Dropping the wallet
It’s What You Wear
J-Bay, 2018, I’m strolling away from the contest site after another day of mental surf at the Corona Open J-Bay. I bumped into old mate and veteran surf journalist Nick Carroll. We stood around outside the Zigzag house for a while, shooting the breeze and lamenting about the sorry state of the surf industry as we saw it back then.
“It’s not like there are any less surfers out there,” exclaimed Nick. “It’s just as crowded in Australia. There are no less people paddling out every day.”
“It’s still crowded as fuck.” I agreed. “More crowded, but less people wearing surf threads.”
The Surf Industry Circles In
Fast forward a year later, and the industry is still undergoing significant changes, and these changes aren’t in an area of growth. Nike has offloaded Hurley to an umbrella company called Bluestar Alliance, Rip Curl has sold to Kathmandu and Billabong and Quiksilver have merged under the Boardriders umbrella. The writing is on the brick and mortar walls of surf shops around the world that the times they are indeed a-changing.
Is it all doom and gloom or a much needed reboot? Did Nike sell Hurley because they foresaw surfing
