21 Best Surf Brands // The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Surf Companies
Surf manufacturers have all the time been an integral a part of the seashore way of life. Certainly, many of those manufacturers have helped form not solely the surf business, however your entire sport itself. From creating board shorts, surf bikinis, wetsuits, surf clothes, and different browsing necessities, to sponsoring championship occasions and the world’s greatest athletes, surf manufacturers have helped form our tradition for greater than half a century.
Most of the largest manufacturers have even gone on to transcend the surf business as an entire, changing into family names throughout the US and increasing into a wide range of excessive sports activities, the humanities, music festivals, and different popular culture genres.
However no matter their particular person successes, the really core surf manufacturers—those who actual wave riders flip to once they want actual surf gear—all have comparable values as their basis: They had been constructed by individuals who dwell and breathe browsing, and who’ve funded this lifelong pursuit by creating the very issues that assist the remainder of us spend time within the water.
Listed here are 21 of the very best surf manufacturers, from OG business stalwarts to a few of the latest, most fun manufacturers to hit the market previously few years.
BEST SURF BRANDS
The New College Surf Manufacturers
Outerknown
ROOTS: Based by Kelly Slater and John Moore in Los Angeles, California, in 2015.
As the best surfer of all time and the long-time face of iconic surf model Quiksilver, nearly every part Kelly Slater does receives most publicity. So when Slater introduced that he was leaving Quik and beginning his personal model, your entire surf world began speaking. The following yr, Slater launched Outerknown, a collaboration with acclaimed designer John Moore that emphasizes sustainability and environmental duty.
A better-end vogue line that makes use of materials and thread created from recycled fishing nets and different environmentally sound sources, Outerknown differentiates itself from conventional surf manufacturers by means of its philosophy, high quality, and value level. That being stated, any firm began by Kelly Slater is a surf firm at coronary heart, and Outerknown has gone on to solidify its avenue cred by sponsoring a handful of world tour occasions. It additionally expanded in 2019 to incorporate a ladies’s line.
Banks Journal
ROOTS: Based by Masa Shibahara, Motoo Noda, Tim Cochran, and Rama McCabe in Los Angeles, California, in 2013.
A collaboration born from the merging of Australian and Japanese surf tradition, Banks Journal is the brainchild of Tokyo’s Masa Shibahara and Motoo Noda and Byron Bay’s Tim Cochran and Rama McCabe. The model was born to have fun the coastal way of life whereas merging fashion and performance with sustainability.
A relative newcomer to the brand new age of retro-inspired vogue, Banks Journal has bolstered its publicity and enhanced its aesthetic with the assistance of group rider Jared Mell, who is taken into account one of many world’s greatest loggers and a bona fide fashion grasp. Via a dedication to vogue, utility, and environmental consciousness, the model has shortly turn into a frontrunner within the neo-hip browsing subculture.
Rhythm
ROOTS: Based by Neal Buy, Jr. and Jamal Grey in Burleigh Heads, Australia, in 2003.
Neal Buy Jr. is a legend of East Coast Australian browsing, a famend shaper, another surfboard fanatic, and one of the crucial fashionable wave riders in our sports activities historical past. In 2003, he additionally grew to become the co-founder Rhythm — of one among browsing’s latest different manufacturers, serving to to pave the best way for the neo-hipster motion that might finally redefine the surf business.
Drawing inspiration from surf, journey, artwork, and music, Rhythm relies within the heart of the Australian surf business in Burleigh Heads, however has unfold its message all over the world and turn into an integral a part of the brand new international seashore way of life vogue motion.
Rhythm’s males’s line is all about understated old-school cool, and the ladies’s is retro-inspired female with a touch of boho. Dig it.
Roark Revival
ROOTS: Roark was based by Ryan Sirianni and Ryan Hitzel in Orange County, California, in 2009.
Like lots of the business’s latest manufacturers, Roark Revival was created by a duo of creatives with confirmed expertise within the surf clothes market. Founders Hitzel and Sirianni are each huge believers in storytelling, and created Roark to mirror that zeal, gearing the model not solely towards out of doors journey, but additionally the tales that develop by means of the pursuit.
Roark began small, however quickly had window house in a variety of surf business retailers, equivalent to Patagonia, Wavelengths, and Wetsand. It shortly started to develop, establishing its personal credibility and bringing on a group of avid adventurers from a spread of disciplines, with browsing all the time on the core.
The model has strived from the start to signify browsing and surf journey because it really is, moderately than presenting the whitewashed model that the founders felt lots of the bigger manufacturers had defaulted to. As we speak, Roark is on the heart of the surf/journey theme subculture, driving innovation and presenting another aesthetic for many who like to surf, but additionally an entire lot extra.
Roark Revival makes a group of sturdy ruggedly-handsome items — every part from boardshorts and button-ups to hardy backpacks and pocket knives.
Patagonia
ROOTS: Based by Yvon Chouinard in Ventura, California, in 1972.
When Yvon Chouinard began Patagonia within the early Nineteen Seventies, it had nothing to do with browsing. It was a mountain climbing firm – one of many authentic mountain climbing corporations – and shortly advanced into a number one out of doors sportswear firm.
Based mostly on the mission of constructing the very best product, inflicting no pointless hurt, and utilizing enterprise to encourage and implement options to the environmental disaster, Patagonia refused to go public, and as an alternative has remained a privately owned B Corp that holds itself to comparable requirements as a nonprofit group.
After dabbling in surf on and off for years (Chouinard is a passionate surfer), Patagonia added its first surf ambassadors to the group in 2010 when the model employed Keith, Chris, and Dan Malloy – three brothers who had been on the vanguard of surf development and who would go on to form surf tradition with their movies, books, and collaborations with surfer-celebrities equivalent to musician Jack Johnson.
Slightly greater than a decade later, Patagonia has positioned itself as a number one surf model, with an enormous group of proficient ambassadors, a library of a few of the greatest surf movies ever made, and a quiver of wetsuits, board shorts, and swimsuits for guys and gals which might be as environmentally aware as they’re effectively made.
Howler Brothers
ROOTS: Based by Chase Heard and Andy Stephanian in Austin, Texas, in 2010.
A rarity on the subject of profitable surf manufacturers, Howler Brothers is a Gulf Coast model constructed on East Coast vibes, with a reputation impressed by Costa Rica! Founders Chase Heard and Andy Stephanian grew up browsing and fishing in Florida and Virginia, however are each now primarily based in Austin, Texas, the place they run a model that stands out within the surf business on account of its rootsy, backwater vibe.
Impressed by the incessant howling of the howler monkeys Chase and Andy would hear whereas on surf journeys to Costa Rica, Howler Brothers creates a limited-run assortment of high quality clothes primarily based on the coastal way of life. Whether or not you’re chasing a swell South Padre Island, shore-casting on the delta, exploring Central America, or just having fun with a beer by a beachside campfire, Howler Brothers matches the invoice.
Vuori
ROOTS: Based by Joe Kudla in Encinitas, California, in 2013.
Initially launched to fill the void of fine yoga clothes for males, surfer/founder Joe Kudla and group shortly advanced Vuori to mirror its roots within the San Diego space, increasing right into a high-quality health, sport, and surf model for each women and men that’s as comfy on the seashore as it’s within the yoga studio.
Vuori has shortly gained reputation because of good and versatile designs that work all through the day – from yoga class, to the surf, to grabbing a brew with amigos. Assume boardshorts with the traits of activewear like moisture wicking, anti-odor, quick-drying, locker loops, and 4-way stretch. Additionally, tremendous buttery efficiency materials (their males’s joggers and ladies’s joggers are a few of the comfiest pants, ever).
Drawing on a dedication to moral manufacturing, sustainability, and 100% carbon footprint offsetting, Vuori is a feel-good match for lively individuals who love motion as a lot as they love the outside.
Vissla
ROOTS: Based by Paul Naude in Aliso Viejo, California, in 2013.
As the previous head of Billabong US operations, Vissla founder Paul Naude was able to shift focus and do one thing completely different. Abandoning the big-box, publicly-traded mannequin and on the lookout for one thing extra holistic and natural, he began Vissla in 2013 in live performance with the ride-everything/surf-everything motion.
Drawing inspiration from what he calls “creators and innovators,” Naude’s model emphasizes fashion, operate, artwork, and sustainability, and helps a group filled with a few of browsing’s most attention-grabbing characters, from scientist/shredder Cliff Kapono and massive wave world champion Grant “Twiggy” Baker to photographer Jeremiah Kline and artist/shaper Thomas Campbell.
Vissla’s aesthetic is equal components operate and vogue, with a classy vary of menswear, board shorts, and top-quality wetsuits. Using eco-friendlier neoprene and upcycled coconut materials, Vissla seeks to “shield and surf” by committing itself to search out extra sustainable methods to create high quality merchandise for discerning wave riders.
Brixton
ROOTS: Based by David Stoddard in Oceanside, California, in 2004.
The road-wear model Brixton had a small and unassuming begin in David Stoddard’s storage, the place the unique plan was merely to make a hat. The newsboy-style hat quickly gained traction with the native crowd, and inside just a few years the model with a reputation impressed by The Conflict had turn into a worldwide phenomenon.
Along with making an enormous assortment of headwear (from fedoras to caps to beanies), Brixton has full clothes traces for guys and gals.
Targeted in equal components on artwork, music, exploration, and journey, Brixton has turn into a “surf model” by affiliation, moderately than intention – though the crew behind the threads has all the time been deeply immersed within the Southern California seashore scene.
Mixing vogue and self-expression with the workman ethos of “mariners and aviators, cowboys and laborers,” Brixton is a counter-culture motion that has taken the surf tradition by storm. In different phrases, it’s an ideal reflection of the wave using way of life usually.
Wellen
ROOTS: Based by Matthew Jung in Los Angeles, California, in 2007.
Initially a surfboard model within the Los Angeles space, Wellen shortly expanded to incorporate a line of high quality threads and grew a devoted following. Because it advanced from a surfboard firm right into a premium coastal way of life model, Wellen attracted the eye of main retailers and was finally taken over by on-line retailer (and purveyors of very cool gear) Huckberry.
Huckberry has maintained Wellen’s dedication to a beach-focused aesthetic whereas main the model to new ranges of sustainability. Your entire line is constructed from recycled, natural, or Bluedesign-certified materials in environmentally aware factories that upcycle nearly every part concerned within the creation course of, from water to cloth scraps. Via the usage of sturdy but comfy supplies equivalent to hemp, Wellen makes items that final, in types which might be timeless but informal.
Mollusk
ROOTS: Based by John McCambridge in San Francisco, California, in 2005.
Opened in 2005, through the coronary heart of the “trip every part” renaissance and a newfound appreciation for handcrafted items from proficient artisans, Mollusk Surf Store in San Francisco epitomized the brand new browsing aesthetic.
With its retro-fantastic store and stocking a variety of hand-shaped boards that celebrated the designs of previous eras, Mollusk softened the sides of a surf tradition that had been outlined by a punk rock ethos within the Nineties. Quickly folks all around the West Coast had been trimming on conventional logs, high-lining retro fish, and lounging in thigh-length board shorts. Ever since, Mollusk has continued to unfold the appreciation for browsing’s historical past and all issues groovy.
Mollusk finally opened extra outlets in Venice Seashore and Santa Barbara, and launched a clothes line with collections for guys, gals, and kiddos. The collections are a contemporary interpretation of sixties/seventies surf fashion – assume laidback, delicate earthy hues, and effortlessly cool.
Katin
ROOTS: Based by Walter and Nancy Katin in Surfside, California, in 1959.
Katin has a singular and colourful historical past. In 1954, Walter and Nancy Katin began an organization referred to as Kanvas by Katin that created canvas boat covers. Their covers had been notoriously hardy, and after just a few years, a handful of associates requested the Katins to make use of their canvas to make them boat shorts.
The shorts proved sturdy and in style, however Walter determined to proceed specializing in boat covers. However that each one modified when a younger Corky Carroll got here into his store and requested Walter to make him some canvas board shorts for browsing. Corky Carroll quickly grew to become the world’s first skilled surfer, and Katin quickly grew to become the primary title within the California board quick business.
By the Sixties Katins had been an integral a part of mainstream surf tradition. Walter handed in 1967, however Nancy saved the model alive, and Katin shorts had been worn by a few of the world’s greatest and most revered surfers, together with Gerry Lopez, Shaun Thomson, and Eddie Aikau. Nancy ran the enterprise from the identical store till 1986, when she handed away. The Katin model was left to Sato Hughes, the corporate’s authentic seamstress, who has continued the custom and leads the Katin model from the identical store as we speak.
Katin nonetheless makes their storied surf trunks, and has expanded right into a line of stylin’ graphic tees, shirts, flannels, hats, and different surfer-approved accoutrements.
The OG Surf Manufacturers
O’Neill
ROOTS: Based by Jack O’Neill in San Francisco, California, in 1952.
O’Neill was began within the fifties by Mr. Jack O’Neill, a person who has turn into a bona fide browsing legend. He opened the world’s first surf store in 1952 and invented the wetsuit, and his son Pat is credited with inventing the surf leash. Between the 2 of them, the O’Neills opened up an unlimited quantity of shoreline to browsing with their groundbreaking innovations.
Jack’s store finally moved to Santa Cruz within the Sixties, the place it dominated the American surf business for the subsequent 40 years. As we speak, O’Neill stays one of the crucial revered manufacturers within the business, with a celebrated group of ambassadors and a few of the greatest neoprene on supply.
Vans
ROOTS: Based by Paul Van Doren and Jim Van Doren in Anaheim, California, in 1966.
Opened within the mid-Sixties, the Van Doren Rubber firm created its sneakers on web site and bought them on to the general public, making it distinctive amongst shoe producers. Mannequin #44 grew to become the corporate’s signature shoe (now often called the Genuine
) and put it on the map with skate boarders (most of whom additionally occurred to be surfers). A short while later, the corporate adopted the title the Home of Vans.
In 1982, Vans went mainstream when Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli character wore a pair of Vans Slip-Ons within the movie Quick Occasions at Ridgemont Excessive. By this time, Vans had adopted the tagline “Off the Wall” and turn into a longtime surf model.
Through the years, Vans has created a line of snowboard boots, sponsored after which purchased the rights to the Warped Tour, bought the rights to be presenting sponsor of the Triple Crown of Browsing, and sponsored iconic surfers equivalent to Joel Tudor, Dane Reynolds, John Florence, and the Gudauskas brothers, making it one of the crucial core manufacturers within the surf world.
Rip Curl
ROOTS: Based by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer in Torquay, Australia, in 1969.
One in all browsing’s oldest and most revered manufacturers, Rip Curl began in a storage in Torquay, the place Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer began shaping boards in 1969. A short while later, Alan Greene joined the group and so they began making wetsuits to enrich the boards.
In 1980 the model moved into its present headquarters on Torquay Freeway, and by then it had turn into a frontrunner within the Australian surf business and was sponsoring the Bells Seashore world tour occasion (which has turn into the world’s longest-running skilled occasion). Rip Curl’s “The Search” grew to become synonymous with surf exploration and journey, and showcased the browsing of Tom Curren through the peak of his reputation and expertise.
As we speak, Rip Curl is a worldwide chief in wetsuits and surf attire, and boasts one of many strongest groups of sponsored athletes within the water, together with Gabriel Medina, Mick Fanning, Tyler Wright, Owen Wright, Bethany Hamilton, Conner Coffin, Mason Ho, and naturally the timeless Tom Curren. The model and group proceed to look the world for brand new waves whereas supporting the Torquay/Bells Seashore surf group.
Quiksilver & Roxy
ROOTS: Based by Alan Greene and John Legislation in Torquay, Australia, in 1973.
The early years of the surf business had been a time of fixed progress and alter, with a number of the innovation coming from a small group of associates and devoted watermen. After Doug Warbrick, Brian Singer, and Alan Greene bought Rip Curl established, Alan branched out within the early Nineteen Seventies to begin Quiksilver, with Warbrick and Singer serving as equal companions within the new model. Warbrick and Singer finally bought their shares to Greene so as to focus extra on Rip Curl, whereas Greene led Quik with the assistance of his new companion John Legislation.
Quiksilver initially targeted on board shorts, however shortly grew into the world’s largest surf attire model, with its “mountain wave” emblem changing into nearly synonymous with browsing. In 1984, Jeff Hakman and Bob McKnight introduced the corporate to the US, the place it shortly grew to dominate the market, thanks largely to group rider Kelly Slater. Then, in 1991, Quiksilver launched its ladies’s line, Roxy, which sponsored aggressive powerhouse Lisa Anderson and was largely liable for the explosion of ladies’s browsing within the Nineties.
As we speak, Quiksilver stays one of many leaders of the surf business, proudly owning quite a few subsidiary corporations, sponsoring world tour occasions, and using a number one group of athletes. Jeremy Flores, Mikey Wright, Kanoa Igarashi, and Leo Fioravanti lead the Quik group, whereas Roxy’s secure of riders consists of world champions Steph Gilmore, Lisa Anderson, and Kelia Moniz, in addition to younger upstarts like Caroline Marks.
Billabong
ROOTS: Based by Gordon Service provider in Burleigh Heads, Australia, in 1973.
Longtime up to date and competitor of Quiksilver, Billabong dominated browsing all through the Nineties and early 2000s on the again of performances by group riders equivalent to Andy Irons and Shane Dorian, however the model traces its roots a lot farther again.
When Gordon Service provider began Billabong in 1973, he got down to produce high quality board shorts and attire for the surfers of NSW and the Gold Coast, however the firm shortly outgrew the area and have become a worldwide model. Billabong finally expanded to create quite a lot of different surf and boardsport equipment by means of subsidiaries equivalent to Von Zipper, Honolua, Xcel, Sector 9, and RVCA.
Billabong struggled financially by means of the early 2010s, however by no means misplaced its avenue cred and returned to profitability in 2014. Whereas it was acquired by Boardriders, Inc. (present proprietor of Quiksilver) in 2018, the 2 Australian authentic board quick corporations have maintained their autonomy and proceed to function business juggernauts, proudly owning a big share of the market share and symbolizing the surf way of life for a serious portion of the surf inhabitants.
Volcom
ROOTS: Based by Richard Wolcott and Tucker Corridor in Orange County, California, in 1991.
Positioning itself as a much less mainstream, anti-establishment different to the Billabong/Quiksilver company hegemony, Volcom shortly gained reputation within the early Nineties with the assistance of famous person group riders equivalent to Bruce Irons.
Within the early years, Volcom was very a lot a storage model, with gross sales being run out of Tucker’s bed room in Huntington Seashore and company headquarters arrange in Richard’s bed room in Newport. The model was equal components surf, snowboarding, and skating, and appealed to the disenchanted youth of the Nineties who had been uninterested in the clean-cut mainstream ethos of the fashionable surf business.
Up to now 30 years, Volcom has grown into one of many largest US surf manufacturers, all the time sustaining its counter-culture picture, largely by means of artistic advertising campaigns and a group of anti-establishment individualists who eschew the norm in pursuit of their very own agenda – surfers equivalent to Noa Deane, Ryan Burch, Ozzie Wright, Gavin Beschen, Dusty Payne, and Nate Tyler.
Whereas storage manufacturers have given option to boutique labels within the 2010s, Volcom maintains its attraction and its place within the business, and continues to sponsor main occasions such because the Volcom Pipe Professional.
RVCA
ROOTS: Based by Pat Tenore and Conan Hayes in Costa Mesa, California, in 1999.
The primary of the “different” surf manufacturers that moved past a pure surf ethos and branched out into the artwork, music, and skate scenes, RVCA’s tagline, “the steadiness of opposites” has grown from a fledgling motion into an business staple. Though the model was bought by Billabong in 2010, it has maintained its grassroots avenue cred and a hard-core group of riders that actively differentiate it from the clean-cut, company aesthetic of publicly-traded manufacturers equivalent to Billabong and Quiksilver.
Whereas the V and A within the model’s title symbolize the steadiness of opposites that its founders so extremely worth, the model is definitely pronounced “rew-ka,” with the V serving phonetically as a “u.” At present boasting a group of world-class surfers, skaters, artists, and MMA fighters, RVCA could be seen on surfers equivalent to Kala Alexander, Makua Rothman, and Sage Erickson.
Hurley
ROOTS: Based by Bob Hurley in Costa Mesa, California, in 1979.
Whereas Hurley didn’t turn into a family title till 1999, the corporate was technically began 20 years earlier when Bob Hurley created the surfboard and design firm in Southern California. 5 years later, Bob Hurley acquired the US rights to Billabong, which he led till 1998, when the choice was made to not renew the rights. In 1999, Bob took his authentic firm, Hurley Surfboards, and expanded it into Hurley Worldwide, which shortly grew to become one of many business’s main surfwear manufacturers.
Whereas possession of the corporate has modified just a few occasions, Hurley stays one of many largest and most revered manufacturers in browsing and sponsors a few of the world’s high surfers like Kolohe Andino, Felipe Toledo, and Carissa Moore.
Together with clothes and swimwear traces for males, ladies, and youngsters, Hurley additionally produces a line of wetsuits and award-winning boardshorts. Hurley took dwelling the SIMA “Boardshort of the 12 months” Award for 5 consecutive years for his or her revolutionary line of Phantom boardshorts.
Nixon
ROOTS: Based by Andy Laats and Chad DiNenna in Encinitas, California, in 1997.
In an business dominated by attire, Nixon stands out as a devoted producer of effective watches. Created by two entrepreneurs with in depth expertise within the motion sports activities sphere, Nixon quickly attracted the eye of Billabong, which acquired the model in 2006, successfully turning Nixon into the primary “surf watch” firm. Nixon went on to sponsor quite a few surfers, snowboarders, and tour occasions, gaining credibility amongst customers and establishing itself as a stable model within the surf and motion sports activities house.
In 2012, Nixon parted methods with Billabong to as soon as once more turn into an unbiased model. Along with their deal with premium watches, Nixon additionally produces a full vary of luggage, leather-based items, and equipment.
What are your favourite surf manufacturers?
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