Authentic Brands Group has spent the last few months reworking the apparel portfolio of its most recent acquisition, Boardriders, by bringing on managing partners to better design, sell and distribute products from the newly added retailers run under the Surf City company’s umbrella.
New York City-based Authentic, which oversees more than 40 businesses, completed its acquisition of the Huntington Beach-based operator and its retail portfolio in September.
The Boardriders group is made up of eight different action sports and apparel companies and said to generate retail sales of $2.9 billion through a global store count of over 500 locations with 7,000 wholesale accounts and an e-commerce network in 35 countries.
Authentic’s acquisition of Boardriders, along with three other acquisitions made this year, brings its annual retail sales to over $29 billion worldwide, up from $25 billion reported earlier this year.
Authentic has brought on four operators to expand the eight Boardriders brands since September when the deal closed. This includes Costa Mesa-based Liberated Brands, which is now the retail and e-commerce operator for Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA, and Honolua for the U.S. and Canada networks.
Brand-Building
When new companies are brought into the fold, Authentic assigns operators to manage the various divisions of each business “in keeping with its brand-building approach.”
For Boardriders, the focus was on improving its manufacturing, physical retail, e-commerce and wholesale operations.
“With Boardriders’ proven retail playbook, we also see tremendous opportunities to accelerate the expansion of its shop-in-shops, branded retail stores, wholesale and e-commerce worldwide,” Authentic founder and Chief Executive Jamie Salter said in a statement when the acquisition news first broke in April.
Salter said the firm would “leverage its global network of category experts and best-in-class operating partners” to help upgrade the Boardriders businesses, increase distribution and reach new markets.
Four Down
Liberated Brands also manages operations for Authentic’s Volcom and Spyder divisions, heading distribution of products through select department and specialty stores in more than 60 countries.
Authentic later added Warson Brands to help design, develop and distribute new occupational footwear for both DC Shoes and Roxy. The new collections, featuring styles designed with high-tech and hospitality industries in mind, are expected to be released next spring.
Warson, based in St. Louis, creates over 800 footwear styles from eight retailers in its portfolio, which includes Authentic’s Reebok and Volcom.
Authentic also partnered with retailer Aldo Group to handle the design, production and distribution for overall Roxy footwear.
The latest operator added to the Boardriders roster is NYC’s Centric Brands LLC. Authentic signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Centric to design, manufacture and distribute specifically the kids apparel category for Quiksilver, Billabong and Roxy.
Centric’s Kids Group President Steve Pinkow cited a “tremendous runway for growth” for the three retailers with the first lines under the partnership planned for spring 2024.
Centric “will drive product category growth and enhanced retail distribution for these iconic active lifestyle brands,” Pinkow said in a statement.
Centric holds licenses for over 100 companies including Calvin Klein, Coach, Kate Spade, Disney and Warner Bros.
