Surf Expo got underway in Orlando Wednesday with lots of brand and retailer meetings, busy aisles on the surf side of the show, an Industry Party at Topgolf sponsored by Shopify, and other brand activations, such as the Katin dinner for top specialty retailers.
While the large heritage surf apparel brands did not attend this show, it didn’t seem to slow down the action, and brands such as Salty Crew, Florence, Roark, Katin, Dark Seas, Seager, Jetty, Rhythm, I-SEA, Free Fly, Make Scents, Reef, Olukai, Melin, Outerknown, Oakley, Thread Wallets and more were hopping throughout the day.
Below are photos from the show floor on Day One, in addition to pictures from parties.
We’ll update our photos throughout the show.
ALL PHOTOS BY SESO UNLESS NOTED.
The busy Thread Wallets booth.
Trevor Reese and Colby Bauer of Thread Wallets
Carrie Piccolini at her new home, Sisstr, showing the line to important account HIC.
Hi-Tech of Maui, right, meeting with the Florence team, left. Hi-Tech has told us Florence is performing well at its stores.
Surf star Mick Fanning at The Surfboard Agency booth.
Rich Sanders of Vissla, Sammy Duvall of Curl, Snowy Lonsway of Duvin
Team Goodr at the Industry Party sponsored by Shopify.
Retail power table at the Katin party: Bill Dreibelbis of Quiet Storm, Kim Ball of Hi-Tech, Adam Borrello of T&C, Dave Nash of Sun Diego, Ryan Sugihara of T&C.
Seager's Mattson Smith, Kyle Cannon, Tom Ruiz and Mike Loughlin.
Core stores unite at Katin dinner: Kevin Morris of Heritage, Will Hutchinson of Proof Lab, Brian Farias of Farias Surf & Sport.
The Ron Jon team at Dark Seas.
Team Reef meeting with George Karamitos of Maui Nix.
Karly Cottrell of Island Water Sports and Mary Miller of Salty Crew.
Jason Shelton of Salty Crew and George Karamitos of Maui Nix. Salty Crew launched its line at the show and has 100 appointments booked.
Brixton's Sean Fleuriau, Brian White, Nadine Wisely, Austin Vorwith, Kevin Casillo and Carrie Prentice.
Cory Higgins of Jetty with new and notable sales leader Paul Harvey.
The Duvin team with Tyler Brown of 17th Street.
Snowy Lonsway is now the fulltime sales leader at Duvin.
I-SEA CEO Joey Santley selling up a storm in the I-SEA booth.
Team I-SEA: Dutch Schultz, Joey Santley, Don Dyer, Allison Singer and Erin and Scott Bouchard.
New I-SEA readers.
Busy times at the Make Scents booth.
Tyler Mesanko of Shaded Vision, Mac Beu of Katin, Mark Moffett of Rooster Bus and Greg "Grog" Mesanko of Grog's Surf Palace.
Rhythm doubled its space at the show by bringing separate booths for men and women. In the men's booth: Jacob Byrne, Marc Yamaoka, Josh Barrett, Nicolette Moghadam, Kadie Sparks.
The Rhythm women's booth: Jessica Bishop, Natalie Fonseca, Nicolette Moghadam, Kadie Sparks, Logan Waters.
Dale Rhodes of Katin with the Midwest retail powerhouse Glik's - Gabby Coors and Elliot Glik.
Evan Slater of Sun Bum with Bobby Gascon of Tilly's.
Jim Vaughn of Whalebone with Bob Hurley of Florence.
The Outerknown/Firewire team with 17th Street: Marty Mathiesen, Tyler Brown, Brett Savage, Dylan Slater.
Shaper Dan Mann with Will Hutchinson of Proof Lab.
LG Shaw of WRV, Dave Nash of Sun Diego, Domonique Checkwood of Melin, Florida sales legend Scott Bouchard, Thomas Lysengen of IWS.
Christina Arroyo, Mike Matey and Mike Losness of Reef.
Mac Beu of Katin whipping up coffees for the Cinnamon Rainbows team.
Lotus & Luna debuted a new booth.
Karin Parise and Lisa Bensusen of Nature Industries
Nature Industries is going for a '90s vibe.
Shaun Tomson, left, and Peter "PT" Townend, right, talk 50 years of professional surfing.
Eric Miura of Deja Vu on Kaui, Sean Fleuriau of Brixton and Millie Okada-Miura of Deja Vu.
Tess Booth, Jeff Booth and Melissa Martinez Booth of Distant Local.
Distant Local, which has a thriving destination T-shirt business partnering with specialty retailers, is expanding to mountain towns.
Yugi Kanbayashi and Eddie Doyle of FCS.
Cinnamon Rainbows Dave Cropper with daughter, Veda, and Free Fly's Mike Reilly, newly signed surfer Cam Richards, and Tanner Sutton.
BRA Chairman George Leichtweis, and Surf Expo's Roy Turner and Steven "Fish" Fisher at BRA's "No Agenda" dinner. Photo courtesy of BRA.
The Brumate booth attracted attention during the day.
The always busy Pukka custom hats booth.
Dustin Meister, Kara Yap, Ryan Whitcomb, David Ridgeway and Michel Murciano of Spy Optics.
Quiksilver and Roxy pool products by licensee Jaks Pacific.
Roark with retailers at the "No Agenda" dinner. Photo courtesy of BRA.
