"We will fight them on the beaches!" promises Rip Curl's chairman of marketing Neil Ridgway!
Rip Curl’s marketing chairman Neil Ridgway rattled his saber over the weekend, telling The Australian’s esteemed Fred Pawle that “We will fight them on the beaches!” while maybe chewing an unlit cigar and maybe calling in some air support.
The them, of course, is the boutique surf label/retailer Saturdays. Specializing in minimalist surf chic, the brand started in New York City (2009) to great acclaim and now has stores in Japan and, soon, Bondi. This news, apparently, sent Mr. Ridgway into a jingoistic tailspin.
“Good luck to them…” he continued “…We’ve got more right than Saturdays do it. (?) We can pull our own art from 40 years ago. (?) If you surf or love going to the beach then you are probably going to be our customer. (?) We don’t chase down people who aren’t our customers. (?)”
And such hot talk! So militaristic! Roar!
Mr. Ridgway once sat me down in Portugal and poured hot talk on my head too. He told me he didn’t like what I was writing and that I spent too much time describing people’s clothes and that he didn’t know what I was up to with my investment banker. He was wearing an exquisite red beret the entire harangue. It framed his face almost perfectly. And even though he was steaming mad, brow furrowed, flushed, it was a glorious thing to behold. It bumped him right up into my top five people in surf and every time I see him my heart glows. I trust when he meets the Saturdays boys they will love him too and possibly give him a blue and white striped long sleeve shirt (buy here!) It will, most definitely, set his red beret off just perfectly.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
could you imagine the top knots frequenting Saturdays Bondi.
The deal with Saturdays is this, the entire goal of that company was to become a Jcrew with “roots” in surfing and beach culture. They have catalogs, only sell Saturdays brand clothing, etc. The clothes for the most part are produced in sweatshops and then marked up twice as much as say Rip Curl or Quiksilver would be. The type of people that shop at Saturdays woul probably never have a need to enter the Rip Curl stores. I highly doubt Rip Curl will loose any business from this. Im sure Rip Curl makes some very goofy clothing but, their wetsuits are functional as ever !
If a Rip Curl wetsuit rips in its first week of use, is it ironic?
haha i guess so . I’ve never had problems aside from the fit being a little goofy.
Only if it rips in the actual curl.
Who buys Rip Curl wetsuits at a Rip Curl store?
Rip Curl’s bad, but Saturdays… Chrrrrrist! Mikey DeTemple in as interpreted in fabric!*
(*I’m going to NYC next week and there is a high chance my opinion might be swayed to the opposite point of view. So it goes.)
Mr Ridgway still so fiery.
Chas Smith passive aggressive formula to get back at people who hate him:
1. Write about the embarrassing and hateful things they said.
2. Point out some parts of their appearance/how they’re dressed.
3. Unexpectedly declare love and admiration for them.
This certainly should become a compositional formula taught at elite liberal arts colleges everywhere. Would make the five paragraph essay SO much more interesting.
I only wish I didn’t love neil so much. You’ll never read me writing loving things about….oh…..damn all! You’ve got me!
Have you had so many haters that you’ve decided to turn their hate into love or is it an advanced way of shaming them? Either way it is very very amusing and I can only imagine how confused your objects of affection/targets are. I’m afraid this is mostly completely lost on the surf world though so please don’t cave to market forces and change your approach.
As long as they’re encouraging people to be well dressed yet incompetent surfers, more power to them!
Saturdays is just more hipster bullshite
And I have been told that their boardshorts are not very comfortable to surf in.
practicality in the water is most certainly very low on their priority list.
chas you didn’t try and explain to Neil the perils of fashion Vs technical , that fashion comes and goes but ya technical stuff , just keeps on giving and the lust for more better tech , will make your Saturdays only good for one day of the week!
Chas, for the fashion illiterate could you give us the skinny on Saturday?
I need to update the wardrobe for summer but I immediately hate Saturday just because of the name, Saturday is the worst day of the week. Wednesday would have been much better and less evocative of crowds of work a daddies invading the beaches.
Is my hatred irrational?
Sure, but the daddies also bring their wives to the beaches…Can’t be the worst day for this very reason.
you can skip right over Saturdays and think about purchasing some YSL for your summer wardrobe. A company approved by both Dez and Chaz ! Luxury baby!
Saturdays and the wsl go hand and hand.
Saturdays and outerknown fit well too….