Aggressive Skate Blog

RW: Your skating style is amazing; the Ucon clothing designs are also very stylish. Do you design the clothing yourself or do others have input in the designs of the clothes?

Jochen: Basically it’s Martin doing most of the designs. But to get to the final design it’s a long process, like getting all the ideas together, doing the samples, etc. We all do that together. Martin is the guy who brings it all together.

RW: What’s the history of Ucon clothing? How long have you been around and how did it all get started?

Jochen: About six years ago I came up to my friend Martin and told him that I wanted to start a clothing company. And because he was scared that I would totally fuck it up he decided to join me! We planned our first collection over several months even though it only consisted of four items! This basically was the beginning of Ucon. We started with three tees and one sweater which we printed on our own. The company was founded by Martin (design), my brother Steffen (finance) and myself (marketing). Everybody has their own area they specialize in. Martin and myself really work very close together, so you can’t really separate our responsibilities.

At that time we just thought it would be cool to contribute our ideas and energy to rollerblading. Since that day we have continued to give our best to help rollerblading and let it grow in the way we want it to grow.

RW: Rumor has it that you will have a page in the next Roller Warehouse Catalog, what new stuff can we expect to see in that ad?

Jochen: We will have a full page ad in the new Christmas catalog and we are very excited about it. It’s the first time for us working with you guys and I hope it works out great. We have a lot of great stuff coming out – on www.Ucon-Acrobatics.com you can check some of the clothing out with detailed pics and a lot of info.

RW: What are some differences you’ve noticed in the European skate scene, and the skate scene in the US?

Jochen: I think there aren’t that many big differences although everybody talks about differences all the time. It’s all about having fun while rollerblading, so I really don’t care about any gap between the US and Europe. Europe has a great scene with amazing talented skaters and super nice spots and unexplored countries like the whole of Eastern Europe as. There is a lot more to come from Europe because there are just so many cool things going on right now. For sure, the rollerblading capital is the US, maybe we can say it’s California, but I think for Europe there is no need to hide. And with Ucon and Clip we are trying to let people know that there is sick stuff going on at the same level as in the US.

RW: It is cool to see the Clip videos giving us a glimpse into the European scene. Should we expect another one to come out soon?

Jochen: Right now we are in London filming for the next issue. We have great things planned for issue 4, and it will be released around Spring 2007. It takes a lot of time to make everything the way we want. Lukas is also very busy right now with other projects. But we are on top of it, and it will be a great issue. We just bought a HD Camera and the first footage we´ve filmed looks amazing. We try to improve with every issue, to showcase the very best of Europe!

RW: Your clothing is more expensive than most skate companies, obviously the quality is much better, is there any other reason for the higher price?

Jochen: There are some reasons why the clothing is more expensive over here, but I will try to explain that real quick. The clothing is all produced in Europe and we design every cut on our own, which takes a lot of time and money. Then we have to fly that stuff over with a shipping company, we have to pay the shipping company as well as all the taxes on the clothing. Then the stuff has to get to Jero (US distributor) and he has to send it out. So as you can see it’s a really long way to go for every garment and that’s just the reason why it is more expensive than just buying a shirt with a print on it. We want to deliver a product of the highest quality offering the best comfort. Unique pieces which you can’t buy and find everywhere. We believe that rollerblading needs a company like us, and it’s great to offer the market something different I think.

RW: The clothing is definitely worth the money if you ask me, do you think that the kids in the US market will accept the quality clothing for a little bit more money, or just buy a cheaper brand of clothing?

Jochen: I hope some of the rollerbalders will, but if they don’t think it’s worth the money it’s no problem. Everybody has the right to choose whatever they like. Some people will complain about the prices, no doubt, but I already tried to explain why the prices are so high, and there is no other chance right now to reduce them. We are working on that all the time, because I still remember how it was buying all my favorite skate clothing years ago when I still had little pocket money.

RW: I have showed some of my friends that do not rollerblade some of the Ucon sweatshirts and jeans; they were very impressed with the style and the quality of the clothing. Do you get that a lot from people outside of the rolling industry?

Jochen: Pretty much yes. We´ve already started to sell Ucon to non rollerblading shops in Europe which is awesome. I think this is the “key point” where Ucon as a rollerblading company can help build up the new image of our sport. Rollerblading is defined through many faces. DVDs, magazines, clothing, etc. We want to let people know that rollerblading has more to offer than just screen printed tees. That is in my eyes a very important topic to help rollerblading look cool and get the respect back from the people. I talked to a lot of non rollerblading shops lately, and most of them don’t even care that we are rollerbladers. They just go crazy when they see the catalog. But we don’t hide behind anything. We mention in every interview that we have made for fashion stores that we are rollerbladers, and some of them even like that. A lot of other shops don’t order from us because we are rollerbladers and that’s really fucked up. But this is not part of the plan. It’s definitely not about making the fast $, it’s about letting rollerblading grow in the right way with the right people. These people can definitely help to make rollerblading look better in the future.

Our dream is to become one of the best clothing brands. It’s not the money, not the amount of shops you have etc. We want to be a clothing company which is respected and stays true to itself. That’s the main goal for us.

RW: Who skates for Ucon?

Jochen: Everybody who knows about Ucon knows that we´ve never had a big team. We never built up our brand on big names. We wanted to built up a brand based on the high quality product. This was part of our plan. We’ve had Jona Messerli on the team since day one, we even gave him the opportunity to create his own line with his friend Cedi. For us it’s more important to have the team riders involved as much as possible and focus on them totally.

Our new team rider is Jon Julio. Having him on the team is the best thing that could have happened to us. He is one of the most talented and down to earth skaters in the rollerblading business. He is a great help for us, because he knows what rollerblading is all about. He’s a great + for our team, and I’m really looking forward to working with him on new ideas and projects.

Additionally we came up with a new idea and created the Ucon Allies. This group of skaters are some of our best friends, skaters who share our ideas and visions about rollerblading. This has nothing to do with a flow or am team at all, because when you look at the names, for example Fabrice Guyont, Damien Wilson or Nick Lomax you will soon figure out that these skaters are anything but amateur. On the Allies page of our website you can find out everything about each rider – everybody has an interview with some pics on there. These skaters share our philosophy and have the desire to lead rollerblading with Ucon in the right direction. So in this team you will find our best friends who will help us to move forward.

RW: Any thought of a Ucon team video yet?

Jochen: We are definitely planning on something, but there is nothing clear yet, so I think it’s better to talk about it when it’s time.

RW: The Ucon T2 hoodie is one of the most unique and stylish designs that I have ever seen for a sweatshirt, how did you come up with the idea for the thumb hole on the sleeve and the innovative zipper?

Jochen: Like I mentioned before, we try to make the finished product even better and better and sometimes great ideas develop like the T2. Martin did some great work on that piece, it has always been one of my favorites!

RW: When I look through the different garments Ucon has to offer, I notice that there are many different styles of clothing. Were you trying to appeal to a wider range of people by doing that?

Jochen: We don’t want to be like the one company just doing this or that. Ucon is a clothing company for rollerbladers. Rollerbladers like it right, striped, narrow, wide, loose, different – different people, different tastes. We want to give everybody the opportunity to be part of Ucon, so we try to match all different kind of styles. It’s just stupid to think in those hip hop vs. rock, baggy vs. slimfit categories.

For us it’s still very important that all the styles fit together like the Elle collection or the silhouette line from Jona. Different styles with the same corporate identity is a main point we are working on to give all the clothes the special “Ucon note”.

RW: What do you think Ucon can do other than making sick clothing, to appeal to the US market?

Jochen: I hope we can open the minds of skaters to something different. Motivate them through our clothing to go out and skate. Represent a rollerblading brand and rollerblading. The most important thing is to get the skaters back in the boots first. I know that a lot of my friends lost their motivation to skate because there was just nothing cool going on in rollerblading. It almost sounds stupid, but this is our main goal and our task we have to do for rollerblading. Doing our small thing to let it get better. Like Wes, Ryan, Justin and Chris trying to do it with ONE right now, like Doug is doing it with Barely Dead, Stuff and Mike with Be-mag, Jon Julio with his great dedication to rollerblading and a lot of other great personalities busting their asses to bring all the pieces together someday.

RW: How often do you come to the US to skate?

Jochen: I used to come every year, because skating in the US was like a dream come true for me. But I haven’t been there for a while, especially because our goal with Clip is to cover Europe and not the US. There are great people doing great work over there, but we try to focus and help the European market.

RW: Congratulations on the sick new line, anything else you want to tell the readers about your company?

Jochen: Thanks to everybody out there for their great support. We really appreciate it a lot and try our best to make the Ucon brand better everyday.

Our goal is to become a brand which is respected. Become a brand which produces the best clothes on the market. Ucon is a down to earth rollerblading company which will never deny its roots.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 7:26 am and is filed under skating, Video, Jon Julio, dvd, ucon clothing, aggressive, rollerblade. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.