This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!
Derek Rielly’s reporting yesterday on the possible, even probable, sale of Rip Curl was first-rate journalism and what you have come to expect from our Bondi bureau. What you have come to expect out of our America Cardiff-by-the-Sea bureau is cut-rate journalism and I had a cut-rate rumor just days ago that I failed to deliver.
And wonderful, but unconnected, friend told me, “Guess what… Quiksilver is going to buy its two biggest competitors.”
I thought, “No. No they are not….” and continued Google image searching Griffin Guess.
But then Derek’s story sparked my memory and maybe my wonderful, but unconnected, friend was on to something. Oaktree Capital owns Quiksilver. Oaktree Capital owns Billabong’s debt which Billabong is having trouble servicing which could mean a takeover.
If Oaktree Capital were to purchase Rip Curl, and it is rumored that they are in fact a suitor, then “Quiksilver” would indeed be buying its two biggest competitors.
The prescient Brothers Marshall once made QuikBongRip t-shirts.
Who would have ever seen this maybe day coming (except for The Brothers Marshall)?
And who stands to gain the most?
I would think they would all maintain their distinct consumer facing identities but probably share distribution/blah blah/whatever/business stuff. Will you be excited to buy? Excited about the innovation? About the dynastic future?
Oh you should be.
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im a ‘cottage industry” shaper.. not doing huge numbers but enough to make it worth doing.. the big names pump the boards out but most of my customers are guys that have bought big name brands an been burnt on quality or other issues an are happy to pay a little more for a well made custom product. the margins aren’t amazing but i get to go surfing when i want.. my missus also has an decent paying job if business is slow 😀
ii reckon the big 3 are on the way out as people are realizing the products arent the best an there is better alternatives out there
well put Twillsy.
From the outside looking in, it probably all seems OK. However, that would be a far cry from reality. Do you know what the profit margins on a surfboard are at the wholesale level? On a retail level? You see, there aren’t hundreds of millions of dollars there to put themselves in any sort of position to squander. Furthermore, I’d love to know why shapers are as grumpy as ever? They have CNC machines literally doing about 80% of their job for them
Not even faintly smiley enough.
He’s radiating the entitled boredom of “Rich Kids of Instagram”, not “eye-popping delight at being dragged from the gutter into paradise.”
Well we have seen where this sort of conglomeration left the surf media — dead in a ditch. It put TWS, Surfing, and Surfer in the same room. Only one survived, and for how long, who knows. The wheel is finally turning on all this nonsense; the big dogs have either been hunted down or are looking for an exit, and a culture that once marvelled at the spectacle of Big Monday at Pipeline or the magical afternoon light at Grajagan now appears to be in sole thrall to a fucken wave pool. Meanwhile the WSL is chucking everything but the kitchen sink at a re-invention of the tour, guided by some of the smartest minds in modern sport. Are they mad? Are they too late? Or are they just in time to drag pro surfing off to some other place where it can exist in its own sparkling universe, far from its so-called roots, dubious as they are? How long can any of this go on??
wow, thats a heavy shift change in the existing paradigms over the last years!. Hoping that the pro surfing sparkling universe is amazing!
Well it better be amazing, otherwise someone’s just wasted a fuck load of money.
I wake up every morning hoping the surf industry dies a miserable death like boogieboarding, rollerblading, windsurfing, goatboating etc. Bankruptcy, new WSL format, wavepools, micro companies etc. I hope this is the beginning of the end
Rinse and Repeat.
The surfboard industry is “in a pretty good place”? Please, tell us more!
that fauxhawk leads his resume
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… +
i’ve always thought it was bizarre that an activity that barely requires clothes ended up so tied up with clothing businesses. as a california surfer, i need 1) a board 2) a 4/3, 3) a 3/2. done.
but what about your “lifestyle”?
Would Rip Curls North Korean slaves increase QuickBongs ROE?
its OakKook Capital’s call
The entire surfing industry is crumbling before our eyes. It is kind of sad. Kind of.
The unpleasant aspect of a corporate BoD’s decision to “go for broke” and announce their IPO is that “broke” may just end up being exactly where it goes.
so much synergy
I recall a cartoon in a surf mag that foresaw a conglomerate in the future called ripaquikbong .. the time could be nigh
It is only a matter of time before the main big surf brands all fuck each other and create one in-bread child that every goon in the lineup can support.
Are you referring to BeachGrit?
No but you guys should start a shoe company with short laces. Then you can start a separate lace company where they are longer for people who still tie there shoes. Then go all IPO and buy an island.
why hasnt stab given you 50k just to fuck off? you are basically stealing their traffic and clicks. its worth that much at least. go gordon gecko on their aussie twats.
In-bread like… a hotdog?
I think I might have just invented a great new surfing term. “HOTDOGGING” tm.
Quick!!! Let’s patent it and leverage the synergy. Who’s in with me on the ground floor?
http://www.thefreedictionar…
Poe’s law?
What would be the difference?
In the mid 90s, I was talking to a ‘devious’ board shaper who tried to undermine the system by making boardshorts on the Gold Coast and retailing them for less than half the price the Big 5 (at that time quik, bong, rip, mambo, hot tuna) were selling them for in the shops. Quality and materials were on the same level. He couldn’t get his boardies into the shops because the Big 5 wouldn’t supply shops if they had any non-5 stuff in there.
Ironically, a small guy getting stepped on because he tried to set up a business making stuff locally, by locals, mostly for locals, by a group involving Gordon Merchant. (Who I remember flogging his boardshorts out if the boot of a Holden in the 70s.) Which is why I won’t touch bong stuff.
sounds like the Clark Foam days
fuck those devious shapers , and those bongs (probably made out of chinese Gatorade bottles) , as if a surfboard maker would ever have any balls to do a clothing line …except for maybe RC/Hurley/R./ well every body except the boarding Co Ripsilvers quikbuk!
I once new a back yard shaper that came into possession of box full of ‘lost’ logos. Needless to say he was selling those boards for twice the amount of the ones with his own logos. Funny what someone would pay just for a known logo. Basically financed a complete home renovation for himself.
Another good reason not to touch Billabong is coz they BuildItWrong
So many small surf shops got shafted by the Big5 over the last 20+ years