Billabong declared worthless... it was only a matter of time

depends on your region. If you are a west coast rep, you have a pretty nice lifestyle. In the Nixon and Ripcurl offices in SoCal, they have a quiver of about 20 boards waxed up on a rack on the wall with about a dozen wetsuits hanging for the "lunch break"

 

In a niche market, a retail store mostly carrying a single brand of products sounds like an awful idea. But then again what do I know?

 

I wouldn't mess with knock off sunglasses. Cheap lensess and fake uv protection sticker = screwed up, sun-fried eyes.

 

haha that's what I do, buying brandname quality stuff cheap....

btw, whoever bought the last 2/2 shorty from Dix sporting goods last week hosed me over.. order was cancelled !

 

surf "clothing" brands, that don't make surf products...

Let's have that discussion. someone else go first.

Kuono, mine showed up at the office today

 

I am not a fan. I live on an island that has 3 "surfshops", none of which actually sell ANYTHING related to actual surfing. No fiberglass/resin kits. No shortboard leashes, no stomp pads, no wetsuits... The only thing they have are $5.00 sex waxes. So fu**ing lame. I agree that there should really be no market for companies who produce "surf clothing"... Quik and companies like that are great, but I won't be buying some random "San Diego Surf Co." that a few bros put together with a screen printing machine in their garage... If you make quality surf equipment, I will probably rock a tee shirt or something... but in an already bloated market, we don't need anyone else selling sh** within their community when they do nothing to give back to it.

 

Jetty does tons for the NJ community. They have organized contests for charity for years and gave a bunch in money and elbow grease for Sandy relief efforts... They have also made grass roots efforts to reach into Philly and beyond with sponsoring some cool events/shows. Definitely hard workers. I'd much rather give loot to a company like that than Billabong or Quiksilver personally, even if they don't make surfing 'hard goods'.

 

Not to sidetrack the thread back to anything Billabong, but there are a bunch of wetsuits, gloves & booties by Billabong on heavy markdown at whiskeymilitia at the moment.

 

billabong springsuits were marked down in my local surf shop. Guess they wanted to get rid of em fast before they get the other shipments in for this fall.

 

before you came we had a real surf shop by a local shaper. i guess there wasnt enough tourist supplies in it, thats all those shops hear are about is selling to the tourist they dont even carry base coat, asked one dude about it and he looked at me like i was crazy. you have really moved to a bad time in this islands history imo, it was way better 12 years ago and beyond with mass amounts of people moving here its been ruined and other stuff done by the town,believe it or not we used to have jetties.

 

I like the idea of locally produced stuff for local consumption. Yes who cares about a conglomerate corporate ideology geared to useless mass production that doesn't even sell the useful stuff surfers want. There's enough t shirt retailers already. I hope they go bankrupt and their stock holders take massive losses. I've always thought of billabong as the Walmart of surfing. I'm glad they are hurting.

 

jetty is the real deal. interesting local people running the show, roots in the community, locally made products. they deserve our support in NJ.

billabong was "core" once upon a time, in the 70s in Oz and in the 80s in S Africa. i was always a fan simply because of occy. but like most on here, i have not bought a billabong branded product in years, but i wear XCEL wetsuits and have rvca gear....

 

thats pretty harsh. at least bong gives something back to surfing unlike Hollister.

 

This happens more often than one would think. A few years back quicksilver almost ran two ski companies into the ground then sold them off. Now it's turning into huge corps. Owning many large names. Look at luxotica and how many brands under their name. It's a shame. Buy locally the money helps the community and guys like me working in paradise.

 

Perhaps Wal Mart will be selling Billabong before too long. That's right northerners, I warned you all in "The South Will Rise Again" thread. The Wal Mart Army will invade your communities with our low-priced wetsuits leaving you wondering "how bad do I love my local surf shop?" Then our mercenaries (bennies) will invade your line-ups.

The threat is real...

 

+1 I agree. And whether it's for good or for bad, the money they put on the table w/ the XXL stuff helped push the limits with the big stuff imo.

 

Good point. I've never been a fan of corporate surf, but credit where it's due. Bong and Quik sponsor a lot of contests and that's good. When the suits take over and start sharpening the budget knives, the contests budget is probably going to get whittled but good.

 

Think about it, you get your Billabong wetsuit from Wal Mart, use it for a week, return it (no questions asked), get another, repeat. I refuse to go to Wal Mart despite their efforts to recruit me for the next Southern Succession Movement, but there are gonna be dudes doing that.

"Bro, this is some cold water. Yeah, Ima just go return my 3/2 and use the money back to get a 4/3 or 5/4/3. Just swap wetsuits during the dynamic times of the year to save money. So smart bro..."

Should we expect the next generation of groms to be kickin it in the Wal Marts? Are the surf supplies gonna be next to the guns? A real-life Point Break goes down at a local Wal Mart. They got the guns and robbed the joint of cash and assorted surf supplies.

Why don't more robbers wear wetsuits? They come in black and camo. Man, that works magnificently! The victim claims they were "taken by a ninja." Some folks be sayin' that old skool. Man I ain't seen that since Karate Kid or 1809. Man that old. I blast a dude.

Don't you feel like a superhero wearing a wetsuit? It protects you from the elements and makes you feel powerful. Green Man ain't got nothin on dude in a camo wetsuit in the sticks or a dude in black wetsuit in an alley.

GAME OVER

Wal Mart sells these products and crime rates increase.