The son of Quicksilver founder Bob McKnight has launched an upscale belt maker targeting wearers of surf apparel.
Cuater, a Huntington Beach-based firm, wants to invigorate a product category that’s been overlooked by big players in the surf apparel industry, making men’s belts “a staple fashion piece rather than an afterthought,” according to the company’s founder, Robbie McKnight.
It’s a strategy borrowed from Stance Inc. The San Clemente-based company is well-known for its array of themed socks that recently added the designation of official on-court sock of the National Basketball Association to its growing list of achievements as a relative newcomer in the apparel business.
“We definitely see the niche where we can be the Stance of belts—that’s our goal,” Robbie McKnight said, adding that his father, who founded Quiksilver Inc. in 1976, will serve as an adviser to Cuater.
The accessories brand boasts another established name in the apparel game as an adviser: Travis Brasher, founder and chief executive of Huntington Beach-based TravisMathew Apparel, which specializes in golf clothing.
Other members of the Cuater management team include co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ben Donnelly, who most recently was marketing manager at TravisMathew, and before that served as an analyst for corporate and retail real estate for Oakley Inc. in Foothill Ranch.
Nathan Boroff, former chief financial officer of TravisMathew, will handle similar duties for Cuater.
No other hires are in the works for now.
“My partner and I are running day-to-day operations, wearing 1,000 hats and doing it all,” McKnight said. We are [contracting freelancers] a lot, using our connections—we are scraping by in every form.”
“Paper Belts”
Cuater uses a paper-like synthetic fabric that is water-resistant and lightweight to print images, which are then stitched onto belts made of leather or other materials.
“I saw this material wrapped on a house … so I dug into it and figured out how to print on it,” McKnight said. “It also provides this distressed feel, which we absolutely love.”
The slim, horizontal canvas supports photo patterns or panoramas, and lends itself to artist or athlete collaborations. Plans call for a roster of brand ambassadors to be made public in the coming months.
“The paper belt is where we hope to differentiate ourselves and stand out,” he said. “It’s never been done before.”
The first designs included a collaboration with artist Tyler Spangler of Pacific Palisades, whom Donnelly found on Instagram. Spangler’s father—the team later found out—is friends with the elder McKnight.
The brand also has a selection of conventional leather and stretch styles. All belts are priced from $30 to $50 and cater to a young action-sports consumer.
They are sold via Cuater’s website and also arrived at 15 surf retailers last week, including Hobie Cat Co. in Oceanside, Jack’s Surfboards, Huntington Surf & Sport, Val Surf in Los Angeles, Surfside Sports in Costa Mesa, as well as Sun Diego, South Coast Surf and Surf Ride in San Diego.
McKnight’s dad “has a very solid relationship with” each of those stores, and they welcomed Cuater “with open arms,” according to the younger McKnight.
“They saw the vision and loved the product,” he said.
Duke Edukas, co-owner of Surfside Sports, picked up almost every one of the styles Cuater is offering, and has displayed them prominently at his store in Costa Mesa.
“I didn’t do it as a favor,” Edukas said. “I did it because the product was on point and he knows what he’s doing.”
Edukas also sells Arcade belts, which debuted in 2010 and cater to snowboarders.
“They’ve done pretty well,” he said. “Arcade is more technical, while Robbie’s brand is more fashion forward. It’s still up in the air whether it will succeed or not. We usually give brands about a year. It’s an interesting category, often overlooked by big brands.”
Bob McKnight said he’s serving as a consultant to Quiksilver, in a “sort of an ambassador role … helping the company through the turnaround” after its recent emergence from bankruptcy, which ended with the company going private this year under Los Angeles-based investor Oaktree Capital Management LP.
He’s also a “second set of eyeballs” for his son.
“He comes home at night and runs some things by me, and I coach him a little bit,” McKnight said. “Of course he’s grown up in our family, in terms of watching me and other leaders (at Quiksilver) go through the motions. He’s also interned here and in Europe.”
Name
Cuater “really means nothing, to be honest,” Robbie McKnight said. “We had a huge whiteboard with names written all over it, and Cuater is one that just kind of clicked. And the domain name was open and the trademark was open, and we kind of just laughed and went with it.”
The McKnight name still opens doors in industry circles.
TravisMathew’s Brasher reached out to the elder McKnight a while back, looking for a mentor, and the two have since become friends. He then met Robbie, and later introduced him to his now-business-partner, Donnelly.
“I love everything that my dad has done,” McKnight said. “Watching him run Quiksilver really gave me the entrepreneurial passion. I hope I can do it half as well as he did. He’s been a great help and a mentor.”
