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CATCHING THE WAVE



Garden Grove Offshoot Goes After Growing Women’s Surfwear Segment

Tim Su of Bodywaves came up with the name for the Garden Grove-based surfwear maker’s label for women and girls while having trouble sleeping one night.

Looking over at the clock, he found inspiration: 1:11 a.m., it read. He added “elle”,French for “she”,and Elleven, pronounced like “11,” was coined.

The brand, which debuted this summer, is tapping into a competitive surfwear niche dominated by labels such as Quiksilver, Rusty, O’Neill and Billabong Girls. Early buyers are surf shops on both coasts including Huntington Surf and Sport, Brave New World and Ron Jon’s Surf Shop.

“We are really impressed with initial sales,” said William Cram, Elleven’s marketing director. “There’s been plenty of reorder business.”

Su, chief operating officer of Bodywaves, said his company launched the women’s label in June 1999 after watching the growth of the Orange County surfwear industry. And he didn’t have to look farther than Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., where the company’s Quiksilver Roxy junior line was the driver behind last year’s 57% sales growth in its women’s category. The division includes Teenie Wahine, Raisins, Leilani and Radio Fiji and totaled $108.7 million in 1999 sales.

Back in February, Elleven showed its line of board shorts, pants, T-shirts and shirts to buyers attending the spring 2000 Surf Expo in Florida and the Action Sports Retailer tradeshow in Long Beach. The Elleven booth was designed as a surf camp featuring a canvas tent plastered with logos and pictures, a picnic bench, folding chairs and blankets.

Even before the shows, many in the industry already knew of Elleven. The surfwear maker was the sponsor of last year’s U.S. Open of Women’s Surfing in Huntington Beach. Elleven also sponsored the event this year.

The brand’s rivals include Billabong Girls, which does an estimated $20 million in annual sales, and Rusty Apparel’s junior brand, pegged at $12 million in yearly sales. Others sell roughly $4 million to $10 million annually, according to industry estimates.

Paul Naude, president of Billabong USA in Irvine, said the junior’s market is growing along with the number of female athletes in surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.

“The girls’ market is very healthy,” said Naude, whose company two years ago launched its Billabong Girls division. “As long as the design teams of the respective apparel companies satisfy needs of the girls market there will be growth and you shouldn’t discount the number of girls entering the action sports market as participants.”

Bob Hurley, president of Costa Mesa-based Hurley International, launched its junior’s line with its men’s line at the Action Sports Retailer in San Diego, but his company does not characterize itself as primarily targeting the action sports market.

“Hurley Girlie is not sports driven, it’s fashion driven,” said Hurley. “We do work with some girls who surf, but the focus is girls looking good and fashion.”

Hurley Girlie’s prime target is teen-agers. Advertising includes college newspapers, some surf magazines and exposure from people in the entertainment business who wear the clothes.

Elleven, whose initial investment by Bodywaves was about $500,000, anticipates $2.5 million in first-year sales, Su said. The company is betting on future growth: Elleven, which operates out of a 120,000-square-foot facility, is searching for a bigger location to house its operations. Su estimated it will need another 100,000 square feet.

The brand has a staff of five, including marketing director Cram and designer Pamela Zoolalian, as well as eight independent sales representatives. The Elleven brand’s marketing is headed up by Solodizine, an advertising agency in San Jan Capistrano.

Bodywaves, founded by the Su Group Inc. in 1986, has 150 OC employees and 850 company-wide. It counts annual sales of about $60 million. The company’s sportswear brands,Bodywaves, B Pro, Surfwaves, AKS-AMY, K Su and Dictionary,account for about 60% of the business and are sold through department stores. The other 40% comes by way of designing private label sportswear for stores including Target, Mervyns, Wal-Mart and Kmart.

“We have different divisions,” Su said. “It depends on the price range the customer offers.”

Su and professional surfer Prue Jeffries, who was riding under Bodywaves’ B Pro label, created the concept for Elleven. Australia’s Jefferies ranks 15th among female surfers, according to the Association of Professional Surfers.

Twice a year, Elleven publishes a catalog/magazine featuring Jeffries and fellow surfer Felina Spires.

Surf photographer Art Brewer accompanied Jeffries and Spires on a 15-day surfing trip aboard a boat in the Indian Ocean. Recently, Elleven added three new professional female surfers to the team: Mary Bagalso, Kyla Langen and Liz Kampen.

But Elleven’s marketing is focusing on event sponsorship as a way of tapping into the core surf industry. It also is advertising in surf publications such as Wahine and Surfer Girl and this summer it joined the Adopt-A-Beach trash barrel program in Huntington Beach.

Cram came to Elleven after more than nine years with Yaga, a men’s sportswear brand with $18 million in annual sales that recently relocated from Huntington Beach to Santa Barbara.

“Yaga was one of the early juniors manufacturers,” Cram said. “We came out with Yaga Girls just after Roxy and were one of the top five companies in the industry in 1995.”

Pamela Zoolalian was promoted to head designer for Elleven after two years with Bodywaves as an associate designer. n

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