Throughout history, people have taken risks to make their dreams become reality. Nothing in Canadian snowboarding embodies this better than the creatively-titled company Dinosaurs Will Die. Owners Jeff Keenan and Sean Genovese were both at the peak of their amateur riding careers when they realized the large brands they were each endorsing were missing something. So in 2005 they opted to start from scratch with DWD to reflect their ideas and values and seize control of their destin. Fast-forward to five years later and the only changes within the self-claimed "worlds smallest snowboard company" is the amount of boards sold and the growing knowledge of the owners. This success story is far from over, but after reading this article their message should become clear: even though traditional dinosaurs died 65 million years ago, these dinosaurs aren't going extinct anytime soon.

It's all a Learning Process

What led you start DWD? When do you feel that it turned into a legitimate business?
Sean Genovese and myself [Jeff Keeanan] were both amateur riders for Lib Tech snowboards and Option snowboards, respectively. From being involved as riders, going to meetings, and observing day-to-day operations, we felt we acquired a true sense of how these companies work from the inside out. Sean and I saw an opportunity in the snowboard world and joined forces in December of 2005 to start a true, rider owned and operated company. At that time we became the owners, the operators, the marketing/art department, and the team. In our 2006 season we may have actually been the smallest snowboard company operating in North America! Starting at 100 boards the first year, they were sold out before they hit the shops. We are now going into our fourth season of production. It's been a whirlwind of growth over these years and a blur of definite lines. Somewhere between these years of operation we have grown ten-fold, with nine world-wide distributors. DWD boards are sold in 14 different countries through out the world.

Jeff Keenan and Sean Genovese

How did you end up meeting Genovese? How did you two end up working together?
Damon Pyett, a figurehead in the Vancouver snowboard scene, started a job s the marketing and team manager for Coastal Riders Shop. He put together a team that could rival all other shops in Canada. Sean was already a part of this shop when my brother [Brendan] and I joined on. Sean and I were doing similar things in our careers, being amateur riders, and helping to produce snowboard videos. After many conversations over coffee, tea, and whiskey, we decided to come together and start something we both believed in.

Are you a Canadian brand or a US brand?
Since DWD does not have an office, we have become somewhat of a nomad brand; traveling the world, moving from one spot to another. On a search for something that has not been found by us, to inspire and reflect upon, whether it be in snowboarding, life or thought patterns. With the help of technology and the way it has shaped the world we live in, it is now possible to work almost everywhere we find ourselves. Every fall we regroup in Vancouver, BC, to ship the product and break down the plans for the next year.

What challenges have you faced since starting the brand?
Every turn you take in owning a business is a challenge in some sort of way. It's where you learn and grow, making your business thrive. We are an independently financed company. This means all financials in growth come through what the company earns and ourselves as the owners. This, along with a quick growth since the beginning, means DWD has gone through many different steps to get to where it is today. Meeting these challenge's head-on and working through them has formed the backbone of the company.

What mistakes did you have to learn from along the way to building your brand?
There is no such thing as a mistake when creating a cultural driven company, just evolution! Evolution is what created dinosaurs, humans, and the world around us. It's also what created our company. It's like a baby that you breathe its first breath into; full of creativity and idealist-thoughts with no charted route until it starts to evolve. Sean and myself both helped it grow and there has been many bumps and dead ends. However we feel that is how we actually learn and evolve.

Marketing and Team

How important is your team? Who is riding for you now?
Dinosaurs Will Die has always been more of a feeling-based company then a team-based company. By this I mean Sean and I put our thoughts and ideas into every single piece of the company, creating a company less based on the norm of building up your team with recognizable names, and regional riders. Instead we became the figureheads and brought on riders who connected to the brand without looking at it just to be sponsored. With riders such as Gus Engle and Andrew Geeves being a part of the past team, we have had many amazing riders support the project. At that time in their careers, they really fit what we were doing and grew with us... both have gone onto bigger projects and we are still as stoked on them today as we have were in the past. DWD is more of a growing family than a team. With the addition of Chris Larson to our team, he joins the select few riders we flow boards to-Ricky Tucker, Lucas Ouellette, Mike Baire, Trevor Schy and Wes Makepeace. We thank them for their ideas on snowboarding and life.

Looking For Answers

Why do you think people buy your boards?
We can't say why other people buy it... We just know that we would buy the boards. I guess it's the same reason that we decided to start the brand in the first place: It provides a board that stands for what we feel snowboarding should be like, not what it is starting to grow into.

When do you think people stopped buying boards because of personal relationships and started buying them because of the quality?
Quality has always been our main concern. It's been there since the beginning and will always be a part of DWD. We ride the boards and we want to ride a good board, so why should anyone else not be able to ride the same quality? We always found it repulsive when a company would produce a high-quality board for a rider and then change the graphics to fit what they want marketed. DWD is not into lying to our customers to create sales.

How would you describe someone that rides your boards?
Someone who rides our boards is someone who actually gives a shit about snowboarding! DWD sees the opportunity to make what we do-snowboarding-be seen as more then some over-hyped jock sport that's looked down upon by true skateboarders and surfers. We have met many people that think in a similar thought pattern as us, and actually see the opportunity there, so we just built our whole operation around it.

Being Different

Other then size, what sets you apart from other snowboard companies?
We have our hands in every part of the company still, and for the future that will make the difference. We're not putting pressure on people beyond what we know we would be capable of ourselves. This is reflected on all aspects of the company in ridding, sales, shipping, design, etcetera.

Other then boards and clothing, do you see DWD growing into a brand that will make anything else?
You never know... we have talks. However if you get too far ahead of yourself, you start to lose touch of what you're doing at that moment. So right now we are staying focused on growth within our means and ideas.

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