Surf label aimed at Men of Extraordinary Pursuits may be no more!
Do you remember the “adventure-inspired” brand Depactus? It was launched almost two years ago by the former pro surfer Luke Egan, Electric founder Bruce Beach and Volcom’s Tony Ruiz, and was marked by a well-chosen team including the “greatest athlete you’ve never heard of” and Maui jibber Matt Meola.
Depactus branded their team MEPs or Men of Extraordinary Pursuits. Catchy, yeah it was.
If you read the about section of the Depactus website, you’d discover it was “a technical outfitter for surfing’s modern youth.”
In an excellent interview with Stab magazine at launch, Luke Egan described Depactus as the “yin to Patagonia’s yang… After I left Billabong, throughout 2013 all I wanted was another challenge. I was going to stay at home in Australia and start making boardshorts and give them to the boys, just to see where it went. I spoke to Bruce, who’d left Electric, and he just wanted to go surfing with his son for six months. By the time it got to the end of year he’d done that and taken this brand to another level. Fuck, alright, let’s go then, I thought.”
Anyway, word on the street is Depactus is done. The MEPs are actively seeking alternative sponsorships and the reason for its failure?
We’re told the brand was marked by three major flaws.
- Big salaries right out of the gate.
- Branding that was tone deaf to the consumer. Depactus came in high-end and expensive where Salty Crew, who is killing it, came in low, came in blue-collar. Same waterman-fisherman-surfer vibe but more authentic and value oriented.
- Bold spending. Big ad agency employed, designers, staff and the most delicious trade show fit-outs seen in a while.
Did you get to see, feel, maybe buy Depactus? Did you like? Why do you think, if rumours are true, that it failed?
Below, you can watch a What Youth-produced video made at launch. A short that is marked by an optimism that was beautiful to watch the time, perhaps a little sad now.
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The name.
You can intellectualize all you want, but that name worked against them from Day A.
Please don’t.
Give them no clicks.
My post was satire about the disconnect between all these brands and their actual customer.
Waterbrothers first and last man standing SURFSKATEROCK
Sid lives!!!
DOO DOO lives
The problem with the brand was only launching in California, and not global. Look at how well Banks is doing
I’m just a regular urban dude who surfs 5x a week, likes good coffee, good food and works in tech. I have disposable income and like buying nice boardshorts, jackets and tees. Can I get a brand featuring men of regular pursuits (ie. making my wife happy, drinking affordable, organic coffee, eating healthy food and paying all my bills on time)??
They went ad agency route?? For content and design creation, agencies are great wells of talent, but for implementation and media plans they are dinosaurs. Digital marketing moves too fast.
I bought a trucker hat of theirs with a interpretation of the logo. I liked it cause it didn’t look like a logo. Been wearing it for a year. Favorite hat. $20.
a mate left a pair of depactus trunks over at my house. the print wasn’t my favorite but they were mostly black and I could probably just explain away the random spots of color by saying I was painting. They also have busting seams all over the place. Just look em up to see price tag, $125 fucking dollars! No wonder the brand busted like the seams.
Do you remember the “adventure-inspired” brand Depactus? – no
From the video – “A lot of people are in to the lifestyle these guys live” with an image of someone dressed in camouflage and putting on ‘war paint?’ – no, I only live near Australia’s largest city and surf regularly, but what would I know.
“First pair of board shorts … Mark Healy, Puerto… I wanna make dependable products for these guys” – you mean shorts that don’t fall down to your ankles when you take off ? wtf is he talking about ?
For Healy’s sake I hope not but I’ve noticed that he’s pushing his new “knickers” lately so maybe he saw this coming?
maybe he should start waving a Hawaiian flag and bunny hop in two foot bullshit
I just thought it was when i ran out of opiates and lorazapam, ” dude i can’t fish today, I’ve got really bad depactus and can’t take a dump”
Like I said on a recent post about a new Ando/Dane startup… if you’re not known for some type of amazing hardgoods, you’re done mate… can’t build a brand off sick screenprints alone.
are boardshorts hardgoods now?
Sadly yes.
what are hardgoods?
is that a surfboard?
2 years and never seen a single item of Depactus being worn.
Mad Hueys? Shit is everywhere, its bogan bling.
when i was in retail, hardgoods were surfboards, rubber, and shit DaKine makes
Mad Hueys had a pretty unique entry into the market place… you make some tee’s for an offshore fishing tourney and then all your friends want one so bad it turns into a brand!?! Success stories like this are few and far between…
Nope….. and exactly.
….but their boardshorts had TWO pockets!
I’m really pulling for dane and ando though, even though I agree.
pulling myself*
Dane and Ando are dead wallets walking
What about TCSS? I wonder how much business Captain Fin does with the fins vs their clothing?
I think Captain Fin was genius… they always knew they’d be a more fashion oriented brand but they broke into the market place with some fins. With Futures and FCS out there and other big players in the game, who the fuck would back a business plan to make fins? They probably never made dollar 1 off the fins… Softgoods were always a planned second step for them but they NAILED IT by doing the fins first… plus if they never made fins, they wouldn’t have been able to call it Captain Fin Co!! 🙂
Noticed on surfers erbb today that slater is now surfing for volcom, he has a surf line with them now apparently, might be a bad omen for OK
Nah.. Don’t think so.
Volcom and Outerknown are both under the Kering Group, so it wouldn’t be nonsensical for Kelly to move over to the Volcom side of things. Especially since Outerknown isn’t considered a ‘surf’ brand per se, but rather a lifestyle brand conforming more to other luxury brands ideals of having the ‘surfer look’.
The only reason why we consider Outerknown to be part of the surfer/traveller lifestyle is cause Kelly is behind it. Look at the price points though, it’s target market is definitely aimed towards the fashion conscious.
Kelly surfing for, and having a line with Volcom is kind of like Stella McCartney having a line with Adidas, or Alexander Wang doing a collaboration with H&M.
You could say that collaborations are en vogue.
The real winner in the entire OK/Kering umbrella is Volcom. They get the King in all of their stuff and don’t even have to pay him!
I have a feeling it’s not as simple as that…
what do you think the chances are that under the contractual conditions under which he left Quik, he was prevented from promoting another surf brand for a period of say, 24 months?
I’m sure there was something like that.This seems like the first real promo he’s had with another company. Other than that he’s just been rocking free Volcom shit…no need to promote when everyone watches your every move.
no, the real reason we consider OK to be a surf brand is because Kelly still couldn’t make the Nationwide Tour as a golfer. he is fairly unexceptional when you subtract his surf comp accomplishments and chia seed reliance.
Trying to understand your logic here…
Let’s say he did make the golf tour, would that then give him the credibility to be anything other than a surf brand?
What?!
yes, without surfing Kelly is a dude from Cocoa, are your surprised its been Quik paying him all these years?
Impactus?
depactus, isn’t that the new hipster coffee shop on abbot kinney?
Mayb it was a silent protest from all those that suffered through Luke egans monotone boring as fuck commentating. Also a shitty named wankfest of a brand. See ya never de packed arse
They made a big mistake with the Matt meola bow hunting clip, he is a great surfer, but there are many of us who think that bow hunting is unnecessarily cruel, no need to tie in your brand to that! Also how could their technical boardshorts compete with beachgrits? I knew it would be a disaster when I read the comments on that stab article and some bright spark called it “deep packed arse”!
The name always made me think it was a machine that crushed poo. Remind me how is Salty Crew killing it? Whats going on over there in America these days you’ve all gone troppo!
Salty crew, that’s basically the mad hueys for Christian yanks I think!
When people call the Mad Huey’s wankers I am reminded that good people still exist.
But who the fuck wears Salty Crew besides necks in Obx and south
They are called “bro-sters”
fishermen cross-overs. like Patagonia for outdoorsy Malloy cross-overs.
They also enjoy hypto krypto’s and fishing with “ugly stick” brand rigs.
Blood feud..Salty Crew vs. Salty Life.. More bumper sticker propaganda..
Shit I thought they were the same thing, which sponsors C.J.?
actually seen quite a few guys sporting it around. don’t really look like surfers though. I think they have a bigger market with younger fishing guys looking for a beer drinking young fishing brand.
I think that market would be headed towards the Mad Hueys, not salty crew.
Salty are too busy trying to Salvage A Lifestyle for Tomorrows Youth….. or preach jesus to kids or whatever
Most people here find MH’s antics a bit too obnoxious and their logos even more so. Frat boy nightmare… except MH guys are like 35+ years of age. Not going to try and say that their pranks aren’t funny at times. They might do well with the middle school kids that went out and bought Bam Margera’s gear after he did Jackass.
Dead on. Jackass-engineered branding, same early-adolescent demographic.
Hueys win because even jesus kids like to see titties…
Dont they sponsor nathan hedge? Have you got to be a failed to qualify goofyfoot with no marketing cred to get signed..?someone call micro and put him on the team…
Those “necks” in Obx do a good job at pulling in..
“mad hueys for Christian yanks” HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Dude? I thought it was constipation too, until surf expo. “Then I was like oh, but wait?”
Personally I bathe in the blood of mine enemies every night, by enemies I mean the rabbits i can catch in my yard,” am I hardcore yet daddy?”
nup
Back to deflating my balls i guess.
WHAT UP GISELLE!!!
She’s busy crying over the ” hossegor over flowing toilet stance” so I got a prosi. A very very expensive prosi…
And he’s yuge!
hahahahaha
Too pretentious. Proof in Hunter S. Thompson quote. Should’ve gone into coconut water…
Hunter S. Thompson quotes are one step in pretension below Bukowski quotes. But, agree!
they run neck and neck for sure
these dumb surfer better realize that the surf company shit is gone. invest in beer, coconut water, fucking beer chocolate or whatever the scum like to poison themselves with nowadays
Shocking.