Irvine-based Rusty Apparel is looking to get its groove back.
The surf apparel maker spent the past six months revamping its marketing and hiring staff after being in limbo for almost a year, according to Paul Harvey, recently hired as marketing director.
Lost Focus
“We lost a lot of focus as a brand,” Harvey said. “There were rumors we were going to be sold.”
Rusty’s founder, surfboard shaper Rusty Preisendorfer, said the company was approached by a couple of people wanting to buy the surf name.
“We certainly listened to what people had to offer,” but ultimately rejected a deal, said Preisendorfer, who is majority owner of the company.
Instead, the company regrouped.
Preisendorfer and Irvine-based C & C; Cos., which makes Rusty clothes under license, had some different ideas on which direction to take the brand so they brought in some help.
Their man: Peter “P.T.” Townend, a surf industry veteran who owns ActivEmpire Inc. Townend’s Huntington Beach-based consulting firm works with Orange County’s surf brands.
Old Hand
Townend knows the ropes at Rusty. He was the company’s former marketing director for eight years in the 1990s. Rusty was in its heyday at the time, Townend said.
But “they didn’t pay much attention to where they were going in the new decade,” he said.
“There was no vision for the brand,” Townend said. “Our business is based on the mojo. If you lose the mojo, then you have to recapture it.”
Townend, who started consulting for Rusty in August, has helped Rusty refocus and get back to its roots.
He said the brand originally made a name for itself with surfboards.
“They were great surfboards with great surfers on them,” Townend said. “(I told them) you need to go back to what the brand was founded upon.”
The advice hit home.
“We’re focused on surf,” Preisendorfer said. “We’re not pretending to be something we aren’t.”
Preisendorfer started shaping boards from San Diego in 1985. Townend said he helped convince Preisendorfer to name the company after himself.
Rusty soon branched out to T-shirts and surf trunks. It now has clothing for men and women.
The brand moved its clothing operations to OC in 1989 when C & C; took on its apparel license.
The clothing brand was hot in the 1990s but lost steam early this decade, Townend said.
Global sales were reported at about $85 million in 2000. U.S. sales were about $60 million.
Rusty’s Harvey declined to disclose current sales but said they’ve been “flat for some time.”
The San Diego-based surfboard portion of the business has remained healthy, Townend said.
The brand has been squeezed by fierce competition from bigger companies, such as industry leader Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., Irvine-based Billabong USA and Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc.
It also gets overshadowed by some smaller surf and skate names with buzz, such as Billabong’s Element skate line.
“The competition on the product side at the moment is as intense as it’s been ever,” Townend said.
But Rusty has an edge: Its brand has kept cachet because it’s well known for its surfboards.
“As long as they make good surfboards you always have that to fall back on,” he said.
Dave Hollander, president of Torrance-based Becker Surfboards, said his stores continue to sell Rusty garb because “the stuff is good.”
Losing Out to Rivals
But Rusty has been losing shelf space, Hollander said. It’s considered a “B” brand in his store behind bigger sellers such as Quiksilver and Billabong, he said.
Rusty has to snatch back some lost market share but it won’t be easy, Hollander said.
“It all comes down to product,” he said. “The (Rusty) name is there.”
Rusty already has made changes to its line, including adding a bigger selection of items that have sold well, such as polyester walking shorts for men, Harvey said.
The company also launched a marketing campaign, dubbed “All About Surfing,” in January. It tweaked its advertising strategy.
Plus, Rusty hired some new blood. Three people were added to the marketing department and a new vice president of sales was named. Rusty also picked up six new athletes for its surf team.
Rusty has about 60 or 70 workers, including some at its San Diego surfboard operations and others working at the C & C; unit.
In the meantime, the company is fighting to regain space it lost at its existing accounts. The brand’s garb is sold in surf and skate shops, such as Becker’s and Jack’s Surfboards in Huntington Beach.
“Distribution is critical,” Townend said. “If all of a sudden they went to Mervyn’s it would be impossible to come back.”
The company has no plans to roll out stores under its own name, Preisendorfer said. Instead, he wants to grow business with surf shops.
“That’s always a priority to have a demand for the product at the specialty store level,” he said.
Already Rusty’s new marketing has created some “buzz,” Townend said.
“They’ve recaptured some mojo and now they have to deliver on that,” he said.
