"It's hard to believe that Etnies is already 20 years young. As a skateboarder, it is great to see how Etnies has been a pioneer and innovator of the action sports community over the past two decades." - Pierre Andre Senizergues.

Pierre Andres Senizergues, (SIN-E-ZERG), founder and CEO of Sole Technology, parent company of Etnies, continues to cultivate Etnies footwear and apparel as a global leader, while providing the most quality, function and style for skateboarders, as well as preserving the core spirit of action sports. As the first professional skateboarder to own and operate a footwear brand, coupled with his tireless work ethic and education to seeing skateboarding flourish on the global stage, Senizergues has guided the Etnies footwear brand to unprecedented levels of success and double digit growth of the past two decades.

Senizergues began skateboarding at the age of 15 in his hometown of L'Hay Les Roses, France, a suburb of Paris, and spent most of his formative years skating around the city of lights. After attending the Universitare De Technology of Paris XI in the early 1980s, Senizergues became an engineer for IBM France before moving to the U.S. in 1985 to pursue his dream of skating in California. As one of the premier professional freestyle skateboarders of the 1980s, Senizergues won 12 French championships, nine European cups titles, five European championships, two work cup event wins and one world championship during his career.

In 1988, two years after the inception of Etnies, Senizergues began riding and designing Etnies shoes, including his first pro model Etnies shoes, the Senix, and other key Etnies shoes like the Etnies Lo Cut, Etnies Low-Top Rap, Etnies Intercity and the Etnies Scam. These Etnies shoes where designed and created with skateboarders in mind, and consisted of a unique blend of fashion, durability and quality that had not been previously seen or created in the industry. A year later, Senizergues began distribution of Etnies shoes throughout the U.S. and later gained full rights to the Etnies name worldwide.

While Senizergues embodied the risk-taking and entrepreneurial spirit that drove the Etnies footwear brand, his empire began to take full shape as he launched an addition three new footwear and apparel brands - ES, Emerica and ThirtyTwo - and consolidated all four labels under the Sole Technology umbrella. Today, with headquarters based in Lake Forest, California, over 350 employees, international distribution in more than 70 countries, and regional office in New York, China, the Netherlands and Switzerland, Sole technology is one of the leading action sports footwear and apparel companies in the world.

In addition to being one of the pioneer and most celebrated names in action sports today, Senizergues has taken Etnies shoes and skate footwear technology to another level with the development of the Sole Technology Institute (STI), the worlds first research facility dedicated to studying the impacts and movements of skateboarding on the human body. Senizergues has also dedicated his resources in providing a positive environment for youth to enjoy skateboards with the construction of the 40,000 square-foot Etnies skatepark of Lake Forest located at Sole Technology's headquarters.

In recognition of his endeavors, Senizergues has received numerous accolades: including the 1999 Orange County entrepreneur of the year award, the immigrant of the year award, and also named OC Metro's Hot 25 and most influential CEO's in Orange County. Most recently he was recognized as one of the TOP OC innovators by the Orange Country register for his environmental practices and corporate responsibility by revolutionizing the way Sole Technology does business.