When Pierre was a teenager he met a fellow skater in front of the Eiffel Tower; this skater happened to be a refugee from Iran and didn’t know anyone and spoke little French. Pierre took the kid home with him and in a short time added (officially) another sibling to his immediate family. This was just the way Pierre was raised, with an almost uncontrollable urge to give back. After building Sole Technology (the umbrella company that houses Etnies, eMerica, eS, Thirty-Two, Altamont and many other brands and projects) one of the first non-corporate skate shoe companies, Pierre continues to give back just as much as he gets, whether it’s his personal crusade to save the planet, creating a high-end fashion brand from recycled elements, hosting an annual shoe giveaway to homeless shelters or making movies with Leonardo DiCaprio about the importance of the environment.
Pierre’s other passion, skateboarding, has also benefited from his relentless ideology of constant innovation. He created the Sole Tech Institute for the sole (no pun intended) purpose of improving the functionality of skate shoes to help skaters improve, and more importantly to allow them longevity. If there’s one thing that’s evident when you speak to the ex-IBM engineer who at one time printed his French skate ’zine in the hallowed walls of a Paris church, is that with all his accomplishments and money, its all about making the world and skateboarding a better place.
