brand profile
brand profile
STATE State was founded by three skate industry vets in 2016 in order to deliver shoes designed 100% for skateboarding, while focusing purely on core skate retailers. SOURCE has spoken to Founder, Kevin Furtado, formerly of Dekline footwear to profile the brand. Please give an overview of the State brand. The Free and Liberated State was founded in January 2016 with the purpose of creating a brand focused on making classic, durable, and affordable skate footwear. With a skateboard team that mirrors the product focus, State has been growing while maintaining our original focus every step of the way. Years of industry experience have led to crafting footwear that we’re proud of. All of our shoes are made for skateboarding. We’ve spared no expense when it comes to making a quality shoe that looks great and can take a beating.
where I designed many pro model shoes for some of the best and most well-known professional skateboarders. For the past few years I’ve been working with various brands as an independent designer. I’m currently very excited to be focusing my efforts with State Footwear.
Who is on the management team, and what are their backgrounds? The company is 100% skater owned by me, Kevin Furtado with Philip Valois as Art Director and Dustin Deardorff in Footwear Development.
What do you find important about the European market? EU market is parallel in importance to U.S. market to us. The main goal is be unified in product, voice and marketing. We’re starting to sponsor some European flow riders and have had a great response from European shops with some requesting re-stocks already after the Spring ‘17 European launch.
Kevin Furtado: I helped start Dekline Footwear in 2003 with Tum Yeto Inc. I worked for Tum Yeto and was the brand manager for Dekline for 12 years. During my time at Tum Yeto I helped out with other brands under their umbrella in a sales manager position. I left Tum Yeto in 2015 and started State in 2016. Philip Valois: Working for State is my first foray into the role of an Art Director. Previously, I worked as a designer for Alien Workshop from 2011. In January of 2016 I amicably parted ways with AWS and focused my energy on State. Dustin Deardorff: My career in footwear began in 1996 when I helped to create the Kastel shoes brand. From 2000 to 2013 I worked for C1rca Footwear as lead footwear designer
Who do you have running operations for you in Europe? Shiner Ltd, based in the UK, handles all aspects of State Footwear’s European operations Sales, distribution, marketing, flow team, etc.
You’re gearing fully towards core skate shops – please explain how. None of the people involved are interested in creating the brand to exist in anything other than skateboarding. We want to stay with what we know, and that is skateboarding. Because of this, we want to work with retailers whose business is built in skateboarding. How do you support athletes and boardsports? State has a skateboard team, we run print and online ads in skateboard media that promote the team and brand. The U.S team consists of Ben Gore, Christian Maalouf, Jordan Sanchez, Kevin Coakely, John Nguyen and Jason Spivey. WWW.STATEFOOTWEAR.COM
We have filming trips with the U.S. team and are looking to create content with European flow riders as time progresses. We’re currently flowing regular packages to Conor Charleson (UK), Sondre Mortensen (SWE) and Malte Spitz (GER) and are looking for more EU riders. Please tell us about your staple shapes and silhouettes. I am very much a fan of the classic silhouettes so this is where we usually start when conceptualizing the next design. Panels are geared towards skateboarding 100%. The shape of our shoes is built on one ‘last’ that we developed. The ‘last’ is slightly more narrow. What technological innovations/features are you working with to make State shoes skate and last well? Poly urethane in the sole retains rebound for long lasting comfort and shock absorption. Duraflick is a thin perforated rubber layer underneath the toe and ollie area helps withstand the wear from grip tape. HT Drag is extra rubber used in the heel and toe areas of the outsole to reduce wear cause by drag stops. And finally, Double Wrap is a think layer of rubber that wraps the upper prior to the outer foxing tape wrap, which makes for a stronger and more durable shoe. Can we expect to see State enter any other product categories? Footwear is our primary category focus for the initial year or two. However, yes we plan to develop an apparel offering as the brand grows. The focus will be on prints, and accessories. We feel this will happen naturally.