Profiles

Riding the Wave

California Teen Becomes the First Bodyboarding Outfitter

It may be time to close the schoolbooks and hit the beach, but Jesse Walter is already thinking about what he — and everyone else — will be wearing next winter. As the founder of a clothing design company, he has to. Jesse says his summer clothing designs were finished months ago and his fall/Christmas fashions are near completion. In addition, his advertising campaign through the end of the year has been planned and submitted to all the major magazines — major bodyboarding magazines, that is.

You see, Jesse is no ordinary clothing designer. This 18-year-old bodyboarder from Covina, CA has created a clothing niche for those who enjoy the waves as much as he does. But please don’t confuse his company with surfwear manufacturers like Quiksilver and Billabong. Premiere Clothing America (PCA), the company Jesse founded two years ago, is only for bodyboarders — who ride the waves lying on their foam boards — or the people who want to dress like them.

A Boy, a Board, and a Dream

Jesse discovered bodyboarding when he was in the eighth grade, and soon realized that clothing manufacturers had excluded his sport. “Surfing isn’t the same thing as bodyboarding,” he explains. “I wouldn’t buy their labels, not because I didn’t like them, but because I wasn’t a surfer. So I ended up shopping at thrift stores to find rad clothes. We needed a brand badly.”

After a couple of years and a business class at school, Jesse decided to be the one to create the niche. He took his idea to his cousin, Al Guerra, a doctor who owns medical clinics and distributes diagnostic equipment. In April of 1997, the two decided to become partners.

In the Beginning

Jesse explains that Al became his venture capitalist — someone who puts up money to get a business started, and the two decided that a partnership would be the best way for Al to get his money back. Al, Jesse says, will get a bigger percentage of PCA profits until his
startup money is repaid. Jesse also has a silent partner — someone who puts up money but is not involved in business decisions — who gets a portion of the profits.

As for the day-to-day operations of the new business, Jesse and Al did all the work. “Al gave me the money and helped with the business decisions,” Jesse explains. “I took care of booking advertising spreads [reserving ad space in magazines], clothes production, shipping, and some of the T-shirt and ad design. I’ve basically worked every position in the company.”

Image Is Everything ...

With Al’s help, Jesse developed a plan. He spent the first year promoting his new company and trying to build an image. “I ran an ad in bodyboarding magazines to see what the outcome would be,” Jesse says. “Response was good so we started making some T-shirts.” Jesse decided to target surf shops in his area, and quickly discovered that the stores are very cautious about the merchandise they carry. “Most surf shops like to test clothing lines with small pieces to see if they move,” he explains about how he got his T-shirts into the stores, “and ours did. We did really well.”

So well, in fact, that during their first official Christmas selling season, PCA made about $125,000. “Christmas is the biggest selling season and summer is the other.” During the spring down time, Jesse continues, PCA did the impossible and matched their Christmas sales. “We knew we were growing if we matched our Christmas figures in the spring,” Jesse says. “We were growing rapidly.”

... But Advertising Is Important, Too

Once PCA was off the ground, Jesse had to figure out a way to keep the momentum going. He decided to use magazine advertising to play up the fact that his was the only bodyboarding outfitter around, and explains that PCA is now one of the first three ads readers see when they open up magazines like BodyBoarding and Pit Bodyboard.

Trade shows, Jesse says, are an equally important form of advertising. Jesse and other PCA employees regularly set up booths at these bodyboarding events. “During trade shows, we’ll work all night and through the next day,” he says.

The Team Grows

Jesse’s savvy strategies have paid off with big growth. Premiere now offers a complete wardrobe for the male and female bodyboarder that includes board shorts, T-shirts, shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, bags, cargo shorts, and pants. And instead of just Jesse and Al, the PCA staff now includes a clothing designer (Ambre Milne, featured on the cover with Jesse), an art designer, and a shipping staff of two. That doesn’t count the extra employees he hires during the busy seasons or the promotions director and nine national sales reps he employs to get PCA clothing into more stores.

Epic Plans

Since bodyboarding is an international sport, Jesse wants PCA to be available wherever there are bodyboarders. And he’s well on his way to making it happen. “In Puerto Rico we’re just killing it — it’s doing super good,” Jesse says. “We’ve also shipped some stuff to Japan, the Canary Islands, and Europe. And we’re trying to get set up in Australia and South America.”

PCA’s growth is Jesse’s main concern, but he also has his sights set on other projects and, eventually, hopes to become a lawyer. Count on Jesse to be a few steps ahead of everybody else, no matter what he decides to do.

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