It's no coincidence that Holden outerwear is a one-of-a-kind company that stands out from the seemingly endless, Skittle-coloured quagmire of snowboard clothing brands. Co-founders Mikey Leblanc and Scott Zergebel are certainly not everyday people, thus you end up with anything but an everyday brand. Mikey has had, and continues to have, a stellar career in snowboarding, setting himself apart from the crowd by being creative, imaginative, and at times, downright out to lunch. Who can forget bolting bindings to a toboggan for a number of shred flicks as well as a Snowboard Mag cover?

At 36 and "older than Terje!" (as Mikey himself puts it), Mikey continues to push forward and apply his unique way of looking at snowboarding wholeheartedly to Holden outerwear. While enjoying a string of good weather in his home of Portland, Oregon, I caught him between design meetings for the Holden Fall 2010 line, and asked a few questions about the outerwear company that has turned the shred world on it's ear.

Mikey Leblanc, working hard or hardly working?

So how long has Holden been around now?
Since 2002, but it had been kind of a thought since 2000 when I quit my sponsor at the time, which was Volcom. That was when we started the search for financial backing and all kinds of stuff like that. We spent some time searching out the right partnerships, but we kicked off our first soft launch in 2002.

What was the premise behind Holden? Like, what was your mission statement?
Well the motivation and the mission statement were kind of the same: Outerwear that you just felt good in, and didn't feel like you were necessarily headed to the mountains in something that was "technical". We just wanted clothes that you looked good in, that were fashionable and comfortable, and looked like they were tailored for you. In a nutshell, it was kind of a fashion-forward outerwear approach rather than, at the time, everything that was a bad Arc'teryx copy. If you can picture that...

Outside of the actual design, as a company did you have anything that you really wanted to do or not want to do after being involved with shred companies in the past as a rider?
Yeah, I definitely wanted to make some videos, so that was something that we did right off the bat. We made Love Hate and Burning Bridges and the goal of that for me was to explore that area of creativity. It was fun to make some videos, but really it was to help me create another place to bring up some new athletes and kids that I thought were doing the right things. So we brought back kind of a skate vibe to the stuff and brought a lot of kids out of the woodwork.

That's always been important for me during my career, so, we made it that a rider's personality is just as important as their shredding, you know? Meaning, when I look for a kid on my team or for the video -- because it wasn't always Holden kids in the videos -- I look for people who were nice, people that had fun and a life that wasn't just snowboarding, just something that made them interesting. We did the videos and then as far as the clothes, something that we definitely wanted to do was to create -- even with the ads and everything -- just create something that was less about selling a product and more about just making people feel good about what they were wearing. The ads make them think a little more creatively, as well. That was kind of the goal from day one; to be more creative and not just copy what everyone else is doing.

Mikey's part in Burning Bridges:

Since 2002 the ownership has been a little tumultuous. How has that worked?
Right in the beginning we licensed the brand to K2. Actually to Planet Earth, but they were under the K2 umbrella of companies. Then a couple years ago I bought the brand back from K2. We separated from them and since then it's just been myself and the other owner, Scott Zergebel who is also the designer. He's been the designer since the first season. Neither of us had ever designed outerwear, but we learned through trial by fire. [laughing] We came up with some ideas and we would go to factories and they'd say, "well, this is impossible," and we'd say, "no it isn't." And then we would have to prove how it wasn't impossible, and discover new ways of taking outerwear and making it functional and also look fashionable, so that was fun.

Here you are, seven years later, the company is going strong and I ask you, how true did you stay to what you wanted to do with the brand back in 2002?
I think we stayed really true, actually. The goal of the team has stayed true. I have tried to maintain a team of great athletes that also produce in different ways, and as for the clothing I also think we have stayed real true.  We have always gone with higher quality elements, always paid attention high attention to detail and fit and a ton of eco options. That's another thing I didn't mention earlier when you asked what we did want to do with the brand. Since year one, we have tried to develop natural or eco friendlier fabrics and we were able to do that with the hemp five years ago, and we created the world's first water-proof, breathable hemp fiber fabric. Now about 90% of our line has eco-friendlier options on it. That's always been a big thing so we stayed true there. So absolutely, I feel my vision is completely intact. As we move forward I'm sure it will stay that way. We aren't trying to make what other people are making. We are trying to make what is Holden, which is stuff that you just feel good wearing, and we are absolutely true to that.

It looks and sounds to me, before you even bring the company into the picture, you have managed to stay true to yourself. Would you say that is an accurate observation?
It's hard for me to say whether or not Mike Leblanc stayed true to himself, but I think I would have to rely on people like yourself and friends, family and critics to tell me whether I have or I haven't, so, thanks for the compliment. Because to me, I think, a person changes throughout their entire life. If you are really living, then you constantly change and grow. So that's a compliment, thank you. I've tried to maintain certain elements of myself that I thought were good.

Speaking of changing and growing as it comes to the evolution of Holden, where would you like to see the company go from here?
Well one thing we are doing in Fall 2010 is launching a small street wear collection. It's not going to be bottoms; it's going to be focused on tops. All tops, like sweaters and nice street jackets. So that's really exciting for me, because for the same reason we started the outerwear, which was because if I wasn't sponsored I would never be able to find a snowboard coat that I wanted to wear in a snowboard shop, I would have gone to a fashion company or a thrift store. With the street wear it's the same thing. I go shopping all the time and it's very, very rare that I find anything that I really want to wear, and if I do it's usually at a thrift store or a very expensive boutique. So that's going to be fun to finally make some street clothes that I want to wear. As far as the outerwear portion, I think we will continue on a similar path we have been going on. We are going to have some more affordable stuff for kids that aren't able to spend over $200 on pieces but other than that we are staying true to the good fit, the high quality fabrics and the street wear launch.

Mikey proudly rides for Ride snowboards, Matix clothing, DVS shoes, Cole headwear and Holden outerwear. (And the Leines' Brothers flow him Celtek gear.)

[Mikey sent this over, and it doesn't really relate to the story, but it was too good to pass up. - ed.]

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Related:
Ride Team Blog
Mikey Leblanc Security Services (video)
Mikey Leblanc Picks The Best Of The Worst