“Surf Brands Face Wipe-Out After Falling Off Wave of Popularity” | Worst headline + truth?
How is that headline! Do you love it?
Surf brands could do no wrong in the 80’s. Money was being pumped out hand over fist even though brands didn’t really know what they were doing and some were (allegedly) still fronts for drug smuggling operations. Then brands got greedy and tried to compete with fashion brands to build surf brands into multi-billion dollar grands. Ever stop to think that true surf brands shouldn’t be multi-billion dollar brands? Surfing just isn’t big enough and you’re going to water it down as Quiksilver and Billabong and a few others found out the hard way.
One of the bright lights of the surf industry seems to be Rip Curl who “avoids being dragged out to sea” by Neil Ridgway – chief brand and marketing officer – and his insistence on Rip Curl playing the long game of supporting core surfing. Can’t go wrong by staying classic, sticking to the surf roots, and not jumping on the latest trend. As Neil said in the article:
“Profit comes naturally, it’s as a result of good business and good product and good marketing. We could make $30 million more profit overnight by not sponsoring surfing events, and not sponsoring world champions like Tyler Wright and Mick Fanning, and not sponsoring thousands of kids around the world.”
Click to ABC NEWS for the laughably bad headline “Surf Brands Face Wipe-Out After Falling Off Wave of Popularity” and all that it entails.
(peace out billionaire surf brands, rides over.)
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