Four brothers of Jewish-Mexican descent, offspring of an opera-singing mother and a surfing icon father, are hoping to become the next big name in surf apparel.
That name is Paskowitz, and it’s one that already is well-known in the surfing community: two of the brothers were pro surfers, and the Paskowitz Family Surf Camp in San Clemente, founded by their parents, has been training celebrities and future pro surfers since 1972.
Jonathan, Abraham, Joshua and Israel “Izzy” Paskowitz, along with investor Jeff Antoci, formed Paskowitz Apparel LLC in January. The brothers range in age from 25 to 39; Antoci is 37. The San Clemente-based firm debuted its line of surf-inspired men’s wear at the fall MAGIC and Action Sports Retailer trade shows. The company, which has six employees including the principals, is projecting first-year sales to be roughly $1 million, with a goal of $3 million the following year.
Industry observers say the brothers bring some assets to the table, but it’s a table already crowded with firms battling for market share.
“Their roots are very, very deep in surf culture because they have been around for a long time and their name is known by an awful lot of people,” said Tony Cherbak, a retail analyst at Deloitte & Touche LLC in Costa Mesa. “But the surf market is relatively crowded, so whether theirs will do well or not remains to be seen. It takes more than a name to make it in that business, it’s a tough unforgiving business and it takes a lot to build a brand.”
Court Overin, trade show director for the Action Sports Retailer Trade Show, said the Paskowitz name certainly has roots in the surf culture, but they will still need to create great products that retailers will get behind.
“The challenge would be opening up a position in the marketplace for a new brand, but based on their name and legacy a lot of doors could open,” he said.
Beyond building a strong brand, Paskowitz will need to develop reliable sources for production, financing, good design, they need to deliver high quality products on time to retailers, at the right price points and ultimately the products need to sell through to gain shelf space, Cherbak explains.
“It’s tough for new concepts to even get shelf space,” he said.
On the other hand, the Paskowitz brothers have more going for them than their name.
Jonathan Paskowitz, who holds the 1987-88 U.S. Surfing title, got his start in the business as a marketing director for brands such as Gotcha Sportswear, MCD and GirlStar. He was a model, professional surfer, design consultant and spokesperson for Jimmy’Z. Most recently he was one of the founders of an edgy sunglasses company Black Flys in Costa Mesa, heading up sales, distribution, marketing, design, retail stores and its video division.
Abraham Paskowitz heads up sales for the company. He previously worked in sales for Peter Jaisel, a contemporary men’s line that used recycled plastics and tires. He helped get the products worn by celebrities including R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, country music singer Chris Isaac and actor Stefan Dorff.
Israel Paskowitz spent 15 years on the professional surfing circuit before taking over the family’s 29-year-old surf camp operations in San Clemente. His PR savvy helped gain celebrity exposure for the surf camp by enlisting stars such as Sarah McLachlan and the Hansons as clients.
The new company also recently hired Szenderski/Rohani Worldwide in Irvine to build its brand and handle advertising, brochures, public relations and special events.
The apparel line is made up of a range of T-shirts with prints of historic family photographs,including one of the 1949 Studebaker Champion the Paskowitz family lived in for three years. The company’s board shorts feature 5-inch inseams,compared to the industry average of 20 inches. “They are trunks like bikinis,” said Jonathan Paskowitz recently from his company’s trade show booth in San Diego. “A guy from Transworld Surf describes them as ‘You’ve got to be ripped to wear them.’ ”
The line initially will be sold primarily to core surf shops such as Wind and Sea in San Diego, he said.
The birth of the company came on the heels of a failed co-branding attempt that teamed the Paskowitz family name with Tommy Hilfiger.
“Hilfiger wanted to be seen as a core surf company and nobody is more core surf than the Paskowitz family,” said Antoci, who put up $500,000 to start the new company and is its CFO.
The Hilfiger brand wanted entr & #233;e into the surf apparel market and sponsored the Paskowitz surf camp in San Clemente.
The family was paid to appear in advertising to promote the Hilfiger line and would promote the Tommy line in its banners and interviews. Products included board shorts, T-shirts, woven shirts and ball caps. But the Hilfiger-Paskowitz apparel line only sold roughly $3 million worth of product in Macy’s department stores during its one-year launch through the fourth quarter of 1999.
“Hilfiger was not able to get the line into surf shops and Paskowitz wanted to sell the products to surf shops it was a horrible fit anyway,” Antoci said. “It would be like Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai merging. It was doomed not to make it from the start.”
Antoci, then manager in charge of Southern California for Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp., and his wife became friends with Izzy Paskowitz and his wife, Danielle, after their autistic children struck up a friendship. Izzy Paskowitz and Quiksilver surfer Kelly Slater co-founded Surfers Healing for Autism, which raises money through an annual benefit.
“I heard that the Hilfiger partnership had fizzled and knew the Paskowitz name had a lot of good will built into it, so I thought it would be interesting to have them as business partners,” Antoci said.
Interesting indeed. The Paskowitz family is known for being a little eccentric. They are described as health nuts, nomads who lived for years in the family car. They spent another chapter living in a camper, and also traveled around the world’s best surf spots with their parents. Jonathan Paskowitz still lives in a trailer at Newport Dunes and says he surfs every morning.
Family patriarch Doc Paskowitz graduated from Stanford Medical School, but became disillusioned with society after working as a doctor for several years. He gave up a traditional lifestyle to travel the world with his family, surfing and working at missions.
In 1972, he founded the family surf camp and his sons and daughter later took over as teachers.
Family matriarch Juliette is a tall, slim woman who looked after the 10 children,nine sons and daughter Navah,and home-schooled them.
“My wife was an opera singer, but she gave up her whole career to get in the back of a car and have babies,” said Doc Paskowitz at his sons’ booth at the ASR show in September, sporting a ukulele around his neck. n
