29th October 2007 Gareth White
With Summer finally on it's way, maybe it's time to stock up on some new clothing.
The days are getting longer, the nights shorter and we are already dreaming of the countless hours spent relaxing on the beach. For the fashion conscious the arrival of summer heralds the need for new items of clothing. Maybe you are thinking of getting a new pair of board shorts to uncover those pasty winter legs or a new t-shirt to shade from the sun.
With all the promotion that has been taking place over the years I am sure that some of you will think twice before you buy. You might have already been converted and are now only interested in buying products made by companies that support bodyboarding, but who are these companies and where are their products available?
It has to be said that it is fairly difficult to purchase industry related products in South Africa. It seems that surf stores are only interested in stocking major labels. These stores have become clones, each stocking the same as the other, with very little variety or charm.
There are plenty of bodyboarding related brands available, but without dedication-to-the-cause and exerting a concerted effort to find them (most only being available online), it is unlikely that you or I to be able to purchase them at our local shop. This, in my opinion, is what makes Factory 7 (F7) special. Not only is F7 a company that caters for a variety of extreme sports, but it is a company run-for-riders-by-riders. A company that understands the need for a diverse product range and a company that supports the industry that allows it to exist.
It is official, sixty40 and F7 have begun their campaign in the rag-trade and recently launched their very own line of designer t-shirts.
Designed by graphic whiz-kid, Samuel "Sampi" Kamffer, the new range offers the bodyboarding community of South Africa much needed variety with regards to clothing produced and sold by a company directly contributing to the sport of bodyboarding.
Creator of sixty40 online bodyboarding community and co-founder of F7, Kelly Footit, "We are starting small with some F7 & sixty40 t-shirts. With sixty40 I hope to grow the brand as one which puts directly back into the sport and a brand which can bring guys great media and ensure it continues for years."
They have acquired the licenses to produce clothing branded with some of the biggest names in bodyboarding, but for the time being are going to test the waters with their own t-shirts. "Quality is of utmost importance and for this reason our t-shirts are made with 100% cotton and the fabric has been treated to prevent fading so that they stay looking good for longer," commented Footit on the new T's.
Including their own brand, F7 currently stock 45 t-shirts from companies such as sixty40, Sindrome, Science, No Friends, Nomad, Rejected, Hoe, Reef and 13th Movement.
F7 have also added an exciting range of clothing by Empty Vessel Creations (EVC). Started in 2000 by Shane Rielly, EVC offers consumers an extensive range of t-shirts, hoodies and pants. F7 currently stock some uber cool t-shirts and hoodies from EVC all at reasonable prices. The EVC website did have a bit of info about the company and "the closet" link allowed customers to view their products. Currently the website is facing technical difficulties and I have been unable to re-enter and check for updates. Hopefully this should be amended shortly.
Australian Bodyboarding Company, Nomad, will be releasing their summer 07/08 bodyboard range within the next month along with a small clothing range which will be expanded in 2008. Besides a selection of cutting-edge bodyboards and accessories, the range includes a selection of t-shirts, board shorts and rash vests.
Reef Wetsuits and Science Bodyboards are probably the biggest supporters of South African bodyboarding, their continued support over the years has ensured the survival of our sport and in a sense, we as South African bodyboarders should think about supporting them. Reef will be releasing their summer 07/08 range in October and it includes t-shirts, walk shorts and board shorts. "It is fairly easy for us to sell the Science t-shirts to the surf stores, but trying to get them to stock Reef clothing is difficult," commented Len Bradford from Reef & Science. I have been given a sneak-peak of the new products and I have to say that there are some rather funky designs. The full range should be available through F7 once released and will also be available at these fine surf stores:- Sport Unlimited, Sport n Surf, Walkerbay Surf, Surfers Warehouse(J-Bay), Natural Energy, Suntrax, 2nd Surf, The Surf Shop(Plett), Somerset Sport, Surf Motion, Andy Austin (East London), Sparrows in Langebaan and Weskus Sport in Vredenburg.
On a more underground note, F7 stock two South African clothing brands owned by boogers - Kronic and Sindrome. Kronic, who are owned and designed by Mathew Botha, have a new line of t-shirts in the pipeline, which should be hitting the shelves for the summer and might be available from F7.
Produced and designed in Cape Town by John Catlin, Sindrome clothing create rather bold t-shirts, with both emo and funky designs. Catlin hopes to release 4 new designs within the coming months, which should be available at these Cape Town shops:- High5, Baseline, Sport Unlimited and Surf Zone. More importantly the clothing should also be available through F7, who currently stock a number of Sindrome wares that are well worth their cost.
When it comes to buying bodyboarding attire at one of the mainstream retailers there is only one brand that springs to mind - Bad Boy/Bad Girl. These guys are in the majority of Edgars stores across South Africa and market everything from jerseys to jackets, watches to sunglasses, pants to board shorts and they even sent me some hair gel a while ago! They do pretty much everything and are one of the only companies that offer consumers a complete range of clothing and accessories at affordable prices. A downer is that F7 currently don't stock any Bad Boy products, hopefully that will all change soon enough.
Bad Boy-Bad Girl products are available at these retailers:-
CLOTHING: Edgars, Meltz Stores and Selected Independent Retailers.
COSMETICS: Selected Edgars Stores.
LUGGAGE: Game, Makro, Dions and Waltons.
STATIONERY: Game, Makro, Dions and Waltons.
SUNGLASSES: Sunglass World, Edgars and Sports Shops.
WATCHES: Game, Dions and Selected Independent Retailers.
Now here comes the real humdinger.
Its seems to me that if you are of the fairer sex then you are going to have more difficulty than the lads do when looking for bodyboarding related clothing. There are a couple of products on the market for ladies, with the widest variety coming from Bad Girl. In other words you're stuck with wearing one or two brands if you are passionate about supporting our supporters and want a full wardrobe. No disrespect to Bad Girl, they are doing a great job, but that really sucks for the ladies.
I have searched the net and the majority of the companies don't really cater for women. You can buy bikinis and a couple pairs of hot pants, but I doubt if you want to walk around like that 24/7.
EVC produce a couple of items of clothing for ladies, but I haven't been able to check their site to refresh my memory because of it being offline. If I can remember correctly they had t-shirts, hoodies and a few pairs of pants made specifically for ladies. Hopefully these items will be making an appearance on the F7 shopping list within the coming months.
No friends also produce a couple of items, but like I said previously, judging from their website it is mainly bikinis and hot pants - none of which are stocked by F7.
Currently Reef do not have a clothing line that caters for women, but I have been assured that come next winter there will be a couple of items available, with a follow on summer range hitting shelves as the weather warms in 2008.
In closing I would like to point out something I feel could be of interest and a major turning point in the coming years.
I have started noticing that more of the "big names" in the surf and extreme sports industry have begun opening their own stores in shopping malls across Cape Town. You might have seen them and the same might be happening across the country.
What would happen if the surf stores that stock these brands no longer sell the products in the same volumes they used to due to direct competition from the brands themselves?
Let us look at it from a business perspective.
Now these "big brands" are loaded, literally swimming in dosh, where as the surf stores struggle to compete with the retail giants flogging surf related clothing at drastically reduced prices. Recently in a business deal estimated at being worth more than R350 million, the International branch of one of these "big names" bought out the smaller South African operation in a bid to strengthen their grasp on the African market. As part of the deal new stores will be opening up across the country - poaching clients from the same surf stores who have loyally sold their product for decades and enabled them to become the brand that they have become.
From a financial perspective, as I said, these companies are loaded and are therefore able to offer customers a wider variety of their product and run specials far more regularly than the surf stores are able to. How convenient, I can now walk into a single store and find almost every product produced by a particular company and buy them at discounted prices - bargain!
Convenient for customers, YES, but whispering death into the clammy ears of already struggling surf stores. Competition is necessary for a good business environment and a fair economy, but how are they supposed to compete with the very people that they purchase their goods from?
There might be a positive aspect to all of this. The surf stores are going to have to begin to break-the-mould once again and revert back to being specialists - catering for a niche market and retailing exclusive products geared towards ocean dwelling critters such as ourselves.
Surf stores will eventually need to find other brands to fill their hangers. Brands surfers, who care more about what is behind a name as opposed to the label pasted across their clothing, want to wear.
Cue bodyboarding related clothing.
The majority of bodyboarding brands are established or have acquired a cult-like following amongst bodyboarders. They however struggle to make it into the surf stores due to them already being swamped by the above mentioned "big names"- thus limiting their target market in South Africa to bodyboarders who are willing to search high and low for them.
Hopefully they will see-the-light and welcome certain bodyboarding brands back into their stores. Let's just hope that they have the foresight to see this as an option.
When all is said and done, if I the South African bodyboarder only want to wear bodyboarding related clothing, for the time being, I am going to have a tough time acquiring a complete wardrobe of attire for each season. The majority of clothing available wouldn't be able to see me through winter, with only a small number of hoodies and pants being available it could get nippy. I feel that we need more variety.
Wouldn't it be nice if we were able to fill our hangers with products made by companies that support bodyboarding and not have to stick to one or two brands in order to do so? Wouldn't it be great if more of the companies producing these goods would up-their-game a notch and start producing a wider range of clothing?
We want top-end products, with trendy designs and a cutting edge fashion sense, the producers have to be on-top-of-their-game in order to compete with the bigger overseas brands and offer us a product we want to purchase - not one we feel obliged to buy.
I suppose at the end of the day it all boils down to us supporting those in the industry who manufacture clothing. The more we support them by purchasing their products, the more products will become available and in a wider variety.
After having spoken to many industry players it appears as though the reason that there are so few products available is the lack of capital and support. Producers don't have the funds to spend on products that might not sell and therefore opt for products that require smaller investments - investments that are substantial none the less.
Like I say, the more we "help" them, the more they are able to "help" us. It is up to us to ensure that we don't just spend willy-nilly on products that give bodyboarding the middle finger.
Drop into one of the above mentioned stores or go online to www.factory7.co.za to view these and many more awesome surf related products.
7,886 views
 | iammonster 26th October 2009 14:43 |
| SHo! Its been 2 years since Gareth posted this interesting little write up! Its had close to 3000 views... ANyway.... If there are some of you still out there looking for some rad clothing, where the money you spend isnt just getting thrown into the bottomless pockets of some big corporates.... then checkout www.iammonster.co.za rad times we are in, we just signed up Cape Town ripper Jared Houston! and also helped CKZNBA out on there SA champs campaign! Our new range is also dropping end of November so check us out f you keen for some new threads this summer! YEEEWW!! | |
 | Sean Tickner 31st October 2007 03:58 |
| Good article, again, it all comes down to Support those who support you. One point, you won't be getting much in the way of Winter clothing such as hoodies as it's Summer in S.A, it's all about Summer Tees at the moment! I went to the NOMAD Factory in Oz a couple weeks ago and their new Boards and Clothing are INSANE! Keep an eye on Factory 7 for the new range!!! | |
| Chris Seipp 30th October 2007 08:35 |
| Excellent, now I know where we can shop for brands that support our sport. Great article, I hope info in this article is included in the next issue of the mag. | |
| Sebastian Simons 29th October 2007 21:09 |
| Shot 4 the article man. Everyone is always saying support the companies that support bodyboarding. Its a great idea but it is almost impossible to get ahold of these brands. Luckily we got Factory 7 now | |