[1] Both Carroll and Howard decided that they wanted to make a contribution to the skate footwear industry by founding their own company rather than being sponsored.

[2] One night in April 1999, while at Largo Comedy Club in Los Angeles, Tim Gavin proposed an idea to Howard about starting a new shoe company.

[3][full citation needed] In August 1999, Carroll contacted Cairo Foster and asked him if he would like to ride for his “unnamed” shoe company.

When Foster called his current sponsor to quit, he said, "Mike Carroll asked me to ride for his shoe company, that’s all I know."

By May 2000, the first line of Lakai shoes ("Howard", "Carroll", "Cohort", "Clay", and "Worthy") were delivered to shops worldwide.

In June 2000, after filming together for Transworld's Modus Operandi, Carroll asked Brandon Biebel to join Lakai.

In April 2001, Scott Johnston's debut pro model was released, and Danny Garcia joined the team.

In January 2004, Lucas Puig and JB Gillet joined the team, and with Rousseau officially formed the subgroup called "The French Connection".

In May 2004, the first ever co-brand shoe with Girl Skateboards was released, paving the way for several more notable collaborations, including the series "The Art Dump", "Dominion", "Wrench Pilot", "The Quiet Life", and "Where the Wild Things Are".

Jesus Fernandez also joined the team, as well as Brits, Nick Jensen, and Danny Brady, who were dubbed "The Royal Family".

In July 2006, Danny Garcia was the first skateboarder to leave Lakai, and moved onto his next shoes sponsor, éS Footwear.

Mike Mo was officially announced as a team amateur (AM) in August 2006, and Guy Mariano received his first pro model shoe.

Johnston told ESPN: "... that was my plan, to end on a good note and not bleed this career dry the way some guys do by not letting it go.

In March 2008, Alex Olson and Anthony Pappalardo decided to part ways with Lakai in pursuit of footwear opportunities with Vans and Converse CONS.

After adding names such as Stevie Perez, Jon Sciano, Ronnie Sandoval, and Miles Silvas, a meeting was held at Spike Jonze's house in early 2014.

Throughout the filming for the video, the team went through massive changes as riders left the company, including Miles Silvas, Ronnie Sandoval, Brandon Biebel, and most notably, Guy Mariano and Marc Johnson.

Lakai brand manager Kelly Bird and shoe designer Scott Johnston left the company in 2015.

[5] Amateur riders such as Cody Chapman, Simon Bannerot, Tyler "Manchild" Pacheco, Yonnie Cruz, James Capps, Nico Hiraga, and Johnny Jones joined the company, as well as veteran pro Rick McCrank.

In 2014, Lakai left Girl Distribution and joined HUF under Renegade Brands, an Altamont Capital portfolio company.

[8] Shortly after Inversal's acquisition, founders Mike Carroll and Rick Howard, along with the Lakai skate team, were released from the brand.

Similar to the other brands distributed by Girl, Lakai has received a considerable level of attention for its video productions.

[10][11][12][13][14] Source:[15] Lakai's first release was a short video of a tour through Australia and New Zealand, featuring original riders Brandon Biebel, Rick Howard, Jeff Lenoce, Anthony Pappalardo, Scott Johnston, and Rob Welsh.

The tour also included lensman Ty Evans, team manager Kelly Bird, art director Andy Mueller, and photographer Mike O' Meally.

It introduced Marc Johnson to the team, as well as offered a sneak peek of flow riders JJ Rousseau and Lucas Puig, who were later dubbed "The French Connection" in Fully Flared.

Although not all riders were present on the trip (such as Cairo Foster and Danny Garcia), those who were absent were included in a team montage at the end of the video.

The focus of the video was to document tour life, showcasing a behind-the-scenes look at travelling, injuries, packed signings, and a huge number of demos.

The video was shot by Ty Evans and Dan Wolfe, with photography by Atiba Jefferson, and was released on VHS in June 2002.

The video had an enormous amount of hype surrounding it, mostly due to high-profile riders such as Eric Koston being added to the team, a rumored 13-minute Marc Johnson part, the return of Guy Mariano, and a release date that was pushed back multiple times throughout 2005–2007.

Riders quickly became accustomed to the "Motel 6 tour life"—finding things like used condoms and cockroaches in their hotel room, living off gas station food, spending hours on the road, peeing in bottles, fixing spots, and staying up all day and night filming for the video.

At the time of release, the only riders left from Fully Flared were Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, Danny Brady, and Jesus Fernandez.