Betty Rides expands to swim

Betty Rides out of Portland, Oregon is a niche women’s snowboard brand that has been around since the early 90s. While they are known for snowboard jackets and pants, the brand has recently entered the swim market.

We caught up with founder Janet Freeman to find out more about the brand, why swim and how they plan to launch the line.

How big is Betty Rides? How many stores, sales, doors, etc?

We are a small niche brand. We are in approximately 250 stores nationwide in the USA. We also sell in Canada, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Norway, Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, Korea, and China

What are your biggest categories?

Our biggest categories are snowboard pants and jackets. We also do well with gloves and accessories.

You guys are primarily a snowboard brand, so why are you entering swim?

I used to be a designer at Jantzen Swimwear while starting my own men’s snowboard apparel brand TONAWAWA back in 1991. I started Betty Rides in the winter of 1993.

Swimwear is not something new to me. My grandfather was a lifeguard, surfer, and longshoreman from Long Beach, Calif. My mother grew up on the beach in Southern California and took us there every summer. I have always dreamed of designing swimwear but life got in the way.

When I created the brand name Betty Rides back in 1994, I filed an intent to use for the brand for swimwear.

For the past two years, Archie Comics has been trying to have our trademark invalidated by the U.S. Trademark Department. When they couldn’t do that, they tried to force the brand to remain only in snowsports product. Our trademark attorney advised us to make swimwear ASAP to protect our rights.

We took some of our favorite outerwear prints and put them on Lycra/Spandex. We made some bikinis and showed them with the outerwear at the 2011 SIA and ISPO trade shows.

While we were feeling pressured to produce more product and feeling “bad energy” from so many hands digging into our business, the response was only positive. It ended up being just the fire we needed to get Betty Rides swimwear going.

We joined SIMA and went to the SIMA 14 conference in Cabo.

Archie Comics dropped their lawsuits about 10 days before we flew to Cabo. It’s a great relief to have that monkey off of our back. We love the surf culture and community and hope to become a valuable part of it.

For more about Betty Rides swim plans, see Page 2

Tell us about the line – who it’s for, what makes your suits stand out from the rest?

I have a goal and vision in mind and we will let you see it in January when we officially present the line.

The line is for active girls. At the company, we all do more than just lie on the beach and work on our tans. Most of our team riders surf and do standup paddling in the off-season, so we have our inspiration right here in the company. We all wakeboard whenever we can.

Every girl knows what it’s like to have tops and bottoms go flying. Our goal is to put an end to the accidental peek-a-boos, and of course we want to look hot! My hope is that by coming to the surf and swim industry from a different place the look of our product will be different but still attractive. We are making stuff that we want for ourselves. After all, we are a girl’s brand, run by girls.

Where will the suits be sold?

That is something we are currently exploring. Julie King at Hansen’s in Encinitas is incredibly supportive and is helping us focus the line. Duke at Surfside in Costa Mesa is also a coach and mentor. Izzy and Coco from Surf Divas have given us insight into the market. We are grateful for the support and help.

We ended our snow booking season with a handful of swim dealers, and we will build from there.

What are the price points?

Our targets for tops and bottoms range from about $28 to $36 for separates.

Is this the first line extension or are you going to be getting into more summerwear in the future?

We are making everything in the USA, near our office in Portland. Obviously, this cost is higher than offshore mass production.

Our goal is to work with key retailers in partnership with our own online retail. This is how we hope to make decent margin, employ the fellow American, and keep dollars in our community.

In snow, we are known for our great fit and quality. We plan on being known for the same thing in swim. We are taking baby steps until we get the fits and fabrics right. We are going to do a soft launch at Surf Expo in January. We can turn goods in four weeks and we hope to take advantage of some “just in time” business from smaller retailers who need goods for next Spring/Summer.