By Lauren Simpson
Cornell Athletic Communications

For Cornell men's swimming and diving alumnus Andy Laats '89, founding Nixon, a California premium lifestyle accessory company, was out of sight and out of mind, until he caught the entrepreneurial bug while working for snowboard powerhouse Burton. Then the rest was history.

You never know who might cross your path, providing a gateway to opportunity and fostering new goals that, at one point in time, didn't even cross your mind. That's precisely what happened when Laats, a mechanical engineering major, was completing a co-op with GE Plastics through Cornell.

One seemingly ordinary day at his internship, in walks Jake Burton, the pioneer of modern day snowboarding. Laats knew that he couldn't pass up the opportunity to get his foot in the door with one of the most prominent snowboard brands to this day.

"At GE Plastics, Jake Burton walked in the door and said, 'I need help designing a new snowboard binding.' I had a Burton, so I begged my boss to be on that account, and he obliged," said Laats.

Jake Burton and Laats hit it off, so much so that Laats was offered a job, which he accepted upon graduation. Not only did Laats land a job with Burton right out of college, but it was one that many would envy.

"My job description was to make great snowboards show up on time and on budget," said Laats. "I worked with our factories, mostly in Austria, and our professional riders all over the world to make snowboarding better."

Part of Laats' "duties" as Burton's Snowboard Product Manager included snowboarding 70-80 days a year in some of the best destinations around the world with the sport's top talents. Laats was living the life and was achieving success while doing so, becoming responsible for the development of all of Burton's hardgoods (boards, bindings, and boots) within just a few years.

But of all the bucket list-type adventures that Laats experienced while at Burton, it was the company's work environment that had the most profound impact. It provided Laats with a new perspective, making him realize that perhaps this was something he desired to create himself.

"I never thought I was going to have any interest in starting my own business and being an entrepreneur," said Laats. "Then working side-by-side with Jake and the other folks at Burton, Jake was having more fun than everybody else. He was just making stuff up as he went, never shying away from challenges, and innovating not only the sport, but the business model and the work environment. I caught the bug from that."

Realizing that he didn't know much about founding a business, Laats made the decision to leave Burton in 1995 and obtain an MBA from Stanford. Upon starting his studies, it didn't take long for his mindset to transition from snowboard design to what it would take to establish a successful company. 

"The entrepreneurial spirit in Silicon Valley in the late-90s was contagious, and it was the right place for me at the right time," said Laats. "That's when I realized that starting a business wasn't necessarily all about taking crazy risks. It was about understanding risks and mitigating them when you can."

Laats' engineering background served him well in this department, and it's something that he frequently utilized as he and his business partner, Chad DiNenna, set out to found Nixon in 1997. Creating a premium watch company was unchartered territory for two individuals with a background primarily in action sports, but the pair knew the power of leveraging their resources.

"It was definitely a leap. We had no idea how to build watches, but we understood the customer and the distribution channel," said Laats. "Through my Burton days and Chad's previous industry experience, we still had relationships with some of the best pro-riders – snowboarders, surfers, skaters – all over the place. We just asked them what they would want to wear."

It's safe to say that the leap was worth it. People quickly latched on to the Nixon name, and before Laats knew it, bigger competitors were making product that replicated what Nixon was doing. Since, the California lifestyle watch company has expanded into so much more. This expansion goes way beyond the physical. Sure, the fact that Nixon is now a premium lifestyle accessory company sold in countries around the globe is undoubtedly impressive. But the symbolism that wearing a Nixon watch holds is just as significant and is one of the main reasons why Laats and DiNenna decided to create a watch line in the first place.

"Wearing a watch is a badge of self-expression just as much as it is anything else," said Laats. "On one hand, you had this group of people who loved to tell the world who they were. On the other hand, you had this product category that had really perfected the idea of this accessory as a badge of self-expression."

Laats' career has been transformational. He co-founded his own business, something he initially never dreamed of doing. His company has inspired people to express themselves, first and foremost through watches, and later with wallets, belts, backpacks, and leather goods. Even more ground-breaking, his company has given others the confidence to start their own businesses as well.

"I'm really proud of the second generation of entrepreneurs that have come out of Nixon and started their own things," said Laats. "We didn't start out to be an incubator or any sort for other businesses, but watching somebody come into the organization, catch the bug, and go off and do it themselves is really exciting."

When Laats' looks back on his career one day, he won't be able to help but be proud. Perhaps it will be similar to when he closed out his swimming career at Cornell. A four-year letterman from 1986-89 and co-captain in his senior campaign, Laats made the most of his time with the Big Red. He left Cornell with three school records and 11 all-time top five marks and was named second team All-Ivy League after placing third in the 100 butterfly at the 1989 Eastern Championships.

"It was very interesting to see one career come to an end as my work career started and be able to think about it in terms of, at the end of my work career, how do I want to be looking back on this," said Laats. "The same way that at the end of my swimming career, I looked back and went, 'What did I really get out of it? What was meaningful for me?'"

Of all the things that Laats derived meaning from during his days in the Teagle Pool, the power of goal setting, and going above and beyond those goals, may have most strongly resonated with him as it relates to the founding of Nixon.

"Having that record board at the end of Teagle and staring at it as a freshman going, 'Holy crap, there's no way I could ever swim that fast,' but then saying, 'Well, maybe I could,' and doing something that you thought at one point wasn't possible was very meaningful," said Laats.

At one point in time, Laats never thought that starting his own business was possible. Just look at where he is today.