RVCA Founder Pat Tenore Teases New Brand Tenore

It’s official. Pat Tenore is on to a new brand: Tenore. 

After growing speculation the RVCA founder was on to a new business, the designer and entrepreneur confirmed it on social media this month. 

“Tenore HQ starting to feel like home,” Tenore wrote in an Instagram post featuring photos of himself with rapper YG and MMA fighter Nate Diaz in the new office. 

The post marks the first time Tenore has publicly acknowledged the business.

He appears to be picking up where RVCA left off – minus a corporate parent – with art adorning the headquarter walls and workout equipment, some of which bears the Tenore mark. 

The new brand has a website landing page, although no merchandise is listed. The tag line “Highest of the Ordinary” also appears on the site.  

An October trademark filing for Tenore indicated plans to place the brand on a wide assortment of products, including boxing and martial arts equipment, wetsuits, helmets, eyewear, jewelry, apparel and fragrance. It’s an assortment that could have Tenore running up against his former business in a test of whether RVCA can continue on without its visionary founder.

The Tenore trademark is still pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

Choice Words

Tenore left his former brand in September as part of a layoff round at RVCA. 

Several months earlier, in July, he offered a very public critique of the incoming RVCA ownership, staging an exhibition called “Exit Through the Surf Shop.” 

The Costa Mesa event drew a large crowd from the industry, along with artists, athletes, friends and family of Tenore. 

Spread across the exhibition venue were pieces of art, installations and even the boxing ring and MMA cage that had at one time decorated the walls and training facility of RVCA headquarters. The office is currently on the market for sale and lease. 

A flyer for the show featured RVCA and several other brands’ logos floating on tombstones in the ocean. “That’s All Folks” was scrawled at the bottom of the poster. 

Authentic Brands Group bought RVCA parent Boardriders for $1.25 billion in a deal finalized in September. The acquisition also included RVCA sister brands, such as Roxy, Element, Quiksilver and Billabong. 

RVCA Haight Ashbury Closing? 

“That’s All Folks” and Porky the Pig are part of another flyer circulated for an event at the RVCA store in San Francisco’s famed Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. 

The store hosted a friends and family group art show last week, with artists in the show describing it online as the its last ever. 

RVCA opened the Haight flagship in 2007, marking its entry into brick-and-mortar with a splashy and historic location. The store underwent a retrofitting in 2018, reopening its doors the following year. It’s played host to several exhibitions and community events since its opening.