Pryde Group North America has traded the Bay area for Orange County’s action sports hub.
Known for its Flow snowboard boots and bindings, Pryde more than tripled its size in the move from San Francisco to an 18,000-square-foot space at 1021 Calle Recodo in San Clemente.
The company needed room to fill and distribute orders, which it previously hired outsiders to handle, said Anthony Scaturro, president of Pryde, which is owned by Hong Kong-based Neil Pryde Ltd.
Plus, Pryde Group wanted to be in OC, he said.
“It’s a hotbed for the action sports industry,” Scaturro said. “We were up in San Francisco and most of the external design companies that we use are down here. The magazines are down here.”
The company had 14 workers in San Francisco working on the Flow gear, Scaturro said. Nine workers, mostly from sales, marketing and product development, made the move.
Pryde hired another nine workers here and now has a staff of 18, he said. The company is looking to add up to six more workers in warehousing, customer service and accounting, Scaturro said.
Warehousing staff has “been hard to find,” he said.
The move is part of a restructuring at Pryde, formerly known as Adventure Sports Inc.
Pryde has consolidated some of its operations in the U.S. to be more efficient, Scaturro said. It recently shifted executive staff here from its watersports division, which is based in Miami.
Those brands include Cabrinha Kites, JP Windsurfing Boards, Neil Pryde Waterwear, Neil Pryde Windsurfing Sails and Bic Surf boards.
The watersports sales staff will stay in Miami where the company runs a shipping and distribution warehouse, Scaturro said.
Pryde wanted to be able to receive products from Asia and Europe on either coast. It also can send out U.S. orders faster and cheaper, Scaturro said.
The San Clemente office also is set to help fill orders for parent Neil Pryde, which makes wetsuits for several of OC’s surfwear companies at its factories in Asia, Scaturro said. He declined to give names.
Meanwhile, Pryde is looking to grow the 10-year-old Flow snowboard brand.
The label sells men’s, women’s and kids’ snowboard boots, bindings and snowboards to ski and sporting goods stores and chains, including Covina-based Chick’s Sporting Goods and Englewood, Colo.-based The Sports Authority.
Scaturro said Flow’s “unique binding technology” has helped make it a fast grower.
The back-entry style bindings have been the “driving force behind the brand,” he said.
Flow’s competitors include Burlington, Vt.-based Burton Snowboards and Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., which owns Lib Technologies snowboards and Gnu snowboards and bindings. It also is buying France’s Skis Rossignol SA, which has a line of snowboards and bindings.
Pryde is looking to grow its Cabrinha kiteboard brand.
Kiteboarding is a new watersport that’s growing, particularly on the East Coast, Scaturro said. Kiteboarders strap on a water-ski-like board and hold on to a kite to generate speed over the water.
Cabrinha recently launched a new kite, the Crossbow, which is expected to help make the sport safer, Scaturro said.
