Steve James is a 28 year old avid skater who grew up surrounded by Hip-Hop and it's evolving lifestyle. After landing a job designing skateboard decks for the highly successful Tech Decks toy line, he pitched an idea for his own toy line "Souljahs," a line of pint sized action figures and play sets that reflect the cast of characters and neighborhoods he saw in everyday life.

ThaFormula.Com - You have your hand in a wide variety of projects, from skateboard design to action figures, tell me a little about your background and how you became interested in design...

 Steve James - I started off watching cartoons and drawing comic books when I was little. I got interested in skating because of the deck art. Then I started skating and designing my own boards and t-shirts for fun. I've always been into actions figures since I was a little kid I always wanted to design my own figures. 

ThaFormula.Com - What lines did you collect? 

Steve James - Transformers, He-Man, G.I. Joe & Star Wars.

ThaFormula.Com - Aside from co-owning Finesse Skateboards and apparel with your brother, you are also are a graphic design artist for XConcepts, the company behind the Tech Deck toys, how do you find time to do both?

Steve James - It's tough some days, but I have a very supportive wife and daughter who help me manage my time. Some days it's a lot of running around but I enjoy what I do!

ThaFormula.Com - What kind of media do you do your designs on? Are they hand drawn and then brought into the computer, or are they all done in the computer?

Steve James - They are hand-drawn and then put into the computer.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you draw in pencil or ink and what kind programs do you render the pictures in?

Steve James - I sketch them in pencil, then I take the drawings into illustrator and convert the sketches into line art.

ThaFormula.Com - Your latest project is a collaboration between XConcepts and Finesse, a new line of micro action figures called Souljahs, tell me about the idea and concept behind them...

Steve James - It started off with a few characters I had drawn for Finesse. I pitched the idea to XConcepts to do miniature figures. The concept of the characters comes from people that I have seen on the streets through my years of skating.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you get interested in skating?

Steve James -Just looking at all the art on the boards in skate mags really. A friend of mine from the school days use to give me all these skate mags to look at. From there I got hooked on skateboarding and I started skating and haven't put the board down since.

ThaFormula.Com - The hip-hop influence is definitely obvious through the characters you created (DJ Bad News, etc), who were some of your favorite artists, and who are you feeling now?

Steve James - My favorite artists right now are Nas and Mase, those dudes are speaking the truth to the communities right now, I really dig them.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you come up with the names and characteristics of the figures?

Steve James - I came up with the names from family and people I grew up with. Where I'm from it seems that everyone has a nickname. That was one of the fun parts of this project.

ThaFormula.Com - Obviously they bear a resemblance to the Homies figures in size and concept. To be honest, I'm surprised no one including the people behind Homies themselves didn't create a line similar to yours a lot sooner, what kind of influence did the Homies line have on yours if any?

Steve James - I liked the concept of what the creator of Homies did to put out something for his people. I wanted to do the same for my people.

ThaFormula.Com - Lately I've noticed a lot more action figures geared towards the urban market, clothing manufacturers like Ecko are producing figures in their gear as are a few others with the Citizens line also from XConcepts, what do you attribute the sudden growth to?

Steve James - The Hip-Hop culture is very dominant right now in a lot of areas and it's a voice for the urban culture. From music, clothes, movies and now toys.

ThaFormula.Com - In the toy business, scale is a major factor. There's 3-3/4" (like star wars) 5" (like he-man) and then 5" and beyond (Mcfarlane), how did you decide to run with the 2" line?

Steve James - We looked at a lot of different scales but the 2-inch scale had a lot of attitude.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, I like that they are small. It kind of encourages collect ability and trading. I can see kids sneaking a handful in their pockets and trading 'em at recess…

Steve James - Yeah I can see that we used to bring G.I. Joes to school in our pockets, so I can see kids doing that.

ThaFormula.Com - We're living in a different time now, and people are really sensitive to stereotypes and caricatures. I'm not sure if there was any backlash from the Hispanic community about their depiction in the Homies line, but I can see it happening with them or your figures as well, has that been an issue at all?

Steve James - I've showed these figures to my family and people on the streets and everyone I have showed them to were really into them and told me they would like to see more stuff like this out there because there isn't enough. The people I've shown Souljahs to, said they can see a lot coming from this To keep it up! Some retailers passed on the Souljahs line and that reason I believe is because of their lack of knowledge of how big the Hip-Hop/urban market is and exactly how many people are into collecting toys like this. It takes a while for some retailers to understand.

ThaFormula.Com - What's the marketing process behind Souljahs like, because I have a son and we hit all the toy shops, and shows and honestly I don't see many other people of color shopping for collectible toys, was that a factor you considered when creating the line?

Steve James - Yeah, you don't see a lot of brothers out there buying toys for themselves that's for sure, but I 'm pretty sure they would if it was some toy out there they could relate to. If they saw a toy figure that looked like their cousin or some dude they see on the street corner every morning they would be into it, but I only see a few companies out there that are doing it, but I'm sure we will start seeing more of these companies popping up in the future.

ThaFormula.Com - The press release said something about a small bio being included with each figure but I didn't see one on the ones I received, what happened to that?

Steve James - All the bios will be coming soon on the website of each figure.

ThaFormula.Com - Oh ok. You're also making scenes, or play sets as well like "The Porch" and "The Spot" (a street corner), talk a little about those and how you chose them and what others you may have in the future…

Steve James - Those scenes are things people can relate to, brothers are always hanging on the street corner or on their porch just having a good time. Some other future scenes to look for are the barbershop and the basketball court, those things are gonna be hot!

ThaFormula.Com - Do you have any plans for any additional lines in the future?

Steve James - I've got a few concept projects in the works that I would like to do in the future.

ThaFormula.Com - I can already see it ahead that if Souljahs catches on, people would love to see a cartoon, have you considered animating your designs?

Steve James - I would love to animate some of my designs if the opportunity was there.

ThaFormula.Com - What stores or websites can we find Souljahs in?

Steve James - You can find Souljahs at KB Toys, Fred Myers, Tower Records, Techdeck.com and microicons.net.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, I saw the play sets at Tower Records yesterday, they came out great. I recall you mentioning Wal-Mart may be picking them up soon, how is that looking?

Steve James - It looks pretty good but nothing solid yet.

ThaFormula.Com - What's next for you and Finesse?

Steve James - Right now I'm working on new graphics for Finesse, we just got two big name pro skateboarders, so I'm getting the '05 line together. You can Check out www.finesseproducts.com to find about more about the products and the team.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you have anyone you like to acknowledge, or anything else you'd like to add?

Steve James - I wanna thank my family for supporting me over the years and what I'm doing, my wife Crystal & daughter Hayley, my brothers Rod and Craig, XConcepts, the Finesse crew, all my friends and God for watching and blessing me on my everyday walk.

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