Body Glove is pleased to announce the addition of Chad LaBass as the brand’s new marketing manager. Chad comes to Body Glove with over two decades of marketing experience. He most recently worked at Freestyle Watches where he was originally hired as the Team Manager in 2002, and worked his way up to the head of marketing. During his time at Freestyle, Chad was the driving force behind the brand, bringing the colorful retro shark watches back to popularity with the youth market by using social media, specifically user-generated content via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Prior to Freestyle, Chad worked at 15th Street Surf Shop in Newport Beach, Calif. as a Retail Manager and also helped at Rietveld U.S.A. Chad also grew up in the surf industry, cutting his chops as a kid model for brands like Hobie and Morey Boogie for ads in Surfer and Surfing Magazine.
“Getting to work for a heritage brand like Body Glove is true to my roots and really a dream come true,” says La Bass. “I am excited and humbled to join Body Glove and can’t wait to help execute the incredible vision that the marketing team has created. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
About Body Glove International
Founded in Redondo Beach, California in 1953 by twin brothers Bill and Bob Meistrell, Body Glove is the original wetsuit company. Today, the privately-owned, family-operated company is a leading global watersports brand that specializes in wetsuits, swimwear, clothing, footwear, accessories and technology products. While Body Glove has supported surfers and the surfing industry since 1953, today Body Glove sponsors one of the most respected surf and wakeboard teams in the industry. Pro surfers Tatiana Weston-Webb, Jamie O’Brien, Anthony Walsh, Alex Gray, Guinness World Record Holder Garrett McNamara, as well as wakeboarders Rusty Malinoski, Harley Clifford, and Bob Soven are all part of the Body Glove Team. Through Reef Check, SIMA’s environmental fund, and the Surfrider Foundation, Body Glove also works hard to preserve and protect the oceans and waterways it loves. The company’s headquarters are still based in Redondo Beach, but its products are sold all over the U.S. by a network of independent retailers, at its own Dive N’ Surf retail shop and in approximately 50 countries worldwide.
