Riding the Waves of Young Men's Fashions
Quiksilver Inc. opened a new kind of men’s store Aug.16 at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif. The boutique, named Quiksilver, will showcase the surfwear giant’s most fashion-forward young men’s clothes.
The 1,600-square-foot store features lines rarely seen at the company’s Quiksilver Boardriders Club stores. One of the premier lines is the art-driven QuikJean, which will be renamed Quik Limited for Spring 2006. It features slim-cut T-shirts that rarely use the logo-driven graphics of the shirts sold at the Boardriders Club. Retail price points for Quiksilver T-shirts range from $16 to $22. QuikJean T-shirts start at $29.
Executives at Quiksilver, based in Huntington Beach, Calif., have not decided whether they will build more young men’s stores, said Gregg Solomon, senior vice president of retail.
“Right now, the boutique is a place to show the company’s best designs for young men, and good sales are forecast. We’re hoping for a strong opening with Back-to-School,” Solomon said. “It’s in the prime time for our demographic, 16- to 25-year-olds.”
Solomon declined to give exact sales figures.
The look of the store was inspired by the architecture of skate ramps. The space was designed by Steve Jones, Quiksilver’s vice president of visual display, and Clive Wilkinson Architects in Los Angeles. Paneling covering the walls and ceiling was made of plywood similar to the material used for skate ramps. Ruben Smudde, the Clive Wilkinson project manager, said the store’s interior is shaped like a tunnel to draw clients to the back of the store, where surf and skate movies will be screened.
Young menswear has been performing well for the company. The sale of men’s products in the company’s Americas division increased 47 percent to $97.1 million in the three-month period ending April 30. That’s up $66 million from the same period last year. Much of that boost is credited to the 2004 purchase of DC Shoes and to growth in the Quiksilver young men’s division. —Andrew Asch
