Over at Business of Fashion, Lauren Sherman has a good piece about how indie surf brands have risen to the forefront in the past few years. This rise comes counter to the steep downturn of brands like Billabong and Quiksilver, once industry vanguards who have seen sales dip as fast-fashion has become king. While surfing's big brands have stumbled, smaller ones have blown up.
Saturdays Surf NYC may be the most well-known example of this. What started as a makeshift coffee shop and retail space that stocked a bunch of third party brands has turned into a behemoth with two New York stores, three more in Japan and expansion plans for even more down the road. The brand is even stocked at Colette and Bloomingdale's and is planning to launch a grooming line. Soon, living the Saturdays lifestyle won't just mean grabbing a coffee and cigarette in their courtyard.
Then there's Cuisse de Grenouille and Lost Weekend, both young brands, the former starting in Paris and the latter based in New York. Both make the sort of faded graphic tees and lighter color styles that surfers champion. Yet, despite brand identities that are intrinsically tied to the sport, none of these labels make any actual surf gear like wetsuits or boards. Leaving tech to the big boys, independent surf brands have flourished off of purely selling their customers a specific lifestyle.
The main thing these new surf brands have to look out for though is authenticity. As you can imagine, surfers are a bit squirrely when it comes to brands adopting their aesthetic. Stay true to the culture, brah.
