When Jeff and Fleur Anning made their first ever trip to the snow, little did they realise it was going to be a major life-changer!
Already a keen surfer – enjoying the Gold Coast lifestyle, it didn’t take Jeff long to discover and love snowboarding the Perisher slopes.
When he and Fleur returned home, he desperately wanted to find something that recreated that amazing experience on a daily basis.
“Jeff’s always been into surfing but when he discovered snowboarding, something definitely changed,” said Fleur.
“The first time I ever saw an electric [skate] board was when I got out of the surf one day, I saw this guy coming past me on a skateboard, but he wasn’t pushing,” said Jeff.
“When I saw that skateboard, I thought instantly that’s my answer. I would be able to achieve that endless snowboard feeling in front of my very own house!”
Game Changer
Knowing absolutely nothing about e-boards, Jeff did some research and ordered a board online. He totally loved it – but wasn’t that impressed with the quality.
When a surfing accident left him with some downtime to fill, he set about designing and building the ‘ultimate’ e-board – using a full-sized skateboard.
This was no mean feat and Jeff used all manner of materials to create a prototype – including a baked bean can and cardboard!
“The first time I rode it, it was a game-changer,” said Jeff. “It instantly rode 10 times better than the board I bought. I just fell in low with that thing!”
Having successfully created his prototype, Jeff couldn’t wait to show his mates. And guess what? They all wanted one!
“Jeff made six or seven boards and we just thought, this is crazy! There’s an actual demand for them,” said Fleur.
The couple decided to do a first run of 50 boards. The only problem was the significant investment needed to do this.
“Doing it ourselves was the scariest thought because we had zero money, no idea what we were doing, and if we were going to do it, they’d be a lot of risk involved,” said Jeff.
Right Decision
“We came to the decision that we would sell the house and just do it ourselves, on our own,” said Fleur.
“It was our first ever house, it was the house we got married in, so it was really special to us but we both knew it was the right decision.”
Now living in a tiny rental – working out of a garage – most of us would probably lose our nerve! But not these two!
“We just never looked back. We never regretted it,” said Fleur.
Amazingly, this massive gamble paid off.
“All 50 boards sold out within about two to three weeks. But then we had to make them,” said Jeff.
“The tools and moulds took longer than we wanted and so, because of these delays, I ended up having to go to China, meet my suppliers, assemble the boards by hand myself, inside this environment I had never been to before.
“I had literally 10 days to put them together!
“And we did, we somehow pulled it off, got the boards airfreighted out, and I went back home. It was a good feeling.”
“We got Jeff on Facebook, and we started a YouTube channel and straightaway there was interest from around the world,” said Fleur.
Going International
“People were jumping online, posting their pictures and videos, talking about it. It was almost like instantly we were an international business without trying,” Jeff said.
Jeff says that at the time, he and Fleur had no idea about international business and just thought this could be fun!
“We had some growing pains when we first started to do the distribution,” he said.
Given the boards had so many components, the main issue was whether to assemble them in Australia to send overseas – or to get the international distributors to assemble them. This was a good solution for a while until orders started growing.
“We always knew that to do this properly, we had to centralise our manufacturing and assembling,” said Jeff.
“Once we finally got our manufacturing, shipping and supply process dialled in, and we didn’t have to assemble anymore, it really allowed us to focus on the things we love doing – selling the product, delivering the content and providing that customer service experience.”
“There was a really cool moment when we had a global Evolve conference and we got all of our distributors and their key staff to come to our HQ on the Gold Coast,” said Fleur.
“There was this moment when we had everyone in the room and realised we had created something much bigger than us.
Point of Difference
“I think that’s the difference, that when you get an Evolve board, it’s made by people who ride, it’s tested over and over by people who are passionate about riding, that have input.”
Another point of difference in how this business is run, is the fact that the owners are such a key part of the journey.
Totally invested in their customers, they started staging world events – and Jeff regularly joins in group rides with e-board owners.
“Definitely one of the most unexpected parts of starting the Evolve journey has been the massive, massive role the community has played,” said Fleur.
“Quite literally, Evolve has created a community culture where riders connect and meet up to ride.”
Brand Manager Matty Rogers agrees.
“The sheer size and passion of the online community is something that makes Evolve very unique in the world of e-skating. Every day there’s tens of thousands of riders online, sharing their experiences and helping one another.
“It’s just amazing to see that there is one brand, one product that is the common denominator bringing all of these people around the world together.”
Project BMX
2024 will see the arrival of Project BMX – Evolve’s first product that has ventured outside of electric skateboards, entering the eBike market.
Matty says this – and the continuation of new board development – will pretty much pave the way for the business to continue its growth in the next couple of years.
Jeff and Fleur should be super proud of what they have achieved. With a passionate belief in what they were doing, they took a huge risk – and the risk paid off.
Together as a couple and as business partners, how did they manage that pressure?
“In the early days, life changed drastically for us in a matter of 12 months,” said Fleur.
“We would spend date nights brainstorming ideas to get the business off the ground and were constantly working towards trying to get traction.
“Once our first batch of boards went out, we had our second child a few months later and it was just full speed ahead.
“Those first five or so years when we both wore so many hats in the business were incredibly busy, especially with a young family. We just had to run as fast as we could to keep up with it all, seven days a week from the moment we woke until well into the night,” she said.
“We’re both pretty passionate about Evolve so I joke that we got our PHD in productive arguing, especially in the early days when so much was new and ‘Evolve-ing’ as we grew! Once we started building a team it became so much easier.
“These days we work on growing the business instead of running it and we’ve learned to trust each other’s strengths and make sure to support each other. We might have the occasional robust conversation about how to approach something but 99% of the time we’re on the same page.”
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