Action sports-based retailer Sole Technology, founded by French skateboarding champion Pierre André Senizergues over 30 years ago, has gained new ownership.
The Nidecker Group, a family-owned sports company based in Switzerland, last month completed acquiring Senizergues’ four Lake Forest-based retail brands, Etnies, éS, Emerica and ThirtyTwo.
Senizergues will maintain a minority stake in the collection of footwear and apparel brands he founded in the ’80s and ’90s and stay on as chief executive of the group. The Sole Technology firm will cease to exist, ShopEatSurf reported. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Senizergues had told the Business Journal in 2021 that he had “no intent to deviate from being a founder-led and owned skate company.”
However, Senizergues recently told ShopEatSurf that the decision to sell was a difficult one and at his age of 61, it was time to turn it over to “fresh blood.”
“I am confident that Nidecker, with its longstanding history and rider-owned values, is the perfect new home for Etnies, éS, Emerica, and ThirtyTwo,” he said. “We share the same values, and they represent the next generation with the energy and scale necessary to ensure that our brands can thrive in new and exciting ways.”
Nidecker started in 1887 in woodworking crafting wheels and tables then eventually making sleds and a variety of skis and later added snowboards in the early 1980s.
Its portfolio also includes snowboarding and outerwear retailers Bataleon, Jones, #YES, Rome and namesake Nidecker.
“We are honored to carry forward the legacy of these brands, maintaining their authenticity and dedication to quality,” Chief Executive Henry Nidecker said in a statement.