Rumor: Nike looks to sell Hurley as “surf brands have lost appeal among non-surfing consumer!”

Uh oh!

As reported in Reuters today, Nike is “exploring options” for Hurley “including possible divestment” according to “people familiar with the matter.” Oooooee! And not necessarily a bombshell, Hurley has always maintained its own look/feel/design, but the reasons for Nike wanting to get out of the surf game are… let’s call them “problematic” for our World Surf League and I won’t prance around the bush any longer. I won’t waste your time with half-baked metaphors. I’ll get right to the heart of the matter which, according to Reuters, is…

Nike’s potential retrenchment from the surfwear market is emblematic of the stance of most major consumer companies towards the sector. Surf brands have lost their appeal among non-surfing consumers, who now prefer boutique brands and retro streetwear.

Now, as you know, the grandest plans coming out of Santa Monica’s High Castle have included turning on those 300 million people “interested” in surf around the globe. Don’t you recall ex-WSL CEO Herr Paul Speaker’s television interview where he boldly declared surfing would soon eclipse the NFL because so so so so many more untapped “surfers” existed? And while the numbers he threw, and his smug face, were very embarrassing from a public relations standpoint, that idea is still at the core of the League’s business model.

Now, if this consumer does exist, by the hundreds of millions, and is just a few turns of the screw away from embracing the pastime of kings, wouldn’t you think that Nike should be doubling down on its surf investment? With Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch just about to expand surfing beyond the beach, the Olympics one year away from showcasing the best and brightest to millions beyond the hundreds of millions already “dabbling” and World Surf League President of Content, Media and Etc. Erik “ELo” Logan doing a development deal with the folks that brought us Wicked Tuna wouldn’t you think Nike should be tripling down?

Hmmmm.

I know that the “surfwear” market and the “surf watching/consuming/doing” market is not necessarily the same thing but… never mind. It totally is.

So at the end we have two competing outlooks. That of Nike plus most major consumer companies…. a world where grumpy locals rule, hand-stitching their own boardshorts from seaweed and plastic drinking straws because there are only 349 of them and that of the World Surf League…. a world where every person on planet earth lives to shred and photos of the ’89 World Champ Martin “Pottz” Potter rest on every other mantle from Montego to Madagascar.

Which do you believe?