Intriguing Beings - Philip Schennagel
Issue 104 / Mon 22nd Apr, 2024
Mild-mannered, thoughtful and incredibly passionate about making better products for you to enjoy, Philip Schennagel, the CEO of CORE, sits down with Rou Chater for the Intriguing Beings Podcast!
Another interesting podcast just dropped! Rou Chater sits down in Cape Town with the CEO of one of the biggest watersports brands, CORE. It’s an interesting tale that differs from some of the usual paths that these industry stalwarts take. Phil came to watersports quite late in 1999 and started his career wet sanding boards in the CARVED factory on Fehmarn…
CARVED was Bernie Hiss's brainchild. Launched in 2001, he started creating twin tips in his garage on Fehmarn in Germany. If you’ve never heard of Fehmarn, it’s a small island off the north coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea. The island has a long history of watersports and was a favourite location for windsurfers in the 1980s and still is to this day.
Phil Schinnagel grew up on Fehmarn, surrounded by the sea, windsurfers, and sailors, but the bug never bit him to get on the water. He worked at his parents' laundry business until a trip to Cape Town in 1999 dramatically changed the course of his life.
“In 1999, I was staying at a backpacker in Cape Town. The owner was an old surfer from Jefferies Bay who played a role in the Endless Summer movie. He told us he would teach us surfing, and that's what he did.”
“He took us on the water, and I did all those funny things that happen during your first surf lesson, like putting the wetsuit on the other way around with the zipper at the front. After a few wipeouts, I was surfing, and I got immediately hooked. Back at my home spot in Fehmarn, I tried to surf a bit. It wasn't good, so I had to return to Cape Town for more lessons.”
“That was in 2001, and it worked quite well. During that trip, I saw kitesurfing for the first time, and I thought that could be a nice addition to my surfing. In low winds, I could kitesurf, and then when the wind picked up, I could surf. We usually only start to have waves at 25 knots plus in Fehmarn, so for me, kitesurfing was a light wind sport to start with, although that soon changed!”
This differs a lot from the guys who’ve been windsurfing all their lives, who then came to kitesurfing and usually made up the upper tier of the watersports industry. Phil was a keen skier from the age of five and went every winter and still does to this day. He was never one for team sports, despite his parents pushing him to be involved. However, once he found water sports, he got the bug and never looked back.
In 2003, he started working for Bernie Hiss, wet sanding his boards, which were becoming very popular in the German market.
“So I was allowed to wet sand the custom kiteboards that we were making, and after a while, I think, four months, I reached the next level, so I was doing the paint jobs, and then we were getting more and more successful. We also started getting inquiries from dealers, so it became more commercial, and somebody had to take on this role. Looking after the invoices and taking care of the stock became my job as I transitioned out of the factory. I was doing emails and phone calls, and within a very short period, I moved completely to the administrative and sales side of the business. We hired more people to work in the factory on the boards, and the brand was starting to grow. Then, with the founding of CORE in 2007, I became responsible for the business's international growth, and we grew very quickly.”
CARVED has always been seen as a very high-end product, and it still is to this day, commanding a high price point with an army of loyal fans and riders. The goal of CORE was to set up a much more mainstream brand that would cater for all kiters and not just the ones looking for peak performance from a product. Over the years, CORE has become synonymous with quality and has a massive range of products catering to everyone from the rank novice to some of the world’s most talented professionals.
CARVED still coexists alongside the brand as the pinnacle of design, technology, and performance. To this day, they produce one board, the Imperator, now in its seventh version, which shows their dedication and is a testament to the brand's identity. Meanwhile, CORE makes kites, boards, bars, foils, wings, and harnesses that cover a wide range of disciplines and styles to suit a multitude of riders.
One thing that will always separate the brand, though, is the iconic colour scheme…
“There is a reason for the black and white; we wanted to have a very high recognition, and it's still like that. If you are approaching a beach, no matter where on this planet, you can see from one kilometre away, oh, there's a CORE kite. As you get closer, you can even see the size of the kite; we want to have it very visible. That was always a goal for us: to stand out and to make it easy for anyone arriving at the spot to see what size they should be pumping. Then there's another advantage, in terms of stocking goods as a retailer or as a distributor, it's also very easy and very nice if you only have to order two colours, instead of four. The black and white is here to stay and separates the brand from the others out there.”
CORE and CARVED always feel like a family; the riders tend to stay for what feels like forever, and the staff have a low turnover, too. I’ve been going on trips and hanging out with the team for over a decade, and they always seem to have a solid team both on and off the water.
“No matter if we're talking about our employees, our partners, and also our team riders, brand loyalty and fostering that from within, are among the most important things for us. And this is what we believe works best; it's not easy. It's challenging sometimes. But having this opportunity to live and work at this spot in Fehmarn is attractive. If we are growing and need more employees, the location of the business will always attract new talents. Working on products during the day, and they can jump in the spot and ride them in the afternoon and evening is a huge bonus for us.”
“We are looking for young talents as well. However, they need to grow into the role and do some work before they become international players like Willow or Steven, for example. We like to work with riders over a long period, growing with them and helping build a profile for them. We are also looking at what they can do for us as well. Steven is very active on YouTube, and Willow is very busy on social media. So a CORE rider needs to bring something to the table…”
“That's one of our most important points: creating content. We are, of course, profiting or benefiting from their reach and from the engagement that they create. So, we will fund their projects, no matter what they have in mind. We're doing our photo shoots, for example, also in a different way. We have a core CORE team, which is invited. Then we have some people like Ben Beholz visiting the photo shoots and creating his content while using the new products. So we have a wide variety of content when a new product is launched. This feeds all the social media channels for weeks after the launch as well.”
CORE has always been known for exceptional build quality and low product warranties, which is one of the reasons riders and customers are so loyal to the brand. I asked Phil how importance they placed on this area of manufacturing.
“It has been difficult to achieve, and it's still sometimes very challenging to maintain this high level of production, especially in very hectic times. But it's our top priority for us. First of all, it starts with the sourcing of the materials that we use. Then, the craftsmanship has to be 100%. We also ensure that it's maintained at every production stage and that the product is long-lasting. Every single flaw or blemish is always reported to the factories, no matter if it's kites, bars, or boards. We are their most annoying customers; we have the longest quality checklists. This is how we started, and this is how it should be. It sets us apart, and that is important.
Phil and I enjoyed a long-ranging conversation that touched on all sorts of things, including the current state of the industry and where the brand is headed in the future. We talked about the changing climate in the EU towards green auditing, which will put even more pressure on brands to be sustainable, how much he enjoys his role, and where it has taken him.
Phil is one of the nicest guys in the industry. He's quiet at times, humble, and always thinking. It’s always a pleasure to hang out with him on the water and at the beach, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time he afforded me for the podcast!
Be sure to listen to the full episode using the link here and at the beginning of the article!
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By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
