California Apparel News

ORLANDO, Fla.—Always the surf/skate industry’s more business-minded show, Surf Expo offered a hot commodity this season: information.

This was the first time members of the surf/skate industry gathered en masse since news broke of disappointing holiday sales, corporate restructuring and key brands dropping out of competing show Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo. Surf Expo buyers infused the aisles with plenty of speculation and scuttlebutt.

The hottest rumor was the alleged purchase of Huntington Beach, Calif.–based Quiksilver’s DC shoe brand by Greensboro, N.C.–based apparel giant VF Corp. Executives at Quiksilver did not respond to requests for comment. Paul Mason, director of corporate communications at VF, said the company would “not offer comment on rumors and speculation.”

Sources said that at a recent financial conference in Southern California, Robert Shearer, VF’s chief financial officer, was asked by an analyst if the company had an interest in acquiring Quiksilver. While he declined to directly answer the question, Shearer reportedly said that Quiksilver’s brands were in keeping with VF’s interest in expanding its outdoor brand base. He also noted that VF had the funding available to make such a purchase

There was even more news about Quiksilver and VF Corp. reverberating around the show floor. Quiksilver’s executive ranks have thinned, most recently with the departures of long-time executive Marty Samuels, who left his post as president of Quiksilver’s Americas business, and Carol Christopherson, whose post as president of Roxy was eliminated. DC is the only one of Quiksilver’s brands that will be represented at the upcoming ASR show. VF—which owns Reef, Vans and The North Face among others—said on Jan. 14 that it had plans to cut costs by $100 million in 2009 but offered no specifics on how it planned to reach the goal. Reef recently let go of a significant portion of its staff and licensed its women’s apparel and swimwear categories in a bid to reposition the brand and cut costs.

Adding fuel to the speculation was VF’s new focus on the action-sports industry. Announced on Jan. 20, the latest news is that VF has split its outdoor “coalition” of brands and created an Action Sports Americas division. Stephen Murray, Vans’ president, has been named president of Action Sports Americas, which includes Reef and Vans brands. The goal of the new corporate arrangement is to “align our coalition structure to best capture future opportunities in these industries,” said Eric Wiseman, VF’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Held Jan. 15–17 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., Surf Expo seemed slower than in recent years, and several California brands opted not to make the trek east. Categories represented on the show floor included exhibitors from the surf, skate and swim industry as well as souvenir, gift, resort, spa, body products, home and women’s apparel vendors.

Show executives estimate attendance at the show was flat with the same show last year, though final results were unavailable at press time.

Still, while sales reps caught up in impromptu dishing sessions in the aisles (hot topics included a laundry list of suffering retailers; which designers/executives are playing musical chairs; and which brands are taking alternate strategies to trade shows), buyers surveyed collections and wrote orders in the booths.

Dave Rosenberger, Quiksilver’s vice president and national sales manager for the brand’s young men’s and winter sports divisions, said Surf Expo still managed to draw a broad range of buyers. “Accounts are here, and they’re sitting down to work the line. It is still an important show for us,” he said. The show proved to be more important than usual this season because Quiksilver and its stable of brands (minus DC) are sitting out ASR, opting to host key brands at its headquarters or visit retailers on the road instead. At Surf Expo, reorder business was light as buyers focused on Summer and Back-to-School, but still, Rosenberger added, retailers are buying closer to season. “It’s an ongoing shift,” he said.

Mike Martin, vice president of sales and marketing at Irvine, Calif.–based Ezekiel, said that while he thought attendance was noticeably down at the show, it was still a good opportunity for brands and retailers alike to figure out new strategies and begin to put them into action. Ezekiel brought Spring, Summer and the first half of its Fall offerings to Surf Expo and worked all three seasons with buyers. Unique items, such as a boardshort cut in a walkshort silhouette, earned orders. “Retailers and manufacturers are trying to put the ’special’ back into ’specialty’ while still buying smart and tight,” Martin said. Ezekiel will show its full Fall collection to buyers at ASR.

At Costa Mesa, Calif.–based RVCA’s booth, business was steady, said Eric Thomas, vice president of sales. “We feel extremely fortunate. Our sales in 2008 were up by 31 percent when a lot of other brands were down or flat.” For 2009, RVCA will update its product range to reflect buyers’ needs. “We’re putting more emphasis on wovens, less emphasis on fleece, for example. We’re keeping the vibe of the brand while toning down our prints and graphics. The emphasis will be on colors, washes, dye treatments,” Thomas said. Collaborations, such as with the Erin Wasson collection that earned RVCA brownie points with high-end retailers such as Barneys New York and Lane Crawford and coverage in glossy fashion magazines, will continue in 2009.

Gabriel Tennberg, vice president of design at Hurley, said while brands may be slimming down their offerings to cut costs and stay lean, innovation continues to set the core surf and skate industry apart from pretenders to their throne. “Innovation is never off the table. It’s what the industry is built on, and retailers need it from us,” he said.

As if to underscore the resilience the surf/skate industry aims to embody this year, key retailer Bobby Abdel, co-owner of the Huntington Beach, Calif.–based chain Jack’s Surfboards, roamed the aisles of Surf Expo for three days. The chain recently opened a new 7,000-square-foot store in San Clemente, Calif. “This is an up-and-down business, and the market needs all of us—from the brands to the retailers to the customers—to work together and support it, he said.”