so when Arnette was taken over by Luxottica, this is what was created. electric. just hope that this doesnt happen to Oakley.

http://www.twsbiz.com/twbiz/profiles/article/0,21214,1594658,00.html

Anything But Static

By Hilary Smith Hendley

Posted 02.28.2007

Six years ago Electric Visual didn’t exist. Now the brand’s lightning-bolt insignia bound between two bending arches is everywhere, from the runways of Milan to the raceways of NASCAR, and the action-sports industry has taken notice. After three nominations, Electric finally took home SIMA’s Breakthrough Brand Of The Year award in 2006. In fact, it’s a case study, an action-sports start-up that’s become a market leader.

So what’s the secret to this success? If you ask the brand’s founders, Kip Arnette, Bruce Beach, Mike Carter, and Don Dyer, they all agree: “The name says it all.”

In The Beginning

Launched in January 2000, Electric’s background began at another brand--all four of the owners spent substantial time building Arnette. At a time when little change had occurred in eyewear design, the foursome says they helped capture the attention of a new sunglass consumer.

According to Electric Copresident Bruce Beach, considerable changes at Arnette occurred when the brand was sold to Italian-based eyewear giant Luxottica, owners of Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters. At that time, Beach was chief operating officer, running the company under Kip’s father, Greg Arnette.

“Luxottica’s background wasn’t really action sports,” explains Beach. “They are more Italian fashion. I didn’t think it mixed with what we were all about, and neither did Kip. So everyone just set out to go their separate ways.”

In January 2000, Beach, Kip, and Carter got together and started Electric with their personal savings, a silent investor, and a business plan. By March, Don Dyer was hired on as sales manager with the intent to launch the brand’s first product line in July 2000 with snow goggles to follow in December.

Assuming the four main divisions of business at Electric, Beach and Kip took the reins as copresidents, with Beach overseeing operations and Kip serving as head of design. Carter used his experience to guide the marketing department, and Dyer, a former customer-service manager, was in charge of all the various facets of sales and distribution.

The team depended heavily on past experience while planning the launch of the brand, taking hints from their time at Arnette. “When we talked about launching Electric, we knew we wanted to restart that super young demographic,” says Kip, “to grow a whole new customer and apply some different things that no one else was doing in terms of advertising, look, and feel.”

In order to execute the new vision, the founding partners knew that the Electric brand name, logo, marketing strategy, rep force, and relationships with retailers would be key to its success. “Above all else, the most important thing was to have a strong name,” says Beach. It didn’t come overnight. Together with longtime friend and business associate Eric Crane, the team spent several months contemplating their options and collaborating to develop a logo.

“The concept was to come up with something very strong, very iconic, and very powerful,” explains Kip. Then the brand launched an aggressive marketing campaign, running double-page spreads in many of the industry’s top publications.

According to Beach, “At the same time, our biggest challenge was going from having nothing--no product range at all--to having a range six months later that could compete with all the other brands, including Arnette, which we all worked so long and hard at.”

Dyer was brought in during the start-up process and collaborated with Beach on making sure they hired reps who were willing to invest their time and energy to help grow the company. Beach says it made a huge impact, and that the relationships that the reps built with retailers were fundamental to the beginning of the brand.

“We worked really hard to support the retailers in all the key areas--from the West Coast to the East Coast,” says Beach. “It was important not just to make Electric part of their sunglasses offering, but to help their sunglass business as a whole.

“When we started with Electric, the sunglass category was a little bit flat,” adds Beach. “So we thought it was better if the whole category performed well. It’s just like anything, when a category is doing well it helps every company involved. Eventually when things started rocking, the retail relationships in those strategic areas really helped.”

Building brand awareness over the first few years was difficult. But Beach says that strong-selling styles acted as a catalyst for the brand’s growth. “Things really started to take off when we launched the EC-DC in Summer 2002,” he says. “It’s always been one of our better-selling styles, but that’s when everything really started clicking in--the marketing, the sales, and the product.”

Competition And Acquisition?

Electric began competing against established eyewear brands like Arnette, Spy, Oakley, and Smith in the marketplace, while Von Zipper-- another new eyewear brand launched by former Arnette employees--was also beginning to gain market share. Von Zipper was acquired by Billabong just a year later, but Electric thus far has maintained its independent ownership and operation.

There’s been plenty of speculation, however, about when, how, or with whom they might eventually partner up. Volcom is often brought up when an Electric merger is rumored. Beach says he’s been asked about a Volcom consolidation by everyone--from his distributors to employees. “The best way we can explain it to them is that most of the guys there (Volcom) are some of our best friends,” he says. “We also happen to share a lot of reps. We’re two energetic brands that are leaders in our categories. It’s a natural thing that people would want to put that together.

“You can never say never,” Beach adds, but emphasizes that there are no plans to merge with Volcom--or anyone else--at this time.

Growth And Development

Rather than worrying about rumors, Electric has focused its energy on growing the brand. Currently, Electric eyewear is in nearly 1,500 locations and has approximately 1,000 accounts in the U.S. alone. Canada is also showing a “huge growth potential” beyond the company’s current 250 accounts, says Don Dyer. Electric Australia has distribution in New Zealand, Asia, and Australia, and Electric Europe includes Spain, Brazil, France, Japan, Korea, and nearly 30 other distributed countries. Globally, the brand can be found in nearly 70 countries.

“It’s good for things to be blowing up,” says Beach, “but you don’t want to flame out. You want to keep things rolling at a nice speed, a nice rate, and make sure you’ve got a good foundation and you’re on solid ground.”

During Electric’s most explosive growth years to date--2002 to 2004--the company enjoyed triple-digit growth. “We were growing 100 to 120 percent each year,” says Beach. “Now we’re into the stage where we’re still growing at what we think are some phenomenal percentages, but it’s more manageable. The most important thing for us now is to make sure the brand is fundamentally strong and constantly come up with fresh new designs and marketing campaigns.”

As the marketplace has evolved, so has the consumer. Sunglasses can no longer be designed for an exact target and Electric says it avoids attempting to pigeonhole what a glass needs to be.

According to Beach, Kip’s designs are progressive and forward. A design philosophy that Beach says makes sense because the action-sports industry as a whole continually incorporates high-fashion influences. “Kids are way more brand conscious these days,” says Kip, “and way more into what’s going on in fashion and trends. The sunglass market has evolved into a far more savvy, fashion-oriented marketplace.”

With fashion-forward shades remaining their bread-and-butter, Electric has also gained a following in their goggle and apparel categories. Carter says the company has proven its ability to perform on a global scale without losing relevancy in the youth market: “Our whole company is like a rock band of eyewear. But we want to be the Aerosmith that keeps rocking for a long time, not the Mötley Crüe.”

Brand Building 101

The brand’s founding fathers knew that in order to stand the test of time they had to get the right people involved. On the team side of things, that meant Electric brought in surf and snow heavyweights like Luke Egan and Peter Line to be part of the team. Egan and Line then handpicked each team and are heavily involved in the company’s advertising campaigns.

Athletes like Bam Margera, Peter Line, and Ozzie Wright embody the brand’s vibe, says Carter. “They’re all distinct individuals,” he says, “and that goes down to the rest of the team, too.” Aside from action-sports athletes, characters like Ted Nugent reportedly rock Electric shades, and Carter says adding NASCAR driver Kyle Busch to the team has catapulted Electric into a new market.

Kip firmly believes in allowing athletes to contribute to product design, which Electric says creates legitimacy in the look and feel of the brand. Margera, in particular, has worked closely with Kip on the design of one of the most successful Electric sunglasses to date, the BSG signature model.

Other unplanned events have also helped the brand’s image. When Electric product popped up all over MTV’s ultra-successful reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County--something Carter says happened completely by chance--teenyboppers swarmed Electric accounts across the country. “Those kids are into our stuff, but our brand is much more than that,” says Carter. “Our thing is more the Viva La Bam, Jackass, and the CKY videos.”

Regardless of which television shows they’re watching, a large segment of the youth-lifestyle populace identifies with Electric. In just six years, the brand has gained considerable market share and shows no signs of slowing down. So can the industry sustain such a strong independent brand or is some sort of consolidation inevitable? Only time will tell.