Trends

Surfing through the Free State

Once upon a time surfers wore surfwear brands and fashion-conscious people wore fashion brands. Today there is as much a blur between what is (and who wears) surfwear and fashion brands, as there is between fashion and sports brands.

Surfwear used to be about T’s and boardies … and, of course, worn by surfers. But then the rest of us caught on and suddenly surfwear is to be found in the most unlikely of places — often far away from any surf.

Dry, landlocked areas, for example the Free State and Northern Cape, are especially partial to surf brands. Stores in the middle of the Free State have surfwear departments that rival Durban beach front stores.

Rellings in Kroonstad is one of them. According to Jock Relling, surfwear and sporting brands are about equally popular amongst his customers. He says the surfing brands have become more popular over the past three years due to children becoming more aware of surfing brands.

There has always been a demand for surfbrands like Billabong and Quiksilver in their sport store, says Keith McLaren of Desnics Planet Sport in Kimberley. He agrees that the demand for surf brands is about as high as for sporting brands, although Desnics is a general sport store.

Verons Surf & Sport in Parys, Free State, also reports a big demand for surfwear brands — with Billabong, Roxy and Quiksilver at the top of the list but Element and Fox also selling well.

Mariolize Marais, of Extreme Adrenaline in Newcastle, says their store has not been open for a very long time, but already they have had a huge success with surfwear. Marais says that consumers go for the brand name as well as the quality associated with the names — her customers do not buy surfwear for the culture associated with it.

We first became aware of the popularity of surfbrands in inland areas when we asked a thousand 16 to 17-year olds about their brand preferences, and it transpired that surfing brands were more popular amongst inland teens than their coastal peers.

Eleven of the 20 brands owned by most inland teens were surfwear brands, compared to 9 for the coastal teens. Six surfwear brands were more popular among the inland teens than among the coastal teens — BadBoy/Girl, Hang Ten, Instinct, Lizzard, O’Neill, Roxy and Volcom. Billabong had a good following under both the coastal and inland teens, with a similar percentage of teens owning the brand, as did Island Style and Lost. Quiksilver was more in demand by coastal teens.

This is also confirmed by buyers for apparel stores (see Sports brands dominate lifestyle clothing). Nearly half (42.5%) of the inland buyers who responded to the Sports Trader survey said that one or more of the surfwear brands was one of their top three selling brands and 15% of the inland buyers said a surfwear brand was their best seller. In this survey, more coastal buyers (53%) did, however, say that the surfbrands were among their top three sellers.

A new market opens

But, the surfwear market has not only spread from the coast to the Karoo, it is also losing its traditional laid-back white teenage male image. Now women, other race and age groups are also wearing the brands.

The main market is, however still teenagers. The majority of his customers are between 10 and 18 years old, says Relling, and they are still predominantly male.

McLaren says his surfwear customers are between ages 13 and 28. He has been experiencing a steady growth over the past two years in the women’s segment regarding sales to the extent that currently the interest from men and women are roughly the same.

As with most other industries, it seems that the women’s segment is growing fast — or at least is pulling on par with that of the men’s.This was reflected in the Teens Brands Survey, where female respondents owned 51.5% of surfwear brands mentioned in the survey. Not only are more and more women surfing, but surfwear is also fashionable.

However, women do not naturally opt for a ladies’ brand. For example, male brands such as Billabong and Lizzard were more popular amongst the girls in the Teens Brands Survey than Roxy and Lizzy (women-targeted brands).

The emerging black middle-class market is also becoming a factor in surfwear fashion sales as children of all races go to school together, and style preferences start to cross-polinate.

Karen O’Connell, ladies apparel buyer for Sports Scene, says there is a big wannabe-surfer culture amongst urban teens in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

According to our Teens Brands Survey, 199.5% of all black respondents own surfwear — thus, almost every respondent owns two different surfwear brands.

But, says Scott Pringle, men’s apparel buyer for Sports Scene, many of these consumers buy the clothing for fashion sake, and not because they want to prescribe to the culture. However, Pringle maintains the black market prefers sporting brands to surfwear.

Who rules the roost?

In the Sports Trader survey of lifestyle apparel buyers, 4 surfwear brands were among the 16 brands mentioned as best sellers — Billabong, Quiksilver, Volcom and Roxy.

Relling says that when Billabong exploded into a massive brand, all the other surfwear brands had a big spin-off as a result. Three-quarters (65.6%) of the 16 - 17-year olds who responded to our Teens Brands Survey own Billabong.

Marais says that they have surfwear customers across all segments with parents buying for their children. On average, parents buy Lizzard for their 3 – 13-year old children, and brands such as Volcom and Element for those between 14 and 18 years of age. Older surfwear customers like brands such as Fox and O’Neill. Fox is especially popular amongst those who do motorcross and biking, and O’Neill amongst ladies. The older customers also like Oakley, she says.

O’Connell says that the black market especially likes Roxy, Billabong and Quiksilver.

Surfwear explodes

Surfwear used to be the sole territory of surfers. What happened to make surfwear brands so popular amongst those who have never been on a surfboard?

The rise in popularity of surfing brands started in coastal areas, the natural habitat of surfers, but quickly spread to inland areas. This happened because inland consumers would, for example, go to the coast for holiday and be exposed to the brands, says Arthur Limbouris of Musgrave Agencies, marketer and distributor of Quiksilver.

The fact that inland holiday-makers took to surfwear brands also meant a boom for coastal surf stores selling these brands. Once there was enough demand, inland retailers started doing well by stocking surf-wear brands.

"These brands became in demand by the youth as they were adrenaline aspirational sports", says Limbouris.

He says that once surfwear brands started putting money into events and became more professional, consumers became more aware of the brands and aspired to get their hands on the products. Surf brands also learnt the value of getting your name out there — advertising in non-surf specific magazines, showing events on television, etc. The brands sold themselves as part of a surfer’s image and supported surfers — by means of sponsorships — and the surfing community. The brands gave the impression that those who wore their clothing are part of the surfing culture — or at least want to be.

The annual BMI surveys of junior sport participation in SA indicate that about 33 500 teens between the ages of 13 to 18 actually use a surfboard. The fact that a magazine like Saltwater Girl has a circulation of 42 600 and the combined circulation of Blunt and ZigZag magazines is more than 33 000, however, show that an interest in the surf culture extends way beyond those who have ever walked the walk or talked the talk.

"These kids are being exposed to the aspirational values of the brands and want to be associated to the brands, whether they participate in board sports or not", says Limbouris.

McLaren agrees to a point. But children, especially the girls, wear the surfwear because the clothing looks good, and not necessarily because they want to be associated with the surf culture, he says.

"Surfwear brands have been raising their game over the last three years in terms of styling, fashionability and product offering", says Russell Adshade of Billabong.

"The brands are no longer boardshort and T-shirt companies, the product ranges have been expanded to meet the diverse demands of a radically evolving fashion market".

Nowadays there is little to distinguish surfwear brands from fashion brands — it is common place to see a pin-stripe suit or button-up shirt in a surfwear brand’s range. They therefore sit side-by-side on retailer shelves with the likes of Levi’s, Diesel, Nike and adidas.

Pringle believes that surfwear brands’ move into fashion-territory is due to the brands looking for a bigger market. They have the surfwear market covered: now for the next step. He says that in other countries surf stores are true to surf, selling printed T’s and boardies. In SA, surfwear brands follow the fashion trends. The brands feel they need to be fashionable and make brands that are not surfy. Likewise, consumers also buy the brands because they look fashionable.

That is logical when one looks at the size of our market. Especially compared to other markets.

With 2.7-m surfers and participation growing at 37% per year*, the US market has more than enough core surfers for surfing brands to focus their marketing and advertising on the approximately 700 hardcore surf stores in the country.

The SA brands are not so fortunate and therefore they moved into fashion-territory in order to create a bigger market, says Pringle.

This not only had an impact on non-surf stores selling surfing brands, but could also explain the high number of surf stores per surfing population in SA, compared to the US. While there is one surf store per about 4000 surfers in the US, each of the 100-odd surf-specific stores in SA would have catered for 335 surfers each — had their appeal remained hardcore. The wider appeal of surf brands have therefore also kept hardcore surf stores profitable.

However, it is not only the surfwear brands that are bringing out fashion items, some fashion brands are bringing out items with surfwear inspired designs.

All the brands are in one boat now, as far as the consumer is concerned, and have to compete. Thus, there is a mixture of several influences across both the fashion and surfwear markets.

The idealistic image of the lone surfer with only his board and the surf as company is not the selling point anymore — especially among children who will most probably never set foot on a surfboard. Rather, styling and quality has taken over the reigns as a pulling force for consumers.