Joost Grootswagers got into board-riding culture when he was very young. Starting out with skateboarding, he then moved on to snowboarding. As a student in university, he admits that he spent more time on the slopes than in class. Since then and throughout his entire career, he has skilfully combined living out his passion with taking on new challenges.
“We work in this amazing industry, you know. There are not many industries where you can almost mix private aspect with business in the right way. Because it’s your passion. You can translate that in your work and you can translate that also into bringing more people onboard.”
Having gained some solid experience working with various Action sports brands, in 2011 he moved to France with his family to join Volcom Europe. He arrived right when Kering took over the brand and witnessed both the upheaval as well as the opportunities that the takeover created. Five years later he was named European President for the brand, which the luxury group would then resell in 2019. He sat down with us for a chat to discuss these two key periods but also the current global situation and upcoming challenges that the diamond brand will have to face.
“I want people to take risks because I think it’s very important to take risks, and what I normally tend to tell them, is if you make a mistake, I’m normally the one who takes responsibility for it, but I want you to try stuff.”
“There are a lot of passionate people in our industry and when you are passionate for your industry, for your sports, you can also be passionate for the business you do.”
Beyond a conversation about his own career and choices, Joost sits down with Inside Eurosima to share his vision of management and to discuss the economic, social and environmental challenges to come in our industry.
Podcast only available in English.
Podcast only available in French.
You can also listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and Deezer.
Joost Grootswagers: Linkedin
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Editorial production: EUROSIMA
Animation: Romain Ferrand / Rémi Chaussemiche
Technical production: Fred de Bailliencourt
Photos: Guillaume Arrieta
Insideurosima 