That distinct graphic on surfboards of a 15-year-old Shaun Tomson surfing inside the tube is back as Instinct plots a big comeback.
The business began quietly testing the consumer market with online sales in Australia to get a read on consumer demand and is now ready to re-enter wholesale with a new apparel collection and boards.
Plans initially call for the relaunch of the brand in Australia and South Africa, the latter being where the brand got its start in 1979. The business hopes to then potentially expand to the U.S. market early next year, according to Instinct Managing Director Cameron Williams.
“The end goal is to take Instinct back out to a strong global footprint like it had in the ’80s,” Williams said. “It’s time to disrupt. We are seeing consumers looking at other purchase options away from the mainstream brands. Heritage brands, like Instinct, come with history, and that creates intrigue. The reality is we are not a start-up, and we are reconnecting with our old consumers from the ’80s/’90s and bringing in a younger, new audience via our new marketing plan. Global product and marketing alignment via distribution is the key to making the launch/relaunch work effectively.”
The market return comes at a time in the industry some are calling the end of an era with the coming close of the Boardriders group’s sale to Authentic Brands Group. The shifting tides have not gone unnoticed by the Instinct team.
“There is a massive opportunity for us to capitalize on the Authentic Brands acquisition,” Williams said. “It’s creating an air of uncertainty in the market and the destabilizing effect allows brands like Instinct an opportunity to disrupt. Our direction is more about doing good and giving back and having some fun along the way. We are not really looking at other brands and just doing our own thing, but we look at our timing around return, and we feel it’s perfect for the brand.”
Courtesy of Shaun Tomson
Regaining Control
The relaunch has been a long time coming.
Tomson sold the brand in the ’90s when he retired from professional surfing, with the brand largely disappearing from the marketplace in the years that followed. In the early aughts, Tomson and his wife Carla regained control of most of the licenses and trademarks.
The return of the Australia and South Africa licenses is more recent.
Instinct got back the Australia business in 2021 and that same year the company began testing the brand via e-commerce.
“The idea was to test the market and see if it warranted a full-blown return to market,” Williams said. “Online sales were strong from the onset and last quarter were up 500%.”
Last year, the South Africa license came back under Tomson’s control from the previous licensee Foschini Group, whose CEO agreed to give back the business if a percentage of sales went to a non-profit. It was agreed the 9Miles Project, which brings surfing to underprivileged youth, would receive those donations in perpetuity.
“There was no financial transaction; they just assigned the trademark back to me,” Tompson said. “It’s a wonderful story of corporate generosity and a large corporation doing the right thing. It’s a wonderful message for the industry that we’re all a part of. People inside the surf industry point fingers at big business, but here’s a big business doing something just for the soul to thank me for the work that I do. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s so wonderful.'”
Instinct officially relaunched in South Africa in April of this year, with the product made in a factory in Tomson’s hometown, where the brand got its start.
Today, Tomson largely advises, with his interest in the environment helping drive the line’s efforts around sustainability. The whole collection is made with recycled or upcycled materials and earth-friendly inks, and is delivered in biodegradable packaging.
Instinct’s Potential
So far, the brand has had meetings with some larger retailers in Australia, along with core specialty shops, according to Williams.
The official relaunch back to retail occurs in September, but Tomson and team are mindful of how they’ll go about scaling the business.
“I have no idea of the future of Instinct,” Tomson said when asked how large the business could grow to be. “We don’t even have a business here in the United States yet. I just want to keep it small and keep it tight and see if it evolves and see if we can create resonance on the beach.”
The company thinks it can get there with the brand’s story and what it symbolizes.
“I used that logo right through my career,” Tomson said. “Instinct has a beautiful, familial connection to me. It represents my dad. It represents tube riding. It’s nice in this sort of business-y world that underlying the shop and surf is soul. Underlying it all, there’s been soul. And I think what’s happened over the last number of years, the connectivity between the roots and the product has been severed.”
Team Instinct looks to maintain that connection as it grows back into the market.
Instinct surfboards shaped by Scott Crump will be made available online and at some core retailers. The offering includes stock surfboards, in addition to replica Shaun Tomson boards.
Mid-2024 the plan is to expand into women’s and kids.
Added to all that are athlete sponsorships, including a three-year deal with three-time WSL longboard champ Taylor Jensen. The athlete is also expected to take on a managerial role “down the track,” Williams said, to help with new markets.
Instinct also signed pro-surfer Jaggar Bartholomew, the son of champion surfer Rabbit Bartholomew.
“Instinct really changed the way brands communicated with consumers in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” Williams said. “Who could forget iconic marketing tags like ‘Surfing is life,’ ‘The rest is details,’ or ‘There is no such thing as a bad day at the beach’?”
With the relaunch, Instinct returns to the market with a new tagline: “The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you have come.”
For Instinct, Williams said, the new tag is, “a reflection for us and the brand on what Shaun created.”
Kari Hamanaka can be reached at kari@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
