Hey guys. I’m about to quit cubicle life and take a stab at launching a surf brand. I had run a surfers social network on the side called Tribal Surf since 2008 thats gained some traction. Now I’m just totally sick of office life and decided eff it let’s do this. Of course turns out some dude that hocks cheapy rashgaurds on Amazon and Wallmart that slapped Tribal Surf on them filed a trademark in 2012 with prior art supposedly going back to 2003. A real pain in my ass considering all the grass roots marketing and history we have with that name. Anyway whatever lol I tell myself - welcome to entrepreneurship, kook. So after a lot of deliberation and seeing I got 5 bucks in my wallet, I decided its just best to start with a new name and hopefully get our community to follow.
I’d mention the point of this new brand is “never forget your roots” - I want to be the anti-Quiksilver. I want to sell to just local shops and avoid places like Pacific Sunwear, Tillys, etc. I want to explore crowd sourcing designs from local surf gremmies or aspiring college designers/surfers where they provide the design and we share in the profit. I want to sponsor kids with heart and local surfers that are good people - not just pros that can take a good camera angle. I want this to be what a surf company used to be.
With this concept in mind, I was hoping to get your guys opinion on these two names - or maybe you got an idea yourself please feel free to share!
Thanks guys really appreciate this and who knows maybe you’ll see this some day in your local shop.
Well, I kinda have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I’ll leave that out for now, and try to address the specific questions you asked.
First off your logo does nothing for me, looks like Texas Longhorn cowboy outfitters or something, not a whole lot that sez “surf” to me, I have to look hard to even see a surfboard, actually I see some fins but I don’t see anything resembling a surfboard. Might be a good logo for the Texas wave-pool maybe. And its a little “busy”, simpler is better, to me it looks like you’ve got a cow head and an eye patch and something around one of the horns and two thrusters or quads with zero rocker
The names hit me about the same. I dunno what phylo surf means, but its not a name that rolls off the tongue, or conjures images of great waves and good times. Faction sounds like the problem with the world today, everybody divided into factions and philosophically at war with everyone else.
I would scrap the logo and start again from scratch, look for something with a wave, try to simplify it, focus on positive stoke, same with the name, go for something that hits the “good guys” or “fun times” nerve, not the southwest desert bull with an eye patch theme.
And just to be the one to say it - if you’re gonna successfully introduce and manage a brand, you might wanna look into getting a decent office or at least a decent cubicle, you’ll likely be spending some time there.
Thats just my opinion, I’m sure you’ll get others.
Huck, thank you very much!! Those are great opinions and I tend to agree with a lot of what you are saying especially about the two names. Thanks again.
2-second google search for “faction surf” (screenshot below) - time to keep thinking. agree with huck that phylo has no meaning and is weird.
not to rain on your parade, but the “for surfers by surfers” “anti-quiksilver” thing has been done 5 million times over, just like you propose (crowd-sourcing, using local groms/artists etc). not sure why anyone would choose your brand over the countless others doing the same thing. if you have the social traction and can start selling some t-shirts or something here or there, keep the momentum going. just seems like a LONG, uphill battle in a saturated world of “core” surf brands.
If you are asking for public opinion it’s not core.
Do you and only you. Forget the dollar. If it sells great, if not great. It’s true to you.
I already know it’s gonna be a crap brand. You are asking what others think. That’s a business, not core. You left the gate as quicksilvers mindset. All those for surfer by surfer garbage brands are not core. They are business.
by starting this business you’ll be behind that desk 3 times as much as you are now, with much less money to show for it.
And if life ain’t about money, ditch the business and just be true.
Thank you man for the candid answer! You should not have to qualify with “you asked.” I do get what you are saying and I really need to shake off this corporate mindset. You nailed it! Again, thank you man. And thanks all for the feedback please keep em comin.
I have thought of a few surfboard brand names over the years. I have searched them online and someone has always though of it first haha. So i gave up. No logos on my boards. Good luck though!
Haha I hear you!! And its not just one thing you gotta check domain, FBN if thats your route, USPTO, and even existing corp names in case you nail it and change status. It is daunting but I am finding (and maybe I’m sick or something) but it is oddly fun for me!! LOL
Guys thank you for your great feedback. Unfortunately it looks like even Swaylocks is not immune to the childish tards you typically find in the Surfing forum. But still, some of you had great feedback and thanks for that.
Name has been established (not shown in this thread) and you will see us soon.
So is this BB30 guy your resident dotard? I guess every forum has to have at least one village idiot. BB30, wild ass guess here bro but maybe if you took a minute from that bong and got off your mom’s couch you might actually be doing cool shit like I’m doing. But likely not, so keep livin off of mommy, you winner you. LOL
