Vissla CEO on Sales Trends, New Collaborations, and Advice for New Brands

Maria Contino: Now that we’re a ways into 2023, what’s Vissla’s runway looking like heading into the spring and summer months? 

Paul Naude: The first quarter was up and down, largely due to abnormally cold weather, particularly on the West Coast. Based on our DTC business we’re seeing a very active online consumer and we’re optimistic that there’s pent up demand which will benefit retail as we get into summer.

April through September is the strongest period for the industry, and we expect that trend to continue this year.

Maria Contino: Anything exciting on the horizon for Vissla that you can tell us about?

Paul Naude: We’re launching a few exciting product collaborations. It’s always been a part of our lines and allows us to push the boundaries and add variety to the collections.

This summer, we’re really excited about a wetsuit collaboration we’ve done with one of the world’s top French fashion couture brands. Product will be available globally through their stores from May onward, so we look forward to good brand exposure from that. They actually “found” us and we worked together to create the collection made by leading Japanese wetsuit maker, Axxe.

We also have a couple of new marketing initiatives that should bring some excitement to surfing and generate some good content for online entertainment. Our focus is to create a point of difference as this new chapter of modern surf culture develops.