Orange County’s surf- and skate-inspired clothing has gotten classier.
Huntington Beach-based O’Quinn Clothing hocks its men’s board shorts, shirts, shorts and pants at some of the trendiest boutiques in Southern California, including Fred Segal and Lisa Kline in Los Angeles.
Upscale department stores including Bloomingdale’s also sell O’Quinn clothing.
The privately held company is backed by an undisclosed investor and doesn’t talk about revenue or profits. It employs about five workers and eight independent sales representatives.
O’Quinn, like other up-and-coming clothing companies in OC, is an offshoot of some of the bigger players in the surf and skate clothing business.
Dean Quinn and Dale Road, former sales executives at Nike Inc.’s Hurley International LLC in Costa Mesa, started O’Quinn last year after spending about eight years with Hurley.
Working for one of the county’s biggest clothing companies helped Quinn and Road learn the ropes and build a hefty book of contacts, Quinn said.
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Expert Suites: offers equipment for forensic work |
No business is easy to start, Quinn said, but having a reputation and the right contacts in place helps get your foot in the door.
“The action sports market is a tight group of individuals who control the market,” he said. “If you don’t know them and they don’t know you, it’s really hard to break into the inner circle.”
O’Quinn uses different fabrics such as cashmere, bright colors and bold prints on its clothes to stand out in the crowded market for clothes.
The company makes its T-shirts at a factory in Los Angeles and uses overseas plants to produce its board shorts, shirts, shorts and pants.
Once the clothes are made, they’re sent to a third-party warehouse in Los Angeles and shipped directly to some 165 retailers on the West and East coasts and in the Midwest. Retailers include Huntington Beach-based Huntington Surf & Sport and Nebraska’s The Buckle Inc.
Outsourcing production and warehousing keeps overhead costs down, Quinn said. Still, high fuel prices and the rising cost of materials, labor, insurance and energy are some of the obstacles that make running a small business difficult, Quinn said.
Having an investor helps soften the blow, according to Quinn.
“To be a real player in this market you need to have strong financing behind you,” Quinn said.
Near term goals for O’Quinn include adding more retailers and coming out with more products.
O’Quinn could create a women’s line of clothing, Quinn said.
Forensic Work
Anaheim-based Hichborn Consulting Group has started Expert Suites, offering work space for forensic expert witnesses.
Expert Suites is a 14,000-square-foot office on Anaheim’s Howell Avenue that offers equipment, office space and research materials for forensic expert work.
The building is equipped with workbenches, secured storage lockers, conference rooms, Internet access, imaging software, photocopiers, office space and two libraries filled with forensic expert witness work and construction defect research.
Expert Suites is geared toward expert witnesses that specialize in construction defect, technology, medicine, white-collar crime and other areas.
Expert Suites could fill an unmet need, according to Norma Fox, executive director of the Forensic Expert Witness Association in Newport Beach.
Most expert witnesses, whether they are industry veterans, doctors or professors, prepare their court testimonies at home, Fox said.
“There was a real need to have an office for forensic experts. You can network with other experts and the equipment is already there. It’s a big advantage,” Fox said.
Hichborn Consulting, which generates more than $4 million in yearly sales and employs about 11 workers, specializes in cement and concrete research and consulting.
The company started developing Expert Suites about five years ago after noticing growth in the forensic expert witness industry.
The company, which often is tapped by trial lawyers to provide testimonies for court cases related to construction defect, has seen the forensic expert witness industry grow as more lawyers seek scientific and unbiased information to aid in their presentations.
Law firms such as Monteleone & McCrory LLP in Santa Ana, Newport Beach-based Newmeyer & Dillion LLP, Green & Hall in Santa Ana and Diamond Bar-based Andrews & Rhodes LLP have tapped Hichborn Consulting for past cases.
“The forensic expert witness practice is growing,” principal Geoffrey Hichborn said. “More attorneys are searching for specialists that can offer credible information during litigation.”
Hichborn Consulting hopes Expert Suites will help it carve a niche.
The company competes against other cement and concrete consultants such as Illinois-based CTL Group Inc.
Hichborn said the company wants to set itself apart from competitors by working for other forensic experts in addition to law firms.
“We’re going after an untapped market,” Hichborn said.
The forensic expert business is growing, he said.
Hichborn Consulting expects to see the forensic expert witness practice get a boost this year as an economic downturn spurs an upswing in lawsuits related to real estate, especially in construction defect.
“There’s a public perception that when the economy is strong, residents might have a leaky roof but won’t get annoyed enough to sue their developer,” Hichborn said. “But in a down market people often go after someone that they think is responsible for making their property value go down.”
Construction defect lawsuits are common and ongoing, Fox of the Forensic Expert Witness Association said.
“We see a lot of that work in our industry,” Fox said. “I think we’ll continue to see more as the economy slows.”
Lawyers working on class action construction defect lawsuits could use forensic expert witnesses to offer unbiased information before a jury, according to Fox.
“Attorneys don’t know everything. They need to rely on experts to provide an honest answer in their presentations,” she said.
Construction defect litigation isn’t the only area that’s helping the forensic expert industry expand, according to Fox.
Lawsuits related to environmental issues, the subprime mortgage fallout, banking and white-collar crime are generating more work for forensic experts, Fox said.
“Our industry is seeing growth across all boards,” she said. “More people are becoming aware of the importance of working with forensic experts.”
Baby Gear: A Family Specialty
The Pepys family is no stranger to the baby business.
Shirley Pepys ran NoJo Inc. in the 1990s, a Rancho Santa Margarita-based baby bedding company.
In the late 1990s, her daughter Renee Pepys Lowe started her own baby bedding business, Costa Mesa-based CoCaLo Inc., which sold to New Jersey’s Russ Berrie and Co. last month for $16 million.
Now it’s son Noel Pepys’ turn, and he’s getting a little help from mom.
Together, Noel and Shirley Pepys own Balboa Baby & Co., a Newport Beach-based company that expects to hit $1.5 million in sales next year making baby slings and nursing covers.
Like other baby slings made by rivals Dallas-based Hotslings, Balboa Baby’s give mothers a hands free way to carry their babies around.
The slings are made at factories in Japan and China and sewn with machine washable fabrics that come in a variety of colors and prints.
They’re developed and tested by pediatrician William Sears and sell anywhere from $60 to $149.
Balboa Baby, a year old, has made some inroads with retailers.
The company sells its slings to J.C. Penney Co. and Target Corp. and a handful of local baby supply stores such as Bergstroms Children Stores in Anaheim and Irvine and Hush Baby stores in Orange County and Washington.
Getting Balboa Baby off the ground required a lot of personal money, Noel Pepys said.
He said his time spent working for NoJo and his father’s printing, packaging and fulfillment company,Irvine-based Dot Printer Inc.,helped him when he started Balboa Baby.
Having a family full of entrepreneurs taught Pepys a thing or two about running a business, such as managing costs and generating sales. Through the years, Pepys realized it was time to step out from behind the shadows.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to start my own business,” Pepys said.
These days, getting the word out about Balboa Baby is key, he said.
The company is hitting the tradeshow scene to nab more clients and to market its products.
Balboa counts three workers at its 800-square-foot office and plans to hire more employees this year, Pepys said.
