Work in Skateboarding, an interview with Sales Rep Daniel Barousse

W o r k i n S k at e b o a r d i n g, A n I n t e rv i e w W i t h S a l e s R e p a n d S k at e b o a r d e r

Daniel Barousse

How did you start skateboarding?

I’ve been skateboarding for sixteen years now. I first started when I was 11 years old after my friend convinced me to buy a skateboard instead of a new pair of roller blades. At the time my allowance was $2.00 a week from my parents so my life savings consisted of $22.00. I bought my first board when my friend, his grandfather, and myself went to Toys R Us for something. The total was $23.00 and some change. All I had was my life savings of $22.00. His grandfather loaned me the rest and I was able to get my first board. From then on I haven’t stopped other than when an injury has forced me to do so.

What made you want to work in the skateboarding industry?

I’ve known that I wanted to be a sales rep since I was around seventeen. My good friend Luke Ceballos RIP sat me down when I was 17 and explained how everything works as a sales rep.

At the time he was repping for DC. He told me the good, the bad, and the ugly. He looked me dead in the eyes and told me “the skate industry sucks man, but I love it”. From there I decided that I could deal with the bad and love the good more. It was at that point that I started working towards making it happen.

What’s the role of the Sales Rep in skating and why is it important to the industry?

The sales rep in skateboarding is essentially the voice of the brand in each territory. He or she is responsible for relaying all of the information the brand needs to get to the skate shops as well as showing the shop owners/

buyers the future product and making sure they have what they need to maximize their business.

What brands do you work for?

I am a sales rep for Volcom, Stance, Mizu, and several other brands that are not a part of skateboarding. I’ve been a rep for almost four years now, and my region consists of ten states(LA, TX, AL, MS, AR, OK, NE, KS, MO, & TN).

Briefly, when & how did you get your job?

I basically got my job through working at my home shop Rukus. Through that job I was able to build relationships with other reps over the years. When I graduated from college our Volcom rep Jeff Hammett hired me. I have worked for Jeff for four years now.

How do you think your experience as a skateboarder has helped you with your job?

The main thing is my ability to communicate with skate shops by getting on the level of a skateboarder. The business side of things takes up such a vast majority of the industry’s inner workings. Some times you need to put all of that aside and just talk about skateboarding. That doesn’t mean who’s riding for whom or what shoe is hot right now which are both things I fully enjoy discussing. What I am referring to is having that conversation that only two skateboarders can have about their love for the same thing.

That has helped me in ways I cannot measure.

Nose blunt. Photo Dharma Khalsa

How do you balance 40 hours of work with your own skateboarding?

“The sales rep in skateboarding is essentially the voice of the brand in each territory.�

If I am at home and just working in the office I will work until 5:00-6:00pm most days and then promptly head to the skate park. Some weekdays I will get a filming mission going and try to get a clip or two. The weekends when I am home are spent street skating usually. While I am on the road that whole schedule goes to shit and I just skate whenever I am able. Being a sales rep, I spend a lot of time traveling which has allowed me to make friends all over the country and skate in places I never would have been able to. Sometimes I skate every day while I am traveling and other times I will skate once a week only when I wake up at sunrise to skate before my first appointments.

Boardslide. Austin, TX. Photo. Weston Kruse

What are 3 of the most important things you do for the brands you represent?

How else do you work with those Brands, aside from just selling their product?

The three most important things would have to be selling their product, making sure the shops have the right information about each brand, and by far the most important is to build long lasting relationships with the shops themselves. By building relationships with shops you help to ensure the brand’s survival over the years.

Every sales rep is a marketing machine even if they don’t view themselves as that. Sales reps are the face and voice of each brand in each territory. Through that you pretty much handle everything from selling product to running events in collaboration with the skate shops. I also am responsible for building a flow team and making sure the brands are on the right kids. Over time some of these kids may turn into some of the house hold names in skateboarding.

Almost every pro you can name was flowed by a sales rep at some point in their career. We act as a stepping-stone for the next level.

What are 3 of the most important things you do for the shops that you work with?

I show the shops the product, make sure their inventory levels are correct, and help them with any problems they may be faced with while dealing with my brands.

Myself, Ronnie Saurage Owner of Rukus & Local Ledgend Big Brad

Whole Volcom family at 2015 Trade Show

This is home to me. Rukus in Baton Rouge, AL

Me and Elias Bingham. Owner of No Comply skate shop, Austin TX

Is there anything you do as a sales rep that people may not expect?

What are the main challenges with being a Sales rep?

People tend to think our job is nonstop fun and partying because we tend to share that aspect of our jobs the most. I think a lot of people would be blown away by how much time I spend looking at sell-through reports, inventory levels, spread sheets, and the inner workings of ordering software systems. There are some days where I am literally starring at my computer screen for 14+ hours. Then there are the days where I’m driving on the open road for the whole day just getting lost in my mind. As a sales rep I think people would be very surprised at just how much time we spend alone.

For me one of the hardest parts about my job is the time spent away from home. This is also the best part about my job. What makes it hard is that it’s very hard to have meaningful relationships outside of work because you may only be home one week out of a month. Once you get home from being gone, reps tend to keep to themselves. At least that is the case for me. It’s been a challenge to build relationships with new people within these short windows. On the same light, it’s been amazing to build relationships with people scattered all over the country that I never would have met.

Pushing. Photo. Weston Kruse

What are the best things about the job?

The absolute best part of my job is the people as well as traveling. My close friend once told me something that rings in my ear; “You’re doing what most people can’t do until they retire”. He was referring to me being able to travel the country and see some truly amazing things while I’m on the clock. I’ve seen some places and met some people that have impacted me in the most positive ways that I never would have experienced if I wasn’t doing what I do.

Did you study, if so where and do you think if was helpful in your current career path?

Taking a shit at the spot on a filming mission in Austin TX. Photo. Andy Ngyuen

Yes I did study. I graduated from LSU in 2012 with a degree in International Business. My degree simply

validates me and shows people that I can put in the work to get the desired result. My real education for this job came from working at Rukus under Ronnie Saurage. I learned more from Ronnie than a school can ever hope to teach you.

What skills and level of education are necessary for your job - do you think you need a college degree?

You don’t need a college degree to do what I do. There are plenty of reps that do it and didn’t take a course in college. With that being said, I do think it helps when you are interviewing with brands. It just shows that you can put in the work required to get the job done.

Were there any jobs that you did which weren’t in line with your ‘ideal’ skate job but helped make you more employable?

Of course! Prior to turning 16 I cut grass for years in order to pay for anything skate related that I needed.

I grew up rather poor so that was the only way I was able to get the things I needed. My first “real” job was at McDonald’s when I was 16. I worked there for almost a year before working at Subway as a “sandwich artist” and then becoming an oyster shucker/bar back at a local seafood restaurant. While I was working at the seafood restaurant I got the job at Rukus. I was 17 years old, a senior in high school, working two jobs, and skating every single day. That was a great time in my life. Once I moved away from my hometown of Lafayette, LA to Baton Rouge, LA for school I began working at the Rukus in Baton Rouge. Ronnie who

owned the shop couldn’t give me the hours I needed to pay my bills because there were other guys with seniority who came first. After a semester working there I left the shop for a year and worked at a Mexican restaurant. One day at a Baker demo in Baton Rouge, Ronnie approached me and asked me to come back to the shop. He told me he would make sure I got the hours I needed to pay my bills and would make sure I learned the ins and outs I needed to open the door to the skateboarding industry. He did just that. I owe more than I can ever repay to that man.

He’s one of the most if not the most influential person in my life.

What would be the best path for someone with no sales experience to take if they want to build their skills and get a job as a sales rep?

I think the best and most common path is to do exactly what I did… bang on your local skate shop’s door until they hire you and then you work your ass off. Over time you will meet the right people who can help you open the door to the industry. That’s the hardest part, finding the door.

Once you step through that door, then you are in as long as you want to be in as long as you handle your business.

For someone with sales experience, how could they go about getting a job as a Sales Rep in Skating?

For someone who has experience in sales they will have a much easier time landing a sales rep position as opposed to someone without experience. That’s the case for any

Krooked Grind. Photo. Dharma Khalsa

job however. Experience reigns supreme, which is why it’s often so hard for new college graduates to find work.

The best way for someone with experience is to reach out to an existing rep and inquire about what brands are available for representation. The industry is incestuous so most reps know someone at nearly every brand.

By reaching out to these reps they can put you in contact with a brand’s sales manager, which can hopefully lead to an interview.

You recently had a video check out on the Thrasher website, what other goals do you have for your own skateboarding?

Yeah that was definitely a goal for myself. I was beyond stoked to reach that goal. I have two goals currently. One is something I’ll never be able to qualify as being complete and can be viewed

as a part of skateboarding or totally separate depending on how you look at it. That goal is becoming a “super rep” like my boss Jeff Hammett.

He amongst a few others has surpassed the normal rep level and has risen to a point of legend status in my eyes. It is something that will be eternally out of my grasp but always within reach. By setting a goal for myself that doesn’t have a clear completion point it will drive me to always work towards it forever. My other goal is to skate on a level I am happy with until I am least 50. I often skate with older gentlemen who totally inspire me.

They have wives, kids, full time jobs outside of skateboarding, broken bodies, and limited time. Yet they still ride their skateboard. As someone who has been plagued with injuries, is relatively new to the adult world, and doesn’t have any other people but

On a skate trip to San francisco

myself to look after, skateboarding is already hard enough to make happen.

The guys who have all of the aforementioned things going on in their life and still skateboard are my heroes. I aspire to be like them some day. Those guys are the true skateboarders of the world. To all of you out there who fit the bill of what I just described, you are fucking legends.

The moment I found my part on Thrasher

Watch Daniel Barousse’s Part Here http://www.thrashermagazine.com/ articles/trash/daniel-barousse-s-103part/