California Apparel News

Coty Valdez does most of her shopping for Seattle’s Moksha at the Pool Trade Show in Las Vegas. At the August 2004 run of the show, the boutique manager discovered Low, the Brea, Calif.–based company that is best known in the boardsports market for its graphic T-shirts. She added its men’s jeans and tees to her store’s stock of independent labels—including Industry, Brown Sound and Tank Theory—as well as consignments of local designers and artists.

If Low had not been at Pool, she would have missed it. Valdez never goes to Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo (ASR), the only other industry event in which Low has participated.

“We’re not catering to that kind of [boardsports] customer so much. If [Low’s] stuff is indicative of that, we wouldn’t go for that,” Valdez said. “They’re catching a larger audience, for sure.”

Low is not the only boardsports company that is jumping into Pool, which attracts boutiques such as Lisa Kline to its array of forward brands, which includes Fornarina and Evil Genius. At Pool’s February run, Low was joined by Split Clothing Inc., RVCA and Etnies Plus, all of whom credit the show for increasing their business with boutiques. Eric Thomas, sales manager at RVCA in Costa Mesa, Calif., said that, over the past year, boutiques have helped boost overall sales by approximately 25 percent.

Pool founder Ronda Walker, who worked as a sales representative for RVCA before founding her Los Angeles–based organization, said action-sports companies should not automatically leap into her show.

“We typically do not approve skate or surf lines at all,” she said. “If the skate and surf lines want to make boutique or better [apparel], that’s fine.”

The surf companies’ effort to connect with boutiques is “a good, solid growth strategy, particularly to reach girls,” according to Marie Case, managing director at market research firm Board-Trac in Trabuco Canyon, Calif. “They learned that girls don’t just shop at surf shops.”

The girls—especially the fashionistas—shop at boutiques. Luann Petix, marketing manager for Split’s juniors line in Irvine, Calif., said the company has not nailed down the boutique business yet. “We’re trying to establish ourselves as a fashion brand, not just a surf brand. So we really need to be where the fashionistas shop,” she said, adding that the company opened 40 new accounts at the recent Pool show.

In addition to Jill Roberts in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, Calif., and Villains in San Francisco, the juniors line is sold at Lilikoi in Newport Beach, Calif., and JEP in La Jolla, Calif. The collection is advertised in Teen Vogue, Cosmo Girl, Jane and other magazines aimed at fashion-conscious teenagers. For Fall 2005, Split is introducing chiffon in baby-doll dresses.

Split President Steve Pinkow said ASR and Surf Expo in Orlando, Fla., are the traditional venues for his company. He said he thinks Split will continue going to the three shows because of the good mix.

For RVCA, its Artist Network Program (ANP) enables it to break away from the boardsports pack. The skate and surf industries always have dabbled in art. Skateboard manufacturers have relationships with the artists who decorate the underside of skate decks. Many surfboard shapers are esteemed as sculptors. Thomas said there are currently 30 artists in ANP, and up to 15 of them contribute designs that are featured on clothing each season. For Fall 2005, RVCA offers appliqueacute;s of black-and-white skulls and flowers drawn by George Thompson on long-sleeved button-downs and incorporates embroideries designed by Caroline Hwang into skirts.

RVCA started going to Pool in August 2004. Thomas said RVCA is one of the higher-priced action-sports brands, charging, for instance, $34 wholesale for the Thompson shirt. He said 60 percent of RVCA’s sales come from boardsports shops, with the remainder coming from boutiques. He predicted that boutiques soon will make up half the business. “For us, [Pool] was the first step in reaching out to the boutique buyers, although we have done business for several seasons with the Fred Segals of the world,” he said.

Etnies Plus, the experimental extension of Sole Technology Inc.’s Etnies line, used Pool to launch the brand 18 months ago. “It’s definitely not ’action sports,’” said Yasemin Oktay, marketing communications director at Lake Forest, Calif.–based Etnies Plus. For starters, Etnies Plus offers high heels for women. “You will not see that in Etnies at all,” Oktay said.

Etnies Plus also uses progressive fabrications, including fluorescent-orange snakeskin and contrast stitching. Etnies Plus’ wholesale prices—$30 to $70 a pair—are higher than those for the flagship brand, which costs $20 to $50.

In addition to introducing Low to boutiques such as Moksha, Pool helped Brett Murdock redefine the brand. Murdock, who founded Low in 1997, said boutiques contribute 10 percent of his company’s approximately $250,000 in annual revenue. “They showcase a lot more of what I call art fashion brands, and that is what fits us,” he said of Pool.

SIMA Sets Surf Summit 2005 Plans

The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association is reaching outside of the surf sector into Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and established sports and apparel companies as it invites speakers to its eighth annual Surf Summit in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

The Aliso Viejo, Calif.–based trade organization said scheduled speakers at the May 12–15 conference will include skateboarding icon Tony Hawk, Hollywood director Rob Cohen, Nike Inc. sports marketer Chad Haws and Garage Technologies’ Guy Kawasaki, who was previously a branding evangelist at Apple Computer Inc. A spokesperson for SIMA said that by inviting people from outside the surf world, the organization can provide insight into how the fast-growing industry can approach branding and marketing. SIMA is considering arranging one-on-one interviews between a moderator and the speakers in front of an audience, the spokesperson said.

SIMA also will hold its third annual Image Awards during the conference. Selected by industry peers, the winners will be honored for the year’s best ad campaign, retailer, product innovation, board builder, women’s brand, manufacturer and buzz brand. In the top category of manufacturer of the year, the nominees are Billabong, O’Neill Clothing, Quiksilver Inc., Reef and Volcom.

Surf Summit is co-produced by TransWorld Media, the Oceanside, Calif.–based unit of Time Warner Co. Inc., which publishes TransWorld Surf, TransWorld Skateboarding and other magazines.

For more information, call Melinda Carter, SIMA event manager, at (949) 366-1164. Or call TransWorld Media’s Jardine Hammond at (760) 722-7777, Ext. 220.