Enjoi

Enjoi

Type	Private company (skateboard deck/board company)
Traded as	Enjoi
Industry	Skateboarding
Founder(s)	Marc Johnson
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, United States, United States (US)
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Marc Johnson, Rodney Mullen, Matt Eversole, Jerry Hsu, Louis Barletta
Products	Hard and soft goods
Owner(s)	Dwindle Distribution
Parent	Globe International
Website	www.enjoico.com

Enjoi is a skateboarding company that produces skateboard decks as the brand's primary product; the company also manufactures skateboarding accessories and clothing. The company, distributed by Dwindle Distribution, has, since inception, adopted a stylized panda as its logo.^[1]

History

Formation

The company was originally headed by professional skateboarders, Marc Johnson and Rodney Mullen, who had previously been team-mates in a company founded by Mullen and Steve Rocco (Rocco is the founder of World Industries and co-founded Dwindle Distribution with Mullen), the A-Team (later described by Johnson as "a completely fabricated team based on marketing";^[2] In an online interview with the independent skateboard website, 48 Blocks, Johnson explained the dissolution of the A-Team:

Let's just say that parts of it were weird, but I already had a good friendship with Gershon [Mosley], and of course [Dave] Mayhew from Maple, and Rodney [Mullen] was just awesome in so many different aspects. So the dynamic was fine. I think the problem was the lack of a solid direction, and it seemed to me that A-team ended up being an avenue for some of us to later do projects that felt more natural to us individually. When I called Rodney to quit, it was actually really funny, because we all quit pretty much the same week, but no one told anyone else they were going to quit.^[3]

Johnson later revealed that both the panda image and the name "Enjoi" were derived from a dream that he experienced.^{[citation needed]} The new company leader proceeded to recruit friends with whom he regularly skated with, including former Maple teammates, Jerry Hsu, Louis Barletta, and Dave Mayhew—Mayhew had also ridden for the A-Team^[4] (as of January 2013, Mayhew's "D3" signature model skate shoe, produced while he was sponsored by the Osiris shoe company, is considered the best-selling skate shoe of all time; however, Osiris co-founder/co-owner, Tony Magnusson, denied this claim in a 2012 interview^[5]) Other professional skateboarders from this era of the company were Bobby Puleo^[2][6] (as of January 2013, Puleo is sponsored by Traffic, a company owned by longtime professional skateboarder, Ricky Oyola^[7][8]), and Chris Cole (as of January 2013, Cole is a professional skateboarder, an entrepreneur (Omit and Zero),^[9][10] and one of only two skateboarders to have won the highly regarded "Skater of the Year" award twice from Thrasher Magazine^[11][12]).^[5][13][14]

Hsu has since disclosed information about the beginning stages of his relationship with Johnson:

I first met Marc when I was fifteen, and he was nineteen; like, he seemed so much older, than, nineteen. I remember meeting him and thinking he was like twenty-eight, or something; like an older guy, just 'cause of the way he acted. I think he like, really, put me under his wing and, like, kind of taught me everything about what I should do to be like a sponsored skater. I dunno, he was just always very, like, wise about that kind of thing.^[15]

Regarding his time at the helm of the company, Johnson explained:

I had something to say; every month I had something to say. Whether it was, like, a little weird or dark ... sometimes I would make an ad because I was pissed off that day. I really like what I was doing at Enjoi, almost, almost to a point where it became, like, obsessive. Sitting up and working on, like, a series of board for, like, like, twenty-four hours straight; like, I'm sure a lot of people are, like, "Oh, didn't you own Enjoi?" ... no, no, I didn't own shit. I just, like, worked, and did, I laid out ads, I did some catalogue stuff, and I did board graphics ... I don't know if there's a title for it—"ideas person"? ... I was so fucking busy, that I didn't have time to skate.^[16]

Johnson and Mullen's departure

Johnson eventually left the company to join the Chocolate skateboard company. Johnson later explained that the reason for his departure was that double-checking every brand decision "got really old, really fast."^[17] Johnson also describes in a 2010 episode of the online episodic series, Epicly Later'd, produced by Vice Media, the period leading up to his decision to leave Enjoi permanently:

... what am I killing myself for, you know? These guys don't care; they don't care if I fucking take a shit on a board and, and, fucking, put their name on it, and, and, whatever. I'm sure I'll hear some complaints, but ... it just got to the point where "nothing I do matters." And here's the story ... I had just gotten into town, we went filming that night, I got every, I pulled everything out of the car, set up the lights, did the generators and all this. We lit up this ledge. One of the filmers, Matt Eversole, was grumpy 'cause he didn't wanna go filming. there's a bunch of us about to skate and dude takes a fucking piss, on the ledge; it was a painted ledge. He peed all over the fucking ledge. And, I swear to god, this guy, Jesse Erikson, wanted to kill him, right then and there. But I looked at that as a fucking sure sign: "You don't need to fucking be here anymore! They don't give a fuck about anything you do."^[16]

Hsu has stated, on his behalf, that he did care when Johnson left and explained, "I knew he was unhappy, because he basically did all of the art direction, and he was being a pro skater, and he also wanted, it was like his little baby, so he was trying to take care of it, you know? And it was too much for him. He just wanted to skate." Hsu further stated that he seriously considered leaving Enjoi after Johnson's departure and that "everyone knew that I wanted to leave". Eversole subsequently decided that he would assume Johnson's role and, according to Hsu, Eversole and Barletta met with Hsu in order to convince Hsu to remain with the company.^[16]

Mullen cofounded the Almost skateboard company in 2004 (with fellow professional skateboarder, Daewon Song) following his time with Enjoi.^[18][19]

2012 onwards

As of December 2012, Enjoi is owned and distributed by Dwindle Distribution, a division of Globe International.^[20] Following the addition of Jimmy Carlin, a former rider for Jamie Thomas's Mystery brand, on September 3, 2013,^[21] Hsu announced his departure from the company. Hsu explained in an interview that was published on October 12, 2013 that his decision was spurred by the departure of longtime brand manager Matt Eversole who, according to Hsu, grew tired of protecting the brand from the profit-driven demands of shareholders. Barletta will take Eversole's place as Enjoi's brand manager and Hsu stated: "Louie understands what Enjoi is all about, so I think they can still make something really great and I wish them the best."^[22]

Recognition

Reflecting on the early stage of his career, Cole stated in a 2009 Thrasher interview:

I really like enjoi. The brand is a breath of fresh air. I was on the East and detached from any team member so I was kind of a guy who rode the products, but not on the team. Especially ’cause they are a group of friends. I hung out with Marc Johnson a couple times. He was totally cool. I have always been a huge fan of his, so that was great.^[23]

Team

Professional

• Cairo Foster
• Caswell Berry
• Wieger Van Wageningen
• Louie Barletta
• Nestor Judkins
• Jose Rojo^[24]
• Jimmy Carlin^[21]

Amateur

• Clark Hassler
• Ben Raemers
• Zach Wallin
• Ryan Lay^[24]

Video productions

Bag of Suck

Enjoi released its first video, Bag of Suck, in 2006^[25] and won the Transworld "Skate Video of the Year" award in 2007—Jerry Hsu also won the "Best Video Part" award at the same ceremony.^[26][27]

In a September 2012 interview for the YouTube channel, RIDE, Hsu and Barletta revealed that the company is due to release another video, as filming was occurring at the time of the interview (for the segment, "The Weekend Buzz", hosted by skateboarding journalists, Erica Yary and Rob Brink).^[28]

Tweak the Beef

On December 17, 2012, an eighteen-minute video, entitled Tweak the Beef, was released by the company in conjunction with Thrasher magazine. A trailer was released on the Thrasher website on December 12, 2012, with the following brief: "The new enjoi video is shrouded in mystery, and there's rumors of total radness. Even we don't know what we're in for. We've got the exclusive premiere, Monday, December 17." Upon release, the magazine introduced the premiere of the video with the following blurb: "If you ain't having fun, then what the hell are you doing? Enjoi these next 18 minutes. They may be your last..." The video was directed and edited by Enjoi's long-time brand manager, Matt Eversole, and features music from professional skateboarder, Tony Manfre, and American electronic music duo, Glass Candy.^[29]

The video featured new amateur riders, Zach Wallin and Ryan Lay, alongside established riders, Ben Raemers, Clark Hassler, Cairo Foster, Caswell Berry, Louis Barletta, Jerry Hsu, Jose Rojo, Nestor Judkins, and Wieger van Wagenengin.^[30][31] Senior team rider, Hsu, is only featured briefly in the video, with his part incorporated into Barletta's section. Leftover footage from Wallin ("Zack's Delicious Doggy Bag"), Barletta ("Louie's Luscious Linguisa"), and Foster were also uploaded onto the Thrasher website.^[32][33][34]

The origin of the video's title is alluded to in the introduction of the video, in which Berry is filmed performing a transitional trick known as a "Roast Beef Grab". Berry enhances the trick by emphasizing his movement while in the air—referred to as "tweakage" by some sections of the skateboarding community. An off-camera voice during the trick can be heard exclaiming "Beef tweakage!"^[29]

Videography

• Tweak the Beef (2012)^[29]
• Bag of Suck (2006)^[35][36]

References

External links

• Official website
• dwindle distribution