Today on my Surfing magazine Surfboard Blog I examine the contrast in attitudes in the surf industry towards psuedo-surf clothing companies like Hollister and knock-off surfboards from China. Is there a bit of hypocrisy going on?
clicky click to read.
I want to read the post, but the link seems to be broken or not working.
ReplyDeleteShould be working now.
ReplyDeleteLet me sum it up for you. Guys like McKnight, Merrick, Rusty, Randy French, Hurley, Biolas and all the rest think they are pimps but they are really just prostitutes.
ReplyDeleteRight on! Minds that know building with hands that care. Avoid being sucked into the Realm!
ReplyDeleteContrast that article with the life and work of men like Shipman and the Campbell Bros.
ReplyDeleteGreat article JP:)
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the china mans tools??
ReplyDeleteThanks JP, great article.
ReplyDelete:begin rant:
You would think that the big $ soft goods companies would bend over backwords to support local shops and local waves, but their commitment is to profit. How many sweat shop produced board shorts can they sell to kids in the Midwest, before they've drained this cow?
McKnight seems to believe that he should be supported by surfers in his never ending quest to cash in on their culture. McKnight, Hackaman, and the rest you should be ashamed of yourselves. Retire, you've made enough money and done enough damage.
:end rant:
Here is another t-shirt/slogan idea for the movement:
"I'll ride a pop-out when Sam Cody puts the pin lines on it."
Sam Cody is one of the rats in the woodpile who flew to China with Bill Bahne, Tom Eberly and Curtis Hesselgrave.
ReplyDeleteQuicksilver shut down Kammies market.
ReplyDelete...the money always win...
ReplyDelete...we dont need more people in the water
I mean, only people who WANTS surfing not do this because surf marketing...
so, we have enough boards
we dont need mass produced ones
or pop outs
"Sam Cody is one of the rats in the woodpile who flew to China with Bill Bahne, Tom Eberly and Curtis Hesselgrave."
ReplyDeleteWow. I just kinda pulled that out of my butt. His name popped into my head as an example of an American craftsman. If that is true, I am really depressed.
Yeah, it's true man. Hard to believe but true.
ReplyDeleteJP. I agree with your latest rant uh post completely. But instead of everyone bashing popouts (negative)lets focus on promoting hand made in "wherever, USA" boards (positive). I think the point is not to bash the stink bug stance pop out riders who clog the line up going straight, but promote those of us who choose to ride hand made one of a kind surfboards! Everyone out there get your Moonlight Glassing, Campbell Bros. or whatever shirts, and wear them proudly.
ReplyDeleteHollister is just an entry level t-shirt. When you start ripping you can buy a Quiksilver tee.
ReplyDeleteMy question is when will it be retro cool to wear Hollister or other pseudo surf gear? Ever?
ReplyDeleteI'm wearing Kirkland jeans (Costco), a Quicksilver dress shirt I got for $15, and Swedish clogs right now...am I a sell out? A hypocrit? Or just a consumer?
There's no tailor or cobbler on the corner...my wife doesn't darn socks...we just toss 'em...
Corporatism is corporatism... whether it's oil, pharmaceuticals or surf gear...
I'm almost waiting to hear the war cry from the big boys that..."The threat to our way of life is these independent shapers, these one house glass shops, small surf shop businesses..."
Change is inevitable...at one point someone bemoans the loss of the "SoCal" style or something to that effect...every style is coopted by the "non-whatever" masses every fucking day of the week since cool was cool...who cares? Move on...find the next big deal...be yourself...if being yourself means sporting Hollister and riding popouts...go for it...I think I've seen you on the beach and in the shops trying to sell me on it...
Anyway, I just like to go surfing... I have no fear about crowds...I can surf alone whenever I want...maybe not the perfect point wave...but there's a time for that too.
(((((((I'm wearing Kirkland jeans (Costco), a Quicksilver dress shirt I got for $15, and Swedish clogs right now...am I a sell out? A hypocrit? Or just a consumer?))))))
ReplyDeleteHow about stop shopping at Costco? We are focusing on the surf industry, but Costco hurts countless other businesses too. Why in the hell do we need to shop at Costco? That place is hideous if you ask me.
Kirkland jeans, Quicksilver shirt and Swedish clogs. Man, that's a trippy combo.
McKnight has a fucked up view of the world.
ReplyDelete((((Why in the hell do we need to shop at Costco? That place is hideous if you ask me.)))
ReplyDeleteI shop there for many reasons... I also shop at many, many other local shops...my wife also sells product to Costco not because they're some great panacea to the marketplace but because that's the fucked up reality of making it in business in the good ol' USA...
You don't turn away opportunities that can open doors...that's a reality for a start up business that has about a good a chance of failure as it does at success...
(((Kirkland jeans, Quicksilver shirt and Swedish clogs. Man, that's a trippy combo.)))
Yeah...but I can pull it off.
This post gave me shivers it was so right on.
ReplyDeleteI do have a question...as someone who owns a Channel Islands, Moonlight glassed, MSF single fin... are you still glassing boards for Al and Co? If so, what has his personal response been to all the uproar been?
Bob McKnight is right. Hollister is fucking gay. Too bad Quiksilver is gay too. If Quiksilver starts bringing in boards from china then Bob Mcknight is gay and a kook. Listen Bob I will buy your shitty wetsuits and surf trunks if you leave my shaper alone. You are not my enemy are you Bob?
ReplyDeleteBob McKnight has identified the enemy. I agree that companies Hollister are like vampires sucking the soul of out of surfing. As a surfer I will back Quiksilver up to a point. If Quiksilver imports surfboards from China that undermines my local shapers who are more than friends they are like family then McKnight exposes himself as a fraud. McKnight has drawn a line in the sand. If he crosses his own line then he is collaborating with the enemy. We must fight the enemy.
ReplyDeleteSurferbrat, Moonlight Glassing is still doing some select boards for Channel Islands.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting to me is the conflict of interest that is happening with Quiksilver, Channel Islands, Kelly Slater and Burton snowboards.
Slater is the #1 Quiksilver guy and Channel Islands guy. CI just announced that they are putting Kelly Slater in charge of R&D and will work closely with Burton (I did not know that Slater was a shaper or an engineer). Quiksilver owns Rossingol which is a Burton competitor.
There's more, Channel Islands is, in a roundabout way, competing with itself by undercutting it's regular line of boards with Anacapa's. If Quiksilver brings in Quiksilver boards from China that will undermine Channel Islands line of boards. Imagine Quiksilver surfboards undermining CI K-Boards (Slater's personal models).
Like people have said, McKnight made it pretty clear that there are "enemies" out there. People call me controversial but I think McKnight's 2004 SIMA speech was gnarlier than anything I've ever said. He sound like George Bush declaring to the world that "You are either with us or with the terrorist."
In my opinion if a big company like Quiksilver starts selling cheap boards from China then McKnight is a traitor. I truly hope he decides to do the right thing. If Quiksilver wants to have a line of surfboards then they should work with the incredible amount of untapped talent in California and the east coast of the USA.
Check out the grand scheme of the China/US relationship, and how China is currently dumping 2 billion dollars a year into US investments and the effect on US interest rates and other effects it will have if they discontinue this.
ReplyDeleteSome analysists say, "China depends on us for their thriving economy so they NEED to continue investing", but we are in a sense becoming economically dependent on China and they will soon have us by the balls. The United States, dependent on Communist China. That's scary.
I wish McKnight could convince the consumer that Hollister was "gay". If a few less people drawn by the current fashionability of "surfstyle" clogged our lineups I wouldn't complain.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're at it, maybe Hurley could work on convincing the masses that leashes are effeminate as well. Can you imagine the carnage at Malibu?
Whee! I'd wear a pink wetsuit to help the cause.
Leashes are effeminate, if by effeminate you mean totally gay. My 'buddy' got herpes from wearing one of those things.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you, Jp, about McNight. He sounds like Bush, trying to preserve an empire. Q-silver is part of the commercialization and commodification of surfing, and McNight is at the helm. He too is the "enemy," and he has been for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI sent McNight an e-mail years ago, questioning some of his business practices in South Africa and Morocco; he sent back some half-assed reply. I wrote back and promised him on that day that if we ever crossed paths in the ocean, that I'd drop in on him countlessly for his exploitation of 3rd world labor. Can't wait for the day.
kit
As was pointed out, China has the US by the nuts. This fact will only become more apparent by the day. Perhaps vaporizing $500 Billion on an unnecessary war wasn't in the best interest of national security? All the candidates are talking Iraq right now but give us another year to slide into the second great depression and the economy will be the hot issue for the election.
ReplyDeleteThe issue at hand as far as selling out surfing is such a metaphor for so many other things that the nation has lost.
We must support local efforts. But not through protectionism. We have to make ourselves better/create more value than our foreign competitors. I see a lot of individual shapers/board builders doing this right now so that's a good thing.
" We have to make ourselves better/create more value than our foreign competitors. I see a lot of individual shapers/board builders doing this right now so that's a good thing."
ReplyDeleteDamn Straight! Well said.
how many million people killed the Americans?
ReplyDelete