WSL CEO Paul Speaker is basically selling the PacSun model. Oops.
As anti-depressive as our wonderful BeachGrit is, sometimes hard truth must be looked in the eye. And a hard truth is that the surf industry is in deep and abiding depression. The appetite for surf apparel etc. has, more or less, completely dried up after a few decades of rolling good times. Kids in Kansas City don’t want Rip Curl t-shirts anymore. They don’t want to step foot in a PacSun.
The reasons are many and varied. We have a small video presentation on the horizon featuring the wonderful Michael Tomson addressing systemic failure. A major component, though, is that those who don’t surf just don’t care. And while the numbers of actual surfers is growing at a normal-ish rate, it doesn’t grow enough to legitimize massive businesses. And so Quiksilver files for bankruptcy. Then PacSun. Sport Chalet filed yesterday and they carry lots of Hurley, Billabong, etc. Dark-ish days.
And over to the World Surf League. The whole Speaker model is based off non-surfers embracing the action, right? Of non-surfers tuning in because they like the game just like non-baseball players tune in to Major League Baseball or non-football players tune in to the National Football League. Yeah? That’s where his millions upon millions of viewer projections come from. Motherfucking jerseys etc.
CEO Paul Speaker doesn’t surf. You know that, of course, and that is totally fine. The problem, though, is that only surfers consume the product the WSL is peddling. And surfers are the only group they take entirely for granted. I’ve been begging insiders for an interview with CEO Paul Speaker since the inception of your third favorite surf gossip website (BeachGrit). I never hear back and never will hear back even though we are, for better or worse, his market. It would be like NBA commissioner Adam Silver or NFL commissioner Rog Goodell refusing to look at ESPN. Of course we are not ESPN but has Speaker spoken with Surfline, Surfing or Australia’s Surfing Life? No. Because he thinks he has bigger fish to fry. Unfortunately those bigger fish are watching soccer or something.
Ziff money can only take massive losses for five years (I think) before the venture becomes a “hobby” and no longer gets to suck money. Let’s say there are three more years worth of minimal tourist board sponsorship dollars before Ziff tanks the thing. Will we miss it? Will we miss the dream tour?
Unfortunately, and to add to the depression, yes. Or at least I will.
P.S. Mr. WSL CEO Paul Speaker…If you are reading, and I know you are because you definitely have Google Alerts and BeachGrit stories about you account for a full 4/4 of those…I still promise to stop joking about you for one interview. One. Only one. 1. And I won’t even ask about your love of skiing backwards.
I’m a surfer, so supposedly a captive audience but I, like Kelly, will write off the WSL for the next almost 2 months until Tavi. Maybe I will remember to check in then-
tourist bureaus are the only ones writing any checks, like all the yanks are coming to the Goldie if you just run some ads that target our large population of wealthy surfers (the country club set rides SUPs)
yup. very, very few surfers are getting anything from the business of surfing.
Paul speakers dont want to give interviews to surf media, because he knows we will make surf questions, something he can’t anwser.
I don’t know this, but I think he sees us as too small time. I only ever got to ask him one question; it was during a phone conference hook-up with selected Australian surf journalists back in 2013, before they took the reins of the tour for reals. My question was pretty simple: Where’s the money coming from? You’re selling naming rights for a million dollars a pop (which they’d said they were doing at the time – in fact the sums ended up a lot less), but the world tour costs way more than that to run, so where’s the money coming from? He got pretty offended and huffed and puffed his way around a non answer. I like Terry Hardy, KS’s agent, he seems a nice guy despite looking like Ben Stiller, but something about the CEO creeps me out. He’s clearly charming and runs a tight ship but I suspect he sees surfing as a sort of necessary evil, a thing he has to deal with on the way to a shot at the pro sports title, and clearly he sees an on-the-ground personal engagement with the surf culture — even the little blobs of it that gather around the pro surfing scene — as a waste of time.
he will walk away, and leave wsl worst than before. And thanks for answer my comment.
Glad to see Beachgrit getting gritty again!
Hey he was just channeling every GSI head, I just picture a whole office of 40 year old men running around acting like menopausal women ” what has become of us! The vector did wonders in the 100 million dollar hydrodynamics tank, why did it lose to a couple of stoners from California! We have 300 Asian men working 24 7 to fix this it costs us 2$”
Then we’d have to sit and watch guys drink whine and bitch on what youth. It’s all that’s left man! Well and beach grit.
Hey that’s how every relationship I’ve ever had has been, it’s like a trampoline you can cum on.
U haz langyuage skills bak?
I might be wrong but do not underestimate the slow grow that’s going on with the WSL I’m as cynical and negative as most of you gritters but I am consistently surprised by the amount of surfers and non surfers that are positive about the format the contests are presented and the commentators we love to hate. The clincher for me was Saturday morning at the contest my 8 and 10 year old surfer kids had decided they wanted to get their favourite surfers jersey, when we went to the merch stand it was breathing space only and when we arrived at the counter they were sold out which though I was quietly happy about I couldnt help but think the WSL was starting to get some serious traction,can they sell enough T’s and jumpers to keep the tour alive? Time will tell but one things for sure there won’t be many surf brands around to pick up the pieces.
I’m chapter 11, seriously went from huge factory to building boards out of a bedroom.
Turn the tour into Big Brother..That’ll get surfing on main stream TV sets! We still get to watch heats and in between we can check all the hot ass and old crusty industry dudes trying to play it cool in front of the cameras.
Trying to hide obvious substance abuse problems.
IN all seriousness, this is a kick ass idea. The WSL would have to deal with the fact that their stars are surfers, but I could see this working well.
The surf industry is destined to fail. Well, now. My mates and I have been surfing our whole life, roughly 30 years. None of us wear surfing products anymore, haven’t for a long time, albeit maybe one or 2 pairs of boardies. The world is saturated with clothing apparel. Better quality stuff as well and at half the price! The only thing “core surf” that I buy anymore is, leggy’s, fins, tail pads, wax and of course boards and that’s only cause I have too. No one else makes it. Boards are changing tho, more to choose from out there, that aren’t from the major shapers. The old traditional shapers are up in arms because they are struggling to sell their boards for $900 anymore. As for the leggy’s, fins, tail pads and wax, most leggy’s I buy are pretty average, not sure how hard you can fuck that up. My tail pads get ripped to shreds and at $60 a pop! Fins are outrageous, $180 for 3 pieces of plastic. As for wax, well that seems to be the only genuine deal these days, no gripes there.
holy fucking shit, you guys are paying $180 for thruster sets in Oz?
That’s the retail price for a decent set yer! Luckily I know people, so I pay less than half of that, thank fuck! Australia is the over priced capital of the world mate, haven’t you heard?
Yeah… The whole surf industry is set to fail because you and your old ass mates don’t buy surf clothing.
Sure the price of surf clothing have gotten a bit out of hand (blame your favourite margin hungry surf store for that), but trying to claim that the whole industry is going to come down because you’re too old to care about the way you look relies on some pretty tenuous logic my man.
Surf stores sell the products genius. Time will tell, But I guarantee the surf industry will look a lot different in 10 years time.
Also, great name! did you and your pre school buddies have a giggle at it? kook..
First you are saying that the surf industry is destined to fail, now you are personally guaranteeing that it will look different in ten years.
Predicting that any industry will look completely different in ten years than does today takes some balls in this rapidly changing world.
Will time prove you right Nostradamus? Hopefully beachgrit is still around in ten years so we can reconvene and discuss.
Are you just arguing for the sake of it? If you haven’t noticed the move away from people plastering themselves with surf company advertising over the past 15 years then not sure what to tell ya.
Its not just old dudes not wearing that shit, the kids dont wanna know about huge corporate brands…in actual fact its probably the 40+ brigade still keeping those companies afloat.
100%. the dads still getting this shit for Christmas cause their kids think he’ll like it
I think that you are trying to shift the conversation away from the health of the industry as a whole, which is what I was chatting to ole mate TH about, by separating the older, more established brands from the newer brands.
Is the fact that established brands are being shunned for the sake of new brands by young people some kind of epiphany that you have just experienced?
Of course the older brands will ultimately mature and decline, while newer brands are created. It’s called the business/brand lifecycle.
Granted, the fact that we are seeing the maturation of several more established brands at the same time is more rare but I would argue that this is because these brands were all created at more or less the same time.
nah, the industry is going down cause guys like TH don’t care about how they look and the kooks that do are going to buy Kelly’s latest golf inspired threads, or something else overpriced but cool as fuck.
Get a load of that picture up top. The guy looks like a used Kia salesman.
or a ninja turtle if they were human
Leotardo?
Chas is going to write “Fear and Loathing on the World Tour 2016” and follow Paul Speaker around for an entire year masturbating to his every word. Chas will finally get an interview with Speaker in the back of a limousine on the way to the airport but he will only be allowed to discuss pro football. During the limousine ride, Chas will form a friendly personal relationship with Speaker but then publicly write him off in a scathing obituary. Then Chas will top himself with his pants down in Aspen. The end.
hahahahah…
Geek! Are they fucken transition lenses?
Are you talking about the naked child?
don’t go getting MC all riled up now Chas
Down here in the hellish depths of Straya there is a 90’s surf culture renaissance afoot. People are fighting each other to the death with trolley polls in Savers to get their hands on the shittiest old Mambo and Hot Tuna t-shirts available. Everybody’s girlfriend is dressing worse than their mentally disabled grandmother and the kids are buying acid again. I think the major companies will still die because no one likes a company that goes public but maybe they should be taking a look at this anyway.
Rusty is having a run, Noah has some nineties capsule thing going. Who wears Rusty you ask? Very very good question….
Who knows mate but I loved Rusty back in the 90’s. Here is a bit of a Longtom story for you…. We were a bit strapped for cash and morals growing up so we borrowed surfboards to try out and never brought them back pretty often. I’ve been in the car park with my old man shirt fronting some poor surf shop employee who had plucked up the courage to call him out on stealing boards more times than I would like to admit. It’s something I’m pretty ashamed of now but I was only a young bloke and you just do what your parents tell you at that age. My favorite board ever was a Rusty that my dad spray painted so no one could tell it was the shops board. My dad gave that board to my cousin to punish me because one morning I said I didn’t want to go surfing because it was too cold. I didn’t have my own board for two or three years after that.
MAN, your dad sounds like kolohe’s dad. ” you will do an air reverse in a heat or you will sleep outside foot a year!”
Fuck-hope the sins of the father are NOT visited upon the son, or you’re well and truly screwed old mate.
That Rusty/Noa capsule collection is honestly THE DUMBEST FUCKING THING EVER.
The whole point of a capsule collection is that it is a small range of things which (and here’s the kicker) are timeless and never go out of fashion.
Yet the entire range is designed with an 80’s / early 90’s aesthetic!
Who the fuck is managing this shit! Who is CD there? Are you a 90’s brand? Are you an 80’s brand? Or are you just a stubborn surf-brand run by old dudes who just want to do things the way you always do?
I don’t want some lame-ass shit WSL style graphic (seriously that is the worst fucking brand ever and is a complete polar opposite to what surfing is, you don’t have to be all ‘surfy’ but you didn’t have to choose a fucking mono-spaced typeface that looks like tomorrow’s latest weather app). But please just do something people actually want to wear, it probably wouldn’t be too hard!
Man there is some killer commentary on the Grits today!
The whole point of a capsule collection is to stand alone from the main range and be merchandised together in store.
Who made up the rule that it needs to be timeless and never go our of fashion?
Are you aware of graphic trends? Trends in general?
Must have been some exception training given to you from your ‘CD’ huh?
OMG, how’s that MBA with emphasis in merch working out? if you think the surf industry needs more of this type of thinking, what did PacSun do wrong exactly?
Hey I’m not the one that bought up the textbook meaning of a capsule collection, I’m just correcting ole’ boy who made a right mess of it.
As Chas so eloquently pointed out above, Pacsun aggressively expanded into areas (middle america) where there is no interest in core surf. It worked for a while while they rode the surf fad wave of the late 90’s/early 00’s but couldn’t maintain the year on year growth once the fad had subsided.
They tried to increase margins to maintain percentage profitability gains while failing to, or being unable to address the true problem which was decreasing sales.
This in turn puts pressure on the wholesalers as they also scramble to increase margin for the retailer but stay profitable themselves. Quality of the product inevitably suffers as the materials and workmanship gets downgraded to support said margin increases.
Only works for so long before the whole house of cards comes down.
Any more questions lad?
so the capsule collection couldn’t save em? but would have worked under other circumstances, like with a market that understood the inherent value of the capsule?
Are you now attempting to tie capsule collections to the demise of pacsun?
I wouldn’t argue that there is any inherent value in a capsule collection itself.
These days it’s usually used as a vehicle to either capitalise on a trend that is outside the chosen aesthetic of a particular range or to center a marketing ‘story’ around a group of products of person (ala Noa Deane with Rusty).
It’s hard to say what would have saved pacsun, if anything. They simply cashed in on a surf trend and then died when the trend did in their primary market.
Happens all the time. Ebb & flow.
no, not trying to really “tie” em together, my point was that all this marketing bullshit (the capsule collection being only one facet) doesn’t change what the industry is, it only takes away from whatever might have been inspirational enough about surfing/lifestyle to cause someone to want to buy the gear in the first place. surfing is trying so hard to be liked that it has lost any credibility. the same credibility that Quik is so hoping Mikey Wright’s mohawk can bring back for them.
Fair point but you could say the same about any industry really.
Even products that are essential have aspirational marketing surrounding them, look at bottled water for instance.
It’s easy to get up in arms about the surf industry for us because surfing is something that is close to our hearts but the tricks of the trade are used widely and for much more unfortunate purposes than selling some board shorts.
It’s also easy to say that quik has lost credibility with us older folk have seen several marketing cycles that they have been through, but for groms coming up who’s first impression is the current branding, I think the quik marketing team have done a good job at trying to reconnect (minus the ‘stay high’ tag line. That could have been better thought out IMO).
seems like surfing used to be, maybe “above” tricks of “the trade” (corpo shit). i understand its a business but chasing likes never works out in the long term.
Easy to look back with rose tinted lenses though… Remember the bronzed Aussies?
true. those tracksuits and shit.
High waisted shorts. WTF!?!
wait, Quik decided to stay high from now on, i’m back on board, they’re punk rock again now
if Dora were alive he would love Speaker….. I think they’re both on the same team
Still responding……sorry for the unseemly delay!
Im thinking 4 man heats but there are two foamies they have to fight for in the water….. is kolohe the new katnis everdeen
You forgot “blah blah NFL blah blah..” and “We have Kellen Slater!”