Expensive Surf Clothing-Who Benefits?

[hogey]

simply it doesnt benifit normal surfers. it benifits sell out surfers who go after the money and pointless sh*T. i just came back from thailand were they sell genuine billabong boardies for 13 bucks. and yet people are stupid enough to pay 80 over here (for that price u may aswell surf nude), im glad it seems most people on here are smart enough to avoid it thou.. gotta agree about kmart, most of my clothing comes from there now 15 buck hoodies and shoes, cant go wrong!

[Bodyboarder-sicne-1989]

the price you say has been rising? i bought a pair of ripcurl boardies in 99 for $80 that i still have now, there still going strong. yet i bought 3 pairs of billabong ones that my mate scored me for $10's a pop (he worked in a billabong liquidation store for out of season stock) and they all shat themselves within a year. stitching came out of them and they all fell apart. pretty sure that all 4 pairs were made in china.

but then i always used to buy ripcurl as a grom untill the newer items started to fall apart quickly. even the "CORE" series steamer, springy and 1mm long sleaved wetty top i owned in the mid-late 90's had seam stitching falling out of them in the 1st month. tend to find the billabong stuff wears harder for longer these days.

[rae]

eurgh. rip curl. dont get me started

So i take my wetsuit back to the shop it came from, cos three months in the tapings cracking all over the place, and its itching like mad.

one week....

two weeks....

three weeks.....

so i call, they call up rip curl and the story goes "they've got no wetsuite (like come on, theyre ripcurl ) but they can give you one in january..."

i get a bit pissed off, cos if it gets cold, im gone for. Ask well why cant i get mine back, shop rekons they'll have thrown it out, but they call up. Turns out ripcurl still has it, so a month after i take the suit in, i can look foward to getting my fault piece of shite back with nothing to show except not having a decent suit for a month.

thanks rip curl. and extra thanks for not even bothering to call the shop back when you got my suit in, as opposed to me having to call up three weeks later having not heard from anyone, simply to end up straight back where i started.

[chopescahrger]

holy shit rae thats exactly wat happened to me
with my peak steamer they sent it to rip curl
no new peak suits so i had to do all the calling
finaaly got a 400 gift voucher from the surf store

[Floyd]

A friend of mine has decided that it is time to open the surfing public's eyes to an alternative. He and a business partner have opened a surf shop in Narrabeen that sells all the top brands (not copies of!) at a hugely reduced price. They have all the brand names we pay top dollar for but at less that half the price. They have new brand name boardies between $15 - $37 and other new clothing from as little as $5. They also have a huge range of good condition pre-loved brand name gear all from $5-$15. I got a full QS outfit (4 items) for under $55. Anywhere else you wouldn't get a pair of shorts!

Being a tradey the prices are great as we want the brand name gear but don't want to pay $55 for a tshirt that we are going to get concrete on. I'll pay $5 for a Billabong t and not give a toss if it gets messed up.


Check 'em at -
2nd Surf
1242 Pittwater Rd
Narrabeen
Ph - 9970 7466

They also have good boards and wetties cheap!!

hmm i wonder where u work...
sounds pretty gud tho

[bc]

Who profits.
I don't know the margins, etc, but figure it must work something like this:
$80 boardshorts=

$5 research & development
$5 manufacture
$5 shipping and distribution
$20 store profit
$15 company profit
$10 company costs
$5 advertising
$5 surf contests, etc
$10 company overheads - returns/mistakes etc

Anyone have any better idea?

[longbum]

your p.s is a edit

and fluro is really cool....like really

and i think fluro boards look really cool...really

longbottom help me out here

i'm copping flak about my new boards colours off my local crew

"fluro fong"...thanks a million as if my nick name wasn't bad enough

hahahshahahahahahaha...
excellent !

ps....I've had fluro boards since my grommet days, not something I've just jumpred on.

[longbum]

true NC, its just a pity that nearly evrything said on this thread is misinformed bollucks from people who have no idea what they are talking about

so unfortunately it is just repeated crap

100% agree !!

don't fckn buy it if it bothers ya that much, no need to start a thread about it......................

[aitch]

Seriously fellas, going down to KMart to buy stuff doesn't help the situation, these mega-stores close down and saturate markets, especially in small country towns, they are NOT the answer.

Personally, I'll drop good hard earned on surf wear because I'll only do it once every 3 years for boardies or a wetty. The stuff does last and if it doesn't I send it back for a replacement... they've always been pretty solid at sorting that stuff out.

[Revolution]

Who profits.
I don't know the margins, etc, but figure it must work something like this:
$80 boardshorts=

$5 research & development
$5 manufacture
$5 shipping and distribution
$20 store profit
$15 company profit
$10 company costs
$5 advertising
$5 surf contests, etc
$10 company overheads - returns/mistakes etc

Anyone have any better idea?

More like per boardies

$0.50 research n development
$1 manufacture (over seas with cheap labour laws)
$2 shipping, depening on import tax etc
$? store profit
$? company profit
$2 company costs
$3 advertising (including sponsoring contests)
$1-$5 recalls etc.

They would make probably about $60+ on a $80 boardies

I wear 'brand' boardies cause they are the only ones that make either stichless or internet ones and wetty's.

[xe]

A red hot tip there from Gazza they were trading at $6.98 Feb 04 high of $18.85 now just under fid een

Especially if you sold your house to get on the surfing band wagon

[Grooter]

Keep checking the local paper for the big sales and then go nuts.

A couple of stores down my way do this once a year boardies, t-shirts, shoes etc.... go for $10-20 and some of it is pretty good.

[Nick Carroll]

What kind of benefits do people expect btw.

Many replies on this thread imply there SHOULD somehow be a benefit to the surf community from the price of boardshorts et al. What should that benefit be?

[special_k]

What kind of benefits do people expect btw.

Many replies on this thread imply there SHOULD somehow be a benefit to the surf community from the price of boardshorts et al. What should that benefit be?

Artificial reefs......everywhere.

[ric_vidal]

What should that benefit be?

Warm‘n’fuzzy feeling inside?

Think it is more a question of are people feeling they are paying too much? All well and good to be brand conscious, but there is no doubt a line in the sand that some people just won’t cross. Where that falls varies from consumer to consumer.

Personally, I believe they might be questioning the value (‘benefit’ if you will Nick). The tribe has got too big and too popular, too many non surfers into it the ‘fashion’.

The creep up in price or perhaps the it’s the massive difference in price from seemingly the (same) product to product would also not be helping.

I’m with Longy, etc, no one is making anyone buy anything. New I should have launched VirginSurf

[surfscracking]

This is sad really a lot of people commenting on nothing they have a clue about. What a waste of fucking time. Oh and please bring in the new IR laws so they can cut your wages and you can cry about it(everything is relevant in this world really) If we were 3rd world you would be paying 3rd world prices. Please refer to shopping at Big W in future and stop all this bullshit, it is simple really. And they don't make $60 on a pair of boardies for all of your fools who think they do go and read the reports(financial) and do the math. Maybe just maybe you would have some idea then about what you are talking about. They might even prop some of the industries you work in. But who needs a job to survive right? This forum has become cry central for surfers, a really fucking sad place. Oh and for people who think surfing brands are fashion.....l yawn.....

[longbum]

Another friend of mine managed an SDS store and reckons the markup is inexcess of 300% on a lot of clothing items.

It's disgusting how much profit surf shops and surf brands make.

Your freind is a puppet and has obviously no fckn idea !

[ric_vidal]

Oh and for people who think surfing brands are fashion.....l yawn.....

I don’t get the comment Surfscracking. It may be semantics, but if this is your idea of fashion how can surf brands not be included? The industry may have grown out of a lifestyle difference, but it has certainly outgrown it’s roots, doesn’t mean they have abandoned them.

No one is professing to be experts, but we have Bro, Longbot and a few others IN the business, this might be the best free research they ever get or are we NOT indicative of their buying public? If they choose to ignore the misconception that consumers may have it might just be at their peril, but ‘don’t shoot the messenger’.

Plenty of people with all sorts of knowledge on here, not everyone seems to want impart it though. Seems a waste.