La Jolla Chief Hints at Growth
Attendees at the June 10 “Innovator Series” event, hosted by Group Y and held at The Lab in Costa Mesa, Calif., got a chance to hear the latest from Toby Bost, chief executive of Irvine, Calif.–based action-sports apparel licensee La Jolla Group.
Bost, who at 38 is one of the youngest chief executives in action sports, is particularly interesting to industry watchers, as he maneuvers La Jolla’s roster of brands both within the core market and outside of it. With O’Neill, one of the industry’s marquee brands—as well as Rusty, Lost and Metal Mulisha—under his direction, Bost is well-positioned to shift the way action sports does business. While he dished some details, Bost tantalized the assembled crowd of action-sports insiders with thinly veiled hints about potential growth.
The $200 million–plus company is sticking to its license-based model for the foreseeable future, he said, but noted that La Jolla is keen on filling in its roster with brands that represent every segment of the action-sports industry. With surf and motocross accounted for, the implication is a skate brand will be the next addition to La Jolla. “We are building diversity within our portfolio. We’d love to be able to cover every level of distribution and every level of action sports. We want to be in every sport in action sports,” Bost said. “So you can definitely read between the lines; we’ll be doing something soon.”
Bost discussed La Jolla’s recent move to diversify its distribution for Rusty with a deal with JCPenney, a la Vans and Nike. The deal, which calls for 1,000-plus JCPenney stores to receive a capsule collection of specially branded Rusty apparel, “offended” some in the core market, he said. Ultimately, Bost said, the product segmentation should feed funds back into Rusty’s core product and allow for innovative and exciting product—something he said is currently missing in surf apparel.
La Jolla certainly has room for growth. The company this week announced the opening of its new 200,000-square-foot headquarters. “Providing an all-encompassing 21st-century action-sports experience, the campus reflects La Jolla Group’s progressive culture from floor to ceiling, helps consolidate front- and back-house operations, showcases each brand’s DNA, and offers the resources, amenities and real estate needed for future business development,” a release from the company said.
Group Y, a youth marketing and action-sports network, welcomed a crowd of surf/skate industry figures to the event, which was hosted by blogger Tiffany Montgomery of shop-eat-surf.com. —Erin Barajas
