New Look, New Line, New Job
Girls4Sport launches
Girls4Sport, a girls’ surfwear and surf accessory line based in Santa Cruz, Calif., is hoping to build some cachet among female surfers with its unique rash-guard designs for women.
The company, which was founded last year by Gary Macbeth and avid surf fans Kim Ruby and Leanne Riem, offers a broad selection of surfwear for women.
Ruby, the president of the company, said the line strives to provide female surfers with a durable selection of extreme surfwear.
The line, which bowed last month at the Action Girl Sports trade show in Long Beach, Calif., has unique features such as builtin shelf bras and coordinating bottoms. Halter cuts and midriffbaring sleeveless tops can be paired with boy briefs, boardshorts and bikini bottoms. The line’s fabrication, which is made with nylon/spandex, comes in brightly colored swirl patterns.
The line is sold as separates with wholesale price points that range from $12.50 for bikini and boy-brief bottoms to $17.50 for short-sleeved rash guards.
Girls4Sport is counting on crossover appeal in other sports segments—such as water-skiing, scuba diving and triathlons— to launch the company into the six-figure range.
Buyers include Becker Surf stores, Surf Country in Santa Barbara, Calif., and Agna in San Francisco. The company predicts sales will reach $300,000 by the end of the year, Ruby said.
Knight in at Boardsportjobs.com
Richard Knight has been named vice president of sales and marketing at Boardsportjobs.com, the official job board for the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association.
The site, which officially launched prior to last January’s Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo, has generated more than 4 million hits with 800,000 page views, according to SIMA spokeswoman Megan Hjermstad. Roughly 88 companies have registered to search the site’s database of job seekers.
In his new position, Knight will be responsible for building and maintaining a contact base for job candidates and employers.
“Adding Richard to our team gives us a tremendous opportunity to accelerate Boardsportjobs.com’s growth and evolution as an increasingly valuable resource for the action-sports community,” said Tom Pezman, chief executive officer of Tom Pezman & Associates, an executive search and personnel recruiting agency that operates Boardsportjobs.com in partnership with SIMA. “Richard’s many years of industry experience and extensive depth of knowledge make him a very important part of our strategy for growth.”
Knight has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the action-sports industry. Most recently he was vice president of sales with Redsand in Encinitas, Calif. He also held sales management positions with athletic-footwear companies Adidas and Nike Inc. Prior to that, he worked as an independent sales rep for boardsports brands, including Billabong, Arnette and Hawaiian Island Creations. His retail experience includes sales and marketing positions with Newport Surf and Sport and Hobie Sports.
“I’m very excited to be joining the boardsports industry’s premier job board,” Knight said. “Boardsportjobs.com has the opportunity to provide a growing variety of joband career-related services to corporate management, retailers, sales reps and job seekers throughout the industry.”
