. Now, there
are around 90 shops in France selling freestyle scooters ... but we are still
the only scooter shop selling only freestyle scooters).
That’s awesome man. Being
a true rider-owned company, what are some of the hardest things you deal with
to keep the company running?
Kevin: Honestly, the most difficult thing is to stay
true ... When you run a business, you are on an ocean swimming in the middle of
a lot of sharks (mostly when scootering get its first big boom in France 3
years ago).
We started with only 3000 euros each (Cyrille and I) from a
loan I did to finish my school ... I've quit my engineer school to use that
money to start Dissidence. That may look
like a lot to kids, but it's just ridiculous if you compare with what you
really need. At the beginning, all of
our stock fit in Cyrille’s bedroom. We
had to grow, without any financial help.
Anyway, it's easy to grow a shop when you don't care about
ethic problems. In fact, the market in
France during the boom was really different than what you can see in America
... there were like 3 or 4 times more scooter riders in every skate park than
skaters or bmxers. And most of them were
kids buying shitty complete scooters.
But, with Dissidence we always choose to sell only
"real" brands.... no Madd, no Grit, no Crisp, no Chilly, or every
fucking cheap scooter that doesn't bring anything to the sport (and we have a
lot of brands like that in France).
Unfortunately, those brands were like 80% of the sales ... and when you
have a really big shop here for 20 or 30 years that starts to sell scooters,
it's sometimes difficult to make people understand we are really different.
I really think we are different ... scootering is our life,
and the final goal, nothing else. That's
why the Dissidence family is really big, we try to help every rider we share
time with. The official team is like 7
guys, but, for me, there are maybe 20 or 30 riders we really support and travel
with. And most of the time we give them
much more help and parts than what they receive with their own sponsors.
We take care of the Flavor team. In France, we help Julien Perret to grow RAW
Scootering because he really deserves it.
At the end, the most important thing is to have a good time
and enjoy your life.
Love it man, that’s
what it’s all about. Talk to me about Dissidence USA. I know that Matt McKeen, Hep Greg, and Logan
Fuller are running that. What are your
plans with Dissidence USA?
Kevin: Hmm ... one year ago we drove all around the
USA: New York, Philly, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, and San Diego in a car (Cyrille and me). I'm sure you remember it, it was the first
time I met you.
That trip was first to have a good trip (hey, hey ^^), but
also to meet everybody running the scooter industry in USA.
We were also looking for a good distributor for the launch
of Ethic DTC there. We got a lot of
propositions from big companies on the West Coast, but at the end we chose
Mothership, north of the West Coast. Not
because they were big with a really good potential (because it's maybe the
opposite ^^), but mostly because we recognized in Jimmy and Kingsley was a
similar situation to what we had with Dissidence in France, chill and good
spirit.
But, for us, USA is really big and didn’t get its first
scooter boom (as we had 3 years ago in France, and also in Australia). That's why we wanted to split the
distribution (east/west).
And, at this time, there was like nobody on the East
Coast. And as we really like the East
Coast (the way of life, the cities ... the population), we were like: why not
try to do it ourselves?
That's why we've asked Matt (I’ve known him for a while with
FrenchID and Addict trips) if he was down to take care of it =). He told us that it could be great to do it
with Hep Greg and Logan, and we started like that.
Actually it's still really new, which is why it takes time
to make it work well and be sure this project can stay alive in the
future. But there is nothing secure. That's why we try. And I hope one day we will be strong enough
there to make great things, not just as a distributor, but also a company that
can bring something to the sport.
Looking forward to
that for sure. The Dissidence Street Jam is one of the most iconic events in
our sport today. What made you guys want
to start the event so many years ago?
And how has it changed since then?
Kevin: 4 years ago there was absolutely no street
scooter event. And we really like street
and the concept of a street jam (everybody can try, no need to be a super
rider, no pressure, no real competition ... freedom).
That's why we chose to try one, and it worked well. Everybody enjoyed it.
For example, with the sponsors we don't ask them to pay
anything, or to give us prices... (We pay everything ourselves ... around 10000
euros), the only thing we ask them is: you have to pay any flight tickets for
your riders to come here.
And, for sure, we select the sponsors we want to have ^^.
Sometimes people ask us: Can you advise me how to make a
really good event? What do we have to
plan? What do we have to ask to the
city? The answer is absolutely nothing.
Every year we start to really think about it maybe 3 or 4
days before (the spots we will use, if we will bring something to the spot
...), and I think that it's mainly the reason why the Dissidence Street Jam is
so particular.
50 riders sleeping on the floor and shredding all night at
the warehouse, that is the real street jam (On the video we can only see the
"event", but most of the best part is outside the event, during the
night or the session with everybody before and after the Jam).
Haha with such little
planning it’s amazing how it always comes together. The Dissidence Street Jam
was so big this year, that it attracted the attention of local
authorities. Do you think this will
continue to be a problem in coming years?
Kevin: It's not the first time we’ve gotten in
trouble with cops ... 2 years ago Cyrille got arrested by them, so he didn’t
see the end of the Jam ^^.
But, this year was particularly intense =). As the famous Bercy spot will be destroyed
next year, I was thinking about creating a rail for the 18 stairs. We made it one day before the jam with Julien
(raw) and Alexis Cuvillier.
The rail was so perfect that we knew we had to drill the
floor of Bercy to fix it very well. (We
really wanted to leave it there, for other skaters or bmxers to ride it after,
and to think ... yea the most crazy shit ever done on that spot was made by
scooter riders).
So, I drill the spot with a really big driller I had
rented. I was dressed in workmen clothes
with a yellow jacket and a helmet to look like a building worker. The morning of the Jam, we drove 40 miles
with the rail on the back of the truck (the truck was 4m long and the rail
7. It was sketchy driving it in the
middle of Paris with 2 guys hidden in the back to handle it).
We finally arrived on the spot and the security guy arrived
just 2 minutes after we'd finished fixing it ... I was like so sad ... it was
like the killing of a little baby.
I hid the driller on the truck before the cops arrived ... I
was really lucky to get this reflex decision because when they were there, they
were only looking for that to have a real proof of destruction of private
property.
But now I don't care ... I know that next year we will do
something crazier and crazier ... that's sure ! ^^
The only bad thing we think sometimes is that if a rider
dies on a spot, we can have a really big problem ... (and when you show riders
a spot with like 20 stairs, and you see kids trying it, it's a bit tense ^^)
but anyway, if we don't do it, who will ?
; )
That was one of the
best stories I’ve heard in a long time!
Now, last year, we all saw the “Ethic: The Untold Story” video, you
mentioned that Dissidence almost died.
How did you guys bounce back from that, and survive?
Kevin: It's just a mix between a lot of work and a
lot of luck, and honestly, even though I now know that we have really good
products with Ethic, and we choose to keep low margins to make them 50% cheaper
than what they have to be, it's difficult ^^.
We have a lot of work with Dissidence: Ethic, Dissidence
Distribution, Dissidence Distribution USA, French Toast, Allis Possible, and
others, but we are still really small.
So, yea, we survived the "Marcel's bullshit" and
we successfully brought Ethic DTC on the market, but we had another really
stressful time like 2 months ago (just during the Jam). We have never been so close to dying ...
Cyrille didn’t pay his flat for 2 month ^^ we still had to pay $150,000 to
factories and other people, and, at the same time, Cyrille and I were only
paying ourselves 40% of the minimal salary in France ($600 / month). During the first 4 years, we didn't get paid
at all. So, if we needed cash, we really
had nothing to save us ^^. No rich
family, no security, but time is still alive, so we don't think about it.
And I think that may be the reason why we try things so
easily. We don't think about the risk
... we’re like kids, and it's good like that, we don't want to be adults.
In the same time, we've just finished, after 4 years of
work, the new Dissidence website (it was really long because we really do
everything ourselves with friends). We
don't have $50,000 to pay for a website like that, and we really didn't want to
use a "ready-to-use website".
Everything is custom, and created from nothing (It looks really simple,
but on the back office page we've made a lot of tools for us to work easier). I've spent maybe 50 hours just for the
"tips" page to design all the images.
And we take all the pictures ourselves on our own Foto Studio.
We have also finished the new 2B2 Distribution website for
France: www.dissidencedistribution.com.
Riders don't see it, it's only made for shops, but when the
shop is connected, everything is totally automatic, and easy. We can now save a lot of time, and it avoids
mistakes on the stock ... before we had to run everything by hand with
shops.
We are actually working on a similar version for Dissidence
USA to make everything there also really easier than now.
So, yea, now we are in a little bit better situation, but as
I told you, we still have a lot of money to pay ... and as we don't want any
investors, and want to stay totally free, it's really hard to grow and survive
^^. But, we can try to realize every
stupid idea that’s born from our little brain ; ).
I think that’s the
best way to go dude. Where do you see Dissidence in the future? You now have locations in France and USA.
Planning to go anywhere else? Australia,
perhaps?
Kevin: Honestly, I really have no idea about where
we will be in the future, still here, I hope ^^. We don't have a global goal, we don't want to
become the masters of the scootering world, and we don’t want to have as many shops
as we can everywhere in the world. If we
become too big, it will be the same as every other big company: you need a lot
of employees, and people don't know each other when they have to build
something together ... no spirit.
We want Dissidence to stay humane ... a family. And, in Australia, there are already people
and companies there to do the right things, like Unfair, Flavor, et al.
There is enough space for many more real brands here in the
scootering world. That's why we also try
to push the riders to set up their own project.
And we will always be here to help projects like this coming from
riders, even if we have to do it for free.
The more good brands in this sport, the more our culture will be strong
and deep.
About the way we work, it's simple: every time we start
something, it's just like a surprise. We
think “that could be cool to try this”, and, the day after, we try it.
Actually, we have a lot of other projects already ready to
be started ... the only thing we don't have is enough money to realize them
^^. But, I think that a few of those
projects will probably be born when it is the right time.
Kevin, it is always a
pleasure to hear from you, dude. I hope
the partnership between ISB and Dissidence is a long one. If you have any shout outs, or last words,
let them go now man.
Kevin: First, thanks for this small interview (it's
a long one, but I would need 50 pages to explain everything ^^). We are not focused on massive advertising;
that's why there are not a lot of people who know us. And I hope this thread
will help a few of them to understand who we really are and what we try to
realize.
I would also like to thank every friend and rider that
supports us. Dissidence is not just
Cyrille and me, but so many other people, stories, memories, adventures ... and
without them, Dissidence’s heart would have been really less colorful.
See ya "really" soon ; )
in FRENCH, PLEASE !
ReplyDeleteDissidence is the only real shop in france , i'm french and i can tell you that this shop is the most authentic ever made ! Real shredders are behind this shop , and that's the only reason why every pieces of my scooter are from dissidence
ReplyDeleteYeah, fuck madd!
ReplyDelete