Eric Koston and Guy Mariano Break Down Their Numbers Brand by the Numbers

Eric Koston and Guy Mariano are used to blazing new trails — the duo have spent the past 20-some years advancing street skateboarding in every way they can. Their latest venture, Numbers, is less of a traditional, seasonal brand and more of a publishing house. “When you see our branding logo, it’s a box with a slash, which kind of represents like an artist’s proof. And one part of the box will always be our brand, and the other part of the box will represent whoever we’re collaborating with, which will also give the brand a lot of different looks,” explains Mariano. “Every series we do will be sort of an edition to Numbers.”

Numbers’s first edition is with Nike SB—a natural fit for Swoosh athletes Koston and Mariano—and it consists of cozy, timeless apparel (a coaches jacket, hoodie and a long-sleeve T-shirt), plus an interpretation of the Koston 3 silhouette. “In this day and age, there is a lot of stuff that people play it safe just to get by,” says Mariano. “The Koston 3 shoe represents everything we stand for in Numbers: style, creativity and innovation. These are things that are reflected in our skateboarding, in our brand and in us as humans. It all kind of comes together in this perfect trifecta of a collaboration.”

HYPEBEAST hopped on the phone with the skateboarders to talk about the numbers behind Numbers, the challenges of balancing a brand, skateboarding, and spending quality family time. Read on below for an exclusive look at the Nike edition.

When did the idea for this company come about for you guys?

ERIC KOSTON: I guess the actual idea for the brand came about—before the name obviously, we’ve talked to each other about starting this thing and what’s it gonna be called. That was the first thing. That was about…

GUY MARIANO: A year ago.

EK: Maybe a little bit more? Yeah, so a little over a year ago.

That’s pretty quick. What’s been the biggest obstacle or hurdle in setting the business up so far?

GM: I would say all of the internal moving parts.

EK: Yeah, how do we single out one? The way we’re trying to launch this thing is part of the brand itself—kind of like a capsule, essentially. And so aligning all of those different pieces, because they’re all coming from different places, from the tees to the beanies to the decks. The coordination has been a bit hectic.

GM: I think too that one of the hardest things has been deciding how we were gonna come into this thing. We could’ve come in plugged into any number of distro companies or any of the other brands that would’ve been easy for Eric and I to just take off, start running and be plugged right in, but we really wanted to do this brand on our own terms. So doing this ourselves was a big decision. We knew it was gonna create a bit more work for us, too.

“We could’ve come in plugged into any number of companies… but we really wanted to do this brand on our own terms.” — Guy Mariano

What with this taking some time in your schedules, how do you find time to actually skate? As opposed to being in the office handling the business end of things?

EK: (Laughs) We’re going through that right now! We’ve been going through that a lot lately… how do you find time, really? You figure it out. We don’t always get the time we want to skate, or the time we want to work. So you just juggle. That’s what we’ve been dealing with. You’ve just gotta keep juggling it. As things move, it’s probably gonna get easier and things will probably have a better rhythm as to how we can get a better balance, but right now you’ve just gotta figure it out as it comes. You’re not getting everything you want, essentially, but when you start a new business there’s gonna be speed bumps and roadblocks and hurdles. It’s not gonna be easy, but that’s all part of the game.

GM: I think there’s something to be said about having the work that Eric and I have to put in outside of skateboarding—so when we do actually get to go skate, we really appreciate it and wanna put in some work for it.

EK: It definitely feels like there isn’t enough time in the day; 24 hours isn’t enough. But we’ve got families too—I’ve got two kids and a wife, Guy’s got a wife and a kid — so you’re getting pulled in many, many directions. You’ve gotta find time for it all.

GM: I think it’s just about balance. You can find balance. It’s not your first job.

EK: Yeah, I’ve been juggling for a long time, so maybe this has become normal.

How do you differentiate your roles in the company, individually?

EK: We’re definitely co-founders, but as far as roles go, we’re gonna wear a bunch of different hats. Make sure things just get done.

“24 hours isn’t enough.” — Eric Koston

GM: Just in this transitional period of doing our first launch, our first boards, our first apparel, first everything—we’ve all been really close, holding hands through all of this, trying to make sure everything is seamless, everything it going the way that we want it. But maybe in the future it’ll transition, but so far everything has gone through Eric and I.

EK: Both of us want to be there, from a creative standpoint. There’s different parts to it. That’s one of the main roles that we wanna stay focused on: making sure we’re on top of how everything is delivered, how it’s served up.

GM: I think if anybody’s ever met Eric, they know he’s very hands-on, very strategic. I’ve seen Eric sit down and draw his first eS shoe by hand in his living room, so I think there are some people out there who might think there are some things that just fall into peoples’ laps and there’s not a lot of hard work that goes into it, but we’ve spent countless days getting into the office at seven in the morning and leaving at 11 at night. And I’ve been blown away and been really stoked to see it grow.

“We’re going to bring all of our history and all of our knowledge to this brand.” — Guy Mariano

What’s been the biggest industry insider knowledge that helped in setting up this brand?

EK: I think all of our experiences—both separately and together—have helped us get into this position, for sure. Learning from the examples of the brands that we were a part of. I could go back to the way things were done at 101 [Skateboards] and even how things were done from a design standpoint. Even being a part-owner in Lakai at one point, when Guy and I started Girl, everybody started together at the same time… being in there was a new experience for all of us, so we were just figuring everything out on the fly. But that was the fun part: that we kinda did whatever we wanted. Thinking back to when I used to skate for 101 and hung out with Natas [Kaupas] a lot, learned from him—he’s a super creative person—all of those things have helped us along the journey.

GM: We’re going to bring all of our history and all of our knowledge to this brand. We could try to sit around and remember all of the great things that happened in skateboarding and see how I can make some sort of edition with this brand, be it a photographer, a filmer, someone who influenced fashion. In all aspects, I’m running things by Eric all the time, like ‘this is so sick! How can we incorporate this into our brand?’

Nike is a huge first collaboration, but it’s also a natural fit, considering both of your affiliations with the brand. But we were wondering if there was one creative—be it an artist, an athlete, a musician, anyone outside of the world of skateboarding—that you’d like to collaborate with, who would it be?

EK: Yes, we do. We have a few in mind. We had one particular in mind, but some logistical stuff happened, so we couldn’t necessarily do it… but that’s not to say it’s dead in the water yet. I’m not gonna say who—

GM: Eric’s trying to protect his secret.

EK: Yeah, I am! But there’s plenty, many of whom we know personally from working together in years past. But yeah, we’re gonna probably gonna keep that one to ourselves until it’s solid. We don’t wanna start throwing names out there and then shit doesn’t happen, either. We’ve gotta protect the other parties and ourselves. There’re a lot of people we’re either closely or loosely connected to that are very creative and special and we’d definitely like to make our edition.

The spirit behind Numbers is kind of like a publishing house or an artist’s proof—how central is the idea of collaboration to this brand?

EK: Very essential. Because there are a lot of people we would like to work with. And not necessarily get stuck in one lane. That’s what we’re doing with the team as well—they have ideas and things that they’re interested in. You want that part of their personality to be expressed.

GM: I think the first Editions are gonna come based around shops. We have a certain select few shops that we’re gonna deal with and we’re gonna wanna showcase them first. We have a lot of visions and big ideas, but I think those are gonna come after we deal with these shops, drawing attention to the foundation of what helped us get here.

EK: Yeah, for sure. Retailers are a whole ‘other component, from a creative standpoint. But the fact that they’ve been there for us. We know a lot of the people who started these things personally, and they’re major cornerstones in their communities and how important that is to keep skateboarding alive. We wanna celebrate what they do.

Are there any other duos that you guys look up to?

GM: Anthony Van Engelen and Jason [Dill] of FA [Fucking Awesome]. And WKND—I really like that brand, I think they do a lot of creative stuff with Grant.

EK: He’s not much of a duo, though…

GM: Wasn’t he with RIPNDIP? Then they split.

EK: Sore subject, probably, for them.

GM: How about Grant and Johan? There you go. I found it.

EK: But yeah, Guy is very close to Anthony. Very, very close.

GM: I’m super inspired by those guys. First of all, just taking the risk to do it themselves. Super psyched that it worked out and they’re successful at it. I think at a time when they did it, they took a stand for something in skateboarding, where no one really was. A lot of people are jumping on that now. They were really influential and that brand is very influential to a lot of kids. A lot of people are following their recipe.

What’s your favorite pair of sneakers of all time?

EK: Of all time? I’ve said this one before, but it’s still hard to beat out: the Jordan 1. It’s got a lot of history: it’s very obvious from an MJ standpoint. But from a skating side, all of the pros that I looked up to when I started skating were wearing that shoe. The photos and the images of those guys in that shoe are so iconic and still burned into my brain with how cool they look. You can look back and they could dress like that right now, and it may just be because of that shoe, but 1: it’s great for skating in; and 2: my heroes wore it and I can wear it. I still do. It’s hard to look down at a pair of those and be bummed out.

GM: Honestly, I can’t really get into my favorite one. I always have a really hard time doing this with anything. Favorite skater, favorite anything. If you could see me right now, I’m sweating.

Where would you like to see Numbers five years from now?

EK: Honestly, I would like to see it doing well and how we want it to be done. Guy’s involved and everybody is working together to be a part of this thing and continuing to grow and push the brand, push skateboarding, and progress in every facet. I don’t think we’ve even had time to come up for air and look at five years from now—we’ve been so busy, but for the most part it is new and just starting, so we’ve gotta stay in and put in the work. That’s all. I just wanna see it running smoothly. Maybe it’ll be a little bit bigger, a little more evolved, but for now it’s about work.

GM: I would like us to still be doing it on our own terms and for the love of it. And not just doing it to satisfy someone else or financially trying to make this thing stay afloat.