Feet first: Piloti steps on the gas with shoes designed for drivers and race fans.

KEVIN Beard's mother told him that the first word he uttered as a baby was "Jaguar."

So it makes perfect sense to those close to Beard that he's melded his passion--racecars--with his profession, designing shoes. Beard, 45, designs driving shoes. His Westlake Village-based company, Piloti, sells an array of shoes not only for professional racecar drivers, but also for car collectors, amateur drivers and armchair enthusiasts.

After earning a degree in product design from Pasadena's Art Center College of Design in 1992 with the hope of creating the look of car interiors, Beard instead took a job designing shoes for Adidas. He followed that with stints at Reebok and K-Swiss. "I found out I was really good at it," Beard said. "It came really easily to me."

During his frequent business trips, he began to notice an increasing interest in car culture all over the world. He also real ized there hadn't been any advancements in racing shoes since the 1960s, and, unlike basketball or running shoes--which enthusiasts can wear casually--driving footwear wasn't made to be worn out of the race car.

"You either had traditional racing boots, which have a thin, leather outer sole and are very uncomfortable and very expensive, or you had a driving moccasin that's not really an athletic concept," Beard said.

In 1999, he left K-Swiss and combined his love of cars and his footwear design experience to create his own shoe. Beard designed and patented a spherical, "roll control" heel, which cushions a driver's heel bone. He determined the ideal thickness for the cushioning, which had to be thin enough to allow drivers to feel the nuances of the throttle pedal but thick enough to pad the foot. It was a combination many drivers had been seeking.

Ron Fellows, a driver who had suffered nerve damage in his right foot after being a pro racer for 13 years, said that there are two major issues that racing footwear must address.

"One is that the heat around the pedals is quite high, 160 degrees-plus on the pedals themselves. The other is the effort required to push the brake pedal, when you're feeling 900 or 1,000 pounds of pressure. That's a fair amount of leg torque. It puts a lot of strain on the ball of your foot," Fellows said.

Another driver introduced Fellows to Piloti shoes a few years ago and he's been wearing them ever since. "They've extended my driving career," Fellows said.

Celebrity boost

Beard and his freelance illustrator wife, D'Arlene, founded Piloti--which means "racing drivers" in Italian--with about $100,000 in 1999. They raised capital from friends and family, and even sold their 1971 Porsche 911. The company started with just one style, offered in two color schemes.

The Beards received a big break early, via a celebrity racing enthusiast who saw their ad in the program for the Monterey Historic, a weekend-long classic car event.

"David Letterman was our first customer," said Beard. "His assistant called and we actually made him up a pair ... before we even had production."

During that holiday season, Piloti began selling the shoes on its Web site and, mostly through word of mouth in the racing community and coverage in driving and racing magazines, began growing. The company has since teamed up with Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to become the track's official driving shoe and is a sponsor at several races and festivals throughout the year.

In addition to the Web site, which currently accounts for 20 percent of its sales, its shoes are available in race shops, upscale car dealerships and showrooms. "We're really careful. We want to protect the brand," Beard said. "The athletic industry is a nightmare. They're all about mark-down dollars. We don't deal with it."

Piloti now offers about 10 styles, which retail for $75 to $180 a pair. Its two shoes in the "Race Professional" line are fire-resistant and approved by the SFI Foundation, which sets standards for automotive and racing equipment. But since professional drivers only make up about 5 percent of Piloti's business, the company's real target market is the car and racing buff.

According to analyst Mitch Kummetz of D.A. Davidson & Co., while Piloti does enjoy brand recognition within the car enthusiast market, more mainstream brands such as Adidas and Diesel serve as tough competition.

"Piloti is definitely an authentic brand, a relevant brand, for the niche which they're trying to serve and there is a customer there," he said. "But that customer is also looking at a lot of other products."

Piloti has been operating in the red since it was founded, but expects to reach profitability this year. Its revenues grew 300 percent from 2004 to 2005, thanks in part to additional investment in staff, including the hiring of a chief financial officer.

"Kevin and I have been able to concentrate more on product and marketing and everything else that goes along with really building a brand and a company," said co-founder D'Arlene Beard.

Piloti

Year Pounded: 1999

Core business: Racing shoes for pros and enthusiasts

2004 Employees: 4

2006 Employees: 10

Goal: To create a lifestyle brand and make Piloti a one-stop shop for car culture shoes and apparel

Driving farce: The need for special shoes worn by race car drivers and racino enthusiasts