The History Of Surfwear – The 2000s
2000s – The Beach Lifestyle And Rise Of Online
In the new millennium surf brands increased their franchising of fashionable lifestyles: from their own DVDs and high street outlets, to music festivals on the beach, the good times lifestyle extended well beyond the beach – surfwear was spreading. In 2000 Tigerlily swimwear appeared in Australia as a brand focused on fashion; later bought by surfwear giant Billabong in 2007.
There were further significant garment improvements, to boardshorts in particular: better fabric comfort came from stretch properties, the use of laser cut materials, and electro-welded stitchless-seams that still maintained high durability. Boardshorts would be lighter and stronger. They did away with Velcro-fastening – that was felt as hard squares of fabric which could entangle pubic hair – replaced with a stretch-fly. Hurley was granted a patent on their ‘EZ Fly’ closure for boardshorts in 2001 (Quiksilver granted their version in 2007), and with front draw strings made the most comfortable boardshort yet. Hurley’s Phantom fabric use of a one piece gusset avoided the need for an inner leg seam, so less chance of rubbing against the inner thigh.
Rip Curl’s STL boardshorts (code for ’stitchless’) came from feedback from top surfers that the most common complaint about boardshorts was the stitched seams being irritating and uncormfortable against the ski. Using laser cut fabric and seams electro-welded together, they did away with friction or irritation from seams, allowing greater comfort. Offered with a lifetime guarantee on the seams, Rip Curl was confident of its 100% stitchless, super light weight, and now very stretchy shorts – they even had a silicon lace for better grip in the wet or dry.
Hurley was bought by Nike in 2002, four years after going alone from, and not renewing its licence with, Billabong. Surfwear companies grew larger, and bought up smaller brands so they could conquer more lifestyles. In 2004 Speedo joined force with Brazilian designer Rosa Cha to give their swimwear a new style and edge. Speedo is owned by sports and fashion brand management company Pentland Group (along with other brands including Ellesse and Ted Baker), illustrating how modern brands are managed as fashion brands.
By the end of the decade the global surfwear industry was worth over £15bn a year. The three leading surfwear brands controlled 70% of the global market: Quiksilver (the first $1b sales surf brand) and Billabong, both based in California, and Rip Curl in Australia (where they ALL originated). Surf brands were corporate companies: Billabong owned other brands including Element Von Zipper Kustom and Nixon watches (and is itself now owned by Nike). Volcom is an example of a lifestyle-brand, purposely managed to appeal across surfing skating and snowboarding. The merging of brands across sports activities means surfwear became difficult to define, but remains characterised by the lifestyle it represents.
During the decade surf companies rushed to get online, with a rise of online surf shops and online commerce, putting pressure on stores and their high costs. In 2009 during the recession UK surf clothing sales suffered as high street stores offered only high prices. O’Neill in the UK (licenced by Blacks) went bust trying to mix shelf-space with outdoors clothes. Surfwear.co.uk innovated the industry, with all leading surf and swimwear brands at their lowest prices for easy comparison of cheap surfwear and surf shop sales.
Surfwear has continued to evolve in clear steps of function, innovation and fashion, under the influence of the media, military and technology – all the time sharing with it’s swimwear sibling. Then online technology and the Internet changed the way surf clothes are marketed and sold, found and bought.
NEXT: The 2010s – Now And The Future
Back: The 1990s – Ladies, Stitching, And The Modern Uniform
