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Sole Technology owner Pierre Andre's annual PAS collections are usually high concept affairs, but this year's version takes it even further in the theme stakes. Being a dad has evidently altered his already conscious outlook, resulting in the '6th Element' collection shown here. As ever, it's out in low, low numbers, with the collection name reflecting the next generation taking up skating. Using the modified Senix silhouette, Pierre's pro-model, stripped down for a more eco-friendly and contemporary look, the three makeups here are pretty in-your-face, but they get an unexpected cutesy factor via the mini child-size variants, with all six shoes set to drop at Tokyo's Beams store today.

Seeing as we're aging rapidly and seeing fatherhood left, right and centre, this feels pretty relevant, and as these models cover Revolution (red, white and blue), Reflection (shiny) and Evolution (aged leather and nubuck), it needs a talk through from the man behind them to really flesh out the design rationale...

Hi Pierre, fatherhood's been a recent thing for you - has it changed the way you look at the etnies and the Sole Technology brands? You were environmentally focused before, but has it fueled that obsession even more?

Yes, definitely. Having Mateo really confirmed that what I’ve been doing with the environment is the right thing to do. I’ve always lived my life knowing that you need something to do, something to look forward to and something to share – that hasn’t changed, it’s just emphasized to me that I need to keep doing it!

PAS is an annual drop, but how did this one come about? Had you been dabbling in the idea of fatherhood as a theme for a little while now?

Being a father, I truly understand that it’s not just about me. With 2010 ushering in the sixth generation of skateboarders, it was a perfect opportunity for me to explore doing something for Mateo and acknowledge the new generation coming up.

Representing six generations of skating as the underlying theme, it's crazy to think that the sport's hit that point - what generation do you consider yourself part of? At a guess, we'd put seeing you in magazines and videos alongside Don during the freestyle, SIMS era at third generation, but I've seen you talking about the late '70s - would you consider yourself second generation?

I am part of the 2nd generation since I started skating in 1978 when I was 15 years old. It was actually a hard time in skateboarding because it was kind of falling off. There were only like 50 of us skating in Paris at the time and we didn’t have much support. When I became more visible in the 80’s with being pro and then had the opportunity to bring etnies to the US, it was a driving factor for me to make sure that I could keep fueling the industry in order to make sure it was always supported and never dropped off again.

Did your dad encourage you to pick up a board or discourage it as a hobby? Do you recall any first generation skaters who influenced you locally? Do you still see any of them?

My dad was so great! I remember the first time I showed him my skateboard, he took it and did a handstand on it! Haha! He was around 50 years old at the time – so funny! Little did he know that I would end up appearing in magazines doing handstands too! I never knew any of the 1st generation skaters, but I do still know some of the 2nd gens…Jeremy Henderson and I did a collaboration board and etnies shoe for SHUT’s 20 Year Anniversary. It was really cool because we told this story about What Goes Around Skates Around – it was the story of how we met in Paris way back in the day and where life finds us today.

What constitutes the Sixth Element of skating? As a life cycle, it's altered so dramatically in just 40+ years...as a company, are you constantly trying to bridge that gap between paying tribute to the older "legends" who paved the way and the youngsters who'll push skating forward even more?

We need to support this new generation of skateboarders and how we do this is by recognizing them and the culture that they are now contributing to creating. Skateboarding is deep in its roots, so by sharing those stories, remembering the legends and key moments in it, we can embrace the new generation and they can share with us this experience. At the end of the day, we are all skateboarders and that’s what keeps us pushing forward.

This is a high-concept collection with the Revolution, Reflection and Evolution themes...the way they've been worked into the Senix makeups is pretty literal - starting with Revolution, we interpret the balance of the flag colours and the basic look mixed with more complicated elements as representative of the global spread of skating and the primitive skate hobbyism giving way to the "urethane wheel era"...Then there's the Reflection makeup - did having a son make you rethink everything up to this point? What are your perceptions of where skate culture will be when he picks up a board? In skating, even a decade seems to lead to vast evolutionary leaps in terms of tricks, technical ability and ambition.

Well…we’re off to a good start because Mateo already loves riding with me. I take him on the board and he stands with me while I ride – it’s so fun to be able to share this with him. My hope for Mateo is that as he encounters skateboarding that he enjoys it as much as I do. Skateboarding will allow him to build his self esteem, it will sharpen him in how he tackles challenges since as a skateboarder, I learned to look at obstacles in a different way – it has shaped how I approach life. I want him to build confidence as he grows and realize that his hopes and dreams can become possibilities and ultimately reality. I believe he’ll experience all of this when he is big enough to pick up his first board.

On the reflection subject, lately in the office we've been talking about some of the amazing vert guys like Jeff Phillips who we worshiped as kids, but ended up as victims of an evolving industry - do you feel that their story should be told to the next generation too, as today's pro could be superseded by kids getting their first setup?

What matters as we reflect on things that have taken place is to reflect positively on each other. We have to learn from the past and encourage each other to continue to defy convention – no matter who we are as skateboarders.

The Evolution makeup lets you give a shoe some wrinkles! Do you hope to pass what you've built onto your son?

Good question! Sure, I hope everything that I build is passed on to my son to build into his future. But it is so much more that – I do what I do in order to share with everyone that works with me – it’s about growing together in life and experiencing all of what life has to offer together!

Do these pairs come packaged with the kids' versions? We've not seen that done before...

They can be purchased separately, but I designed it as a set that goes together. When I wear a pair, I put a pair on Mateo – it’s pretty cool.

Each PAS collection can't be cheap to put together in such limited numbers - are these drops just labours of love, or are they something that might inform the etnies brand at inline level? Does this preempt a push on etnies models in tiny sizes in coming seasons?

It’s a combination – definitely a labour of love, but the fun part is that I work with a close group of designers through the whole process in order to inspire them in some of the things I introduce. But, it goes beyond design – I use it to push our factories to make our shoes greener – we have transparency facts on each of the boxes that show how we work with the footwear process to push for low carbon emissions. The smaller runs allow us to demonstrate how we want things to be done – my hope is that we can roll this out on a larger level to make more of a carbon reduction impact!

As far as the kids side of things – we’ve been doing kids shoes since 2000 and just a few years ago we introduced this new etnies Grow With Me shoe for toddlers where we worked with our Sole Technology Institute lab to develop a new fit system that has a two-step process to give children the best fit possible, and to increase the length of time a child can wear the shoe. It’s a pretty cool thing for parents to check out – Mateo wears his etnies all of the time – of course!

We're big, big fans of the store, but why Beams exclusively for this drop?

When I started doing the etnies PAS Collection in 2006, I launched it with the Gratitude Collection, which was during our 20 year anniversary. I designed it and gave it to retailer owners globally who helped make us a successful brand. From there, we decided to keep the collection evolving and each year, we pick a different part of the world and we focus on one retailer with the one collection. It’s great because in essence we’re taking this collection on a world tour, just one year at a time and one retailer at a time.

Are you already thinking about the next PAS collection? Wouldn't next year be the 25th anniversary for the brand?

Yes of course! But, I’m not going to say any more to give it away! More to come in 2011!