Our friend Todd Miller invited us over to Factor54 headquarters so we could give you an inside look at this up-and-coming brand that is ready to take off. We grabbed ourselves a quick bite to eat in Newport and then rolled over to the F54 house located in the heart of the industry, Costa Mesa, California. When I say heart of the industry, I mean it. F54 is right across the street from Volcom and within a rock’s throw of RVCA, Vestal, Atwater, and many other surf/skate/snow brands.

Can you give us a quick history on F54?
Sure, Factor54 was started out of the pure despair we felt when looking at the poor thread count of ringspun cotton that most companies were using in their Tee shirts. A noble effort indeed. That and the fact that Todd Miller (founder) had felt he had hit his proverbial corporate ceiling at Quik and wanted to give his own deal a shot.

What is it about your company that is different?
We’re smaller.

If someone had to take something away from meeting you, what would it be?
That we allow dogs to run around our offices and that they are an utter and complete nuisance when trying to conduct interviews. Seriously, I think people talk to Todd and I and realize we have a pretty strong plan and that we are not totally winging it, though there has to be some of that to keep a company fun and unexpected. I guess the real take away is, we know exactly who we are marketing this company to. That is true in terms of riders that we sponsor and stores that we work with. We would rather push a rad shop with less upside then a kook store that sells tons of stuff but kills our vibe.

What’s behind the f54 idea – tell us about the unchained youth……
This was a tag line that spun out of our corporate roundtable that we have twice a year in Zurich, Switzerlnd. All of our marketing and communications team are flown in, fed Borscht, Baluga caviar, and Stolichnaya Vodka and are required to come up with at least 60 tag lines that will be viable for us in the next few years. Actually, we spun this up late last year. We always had a target on the youth from an athlete standpoint as well as consumer. The Unchained Youth Tag is really how we see that time of life. “Get nuts little fella” is Miller’s big line. Seriously, we want to show our guys having fun, being a bit reckless, and not being so cookie cutter. A tag line like that allows us a lot of freedom as we build a campaign to market the brand.

Do tell about your team
Uhh, Let’s see. We have just added this kid Timmy Knuth from Florida who is one of the gnarliest little competitors coming up in the skate scene. An all terrain kid that just took 8th at the Phoenix Am. Steve Webb from the Inland Empire who is technical freak, street skater. Chris Lehman is our Hesh that comes from Skate Park of Tampa and is on the am/pro cusp right now. Then we have our little groms like Caedyn Curto, Lil John Hicks, the Brunner twins, and Ryan Conners who cause all manner of havoc everywhere they go. On Surf we have Cordell Miller who splits his valuable time between Lowers, the back 9 at Shady Canyon, and Mothers market. Doug Van Mierlo from San Clemente who just won the NSSA State High School Championship, Neon Leon who holds it down in Newport and kills every right from 56th to 15th street. Bobby Okvist from Newps kills it as well as Kent Nishiya from the South Bay. Jeff Crego is our kid from Jacksonville. We have some girl riders too. Anise Guzman (15) from HB is holding the 1 or 2 spot in NSSA, and Brianna Cope from Kauai HI, who won last years Irons brothers Pine tree classic. Last but not least is Ian Blackmore from LA is our free surf renegade who lives a dream life and surfs super good.

Who else is Rocking the F54 stuff?
Awe man, All kinds of folks. In terms of celebs, I have to protect the idendities of our celeb folks but I do know that Lee Majors and Farah Fawcett love to rock the gear up at Chasen’s and Mr. Chows all the time.

Anyone else we should know about?
Sasquatch, he has always steady rocked our gear.

Pool or pond?
Very small rocks, Churches, and mud.

What’s up with your mission statement? Bread?
I don’t know, I stole that shit from somewhere. Nah, mission statements are tough…No I mean it, they all are trying to be so tough and cool and everyone talks about surf/skate inspired art and music. It’s all the same so we did that shit. Aren’t we clever?

What drives you / the company?
Greed, Chicks, money, Dough-ray-mi-fa-so-lo!

What are your Favorite snacks foods?
Miller eats like a steady diet of Cocoa Puffs and Yoohoo.

Is there something that someone would be surprised about your company?
How fucking rich we are. Seriously, Miller and I rock so much bling at night it’s hard to get around cause of all the gold we rock. I am currently waiting for a Zirconium set of teeth caps that will push my whole program up 10 fold.

So tell us who or what market do you design for?
We design for the kids who want to push it and wear a brand as well as some rad art that isn’t just some clip art or Font that someone tried to pass off as art. Our kids tend to seek out F54 first and then pick what piece they like.

Any strong reason to buy?
We need the money. Can’t make it any stronger than that. Miller needs a transmission for his Volvo so if all your readers could step it up that would be great.

Who is involved in things?
Miller is the rock and founder of our deal, Wueste is the biz dude, Frankie Kennedy is the design lead who has stepped our program up by a light year. Anita does the office stuff and works a bit with Spanish speaking countries…She speaks Spanish real good. Notorious Nate Sherwood runs our skate program. Marky Mark Thierhemer is our rep in Los Angeles and THE OC. Big John rocks for us down in SD and International, and finally agent Lilly down in the east.

Any inspirations?
God, the late 70’s punk movement, and Cold vitamin D Milk.

What moves you?
Frankly, it’s the kids that keep us stoked. When we show up to an event and our team riders or just random kids come up and ask for stickers to put on there boards. The parents who thank us for running our contests for the kids makes all of the tough times a memory. Every day I am totally moved by the countless emails, letters or DVDs that we get for kids asking to be on our team from all over the US.

Paper or plastic?
Plastic baby. Leave dem trees alone.

Who does your designs?
Frankie Kennedy runs the show there. We can’t say enough about what he has done for our program. Totally inspired and taking his cues from a whole other space than the typical stuff. When we saw all of his designs we just wanted to teleport ahead in time as we hated the stuff compared to the insane stuff Frankie did. Our stuff for fall/holiday is so forward thinking. His will be the only shirts you need. Brett Hillyard also was a great contributor to our hat and Boardshort program which is going cookoo for us. Brett did the Smith hat program and really got our vibe.

So tell us what motivated you to start the company.
Well, Miller talks about the days when he ran team marketing at Quik and how valuable that whole learning experience was, but that he had sort of reached his corporate nadir there and rather than just stay and collect a check he wanted to go and start his own deal and became really fired up to deliver a brand of difference to the market.

Do you consider yourselves a brand, a movement, a mail circular or something else?
We’re like a Dickens Novel and no I have no idea what that means. Geez, this is a long friggin’ interview.

What do you see popping this season?
Clearly the brights are what is killing it. That comprised the majority of our spring/summer line. It reminds me of 80’s inspired stuff from the original Stussy, and Schroff.

Any significance to the name?
Tell us the story…… Factor54 is based on a mathematical dilemma that I worked on while at the University of Poland studying commonitory mathmatics. I could go on but I am afraid that there could be some people who become so utterly confounded that their life would stop and they would die. An outcome I do not wish on anyone so we’ll leave it at that.

Give us a little info about your day?
Every day is certainly different. Some days we are getting ready for an event we are sponsoring and making sure riders are ready and tickets are booked. Some days we are meeting with retailers. Currently we are scouting a new location as we are simply busting out of our deal here. Dude, you just stepped on the dog…See, we need to get a bigger place.

Tell us what or who else you think is happening in clothing or style or sport?
We dig anyone who is adding value to the program. We like people that take some chances with their designs. The guys who are taking there cues from some of the urban inspired stuff are who we are digging on.

Anything else?
I sure hope the drive thru window is open at EZ Take out burger.

Infamous shout outs section:
Geepers. This is a bummer since we always forget people. That girl from Match.com, Anti Depressants, Right Guard, Marshall Amplifiers, John Deer Tractors, any A list celebrities, and Gerhaart Mueller who is the driving force behind the new Provost Front.