Fast Times at Beach Bums
Beach Bums is on the move. In the past three years, the privately owned Anaheim, Calif.–based activewear retailer jumped from a two-store operation to 14 boutiques. Chief Executive Cliff Haddadin said he senses more opportunities will be coming up. “There’s still room for somebody like us on the market,” he said.
The next Beach Bums is scheduled to open in mid 2007 at The District at Tustin Legacy shopping center in Tustin, Calif. Like the 14 other stores in the growing chain, it should be wellstocked with a new vanguard of surf-and-skate brands, including Obey, RVCA, KREW and Volcom.
These brands’ latest fashions also fill the newest Beach Bums boutique, a 4,000-square-foot space that opened Nov. 24 in Whittier, Calif., 31 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The most popular items for Beach Bums’ core customers, aged 12 to 25, are hoodies by Costa Mesa, Calif.–based Volcom. The retail price points range from $60 to $80. Even though the weather was unseasonably hot during the last quarter of 2006, Todd Kellogg, Beach Bums’ marketing and production chief, said he isn’t surprised by the hoodies’ burgeoning popularity when the heat seems to demand that people wear nothing more than shorts and T-shirts. “It’s a fashion statement,” Kellogg explained.
Yet these hoodies are just as big on function as they are on fashion. Many of the hooded sweaters are made out of lightweight materials seemingly prescribed for California, including thin cotton and terry cloth.
—Andrew Asch
