Sure there are a lot of surfwear companies out there selling hats, T-shirts, sunglasses, surfboards and visors, but sisters Sharlene and Desi Metcalf may be the only businesswomen who launched their company while still in high school.
The teenage entrepreneurs founded GidgetGear in Whittier in April and have since grown their sales staff to between 15 and 25 full-time and part-time young people. The products are not sold in stores yet,the teenagers put together parties and invite friends to try out the products.
CEO Sharlene Metcalf, 17, works for the company full time since graduating from La Habra high school last year, but 16-year-old Desi has another year to go.
Meanwhile, dad Ken Metcalf has helped fuel the business with an initial $10,000 investment.
Desi is the surfer in the family and she enters competitions sponsored by other surfwear companies such as Quiksilver Inc.’s Roxy brand. Sharlene says she surfs, but she’s not as good as her sister, who has earned the nickname “Li’l Gidget” since she began surfing five years ago. The company got its start when Sharlene ordered a custom T-shirt for her sister and came up with the name GidgetGear as a personal logo.
“We made one shirt and as soon as people saw it they wanted their own,” Sharlene said. “We were re-ordering shirts and selling them.”
Recently, the company expanded its product line from simple logo T-shirts to include accessories such as hats, bags, jewelry, rash guards, board shorts and beach goodies.
Sharlene says she wants to empower other teenagers to get into business for themselves and not limit their options to fast-food restaurants and car-wash work. n
