Surf industry’s Liberated Brands lays off nearly 400, closes Costa Mesa offices 

Another surf industry wipeout is hitting Orange County as Liberated Brands – which held the distribution license for big brands like Billabong, RVCA, Honolua and Volcom – shutters its Costa Mesa corporate offices and lays off nearly 400 employees.

Details of the closure and layoffs came from a California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, dated Jan. 8, required by the state when a company issues large-scale layoffs.

“As part of a company-wide restructuring, Liberated Brands is closing its corporate offices and laying off all employees who work at those locations.

The terminations, which include the company’s chief executive, are anticipated to be permanent, the notice reads. Other positions cut include designers, project managers, accountants, warehouse workers and many more.

In a statement, Liberated said the WARN notice was a follow-up to discussions held during a company-wide town hall in December.

“The company is actively transitioning its brand licenses to new license holders,” Liberated said Friday. “We are encouraged to see that many of our talented employees are already interviewing with these new license holders as part of this management transition, ensuring continuity for the brands and their success moving forward.”

Liberated in 2023 was tasked with being the retail and e-commerce operator for several of Authentic Brands Group labels, including Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA, Honolua and Boardriders in the US and Canada.

It also became the licensing partner and wholesale distributor in the US and Canada for Billabong, RVCA, and Honolua adult sportswear, activewear, swimwear, outerwear, headwear and base layer products.

Liberated was already the core licensee and operating partner for other Authentic-owned action and outdoor sports brands Volcom, born and based in Costa Mesa, and Spyder, a snow and ski company.

The company touted themselves as a “global leader in sport, outdoor and lifestyle apparel with a relentless focus on brand cultivation.”

Authentic Brands Group’s purchase in Sept. 2023 of the mega Orange County surf brands caused nervousness in the surf industry, with long-timers weary of a corporate takeover that would put profit over its core customers.

About 80 positions were eliminated at Boardriders Wholesale LLC Inc.- the umbrella company that owned Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA and a handful of other action-sports brands. The cuts at the Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa offices followed the sale months earlier to New York-based Authentic Brands Group.

Industry insiders at the time said the downsizing marked a turbulent time for the legacy brands, all of which have a rich history in Southern California and have played a pivotal role in the evolution and growth of surfing culture here and around the world.

In 2018, Oaktree Capital bought Boardriders and combined the two longtime rivals, Billabong and Quiksilver, shocking the surf world when the legacy brands were brought together in the same Huntington Beach offices.

That company had already made deep cuts throughout the company, with 170 jobs — 110 in the U.S. and 60 in Asia — eliminated in 2022.

Spyder Surfboards founder Dennis Jarvis said in recent years that there have been shifts on the sales floor with those brands at the South Bay surf shop.

“All things are driven by want and need,” he said.

There’s a moniker in the surf industry that says “only a surfer knows the feeling,” a saying coined by Billabong as a marketing phrase that stuck throughout the years, he said.

So he can’t help but wonder how a surf company can be run by people in suits — not swimsuits — in a boardroom in New York.

“These guys are going at the bottom lines, selling at Costco,” he said.

Richard O’Reilly, managing partner for Spyder Surf Shop, said the layoffs create a new nervousness in the surf industry for those brands that were created by surfers, for surfers.

“It’s sad to see what were once such great, iconic brands – it’s heartbreaking for us,” he said. “There’s no real tie in to surfing, no authenticity, there’s no more soul. The idea that there’s a bunch of guys sitting around some big fancy table in a boardroom somewhere, making these decisions, is disheartening for sure.”

Sales of those brands have declined in recent years, he said.

“Our customers, they’re smart, and they are surfers, and they won’t want to buy from people who don’t align with their values,” he said. “Those brands have, sadly, started to mean less to guys like us who were at the forefront of the surf industry and our customers are surfers through and through. They are picky and they don’t want to support guys that aren’t giving back to the industry.”

O’Reilly said new licensees were already in place for the brands. But with so much turnover in recent years, it’s difficult to forge relationships with key people, he noted.

“There’s a pretty heavy push back against these brands, it’s starting to trickle down to the customer,” he said. “The kids in the store grumble about it. We’ll see how long these brands have. It’s going to be interesting.”

Vipe Desai, executive director for the Surf Industry Members Association, is just back in Orange County from Surf Expo, a tradeshow held in Florida each year.

While the big legacy brands like Quiksilver and Billabong were absent from the show, there was a lot of good energy among the brands that attended.

“It’s never a good thing when people are getting displaced in our industry – it’s a community, it’s a family,” he said.

Many, he believes, will find jobs with new licensing companies taking over. The question is whether, moving forward, the brands can serve both the core and mass market, he said.

“I think they can, I think they will,” he said. “Change is difficult to accept, but it is something that is constant. The industry is moving forward, there’s so much good energy in the industry.”

It’s not all “doom and gloom,” he said. Surfing’s participation is up, surf parks are helping to evangelize the sport and culture and the Olympics are right around the corner.

“There’s a whole slew of brands that drive this industry and I saw that energy this week at Surf Expo,” he said.  “People weren’t looking back, we’re going to keep moving forward.”