Public Service Announcement: A Conversation With Joe Sexton

Joe took some time to catch up with us early in the preseason. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I live down in North Carolina now. Public is just a brand that I’ve started to see in every single lift line. I don't know if you've if you've ever noticed that before?

I'm so honored to hear that, and so hyped to hear that. I think we I see a handful of it, but I'm still nerding out if I see a kid with a board. I'm kind of like, ‘Where'd you get it? When did you order that? From who?’ I still trip out on it every time.

Are you ever in a situation where they have no idea about your connection to Public, or they might not know who you are necessarily?

Yeah, sometimes. And honestly, that's the coolest stuff…If I see someone where it's like an organic, authentic purchase, that gets me super stoked.

Now that I'm thinking about it, weren’t you in North Carolina last year?

I was going to say that I was there. I think it might have been two years ago now, we went to to do stuff with Recess. We were at Beech Mountain. That was amazing. You guys have such a cool scene out there, and your kids were so awesome to hang with and shred with. That was super fun.

I'm interested to hear what your, you know, your first impression of the of the scene was.

They're really passionate, they're really appreciative. The setup was really fun. It reminded me of the Midwest, the setup was what I like to ride on. And that day was so cool, though. I think we were giving out beanies, and the kids were just so thankful and grateful. I thought that was pretty refreshing.

How has your early season and preseason been so far?

Brand wise, this would probably be the busiest time. You're also designing for 2026/2027. You’ve got samples for that stuff coming in. So it's just, it's kind of like the wave of how it goes, but it's been really productive and so far, really smooth.

I’ve got to say, a lot of times at this time of year we see previous year’s stuff discounted. On your site, there’s not much left in stock. In shops, outside of a stray General Public, you’re not dealing with a ton of stuff left over, which I feel like has to feel good on your part.

It does. But it's also, like, a little bit reflective of just how we want to run the business. Like, I don't want to create a brand that's, like, always available, always on sale. We've always wanted to make it like, you know, special, and it's like, we don't order a ton of extra stock. So when it's sold out, it's sold out, we want to build that excitement for the next season.

How was your transition from rider to being business-first? Was there any part of that you kind of struggled with that at first?

For sure. I started the brand, you know, 10 years ago. I think from the beginning, I was definitely a lot more of a rider, and there was not a ton of foot on the gas. We were figuring this all out.

But I’m a little more proud of where I’m at now. I really put in the time and the effort to kind of learn how to do this, and I got a lot of help from mentors, and a lot of, like, I just put a lot of time and energy into, like, wanting to be a better kind of business owner. There's always the struggle of (the fact that) I didn't go to business school. There's a lot of imposter syndrome that creeps in. but honestly, I think if I just wake up every day and try to do the best I can with our mission statement at hand, I think we're just going to try to do the right things, you know?

Were there a couple mentors that really stick out to you in particular, that really kind of helped you early on?

Brad Alband is a huge one that comes to mind. He ran a bunch of brands for a while.

I just took the leap, and I would just kind of chat with people. Sean Kearns is a huge one. JP Walker I would talk to a lot. Johan (Malkoski) at C3. Benny Pellegrino. Nima Jalali, Darrell Mathes the guys that have done it and started their own thing, like, I really leaned on them to kind of be like, Hey, I'm in more just for inspiration. It's just rad to have that many people in your corner. I'm super grateful to have those guys take the time to show me the ropes, and there's a million more for sure.