Quiksilver, BIllabong, RVCA, Hurley, all garbage! Garbage owned by billionaires!
In today’s episode of Chas Smith Hates Surfing, the vaunted author pockets his imperious rudeness and delivers three minutes of unsparing and unhesitating praise for John John Florence and his brand Florence aka Florence Marine X.
Surf fans are aware of the collapse of the surf industry, Billabong, Quiksilver, RVCA, Hurley, all swallowed by hedge funds.
Pointing to a classic camo Aloha hat by Hurley Chas Smith says, “This used to represent the surf industry. A beautiful place filled with happy creative people making important products for you, the surfer.
“What is it now? Garbage! It is…garbage! Garbage, purchased by billionaires in New York City and other god forsaken places. What do they do? They license it out! Hurley, once proud and iconic, is now selling at Costco for $19.99. Quiksilver, Billabong, all the same garbage.
But, might there be a saviour?
It is John John, Pat O’Connell and Bob Hurley, whose name is now tarnished and smeared…Florence Marine X is a core surf brand, making quality surf products for you, the surfer. Florence Marine X has what it takes to recreate the surf industry.
John John Florence is the saviour of the surf industry. And maybe one less reasons to hate surfing.”
(Launched in 2020, Florence Marine X, but now called Florence, was born out of John John’s departure from Hurley and his vision to create quality surf gear, ready-to-wear-suits, children’s toys, little pink dresses, inspired by his connection with the ocean. With a noted focus on sustainability and innovation, Florence Marine X leaves even environmentalists feeling intoxicated with happiness. )
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do they have rashies with built in you tube go pro’s in production yet ? ,,,
Dickies?
The great thing about brands like this is that I don’t have to wait for the catelogue to come out, I just have to look at all the VALs in the carpark to see the new surftech/brand releases I’m never gonna buy.
given the talent of jj + the history of the founders, its odd that this branding missed . red+yellow not great together as brand colors, and the logo has no feeling , emotion or originality . very forgettable. plus the sail emblem thing just misses. they did however do a great edit on their ad video thing shown during a recent wsl event .
The hell with the surf industry and pro surfing. Just go find some good waves
JJ’s over pro-surfing, like an Ethiopian foreskin. We await the birth of our savior via the G.O.A.T. and his unwed virgin concubine. A new era on the horizon. These days now will be referred to as the “Dark Ages”. A time of great suffering, sickness and sorrow….
Perfect.
“Surf journalists” and cockroaches share much in common.
Pushing Florence for spite to Kelly/OK?
The above is sarcasm?
Got it.
PS
I’d stay miles away from anything associated with Bob Hurley.
it’s exclusively middle aged VALs who are wearing Florence gear (at least in OC and SD), but I think that’s actually the target demographic and the whole point of the Florence marketing campaign—the outward appearance of core, but neither the kids nor the core are wearing it
As Matt Biolas pointed out here on BG not long
ago, surfing has missed the current younger generation.
Not that they’d be into a company and wearing stuff with a girls name on it—Florence.
I was recently in Tarifa, which is a charming little town that is in the South of Spain, you can actually see Morocco across the sea. It’s a bit of a Mecca for kite surfing, and it had plenty of surfing outlet stores. I was taken aback at what all those brands still charged for their soft goods. €200 for a jacket, €100 for a hoodie, €40 for a lame T-shirt. Maybe Europe is an outlier in the surfing world, there seem to be plenty of wealthy Northern Europeans taking up the pursuit! Either way, I didn’t buy anything!
An outerknown store just opened in my town which is not a surf oriented place at all, but it’s filled with rich people.
Surf is dead, and Erik Logan and beach grit killed it, it’s assassination from within , who knew ….
If more attention and less economics and far less petty lengthening by way of ridiculously overly descriptive analogies, tiresome adjective driven dribble to illustriously illustrate a narrative. It’s surf, we are well aware of the wonders and beauty’s our beloved pastime holds, so just write the article. There’s no xtra points for word count unless your billing per word, and this isn’t the Atlantic, no need for superbly dressed rhetoric to hide an empty content. The content is a given in this situation, the “Marvel” and/or “DC” approach isn’t a necessary flex, our characture are guys and women who’ve been in the water from birth, some are more than likely more at home in the shore break than at the dinner table, but they ain’t “Aquaman” they’re sons, daughter, brothers, sister, mothers and fathers give them that element of humanism and any point to be made is genuine.
Or to maybe better phrase that, surf ‘culture’ is dead.
If there’s going to be the surf equivalent of cockroaches that survive the surf industry apocalypse it’s not going to be florence marine. jj will get old and kids won’t want to wear anything of his. Same goes for kelly and pottz when they tried it.
The survivors will be established small brands like birdwell or katin or even local motion.
When you said cockroaches I thought we’re going to say surf instructors
Na, they’re lower than cockroaches.
Or, the survivors may be someone just selling wetsuits and wax—the essentials.
with all the go fund me’s for people who bounced off the reef at pipeline needing our support, who can afford anything but a good Costco deal??
“Launched in 2020, Florence Marine X, but now called Florence”
So they had to rebrand within 3 years of launch?
I can see this business going places
…in the ocean mainly.
And they still came up with a lame name.
You and family wearing matching Costco Quiksilver hoodies?
Whenever I go to colombia heaps of poor people on motorbikes and sleeping on the streets wear quiksilver. They must dump the unsold stock there as a social service. Dont think it’s fake like you used to see in bali.
Howd you cum up withe name
STAB
Seriously tweaked ass bandits?
Secretly Trans Ass Bandits?
I’ve thought about this a lot, Chas and I’m not sure how I feel.
astro uses right hand to grab right arse cheek
Ppppfffffffttttttt
I feel better now and have come to the conclusion that I don’t give a fuck about the Florence brand.
Chas ,chas chas ; your missing the point , the consumer base has moved on from brand association , you can role out as many JJfs as you like but no one is going to consume it , it will cost millions upon millions to rebuild the consumer base , and you don’t need to be an economical genius to realise the funding platform is simply not going to be made available, all good for JJF I’m sure his buisness plan is to offload the brand at the first prime opportunity and his brother will be on a % of the sale , if that does not occur then in the near term then JJFs personal funds will take a pounding.
Agree 100%. It’s such a lazy take by chas though totally unsurprising. If he were correct he’d be saying the same thing about outerknown or the other “boutique” brands by ex pros who think they can get rich like the late 60s rubber barons.
I think there’s room in this new global new world order of surf brands thinking outside the box to sponsor a internet hero.
Pretty sure with Bitter Guy, Trojan Guy and James B all dropping off the radar it’s mine for the taking.
Bidding war below please….
You could be in luck
It looks like B & G is currently in expansion mode…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Can I license out a BG restaurant from you Beef? I’m only going to serve quesadillas that are cooked in my toaster oven, and gin & tonics.
Shut up and take my money 💵
“Brother sit down, your moneys no good here!”
which is why I’ll run the place out of business in 6 weeks
I’d rather find god and suck cock!
And no I’m not the Australian surf media identity your thinking
Whatever happened to Samantha Eats?
*Trogan Fan
I’ve been calling for larger avatars for years Manscaped™ now to take advantage of product placement opportunities.
James B is the commenter I could not for the life remember name last week..