Despite Harsh Economic Climate Local Brand Experiences Explosive Growth
Watch for J7 Team Riders on the Rincon Classic Podium — READ THE FULL STORY
“Dozens of new boards just arrived! Come in and check out the newly remodeled shop. We’ve gone wall-to-wall surfboards and accessories…
The Rise of J7: Hottest New Surfboard Manufacturer a Local Phenomenon
A couple of years ago, the downtown Santa Barbara area became home to several new surfing-based retailing operations. Tom Curren’s Rip Curl store found itself surround by a whole slew of competitors, namely the new Esteem Surf Company (a satellite location for a SLO-based shop that carried Roberts surfboards), Billabong, and upstart J7 Surf Shop. At that time J7 was a relative unknown, and the surfboard industry was already in a slump, reeling from the demise of Clark Foam, the world’s-largest producer of foam surfboard blanks in December 2005. Overnight price hikes accompanied shortages as shapers raced to snatch up all remaining Clark Foam inventory.
A fair amount of time passed before new startups could produce quality blanks for custom surfboard shaping, and this left buyers considering other options such as molded “pop-outs” for additions to their quivers. While retailers were able to continue selling product, it lengthened the buying cycle substantially as the new board were much more durable. Whereas a typical custom-shaped polyester board was good for only a season or two, the molded boards were very resistant to dings and seemed to never get old, soft, over heavy (waterlogged). Over that time, new companies filling the void left by the departure of Clark scrambled to fulfill orders that were driven by pent-up demand, but overall, the oldschool “mom and pop” surf shops appeared to be in trouble. This certainly was not a great time to launch a new surfboard brand. However, shaper Jason Feist, and local pro surfer Tarik (“Tarko”) Khashoggi joined up and charged forward, and now, J7 has successfully positioned itself onto the winner’s podium of local and regional surf contests and on excel spreadsheets by teaming up with some of the hottest surfing talent anywhere, and providing them with quality designs that work. Not only that, go hang out at Rincon any good weekend day, and just observe which shortboard brands surfers seem to be riding the most, and you can’t but help to notice the increased prevalence of boards with the “J7” logo on them.
Besides all of the regular contest victories, J7 recently competed in the 2009 FCS Manufacturer’s Cup, and took top honors. Check it out!
J7 Wins Manufacturer’s Cup at Huntington Beach
SPECIAL PROMOTION—J7 GRAND RE-OPENING CELEBRATION
** The Grand Re-Opening of J7 Surf Shop is tentatively scheduled for March 19th & 20th. Feel free to stop by before then to check out the incredible stock of custom J7 Surfboards!
“For the Rincon Classic we have decide to give away a brand new J7 Grom Thing board to the winner of the Gremlins division, (ages 11 and under). The board will be on display at the classic in our booth, for all the kids to come and check it out and banter about who is going to win. On top of that, we are also going to extend a 1 year sponsorship deal to the winner of the Gremlins division which will include (1) a spotlight on our website, (2) coverage through our advertising, (3) boards at our team price, and (4) surfing and training with our top notch team — including five-time Rincon Classic Champion Kilian Garland,” reports an exuberant Tarik Khashoggi, CEO of J7 Surfboards.
New “Refer-a-Friend” program coming soon!
J7 SURFBOARDS TEAM RIDERS
Images © 2010 Jon Shafer / SANTA BARBARA SURFER
Five-Time Men’s Shortboard Champion Rincon Classic Kilian Garland
For more information, check out www.J7SurfShop.com and www.J7SurfDesigns.com,