Irreverent clothing maker Tavik Industries LLC has found an unlikely friend in a household name around these parts—John Wayne.
The company’s John Wayne Collaboration line of clothes is generating buzz and sales for Costa Mesa-based Tavik.
The line includes “shooter” board shorts, with a Western gun in holster graphic along the hip. There’s also “the Marshall,” a T-shirt with a digitized image of a rifle-toting Wayne, and the “sic ’em up” T-shirt, which has a Wayne-like image pointing a revolver at you.
Wayne, a Newport Beach icon who died in 1979, seems an odd fit with Tavik, an edgy maker of guys shorts, pants, hats, T-shirts and shirts, and women’s swimsuits.
With yearly sales of about $1 million, Tavik is part of the action sports clothing industry—a business known largely for apparel makers inspired by surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.
But Tavik, like Costa Mesa’s Volcom Inc. and others, veers off the beaten path with graphic T-shirts that seem more fitting for Hot Topic than a surf shop.
Designs
Offbeat designs include a Jesus “hanging 10” tee, a “I heart cops” tee with bullet holes in the heart and Godzilla board shorts.
The clothes are sold at some bigger retailers—Costa Mesa-based The Closet and Irvine’s Tilly’s Inc.—as well as at boutiques and through online retailers.
Tavik is one of several upstart brands looking for a place in a crowded market.
Big local names—Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., Irvine’s Billabong International, Nike Inc.’s Hurley International LLC in Costa Mesa and Volcom—dominate action sports clothes.
Tavik also vies for store space with Costa Mesa’s Rvca Clothing, Irvine’s Lifted Research Group and other buzz brands.
Stores “need the Taviks—the new, fresh stuff,” founder Erik Paulsen said. “Volcom’s great, but there are kids who don’t wear Volcom anymore. Buyers know they need a budget for newer brands.”
Paulsen, 28, started Tavik in 2004, plotting and planning the business while in college.
After graduating from Loyola Marymount University with degrees in marketing and finance, he launched Tavik from his parents’ garage.
Paulsen said he saw room at the edges of action sports clothing for designs rooted in surf-wear with inspiration from electronic music and urban streetwear styles.
Tavik soon started taking over his parents’ house, according to Paulsen. His father told him to move the business out, prompting 2005’s shift to Costa Mesa.
“I’ve learned more in the past six years,” Paulsen said. “I’ve been through everything.”
Paulsen grew up in San Juan Capistrano and skimboarded and surfed in Laguna Beach. He competed as a professional skimboarder for Laguna Beach-based Victoria Skimboards and others.
He said he grew up alongside the kids of all of the big names in action sports, including those of Quiksilver’s Bob McKnight.
While in college, Paulsen worked at Laguna Surf and Sport, one of the industry’s trend-setting boutiques.
But nothing could have prepared him for starting Tavik, Paulsen said.
“I was fresh out of school,” he said. “I knew if we could hit certain numbers, it would work. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to break down.”
Paulsen said he’s faced litigation, deadbeat retailers, struggles to pay debt and sleepless nights.
He’s spent a good portion of time in Tavik’s van, trucking back and forth to Downtown Los Angeles, learning as he went along.
He’s pitched retailers, secured funding, sourced fabrics, learned about screen printing.
There have been plenty of mistakes, Paulsen said.
“You learn and grow,” he said. “It makes you a better CEO.”
When Tavik started, it had a financing partnership that quickly soured. After buying out his partner’s stake, Paulsen said the company hummed along until 2007, when he raised money from a group of angel investors that included some friends and family.
Then came the downturn. Like other brands, Tavik found itself struggling. The company started to burn through money. Retailers weren’t paying. The company subleased the downstairs of its office to an online retailer. It shrunk its workforce.
Paulsen said he stuck with top accounts, including The Closet and Tilly’s. He worked only with reliable, paying retailers to get the company’s cash flowing again.
Tavik’s sales this year, Paulsen said, are better than in 2009, one of the worst for the apparel industry. But it’s still tough, he said.
Licensing
The company turned to licensing deals, like the one with Wayne’s estate, to keep afloat, according to Paulsen.
It also struck a deal with Buena Park-based CS Fashion Enterprises Inc. to make its T-shirts. CS Fashion handles knitting, manufacturing, screen printing and shipping, keeping the profits and paying a royalty to Tavik.
Paulsen also struck a manufacturing partnership agreement for knits and other types of clothes. Under the deal, Tavik gives orders to the undisclosed company, which finances them and has them made overseas.
Tavik also got into women’s clothes with a swimsuit licensing deal with designer Nicole Hanriot. The swimwear line, called Designs by Nikki, was a good way to get into the more competitive women’s market without doing a full line, Paulsen said.
The swimsuits have nabbed some big-time attention, with mentions in Seventeen, Self, Elle and Marie Claire magazines.
Tavik has made other moves. It revamped its Web site and plans to hire next year. The company now has four workers in Costa Mesa, seven sales representatives and four freelancers.
For now, Paulsen said he plans to conservatively expand U.S. sales. Tavik also hopes to add sales in Canada, Japan, Europe and Australia, he said.
“We’re still just trying to survive,” he says. “It’s a long-term investment. I could have worked for somebody else, but I wouldn’t have learned all that I’ve learned.”
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelance writer based in Long Beach.
