California Apparel News

Kelly Gibson wants his brand to be well-represented in teens’ dressers.

“When a kid opens his drawer, I want to have our brand’s fair share in there,” said the president and chief executive officer of Rip Curl USA.

Gibson was speaking to Sean Smith, executive director of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, during the keynote address at SIMA’s latest “industry boot camp.” Smith was one of the many surf-industry executives attending the seminar series to learn about tools and concrete strategies that would enable them to more effectively grab the short attention span of customers and gain their own share of the pie.

Held Oct. 24 at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, Calif., the event featured speakers discussing the state of the surf industry—and how much it has changed since its beginning.

“[In the early days], anytime, anywhere you could start a brand,” said Michael Tomson, founder of Gotcha and an industry consultant. “Get a sticker, you have a brand.”

Today, solely existing is no longer enough—and companies need to take more risks.

“If we don’t do that weirdness, we might as well pack it up and move to a mall with Pac Sun,” Tomson said.

Retailers can make money selling offbeat niche brands such as Warriors of Radness’ short shorts, said Thalia Street Surf Shop owner Nick Cocores. The key is maintaining authenticity.

“We know what we’re doing—surfing—and it’s lifestyle,” he said. “But for us it’s staying true to what we do.”

Surf tech

But even as the surf business stays true to its roots, its executives are looking to technology to help shape the future.

Krush founder and President Alexis Kopikis led a panel detailing his company’s program that uses data to predict trends. Krush’s “Sneak Peek” online process asks customers to rate product before it hits shelves and then aggregates and organizes the data. These statistics are supposed to help brands cut fat from the collection before those products eventually end up on the discount racks.

Educating brands about online language was a dominant theme of several panels. SEER Interactive’s Mark Lavoritano spoke about “Organic Search Strategy” and explained how search engines such as Google and Bing work and how brands can use that information to get their website ranked higher in search results. The conversation about how to maximize online potential went more in-depth throughout the day with a panel by John Faris of Red Door Interactive titled “Driving Offline Sales With Location-Based Social and Search Tactics.” And Chris #8232;DiCesare, head of creative programming for Google, presented “Tips for Better Online Marketing Campaigns.”

Tell stories But even if a brand uses technology to reach potential customers, the company must have a story to tell. Moderator Mike Lewis, editor in chief of TransWorld Business, discussed with panelists Lora Bodmer MacDowell, founder of Deep Communications, and Rebecca Nordquist, general editor of ESPN The Magazine, how brands could mold their industry’s narratives to the mass market. “We don’t do stories about contests. We do stories about people. hellip; It’s about peeling back the layers,” Nordquist said.

After the panels, the participants broke out into small roundtable groups in which they were able to share each other’s insights on a more personal level. Some of the topics included “Balancing New and Traditional Media: Creating the Right Mix of Elements for Your Brand or Store,” “Executing Successful Social Media at a Local Level,”“Maximizing the Rep-Retailer Relationship,” “The Role of New and Emerging Brands in Surf” and “Where Has the Surfer Girl Gone?”—Rhea Cortado