Locals Only

The fashion elite’s ivory tower began crumbling decades ago with the digital boom. Now imagine still operating from the scaffolding—no, ruins—of that tower as if it was still structurally sound. 

While the surf industry would like to think it exists outside of fashion, they produce apparel all the same. They’re also subjected to the same industry globalization that’s democratized who influences and shapes the trends and even narrative.

When the $1.2 billion sale of Huntington Beach-based Boardriders to Authentic Brands Group closed in September, two big names in the legacy surf industry – Paul Naude and Bob Hurley – were afforded the space to write a joint narrative for an action sports trade site called Shop Eat Surf. 

Naude is credited with establishing Australia-based Billabong International Ltd.’s North America business, made a go at buying the entire business when it was struggling and later founded multi-brand operator Stokehouse Unlimited. Hurley, meanwhile, started his namesake surf label, sold it to Nike Inc. for an undisclosed sum and in 2020 launched investor-operator Kandui Holdings with some members of his family. 

The duo’s statement rang of a few Chicken Little themes that, in a nutshell, pointed out how many of the old brands in surf—some of which the two led in past lives—have been in decay for some time and apparel licensing is a model fraught with inherent greed for royalties the industry must shun. 

For those unfamiliar, the Boardriders group and deal Naude and Hurley came off as critical of is the successor to Quiksilver Inc. The entity consists of nearly all of the largest legacy names in surf and skate apparel and technical gear—Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element, VonZipper and Honolua. They employ the largest workforce within the industry and account for the largest share of floor space at industry specialty retail. 

These brands are now transitioning to a licensing model under their new parent, Authentic Brands. 

“The scale and number of licensed brands we’re about to experience in our market is unprecedented, likely accelerating the devaluation of authentic surf for a while,” Naude and Hurley opined.  

Fair point if one assumes all licensees are bad news for brands or that “authentic surf” is in better hands with surfers. 

Hurley and Naude, the latter of whom was described by the reporter in the preamble to their piece as “not a fan of outsiders and non-surfers running surf companies,” then used the platform to toot their own horn about a new partnership they’re calling Modern Surf Alliance. 

The alliance was created to offer a “modern, premium expression” of the sport and lifestyle. 

No questions by the site that chose to run their emailed statements were asked about how they will go about accomplishing that or whether the current brick-and-mortar space they have for their respective brands—Vissla, owned by Naude’s Stokehouse, and Florence Marine X, owned by Hurley’s Kandui— in Manhattan Beach is generating strong sales under this informal partnership. They were simply allowed to publicly kick a bunch of brands, upon which hundreds of jobs and athlete sponsorships are still tied. There’s nothing like being an employee at a company where morale has already been eroded by layoffs (Boardriders ended several rounds at the end of last month) and then have that further disintegrate when two big industry names say you’re working at a sinking ship. 

Their sentiments would have carried more weight had they not assumed we’re all rookies to industry history. 

Let’s refresh here. 

Hurley sold the Hurley brand in 2002 to Nike Inc., placing the surf label in the hands of a “non-endemic” business. Naude was critical of the deal at the time because it involved non surfers. Nike would later unload Hurley to New York brand management firm Bluestar Alliance in 2019 for an undisclosed sum, placing the brand that much farther away from the hands of a surfer. Hurley no longer has a role in the Hurley brand. 

Naude, for his part, led Billabong through a series of acquisitions that allowed the business to balloon, some might say, to unhealthy heights—a partial trigger for the business troubles that ultimately pushed what was then Billabong International Ltd. onto the sales block. 

In fact, former Billabong International CEO Neil Fiske said as much to investors in 2014, amid a multi-year turnaround effort: “Simply put, we were trying to do too many things and doing none of them particularly well.”

By the time of Fiske’s observation, the Billabong International portfolio housed Billabong, RVCA, Element and Nixon among several other divisions. The operations had become untenable, saddled with too many brands, too much debt and too many changes in the consumer landscape. The financials over the years draws a picture of the challenges in taking boutique brands global under investor pressures to grow as a public company. 

Naude and Hurley’s Modern Surf Alliance is interesting in so much as its founders are humbled enough to acknowledge the market and consumer have changed in such profound ways from the times of their predecessor businesses. That is, globalization of ideas and fashion styles run counter to the “us versus them” mentality so pervasive within a large segment of the surf apparel industry. 

One could say surf brands have always had premium product when it comes to what they offer the core surfer: wetsuits and boardshorts. It’s why Dior tapped Vissla earlier this year for a wetsuit collaboration that elicited heckling from some surf diehards about an “industry brand” teaming with an outside luxury business. 

Still, beyond product for surfers, everyday apparel design innovation among the larger surf brands has been lacking for some time. Each season, many of these brands push the same line sheets with the obligatory flannel button-ups, short-sleeve button ups, chino pants and barrage of logo T-shirts. They toil away in their own world where industry talent mostly stays within the industry and broader trends in fashion and, more importantly, the consumer are largely ignored. 

This new alliance cooked up between Naude and Hurley looks to rally the industry and return it to the glory days of the 80s and 90s. Remember Op’s corduroy shorts that appealed to surfer and non-surfer alike? They were a cultural phenomenon and helped grow the company’s revenue to about $400 million at its peak. 

The idea that scale can be repeated in a far more fickle consumer market? It seems farfetched when the surf brands long ago shelved that image of outlaws living on the beach (so integral to their brands) for more upscale, comfortable and sterile branding where many executives want questions ahead of press interviews and sic their PR firms on reporters to simply help peddle product.

“We both share a vision for the future and feel a strong responsibility to encourage the next generation of leaders, retailers and brands alike to seek authentic, creative fresh solutions,” Naude and Hurley’s catharsis went on to read.  

They continued: “We wholeheartedly believe it [the surf lifestyle] will be interpreted again through a modern lens, where like-minded brands and retailers combine together through innovative efforts to create a premium, authentic experience. Vissla and Florence are fully committed to pursuing such a worthy endeavor, with other premium brands joining the conversation as we move forward.” 

Is surf in a cycle of history repeating in the next upcycle? It’s doubtful we’ll see any acquisition sprees in the near future with rates what they are, or industry brands tapping the public markets perhaps ever again. 

Our money’s on the industry’s once emerging brands as the disruptors ripe to help redefine surf and reach the modern consumer. They’ve carved a space in a crowded market for themselves, largely on their own all these years in the shadows of the Billabongs and Quiksilvers.

There’s Rhythm for its roots in surf that’s found relevance in fashion boutiques (and is on its way to $50 million in sales by 2026, per the aforementioned trade site) and Katin for its manufacturing prowess (on a streak, doubling its business each year for more than a decade). Perhaps more in the category of contender with some obstacles to overcome is Haydenshapes for its attempts to take founder Hayden Cox’s love for design and materials science from surfboards to luxury ready-to-wear. (This one’s early days and there are some logistical kinks to work out, but Cox’s designs are noteworthy.) 

It’s been an interesting run for the surf industry over the past several decades, built with a scrappy, DIY mentality that created true lifestyle brands decades ago. But the insularity overriding many an internal corporate culture within the industry has smacked of a locals only mentality that should be left at the beach, if at all. It’s no way to run a business and most certainly not a modern one.