Huntington Beach’s O’Quinn Clothing is one of Orange County’s buzz brands.
Its T-shirts, shorts, jeans and other clothes inspired by surfing, skateboarding, music and art are sold at Nordstrom, Fred Segal and trendy surf shops.
Macy’s Inc. just signed on. A fall line is set to debut at a key trade show next month. Sales, estimated at $5 million to $7 million, are seen doubling this year.
But this isn’t just another story about a growing maker of trendy clothes. It’s about a startup that has had to struggle through the worst industry downturn in recent memory.
“It really made me grow and appreciate how hard it is to start a company,” said founder Dean Quinn, a former professional surfer whose love of clothes and style led him to start O’Quinn Clothing in 2007.
In three short years, O’Quinn Clothing has landed and lost an investor, struggled for financing and downsized as the retail and apparel downturn took hold.
Quinn got into the clothing business after a stint as what he called a struggling, starving surfer.
“I knew this was the path I would take,” said Quinn, who grew up in Huntington Beach. “At a young age, I would change my clothes like three times before leaving the house.”
With no formal education, he said he turned to his surfing sponsors who recommended he get a job with an apparel company to learn the ropes.
That led to jobs at Costa Mesa’s Hurley International LLC, Irvine-based Billabong USA and Rip Curl USA in Costa Mesa.
Then he set out on his own with O’Quinn Clothing, landing an investor within his first year.
“I didn’t want to start my company in the garage, work my way out and spend the next 10 years slowly building a brand and name,” he said.
Quinn split with his undisclosed financial partner a year later. According to him, the investor was focused on cashing out when he needed help with operations.
He said he spent the next year pitching the company to everyone: stock brokers, angel investors, other companies. Then came the apparel and retail downturn that still lingers today.
“When I first started, I had a partnership out of the gate,” Quinn said. “I never knew how hard it was to make payroll, pay all the expenses.”
Financing
Quinn turned to a boutique factor—a middleman who pays cash upfront for pending sales and then collects payments from retailers.
As an individual owner, Quinn said his credit wasn’t enough to finance the company. He said he had to rethink everything.
Quinn cut workers and moved to a smaller space in Huntington Beach, leaving behind a building with a warehouse. He now contracts for warehouse space in Los Angeles.
At one point, he shopped his startup to other apparel companies.
“The problem with bigger guys is most public companies don’t want to buy another company unless it’s doing $20 million in sales,” he said. “Us not being that big, I was selling the brand on that it will be a big company.”
In 2008, Quinn said he met with a Los Angeles company he declined to name. The company owns T-shirt factories in Central America. It also owns another clothing brand and does liquidation sales in other businesses.
“They really liked us but wanted us a bit bigger,” he said.
A year later, Quinn said he ran into the owner, who he became friends with. Soon after, he said they struck a financing deal.
The ink still is drying on the pact, according to Quinn. It should wrap up next month, he said.
“They bring the financial security that we needed,” Quinn said. “If our company went to $100 million, they can finance it.”
He also gained access to the company’s T-shirt factories. That gives Quinn more control over quality and production, he said.
O’Quinn Clothing, which makes T-shirts, board shorts, denim, sweaters, polos and woven shirts, produces tees in Central America and everything else in China.
“The quality, fit, fabric—that’s what drives our designs,” Quinn said. “Graphics are secondary to what we do.”
Some of O’Quinn Clothing’s T-shirts are sold with the company’s name on the label but without any logo or graphic on them.
That’s a counter response, he said, to the heavy graphic, tattoo-style shirts from Seal Beach-based Affliction Inc. and others.
The company started selling plain tees at some Nordstrom stores for the holidays, according to Quinn. Now all of the company’s retailers are selling them, he said.
Even as O’Quinn Clothing struggled financially, sales have grown. They tripled last year, according to Quinn.
Within the first year, the company’s clothes got into Nordstrom, Fred Segal, Jack’s Surfboards and Huntington Beach Surf & Sport.
O’Quinn Clothing also sells at Becker Surfboards, Sun Diego Boardshops, PacSun, Tilly’s and The Buckle.
Quinn credits the landing of retailers to his vice president of sales, Dale Rhodes, who he lured from Hurley International, part of Nike Inc.
“He had a lot of great relationships, and I had my own,” Quinn said. “We really were tapping everyone we knew.”
‘Core Equals Poor’
Quinn said he isn’t worried about a perennial issue for startups: going mass market through big retailers versus focusing on core surf shops and boutiques that offer street credibility.
“Core equals poor,” Quinn said. “If you’re just trying to be core, most core or cool kids aren’t shopping there anyway. They’re shopping at thrift stores, or they know somebody or come by your warehouse looking for a deal.”
He didn’t start the brand to be the cool guy, Quinn said.
“I don’t believe in that,” he said. “Cool kids are gonna find you.”
Competition is tough.
Big names Quiksilver Inc. of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa’s Volcom Inc., Billabong, Hurley and others dominate what’s dubbed the action sports clothing business.
O’Quinn Clothing is one of several hopefuls that have generated a buzz. Others include Costa Mesa-based Rvca Clothing, Comune of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach’s Atwater Clothing.
All are vying to be the next Volcom—the last upstart to make it into the industry’s big leagues.
“We’re not in their league,” he said of Volcom and the other big players. “They have 25 people working on T-shirts. We have two. We have to offer something different and better.”
Like the big companies, O’Quinn Clothing sponsors professional surfers and skateboarders. It recently signed Tosh Townend, a skater from Huntington Beach and son of Peter “PT” Townend, a former professional surfer and industry consultant.
Forging a business during a downturn has been a good thing, Quinn said. It’s easy to get into the business when things are good, he said.
“Those guys looking to make a quick buck are going to get weeded out,” Quinn said. “Even some brands that have been around for 10 or 15 years, they’re going to fall by the wayside.”
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelance writer based in Long Beach.