Billabong pivots to plus-sized surfers to extend “reach to important demographic of underserved consumers.”

A range of sizes including small fat, mid fat and large fat but no super fat or death fat. 

The once iconic surf giant Billabong, now effectively cuckolded by the Authentic Brands Group which also owns former arch enemies Hurley and Quiksilver, has been partnered up with another brand to produce plus-sized womenswear.,

Profile Enterprises, specialists in big gal’s gear, will take the reins of the plus-plus sizes, “manufacturing, wholesale and the distribution of Billabong Big & Tall mens as well as Plus women’s apparel across the U.S. and Canada.”

From the Authentic Newsroom,

“We are proud to partner with Authentic to bring this active lifestyle brand to our robust distribution platform,” said PROFILE Ent. President, Frank Riech. “Billabong offers PROFILE the opportunity to extend our reach to an important demographic of underserved consumers.”

The first Billabong Big & Tall and Plus collections will be available in Spring 2024 at major Big & Tall and Plus retailers as well as across various retailer e-commerce channels.

It’s a wise move, clearly.

Half the US spends its days eating and crapping although what constitutes plus-size will, obviously, shift with the prevailing winds.

What’s fat today might be skinny tomoz.

Do you know about the fat spectrum? 

It’s wildly fascinating.

Y’see, there’s small fat, mid fat, large fat, super fat and death fat.

By my reckoning, Profile will be selling Billabong clothes all the way up to large fat, but not a helluva lot happening for the super fat and the death fat.

Linda, from the epic site Fluffy Kitten Party, explains its myriad complexities here.

I’ve removed the “White Fragility” framework because WOW that did not age well, and I should never have used it. I know better now, and I’m sorry. I updated the definition of “deathfat” and credited author and fat activist Lesley Kinzel with creating the term (with sincere apologies to Lesley for causing misunderstanding). I included history and context for the term “super fat” that I did not understand when I wrote this (h/t to the fats who educated me on this after this piece was published), and I changed the format to be more of a neutral explainer. I’ve also updated the image because, frankly, it was hard to read! I tried to cram everything into one image, but it’s just impossible to include everything in one image and not make a cluttered mess. So now, you have a big infographic.