My name is Steve Watts, I am the founder and co-owner of Slyde Handboards with my wife Angela. Slyde is based out of San Clemente, California. A small surf town about an hour south of Los Angeles. I founded the company out of a garage in Venice beach in 2010 and since have doubled in revenue year over year. In 2016 we were featured on Shark Tank and both Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher invested in Slyde.
Following the success of Slyde and the backing of Mark and Ashton, we partnered with Veldskoen S.A to bring the South African heritage shoe to the U.S. In our first year of business, we became the biggest shoe exporter from South Africa helping to revive a struggling sector and provide jobs for well over 150 people in South Africa. All Veldskoen is, and always will be made in South Africa and are currently handmade in Kwa-Zulu Natal using local and ethically sourced materials.
I have some really great memories of my time at Kloof High School. I loved the sport and the friends I made and still have to this day. It’s important to have that network of people you can trust as you go through life and the friends you make in high school are the ones that will generally be there the longest.
I graduated from Kloof High in 1995 after which I spent time traveling around the world traveling to well over 40 countries. Which turned out to be one of the greatest education I could hope to receive. In 2007 I received my degree in Product Design from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. After a short stint at a design firm in Los Angeles. I decided it was time to make my childhood dream of starting a surf company and Slyde was born out that Venice Beach garage.
We are currently working on launching other direct-to-consumer brands here in the United States in particular ones that tell a unique and exciting story and have a social cause beyond just selling products.
I hate failing but I do it a lot so I live by this Quote from Winton Churchill “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” I encourage the Class of 2020 to bare this in mind as they prepare to enter the next stage of their lives.
All the best for the year ahead.
Steve Watts – Class of 1995
Below is a video of Steve appearing on “Shark Tank”, where Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher agreed to partner with Steve and his wife, Angela – to grow their now extremely successful business, Slyde Handboards.
