In celebrating Deckers’ 50th year, we honor those who embody our values. Michelle Apodaca, with 18 years at Deckers, exemplifies dedication and our spirit. Her impact, from founding Art of Kindness to upholding our company value “do good and do great,” is undeniable. Michelle’s journey reminds us that a company’s heart lies in individuals who live its values, inspiring us all at Deckers Brands and beyond.
Deckers is celebrating its 50th anniversary. How does it feel to be a part of a company with such a rich history and longstanding commitment to making a positive impact on the world?
I’m incredibly proud to be a part of a company that has such a rich history, one that is truly an inspiring entrepreneurial story of two young UCSB students who had a dream to start their own business and likely never imagined it being what it is today. I have been fortunate enough to know one of our founders personally and have heard so many stories of struggle and victory. I thank Doug Otto all the time for his relentless efforts to ensure Deckers was successful, despite many hiccups and bumps along the way. He got it to the point where he could hand it over and let it grow from there. We wouldn’t be here today without his passion and commitment. I think the longstanding commitment to making a positive impact on the world was inherent in the culture of Deckers from the start and that’s what has inspired me to keep doing what I do. Doug’s commitment to ensure Deckers’ continued success was evident when he selected Angel Martinez to take the helm. Under his leadership the company grew from just over $200M to $1.8B. Then Angel, also committed to and passionate about Deckers’ continued success, passed the baton to Dave who has successfully led us to where we are today and guiding us into the future. I’ve been fortunate to have been a partner to all these great leaders in our company’s history and have also shared their commitment to making a positive impact on employees and the world.
Can you tell us about your journey at Deckers and how you went from being an executive assistant to the Director of Deckers Gives?
I was hired in May 2005 as the Executive Assistant to the President & CEO at the time, Angel Martinez, as well as our Chairman and Founder Doug Otto. I had never heard of Deckers despite being raised in Santa Barbara, so my interest was piqued. I had no idea that this would be a life-changing interview for me. During my interview, I felt an instant connection and chemistry that drew me in. I had found a company that valued my skills and offered a healthy work environment. I had been looking for a company and career where I was respected and allowed to shine. I was immediately considered a partner in making Deckers a great place to work and my opinions mattered. I’ll admit, In the beginning, I was walking on eggshells in disbelief that this was true but after a while, I realized, I could be me and make a solid contribution. Being in the CEO and Chairman’s offices, I was responsible for our Board of Directors, which was new to me as I had never worked for a public company prior to Deckers. I was exposed to an incredible amount of information and the learning curve was steep, but I learned quickly the cadence of public company financial reporting and governance around the Board. We have had remarkably intelligent Board Members, from whom I learned a lot and with whom I still value and respect those relationships today. I was also exposed to the world of investor relations and learned what was important about our business and what set us apart from other companies. In addition, our President & CEO had a strong desire to have Deckers form a robust giving program that also encouraged our employees to donate. He wanted oversight of our giving program so that became part of my job. I had built some relationships with local nonprofits in my previous employment but nothing like what was to come. Over the course of my tenure at Deckers, I’ve held three roles simultaneously until the last five years when I stepped away from the C-Suite to focus on Deckers Gives. My role with the Board is also now being transitioned freeing me up to further focus on our global Deckers Gives program. It’s been a natural progression for me to this role as Director, Deckers Gives and one I’m passionate about. It’s not an easy job as we always want to do more, but one I take seriously, and I am proud of the impact we make with each of our brands and as a company.
How has your personal journey at Deckers, from an executive assistant to the Director of Deckers Gives, influenced your perspective on the importance of corporate philanthropy and employee engagement in giving back to the community?
The last 18 years have been an incredibly influential journey for me. Over those years, I’ve sat on nonprofit boards, many committees, spoken on countless panels, and have served as a board member of our local Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, as well as an advisory member of our local Business Giving Roundtable. These associations, as well as spending the time to build relationships with the nonprofit partners we have, have rounded out my learning. Aside from building the relationships that I have today, being part of the Business Giving Roundtable was probably the most influential experience. Each of us was able to share our respective company’s giving programs, influence and assist other companies to form giving programs, if they were absent of one, as well as bring in speakers on corporate philanthropy which enhanced the discussion of the importance of corporate giving. Without corporations’ support, nonprofits are then solely reliant on the generosity of private foundations and wealthy individuals. Corporations employ people and often those very people are reliant on the nonprofits that serve the community. I view it as an obligation for corporations to give back, knowing that they are profiting from the communities in which they operate. I have many friends who work for companies that have no giving program or don’t promote volunteering and they are disheartened. They all wish their companies did what Deckers does. It’s a great sense of pride for our employees that Deckers actually lives our value of “doing good and doing great” and encourages them to do so as well. This is our differentiator and one that draws people to want to work at Deckers. It’s the foundation for our culture.
The Art of Kindness event seems to be a cornerstone of Deckers Gives. Could you share with us how this initiative started and how it has evolved over the years?
In 2019 Adam Druckman and I took a trip back to New Hampshire to visit our friends at Timberland and to take part in their service event “Servapalooza” based on our CEO Dave Powers’ recommendation. He wanted us to experience what he had experienced during his days at Timberland. He was very proud of that service aspect while he was there and wanted to create it also at Deckers. While we had volunteer events, it wasn’t exactly what he knew we had the capability of doing. Adam and I left that visit so inspired and full of great ideas and how we could “Deckerize” a similar experience. In early 2020, Adam Druckman, Ben Wahler and I were discussing creating these company volunteer events on our own instead of continuing with the Backyard Collective, which we had done in previous years. We wanted to better engage our employees, keep it more local, as well as make it truly Deckers. Noodling on what service meant to our company, the conversation centered around kindness. After more conversations around branding our own service events, Adam coined “Art of Kindness” and it was born. April 2020, we had our first Art of Kindness event scheduled with 8 different in person projects coordinated around town for our entire company to volunteer. When COVID hit, we had to cancel those plans and rethink how we could still engage our employees. There were many obstacles along the way, yet I found many virtual opportunities that our team could still feel engaged and feel like they were making a difference. Once it opened up that we were able to come back to in person volunteering, and employees felt comfortable doing so again, AOK week has become a highly anticipated week.
As the Director of Deckers Gives, how do you inspire and engage employees to participate in the Art of Kindness event? What strategies have you found most effective in driving employee involvement?
Art of Kindness week is one that our employees now know the outcome. They know how they will feel after giving their time and energy to those who need uplifting. This is the driver of AOK, the mental boost we all get from living with purpose and seeing beyond ourselves. Our employees know that service is a cornerstone of our culture and often they haven’t been exposed to that before at previous companies. They are excited to participate, especially after experiencing their first volunteer experience. Strategies that are most effective in driving engagement really come from engaging the support of our Executive Leadership Team and upper management. By participating themselves as well as promoting participation across their teams, we see a big lift in participation. I also find that there is power in numbers, wanting to connect with colleagues in person, as well as finding fun things for them to do in our community. There is a fun and friendly competitive nature around AOK to see which team can achieve and log the most hours, but from the employee reflections, I think the greatest measurement of engagement, although intangible, comes from how they feel after volunteering. They catch “the bug” and want to do it again and again or more the next AOK. The flexibility to volunteer during the week whenever it works for them also leads to greater participation. There is also the freedom and encouragement for any employee to jump in and lead activities. Those are truly our AOK Champions and rally fellow employees to join.
Corporate social responsibility has become increasingly important to employees and consumers. How do you ensure that Deckers Gives remains relevant and addresses the evolving needs of the communities it serves?
Employees want to work for companies who are good corporate citizens. It’s a new generation of the workforce who says this is incredibly important to them. Who they align with personally is seen as a direct reflection of who they are. Consumers also want to ensure that they are supporting companies that make great products but who are socially responsible. The Deckers Gives program, along with the other two pillars of our ESG program – our sustainability and compliance initiatives and DEI efforts, is directly addressing that and both our employees and our consumers see that. We are a company that draws people in due to our values and outward display of responsibility.
Tell us about a particularly challenging situation you encountered while organizing an Art of Kindness event and how you and your team overcame it to achieve success.
The greatest challenge was getting AOK off the ground initially. While COVID sent us all home and apart and took the wind out of our sails for a bit, I took the time to figure out how to continue to engage our employees to volunteer together while everyone was physically separated. By offering some virtual opportunities as well as encouraging employees who weren’t on any lockdown to do simple walks around the neighborhood to clean up, we were able to come together as a team and still feel like we were doing good. Our initial AOK logged over 2600 volunteer hours. I considered that a huge win considering the year prior we reported just over 1,000 volunteer hours.
As a leader in corporate social responsibility, what advice would you give to other companies looking to establish or enhance their own giving-back programs?
My advice to other companies looking to establish or enhance their own giveback programs would be to first find someone passionate about being a servant leader – setting the example of being in service to employees as well as in service to nonprofit partners. You must have a heart for this and an understanding of what this means to your company. You need a leader to focus on the program and not just leave it up to a committee of people who may come and go. Each company’s why” could be different, so that should start at the Board and Executive level to determine why they would start a program. Is it to impact the lives of your employees and your company culture or is it to solve a need like hunger or housing that makes sense for your business? Or is it going back to being socially responsible corporate citizens, an obligation that the company feels a need to start to give back? All of those are determining factors of why a company would establish a program and fuel the fire to keep it going. For some companies, it makes sense to give only in-kind donations and for some, it makes sense to only give grants. Some companies may simply only be able to implement having their employees volunteer or mentor others. It can be small or it can be a robust program but, whatever seems to be the best fit for your company, just do something!
How does Deckers Gives integrate sustainability principles into its volunteering efforts and charitable initiatives?
For every AOK, we always promote beach, creek, or river cleanups, neighborhood trash pickup or some type of restoration project. Environmental projects align with our company’s values, which are aligned with our UNGC goals and bleed into our charitable giving. One of the pillars of our charitable giving program is environmental impact mitigation and our brands, namely UGG, Teva and Sanuk, have strong partnerships in that area. We have partnered with Surfrider Foundation several times for these cleanups, but often it’s our employees who gather their teams for an outing to clean up around their communities. All are very proud of the haul they bring in and so proud when passersby thank them for cleaning up. Our employees may just inspire someone watching to do the same. In addition, we always recommend employees donate gently worn footwear and clothing to extend the life of those items to avoid ending up in the landfill, and instead helping someone in need.
What are you most proud of when reflecting on the impact of Deckers Gives and the Art of Kindness event on the communities and causes it supports?
I am most proud of the impact that our giving program and AOK weeks have had on our company’s culture. Our company’s culture is my passion as I truly believe that sets us apart from other companies. It’s one of the things that makes Deckers a great place to work and enriches the lives of our employees, as well as those in our community who we impact with our service. Culture is what keeps people at Deckers and what draws new employees to come to work at Deckers. Companies can certainly have a negative culture as well, but when the cornerstone of your culture is based around service and kindness, there can only be positive coming from that. I’m also proud of the recognition and countless awards that have been bestowed upon Deckers for the great work we’ve done. We are seen as leaders in our communities for giving back and that lends to greater employee pride in our company. One can certainly argue our employees are happier and more productive due to the pride in our company and the part they play in our giveback. We have made great impacts on organizations in our communities during Art of Kindness with beautification projects, as well as donating products to those in need and issuing grants to enhance and support their programming.
As we celebrate Deckers’ 50th anniversary, what legacy do you hope Deckers Gives and the Art of Kindness event will leave behind in the years to come?
The legacy I hope that Deckers Gives and AOK leaves behind is one that continues long after all of us and grows beyond our imagination. Our intention is to have our giving budget grow, as our company’s revenue grows. My goal is to have a formal Deckers Charitable Foundation as we evolve and grow to that level. My vision for AOK is to have our employees continue to lead events around the world. While we are growing our company and hiring employees outside of the Santa Barbara area, I believe that we can have hubs of employees all over the US and cities around the globe doing exactly what we are doing here locally. It’s beyond me and what I can do, but together we can do great things and leave a legacy of working together in purpose for future generations of employees at Deckers. Sounds cliché but it’s true. The legacy we are leaving regarding our partners and suppliers as they continue to join us each AOK has an incredible impact on the lives of their employees and their families. It’s truly a domino effect that can be felt and seen now but can easily turn out to be one of immeasurable impact. I’d love to have both our City of Goleta and City of Santa Barbara make proclamations of Art of Kindness weeks as well and thus inspiring other companies to join in with their employees. Then we know we’ve truly left a legacy to our local community and impacted thousands more lives.
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