The SurfStitch cadaver set to be picked over by sportswear giant Nike.
The once set-to-be-iconic and make-a-billionaire-out-of-anyone-who-had-a-piece-of-it online retailer SurfStitch has hit new lows with Nike taking it to court for what is, in context, a relatively paltry $237,000.
There was much mystery and whispers one months ago, you’ll remember, when online online sleuths brought the evaporation of SurfStitch from the internet to BeachGrit’s attention.
Once upon a time, of course, SurfStitch’s founders Lex Pedersen and Justin Cameron were the king and queen of the surf world with a bold vision to own the online retail space on everything surf and its peripheral rip-offs, skating, snowboarding etc.
A recap:
The company they started in a little industrial area on Sydney’s northern beaches in 2007 soared to a half-a-billion-dollar valuation by 2014.
Heady, heady days. And, then, poof.
A $155 million loss in 2016 was driven by the disastrous acquisition of FCS, Stab, Magic Seaweed and Coastalwatch and shareholder lawsuits over inflated forecasts.
In the 2016 financial year, SurfStitch made two ten-year agreements with Coastalwatch and its various companies whereupon “Coastalwatch would provide a link on its website to SurfStitch Group’s Australian website for a fee of $8 million.
Alceon Group acquired it in 2018, folding it into Alquemie Group, owners of Lego in Australia, but recovery stalled. In 2023, Alquemie posted a $2 million loss, down from a $3.2 million profit, amid redundancies and a failed SurfStitch rebrand.
After being offline for over a month, Alquemie revealed it had been sold, along with gal’s brand Ginger & Smart, to an unknown buyer who subsequently appointed voluntary administrators.
Now, Nike, a company that turns over 51 billion a year, is sore ’cause they say they’re owed $237,760.38 by SurfStitch and have taken ’em to court to recover the cash. The sportswear company submitted a request to liquidate SurfStitch in May, and the firm entered voluntary administration on June 6, according to records from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).
Still, a little of that of that famous Lex/Justin optimism remains.
On the SurfStitch landing page a message reads,
“Sorry, our site is undergoing maintenance. We expect to be back soon. Thanks for your patience.”
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
This is good news. Surfers are supposed to be stupid. Not masters of the universe. Lets all revert to the historical mean together asap
First the Rajneesh, now Surfstitch.
The future real money is going to made by big time investment in the inevitable world wave pool tour that’s coming. The surf world that was with frilly side shows will soon become a memory. Lay days hammered into the coffin.
The one with the plunger
Killed by (almost) free money
I think the smartest aquisition was FCS because everytime a fin falls out they get another sale.
And even FCS lost 1.5 million a year or so ago and stopped their US operations of importing fins cause of the tariffs.
If only they could find a way to import the fins back from the bottom of the ocean.
The way that you cover this story never fails to give me a chuckle.
I sense glee in your eyes when you’re crafting your prose.
”online online sleuths “ and calling skateboarding and snowboarding “peripheral” is great work.
…”Heady, heady days. And, then, poof.”…
Yeah well, that’s the surfy rag-trade and it’s associated adjacent spin-offs for ya.
Poof, or rather, ‘poofy’, ie, full of poofters.
As in, run by a bunch of pillow biters and benders, whether they be blatantly gay or undercover ‘industry’ family men gone under the covers, as it were.
P.S.
I see that Negs and Barreled have ‘outed’ Uriahs old man.
Hhmmmm, after a quick look at the kids families soc-med accounts I’m more inclined to think it’s actually his Mum using his Dad’s account to make the comments here, seeing as she seems to be the front person in charge of 98% of both the families business and personal soc-med stuff.
So it’s almost like having Griffy’s old lady back in the ranks, though will she give us a good telling off like Camille did ?