Veteran industry salesman Tom Ruiz, who helped drive the rapid growth of Volcom and Salty Crew during his career, is the new general manager of Western/surf lifestyle brand Seager.
The brand, which started in DTC and has been mostly focused on that channel until now, is ready to expand its nascent wholesale business.
“Seager has caught my eye for a while because they are different, and they have mojo,” Ruiz told SES in an interview. “You can’t buy mojo, and brands spend a lot of money trying to buy brand fire, but they have it organically.”
Most recently, Ruiz headed up sales for Salty Crew for eight years during the brand’s rapid growth period, and retired last June. He began consulting for several companies, and when he started working with Seager about three months ago, everything clicked.
Seager “Brand Magic”
“They have a great crew of people including three owners who are great guys,” Ruiz said. “They are a privately held, small company and are passionate about what they do. The brand magic they have going on really enticed me to jump back in. There’s a lot going on in the industry right now, so why not put my decades of experience back to work? Plus, my wife wanted me out of the house,” he said, laughing.
Seager owners Case Anderson, Mattson Smith, and Elliott Shaw said Ruiz’s long history leading the sales of strong brands in the industry made him a great candidate for the job.
“We had heard of Tom’s retirement and in the spirit of who we are as industry nerds, we just wanted to meet a legend in our world,” the three said in a statement to SES. “We were already so impressed by what he did with Volcom and how he grew Salty Crew. We asked our sales rep, Jordan Mead, to introduce us.”
“Originally, Tom came into our office just to vibe. It was immediately so apparent how industry-intelligent he was. What started as a casual introduction turned into consulting on sales, we ended up clicking and that turned into hiring him full time to help us grow,” the three partners said. “It was a no-brainer for us.”
Seager co-founders Mattson Smith, Case Anderson, and Elliott Shaw. Photo by Tanner Johnson.
Adding a Seager Rep Force
Ruiz’s first order of business is hiring a rep force. Currently, Seager only has one rep.
“That’s going to change now,” Ruiz said. “We are actively going out to wholesale, we are looking at going to Surf Expo in September. Nobody knows these guys yet (the owners), and we need to get them in front of retailers, who are going to love them. My plan is to get on the road and build the wholesale business one shop at a time.
Currently, the majority of Seager’s business is in the printables, hats, and headwear categories. “But they have a full line – great bottoms, a solid denim collection designed by JJ Gonzales, who was the denim designer at Volcom. They also have boardshorts, walk shorts, wovens, jackets – all of it.”
Big Industry Changes
Ruiz has seen a lot of the industry ups and downs and changes over the years. So I asked him for his assessment of the current state of the playing field.
“I think everyone knows retail in general is very soft right now for many reasons, from the macroeconomic to the shifting of major brands,” he said. “It reminds me of the early Volcom days. This kind of market creates an opportunity for new brands and mid-sized brands to capture more market share. Now, hopefully we are bottoming out, and (retail) gets better from here.”
“But overall, retailers are looking for newness, new brands, new categories and to diversify their product mix,” he added. “I think (the climate) will get better and better, and the timing is really good for someone like Seager.”
The Formula for Landing Space in Stores
One thing I have noticed when talking to some smaller brands: a sense that they are going to get a lot of new real estate quickly due to the Boardriders fallout. However, most retailers I talk to are proceeding cautiously with major changes because brands such as Billabong, RVCA, and Quiksilver still drive a lot of sales in their stores.
I asked Ruiz for his opinion about that.
“Oh, it is not going to be easy for anyone,” he said. “You can’t expect retailers to hand you the business. You have to earn it – you’ve got to sell through, you’ve got to deliver on time, you’ve got to market the heck out of your brand. And, you’ve got to do it season after season.”
“I don’t expect retailers to hand us anything,” he added. “I am going in and doing my song and dance to sell them on what a great brand this is. And then if we are able to get our foot in the door, we have to prove ourselves, and most importantly, we have to execute.”
The Seager vibe. Photo by Ryan Valasek.
