Man goes to extremes for clothes

The local dirt-bike rider has found a new passion -- building his business.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
HUBBARD -- Eric Johnson is working nights in the basement of his Hubbard home to reach extreme-sports enthusiasts in faraway states such as Texas and California.
Wakeboard and dirt-bike riders are taking notice of the eye-catching designs on shirts and hats that come from Johnson's 3-year-old apparel company, PIER.
"He's definitely getting a lot of exposure out here," said Johnny Valera, 24, a semi-pro wakeboarder from Cloverdale, Calif.
Valera is one of 10 wakeboard and dirt-bike riders that are sponsored by PIER In exchange for free shirts, sweatshirts and hats, the riders wear the apparel and place the company's stickers on their boards, boats and bikes.
"Shirts are shirts, but the designs he comes up with are cool," Valera said. "People like them."
Going beyond Valleys
Johnson, 24, decided a year ago that his company couldn't succeed only by relying on local retailers and its Web site, www.pierx.com.
Locally, most people haven't even heard of wakeboarding, he said. Meanwhile, riders in other areas of the country compete in regional and national circuits. Wakeboarding is similar to snowboarding, but riders are pulled across the water by a boat.
Johnson bought out his partner, Ryan Ghizzoni, last year and began promoting his company a new way -- giving away free stuff.
PIER, which stands for Pure Integration of Extreme Riders, began sponsoring riders to get its name in front of people. The riders also can sell items and receive 20 percent of sales.
Johnson said most of his sponsored riders are semi-pro, but a couple have moved up to national, professional competitions.
PIER also has sponsored seven competitions in five states. Organizers pay Johnson to design the event logo, and he also provides free apparel for riders. Johnson also makes vinyl banners.
Design philosophy
Plenty of other companies are trying to cash in on the extreme-sports boom happening in some parts of the country, but Johnson thinks his company can succeed because of his logo designs. His goal is to create designs that are eye-catching without being cluttered.
Right now, skulls and flames are big on the West Coast, he said.
By day, he works as a graphic artist at Actions Sports & amp; Apparel in Struthers. He received a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Youngstown State University in 2001. He and Ghizzoni started the company that year.
Johnson said he hopes to make enough money from the business within two or three years that he can work at it full time. He said he has been careful not to spend too much time on the business because he and his wife, Ereka, have an 18-month-old daughter.
"My time will come," he said. "I want to enjoy her growing up."
Setting goals
Johnson said he plans to build a base of sale representatives that will sell PIER products to retailers and to get the products listed in catalogs.
"It takes time. You can't expect something to happen overnight," he said.
At one time, Johnson thought his main passions were riding dirt bikes and designing artwork. He raced dirt bikes from when he was a young child until last year, when he hurt his knee. He's no longer interested in competing, but he rides wakeboards for leisure and is helping a friend build a dirt-bike course behind the friend's house.
He has added a new passion -- running a business. Planning the company's future and talking to event organizers, riders and potential sales representatives all across the country is exciting, he said.
"There's nothing else that I want to do, besides racing professionally, and that takes too much of a toll on your body," he said.
shilling@vindy.com