Saturday March 26th - Surf Brands

I went into a surf shop today for the first time in ages. For me, surf brands such as Billabong and Quicksilver were an obsession of the early teens. After a while I started to realise that I was making my parents pay huge premiums on clothing that was no different to the same product retailing for half the price, other than that it displayed a huge logo across the back and chest. The cut or quality was no more superior to say, Mr. Price. I find it hard to believe that new age surf brands like Hurley will charge R300 for an unfitted cotton t-shirt which un-creatively displays their logo across the front.

The fact that so many people still support these brands goes to show that it is still viewed as cool. Cool by association because they sponsor all of the pro-surfers. If Jordy Smith wears Hurley and he is this ripped, tanned guy who gets paid to surf all day, then it is cool to wear Hurley? But usually the people our age who wear Hurley are either tanned, ripped surfers who win it in competitions or socially awkward people who still conform to high-school like ways in order to try and fit in... Hurley can't stop the latter from wearing the brand because they don't fit in with the Hurley picture, and no matter what they look like they are still doing the brand a favour, because they are advertising the brand name as they walk. It is something which has always annoyed me a lot, but hats off to them for making huge profits and getting paid to have other people do their advertising for them.

However, it is exclusive designers who have the most subtle labelling of all. You can see the superiority in the cut, design and quality and yet they still to do well. Perhaps with a different arsenal of ways to advertise...