When John Florence paddles out for the browsing competitors of the Olympic Video games Paris, which begins this weekend, he’ll be greater than 9,000 miles away from the host metropolis. That’s as a result of the browsing venue is at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, in French Polynesia, one of many world’s most well-known—and distant—surf breaks within the southern Pacific Ocean.
Whereas Florence was eradicated within the third spherical on the Tokyo Video games, this 12 months he heads into the 2024 Video games main the World Surf League rankings by a mile. He additionally holds legend standing at iconic waves in his hometown’s Pipeline on Hawaii’s famed North Shore, and right here at Teahupo’o. That makes him a favourite amongst a stacked lineup that features American Griffin Colapinto, Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, Australian Jack Robinson, and South Africa’s Jordy Smith.
The mix of expertise, competitors, the waves, and surroundings of Teahupo’o makes browsing probably the most anticipated summer time Olympic occasions. And whereas Florence is primarily there as a competitor, he’s additionally there as an entrepreneur. His model, Florence (previously Florence Marine X), launched in 2021, and since then has change into one in every of a handful of upstarts redefining what a surf model is and will be. The Paris Video games current a singular alternative for each the game and the model.
To search out out a bit extra about these alternatives, I referred to as up Florence president, Pat O’Connell, and caught him driving alongside Oahu’s North Shore the place he was prepping for the Molokai 2 Oahu paddle race. He says probably the most thrilling elements of Olympic browsing is how lots of the competing surfers aren’t well-known within the surf trade.
“In case you comply with skilled browsing, it’s dominated by Brazil, Hawaii, America, and Australia, and typically a number of Europeans,” says O’Connell, himself a former professional surfer and member of the famed Momentum Generation. “So, what’s so thrilling concerning the International Surfing Association is how they’ve constructed a world footprint. So we’re now going to see surfers from China, Japanese surfers, surfers from El Salvador, Canada—throughout. The concept of the game increasing past these conventional geographies is actually good for the precise long-term progress of the game and trade.”
Surf trade’s tough journey
Final fall, as soon as mighty surf manufacturers Quiksilver, Billabong, Volcom, Roxy, and RVCA had been all gobbled up by Authentic Brands Group in a bargain-basement deal, representing a major contraction of a once-booming trade. The outcome was an epic cull of professional surfers from paid sponsorship rosters, in what surf magazine Stab referred to as “probably the most tough sponsorship local weather in trendy browsing historical past.” That enterprise actuality is occurring in direct distinction to document progress in participation and recognition of browsing. A recent study found that the variety of surfers within the U.S. has elevated by 35% up to now decade.
O’Connell says that the troubles and lack of progress by conventional surf manufacturers was partly because of an overreliance on their heydays in a long time previous. “There’s been a scarcity of innovation within the conventional surf trade,” he says. “They’re not constructed round innovation being a precedence. It’s extra constructed on the again of labor that’s been completed up to now. And that’s not knocking them, that’s simply their enterprise. However for us, our strategy is the precise reverse.”
The corporate stories triple-digit progress year-over-year. Florence is deeply concerned in product growth on the firm, and O’Connell says that retains them trustworthy. “His first query to us at any time when we current him with concepts is, why do I really want this? What objective does this serve?” says O’Connell. “It’s such a fantastic query as a result of it will get all the way down to this concept of constructing fewer, higher merchandise. It goes within the face of what many manufacturers are doing, but it surely’s working for us.”
Olympic momentum
Florence shouldn’t be an official Olympics sponsor so is restricted in how a lot it could actually hype his participation. The corporate produced a restricted version boardshort, which Florence will likely be sporting (already sold out on its web site). Forward of the advertising and marketing black-out interval round IOC’s Rule 40, the model dropped a brief video tribute to its namesake, that includes North Shore locals from his hometown, together with common surfers and vloggers like Florence’s brother Nathan, Jamie O’Brien, and Koa Rothman.
“Clearly, if John does effectively it’s an enormous enhance to our model, however for us, it’s nearly rallying round him,” says O’Connell. “I take a look at the Olympics because the athletes’ second, not the manufacturers. If John had been to win, we get a bunch [of attention] downstream as a result of he’s on TV, he’s doing interviews, and extra individuals are discovering out about him. However there’s solely a lot you are able to do with the model.”
In fact, there’s the inadvertent benefit of getting a model based by and named for top-of-the-line surfers on the planet.
“We snicker about that—simply his identify on the again of the jersey is like he’s sporting a branded outfit on a regular basis.”