How Rob Dyrdek Turned His Passion, Skill, and Sport Into an Entrepreneurial Empire
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How Rob Dyrdek turned his passion, skill, and sport into an entrepreneurial empire. SKATEBOARDER TO BRAND-BUILDER ▶ SUCCESS STORY Rob Dyrdek likes to say he was raised by entrepreneurial wolves. SUCCESS STORY rowing up as a fanatical 18-year-old Dyrdek started his own skateboarder first in company, a brand of skateboarding Ohio and then moving to parts. That was just the beginning of a California as a teen to pursue career that has since spawned a media skating professionally, many empire with shows like Ridiculousness of his friends and fellow and now Amazingness, a professional skateboarders were older than him and skateboarding league, and a fast-growing Grunning their own businesses. investing and branding agency called the Dyrdek Machine. That’s not to mention From a very young age, he was steeped in the dozens of side projects, partnerships, skateboarding’s DIY culture, always on sponsorships, and his own share of the lookout for the next frontier in the stumbles that he’s racked up along the sport, or scrappy new brand to emerge way. from the scene. From skate shops to clothing companies, Dyrdek was exposed Dyrdek was raised in a habitat to a variety of entrepreneurial ventures early in life. that encouraged creativity and entrepreneurship, and Coming from this environment, he ever since, he’s been working assumed starting a business was simply what he was supposed to do. As his to communicate the same status as an elite pro skateboarder took possibilities to as many people off, so did his entrepreneurial spirit and and brands as possible. excitement about starting new projects. The moment he got the chance, an SUCCESS STORY Setting the Wheels in Motion yrdek’s entrepreneurial Dyrdek created the concept, ventures have outlined the product idea, found a their roots in the manufacturer, hand-sketched the pro skateboarding logo and built the entire brand. He scene, and while he’s expanded his career far also pulled together his “dream beyond the sport itself, team” of fellow professional the skater attitude and skateboarders to serve as brand guerrilla work ethic are still embedded ambassadors and investors. Din his career. Now in his 40s, Dyrdek still sounds like a fired-up California skate Through a partnership with a punk, even while talking about revenues manufacturer in San Diego, Dyrdek and growth strategies. officially launched Orion Trucks. And he did all of this for 0.5 percent of every His career as both a skateboarder and sale. Although the payout wasn’t ideal, an entrepreneur started remarkably it was Dyrdek’s first tangible experience young—he got his first board at 11 with creating something of his own, with and first sponsorship at 12. The first the help of some fruitful relationships, business of his own was called Orion of course. Trucks, offering a line of the T-shaped metal parts that attach the wheels to the underside of a skateboard. “It was kind of my first step in soup-to-nuts brand building,” he recalls, “but it was the clear lack of financial understanding of business that led to me doing a percentage-of-sales deal, which didn’t give me much more than a royalty for all that hard work.” Over the next few years, as the skateboarding industry overall experienced a dip, the already niche market became increasingly small, and the business opportunity ran its course. He walked away with a valuable lesson. “There was no major opportunity [with Orion Trucks]. You’re selling a niche product to a niche market that’s already highly competitive, with no innovation or differentiation in the product,” Dyrdek says. “At the end of the day, really great ambassadors and high- level marketing can’t necessarily sell a product that isn’t innovative in the space.” But Orion Trucks was just the beginning. Dyrdek went on to spend his 20s building businesses pretty much nonstop. Orion turned out to be just one of more than 10 companies he had a hand in, including skate shops, clothing brands, and more. His efforts haven’t all been successful, of course. There was his attempt at building a hip hop label, for example. Or when he purchased Alien Workshop (the first skate company to ever sponsor him) for millions in cash, he says, but had to give it up not long after when he couldn’t get his vision for the company to take hold. But over time, he’s built up a impressive empire, including as a media mogul and television personality. From DC to MTV SUCCESS STORY ne of Dyrdek’s “I had written the idea for one of their longest and skate videos, where a security guard most important comes with me whenever I skated so partnerships that if I got kicked out of a place, they was with DC would talk to my security guard, not Shoes, formerly me,” Dyrdek says. “That exploded into part of the the mainstream, which then caught Droors Clothing the attention of the guys from Jackass, brand. He was which led to us developing the television Oone of the first skateboarders the brand show for MTV.” sponsored, and ended up having a relationship with the company for more The video led to the reality show Rob than 20 years. & Big, which debuted on MTV in 2006 and followed Dyrdek and close friend Skating for DC was a big step for Dyrdek, Christopher Boykin on their hijinks as he was able to get involved in shoe (Boykin tragically passed away in 2017). design and marketing, and flexing his That show spawned a spinoff called entrepreneurial muscles. It was his Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, focusing video work with DC Shoes, in fact, that on his business exploits based out of set him on his path to becoming a media a skate-friendly warehouse and office mogul. space in Los Angeles. SUCCESS STORY Like his experience building businesses, idiculousness is just one Dyrdek’s education in television was of Dyrdek’s successful scrappy. Once he’d learned how the media creations, which industry worked, he realized that it was all are now housed within about a “return on energy,” as opposed to his company SuperJacket return on investment. His earlier shows Productions. His antics were successful and good for his brands, have even appeared in but took a ton of time and energy. Ranimated form in Nickelodeon’s Wild Grinders, complete with its own line of His next hit was born when Dyrdek was action figures. Most recently, Dyrdek reading an article about Vin Di Bona, the launched another show with MTV producer of America’s Funniest Home called Amazingness, which is similar to Videos, about the global syndication of Ridiculousness but as a live talent show. the series. He immediately recognized the opportunity to create a more fun, As the producer of his media more irreverent point-of-view on this timeless, viral content—that idea became projects, Dyrdek is not only Ridiculousness. paid as host, but also brings in revenue on the production “So, I took America’s Funniest side. Through post- Home Videos, stripped out production, talent, music, and all the stuff I didn’t think editing, SuperJacket pretty was funny and was left with much owns the entire process, the coolest, funniest videos,” and reaps the benefits. Dyrdek says. “I put them in While his work in media and starring roles in hit shows launched him to TV these neat curated packages personality status, it’s just the tip of and went out and sold it.” the iceberg when it comes to his current portfolio of brands and products. SUCCESS STORY The Well-Oiled Dyrdek Machine ver the years, Dyrdek has recognized that his passion in life is building businesses. “Even calling the business side of what I execute a job is incredibly difficult, Obecause I really look at what I do as an artist and someone that’s passionate about, since an early age, treating myself as a brand,” he says. From building his own professional skateboarding brand to creating and growing Orion Trucks to working with MTV, Dyrdek’s life work has been giving life to new business enterprises. Regarding structure, SuperJacket Productions is housed within the Dyrdek Machine, the holding company for all of his ventures. Calling it a “venture studio,” Dyrdek Machine is like a cross between a branding agency and venture capital firm, officially launching in 2017 with six new brands in its first year. SUCCESS STORY The studio also houses one of Dyrdek’s other core, long- running brands, Street League Skateboarding. In 2010, Dyrdek tapped on the shoulders of his AAnother intriguing brand that network of pro skater friends Dyrdek owns is Ultracast, a 360-degree virtual reality and founded SLS as the world’s platform for delivering live first professional skateboarding content. “It’s still a little league. The league also has bit early, but there’s a real a spinoff subscription video opportunity for immersive network called ETN, made “by experiences,” he says. “It’s all about building out the skateboarders for skateboarders.” infrastructure to operationalize the live content version of [Ultracast].” Alongside his media entities, Dyrdek’s portfolio [For ETN], we actually of consumer product “just closed a $10 million businesses shows more variety. Momentous is a Series B round. It’s sort of supplement brand that the forefront of competitive Dyrdek and his partners just developed and launched. skateboarding worldwide. “The premium Ferrari of All of the shows and content supplements, if you will,” that sort of serve as the Dyrdek laughs. pathway to the Olympics Outstanding Foods, a plant- for what it’ll take to qualify,” based snack food company, Dyrdek says.