Surf is dead!
The Roman surfer and face of Gucci Leonardo Fioravanti, who now lives in a pretty house on the beach in Hossegor, France, with step-daddy Stephen “Belly” Bell, has been dumped by his sponsor of fifteen years, the once-iconic Quiksilver.
“When I started surfing at 6 years old my dream was to be sponsored by Quiksilver, because Kelly was there, because it was the best surf company in the world, because they made the best boardshorts in the world and especially because the story they told inspired everyone in the surfing world,” Leo, who is twenty-four and an ambassador for Gucci for the past five years, wrote. “I signed with Quik when I was 9 years old, 15 years ago… today is the end of a chapter for me but especially the start of a new and even more exciting one.”
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Quiksilver, of course, led the surf industry charge through the seventies, eighties, nineties and two thousands before theatrically crashing into bankruptcy and eventually selling the name, brand, logo and whatever else that was worth a few nickels to the circling vultures.
Leo’s estrangement from the surf industry began earlier this year when he gave hell in a mainstream newspaper interview, comparing the stiff surf world with the glorious freedom offered by dressing pretty.
“It’s a different world, I love it. In our world you get judged a lot for your surfing style, who you sponsor with or whatever and that’s how it goes. But in fashion, you can be whatever the fuck you want to be. You can dress however you want, nobody’s going to judge you for it, they’re going to respect you for it. That’s so cool for me. The first fashion show I went to, I was only dressing in black. Everyone looks good in black and no one’s going to judge you in black. Now if I’m going to a Gucci show, give me the craziest shit you’ve got. It’s so cool, and I know they’ll never judge you for it. Give me different every time.”
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The fashion world is full of judgmental cunts! The surfing world is full of dumb cunts.
what you get when you undercook the butterball turkey!
Again a clothing brand who gives a fuck.
Maybe Depactus can pick him up.
the surf industry is alive and well….all the Co’s that went public….well we are seeing the end result now , which means there is huge opportunity moving forward into the future!!!
More like the surfboard industry is alive and well because dickheads are charging absurd prices for their boards and the wealthy VALs are buying them up. 2000$ surfboards are nothing but greed .
oh wow ya back on my case ,LOL!!! No the surfboard industry is now in full recession, glass shops are struggling again…..
Can you name any of your dickhead shapers , maybe Dick Brewer/Gerry Lopez who charge higher prices??
Greed in the Surfboard industry….Firewire ?
Poor old dick died a few months ago.
Interesting you say that its struggling. I was told that Lost/ Pyzel and MR in Australia have been making stock and not orders for months. They are backed here by a guy that is worth $350 million. I did think that it is in recession when I saw JS selling new boards for $799 on instagram and facebook. Shannan North must be paying for that Pipe house he bought from Billabong. Wait till November comes around MC and the sales start. Every year it feel like Xmas is later with buying of stuff.
it’s pretty easy to work out how Global sales of surfboards have fallen when a year ago there was a waiting list for blanks of 3 – 6 mths, now its a couple of weeks again….
Was speaking yesterday to the Artic importer for Europe , he has more than 7000 blanks in stock and sales in Europe are way down…….much more than 50%.
A lot of the JS boards are made in Thailand , very cheaply…..so watch what happens when and if the surf slows down on the East Coast……the USA has had a real slowdown!
Yes I know the cost of the JS and Firewire Boards in Thailand. When they start discounting the EPS boards I know they have a issue. If you have to make 50 plus boards a week your in trouble here as it’s hard to get glassers/ sanders and keep them long term.
It’s actually pretty interesting that a lot of PU bds are also made in Thailand. Here in France all the JS’s are from Thailand with a mix of EPS/PU and very expensive. Firewire choose EPS as it’s by far the cheapest , and for me nastiest, foam core….
You are totally right about the glasser/sander situation , but I am seeing a lot of much younger /passionate people come into the industry now, which is really heartening.
There’s a cleanout coming of a lot of brands/shapers, as the recession bites , but that’s a good thing as passion/design and shaper/ surfers will adjust their business models and thrive!
Brewer is dead, retard.
And he was a good guy that charged low prices for his boards.
2019 I paid 700 for a custom 9’6 before glassing.
haha, who shaped the Brewer ?
Haha, that’s funny actually. But this was definitely real.
Dick didn’t shape at all the last few years as he was unable to because on his health , so their were a couple of great shaper/friends of Dick who did the ghosting , and when Dick was last shaping the few bds that he did were on the $5K plus zone…..and damn good luck to him as he deserved it.
I got it right before he started to get really sick. But who knows, maybe somebody helped him.
He was incredibly frail and mentally out of it the last couple years, I don’t know how he could have shaped those 5k boards at all .
I assumed they were ghost shaped and sold to pay medical bills.
I know pretty well the guy who was helping Dick , master shaper and surfer….it’s been about 5 years that Dick was too frail to shape, plus the China white…..it’s incredible that he made it as far as he did!!
My buddy just bought 2 Neil purchase boards for 2000 dollars each. They included fins but not shipping from Australia to US which was like 500 bucks. The boards are pretty nice, but 2000 dollars nice? Sounds like a good business model.
he just makes really small amounts of bds and isn’t mainstream , like the big brand who rely on doing volume with small profits.
When we owned a surf shop in the early 90s it was pretty common for a new stock board to cost $500 aud. Levis 501s cost $150 aud.
Of course my American friends will say we were getting stooged on the jeans, but not sure if the price of a board then was too high, or boards now (with 30 years of inflation) are too low?
A ten foot custom Hobie cost 110$ is 1962.
With inflation that equals 1100$ in todays money.
So 1500-2200+ grand is a rip off .
Name brand machine made short boards with no fins are close to 900 now.
That’s a lot of money for something that could break or be heavily damaged on the first wave ridden.
Used boards are the way to go
that’s just counting inflation , what about costs such as rent/wages/materials all going thru the roof and then now we have to conform to all the regulations etc for a safe working space……so costs are thru the roof and as always the highs and lows of s/bd sales ……there are no guarantees each year we learn to ride the highs and lows but to think that shapers/bd makers are a rip off is so far from reality……how many rich s/bd makers are there??
You’re right. But the prices are still at a level that can only be afforded by people making good money. Average working class salary’s haven’t really gone up much in twenty years. It changes what or who a surfer is completely. That’s disturbing. I suppose that doesn’t matter though as the past is long gone, and at this point I’m just glad Im old enough to have experienced it. And I never buy new boards anyway!
You don’t think Channel Islands is making good money?
you have a great point there , in that when you do small volumes of bds and demand outstrips production price’s go up…..the law of supply and demand.
Surfboards are still relatively cheap considering they are still 100% handmade……..but only doing boards for welloff people is something that we try to adjust pricing etc , by having a local price and a full retail price.
The hardest is for the kids who have to buy or their parents have to, so they miss out on getting custom bds and developing relationships with shapers……maybe bds were too cheap at the beginning??
The law of supply and demand concerning pricing is just a nice way of saying capitalism is inherently greedy
absolutely true , more money was made in surfboards in the last 2 years than the previous decade, but now perhaps another decade of grovelling again?
Maybe if you knew that the dollar sign goes before the dollar amount in written English, you would also have the associated skills to earn enough money that buying a $2000 board wouldn’t be a big hit to your wallet.
ever bought a t-shirt….cost s $2 , and sells for $30?
very dignified insta, considering he was notified by text 2 weeks ago that Quik would not renew his contract ……
Quiksilver…hmmmm……possibly the most negative force in/was surfings history. People made billions and then left the Quikcarcass to rot and destroy people lives/dreams /careers…… FFS, one of the greatest failures od surfings culture!
The last Quiksilver product I bought was 25 years ago. A backzip short arm, long leg. The only reason I bought it was because the surf was pumping and I got to the beach an hour away from home and realized I forgot my suit. It was the cheapest suit on the rack. The bong load before the trip down was not the call.
Im in Colombia at the moment and the weird thing is i see all these homeless guys wearing quik t shirts and all the taxis and collectivos (buses) have quiksilver stickers on them.
Maybe they dumped a heap of their shit product that they couldn’t move.
They probably have a Colombian Ross Dress For Less down there.
Enjoy your trip!
Hanging in the gym here is like hanging in a gym with all the victorias secret models. Its fucking awesome.
And if you believe what I have been told is that potential buyers of Boardriders dont want Quik cause its bleeding money. They only want Billabong and RVCA. I even wonder how much they are making as I don’t see much around. The Byron shop has been closed for 6 months and will open in summer.
actually , Oaktree capital the current owners on Boardriders which also owns the BB/QS RVCA brands want to keep the retail spaces and sell the brands. VF Corp didn’t agree so now the negotiations with Authentic Brands are ongoing as sales have dramatically fallen and are still falling.
Or buy here.
Very good …. Made me laugh.
What do you expect from a company going broke. From what I’m hearing is that Vans want Billabong and RVCA but not Quik. They are bleeding cash.
I thought he would be worth more to Quik than most of their team!
Trimming costs down for the sale to authentic brands?
A B = Blackrock!
Leo is only 24? Damn.
It’s the olive oil
https://www.google.com/sear…
Who said gutter ball?
“I dunno, third base!”
Glitter ball more like it.
Yes!
I had no idea he was such a tool
what is a gutter ball?
If you rip hard enough you can wear whatever you want, even Gucci boardshorts