Behind the Scene: What has Oli Benet been up to? - 07/07/08

1) Oli, what have you been up to lately?

What haven’t I been doing would be an easier question. I have mostly been travelling obscene amounts and focussing a lot of energy on Deshi and Stygma, getting the right people involved, general improvements on product and just keeping up to date with opinions and comments from rollers worldwide to make stuff better, and of course keeping the Conference web fresh so people know whats going on with so many brands…I don’t even know how many brands we are now, but at least we now have a platform so people can see what’s going on.

Apart form that I’m skating every other day or so, working with the whole team (it’s huge) buying flights for riders, sorting out the budget for all the brands, what needs to be sent out to riders, saving where possible…all of this with help from the crew of course!!

2) Would you say that you are a busy man?

Does the Pope shit in the woods? I am an extremely busy man!! I mean I’m often up till 3 or 4 in the morning and I also have a pretty active social life so I’m just always tired but I wouldn’t change it for the world! I would say I never ever have a relaxed day at home, and almost every week or two I am in a different country.

3) How are things doing at Deshi?

I love the way Deshi is going right now, I mean I have been a Deshi lover for about 4 years now but I got tired of the skates about a year ago, and switched about a little bit to see how we could improve the situation. I mean the boot just wasn’t strong enough.

We came up with the awesome new construction and it’s no secret we needed a new soulplate, I mean…the last one didn’t make any sense to me at all, Deshi, a slim lightweight boot with that big thing…so after 4 years of constantly trying different soulplates and brands of soulplate under my skates we came up with the new plate which I feel is perfect for rolling…I mean I really, really love it better than any other plate I ever skated, and I have pretty much skated them all, and my personal opinion is that the new CH1 boot, designed by Kenneth, is pure eye candy.

I went for a new image also with the team, I wanted a smooth stylish image and I think we are getting there for sure, taking into account Chris Cheshire also being a great addition to the lineup.

We also have a big surprise in store soon from Deshi, probably for 2008…I mean it’s a completely new and re-born company right now, completely reformed and stronger than ever I feel, and Im excited to hear more feedback about the new skate, so far it has been absolutely great.



4) Any future plans you could tell us about, give us some secret news?

Yeh, I think at the ISPO someone will probably leak at least some of our next skates because that’s what people always do at the ISPO and I’m not sure how well hidden we are going to have them, haha, sneaky sneaky…

All I can say is that those who have followed our progress over the last year since Kenneth took over designing product can imagine some of the stuff we are going to come up with, more colour from USD with at least 3 new pro-skates, a truly beautiful new pro-skate from Deshi, I don’t know if the new Xsjado skate is going to be there…we’re working on a new Kizer frame…beating out a deal for a groundbreaking USD DVD….there’s tons of stuff going on right now, I guess until I get some release dates and then add a month or so onto those dates (haha) I can’t really give any facts apart from “We got some real beauties coming this year…”



5) What is your official role at the Conference, as you are definitely more than just a teamrider?

Yeh you could say that…right now I’m aggressive manager of The Conference, but obviously it doesn’t mean I do everything…Matthias Knoll, the guy who looks after all of us and makes sure The Conference can continue to support rollerblading worldwide is in every mail, with constant ideas and direction, Bauer handles shiz from PS head office, Kenneth does most of the designs, Tina Ziegler is now going to take a big part in the future of Stygma, Garett, Schifi and Zafra on the webs, Kennedy and Coburn are managing Sifika and Xsjado still of course, Eisler is taking more control of Undercover, with a lot more people in the shadows some of whom don’t want to be mentioned, haha…

So then, what do I do? Well I try and co-ordinate all this as best as possible, keep close contact with all the team and keep them updated, work closely in all projects, make sure promo is made for all the products, get and give feedback on all products, chase people around, help out any rollers across the world who need hard wear advice or help, work on helping shops and just promoting internationally, ideas, decisions…I guess I just try and keep everything ticking over, finding the right people to take the companies in the right direction, websites…

6) What was the problem at the current CH.1, why was it delayed that much?

Right, the container they used to ship the CH1 fell off the truck and holed and then while waiting to be transferred got waterlogged with rain or something…that’s the best explanation I had. So everything had to go back to the factory and re-packed or directly replaced. As you can imagine this was a disaster for us and means the CH1 promo has been going on since I was about 12 years old…

7) You always listen to DnB, how did you get into it?

I started listening to Jungle before I ever skated, I must have been 10 years old when I got my first Jungle cassette…Original Nutta!! I have never changed my music tastes, I have always been into the hard beats and bass, DnB, hard trance, Ragga Jungle etc etc.

8) So besides you loving d'n'b, you told us that you are a MC in some DnB clubs in Barcelona. How did you get into this?

Well it was something I always wanted to do and I used to mess around a lot with it, I have a lot of friends in the DnB world and it was just way too easy to get involved. I haven’t done it for a while tho, due to a lot of travelling and work I just don’t go out quite as much at the moment…now Im messing around with Dj’ing too, got myself some decks but its mad hard!!



9) You launched Stygma with a big bang almost 2 years ago. What does the future hold for Stygma?

Biased opinion: Stygma is awesome. It’s really a great company, it might sound stupid coming from me, but I think its great. I love the quality of the new stuff, I like the image, logos…we are only 2 years old as you say, well 3, but we haven’t had the budget or time to focus enough energy on it. Now we brought in some fresh blood, Tina Ziegler, who has major experience in making a success in fashion, marketing and promotion and were going to take Stygma, focus hard on it and make it huge. This is completely new and for the winter line and the next summer line it is just going to take on tremendous force. Watch this company! I really want it to be promoting rolling worldwide.

10) As the Conference seems to be supporting more than half of the pros out there in the current state of the industry, how hard is it to do the teammanagement in such a position?

Absolutely impossible. The rollerblading industry is pretty terrible. People always talk about this but I don’t think everyone understands the situation. Now The Conference, or at least USD and Kizer were started back in the glory days of rolling. Since then the production has been cut skate after skate as hardly any new people get into the sport.

So when there is half the production, there is half the sales, then if you have half the sales how can you afford to pay for the same team? All these riders are so committed to the brands and love them, working hard for so many years. I basically came into the job with a small budget and a huge flow team, am team and pro team. The numbers just didn’t make sense, we support so many rollerbladers, publications and competitions we could almost register The Conference as a charity.

So Im trying hard not to make any major cuts, finding other ways of saving money and hoping sales go up. But look around, companies are dropping riders like flies, or even pulling out of aggressive all together, shops are closing especially physical shops which are THE most important thing for making new rollerbladers, I mean almost everyone buys their first skates by picking them up and trying them on, I know I did.

So imagine how hard it is to tell some of the most important skaters, the skaters who made our history “hey, we don’t have enough money to keep you on the same wage…” and that’s my job. Not as much fun as you can imagine, especially considering these kids are all breaking bones for poco dinero…



11) Tell us how a normal working day for you looks like?

Well I get up kinda late, im going to admit it, turn on my computer to answer the first 30-50 emails I missed, catch up until about 2, go over the forums to see if there are any important questions from any kids needing advice or help on any of our products, answer a ton of myspace questions and forum questions (so feel free to hit me up if anyone needs help, its what I’m here for) the go to lunch, come back and do the same again. Then I will probably go skate, and then come back and carry on going over stuff till about 3, or go party or something, haha.

12) Do you have any new tours or stuff planned?

Adrien Anne is doing a great job planning a tour through Spain with a lot of sick European riders, the illusion tour with Eisler is going on very soon too, I would love to do another Deshi week as that worked out beautifully

13) Shout outs?

Matthias Knoll for believing in me, Bauer for being a good friend and work partner, Kenneth for making everything so awesome, Tina Ziegler for making the future Oli rich, Philipp Forstner for knowing more than anyone and helping me out when I’m lost and confused, my parents for making me who I am, everyone who sticks to rolling through thick and thin, kids who support the rolling brands who support rolling (almost the only ones that are left) and who put up with the delays etc (I’m so sorry!!) and whoever else I should thank, both in the physical world and in the spiritual world.

Thanks Be-mag.

Tags: behind the scene deshi interview oli benet stygma the conference what has oli benet been up to