Failure

Probably the most difficult thing as a company we have had to deal with in 15 years has been the problem that our wetsuits have caused us. We never meant to even make the things - see, back in 2000 we started the program just to give the employees some black wetsuits which didn’t feel like huge adverts and also used high quality Japanese rubber which we had heard kept you warmer in cold water. After 5 years we were selling around 1000 per year and we started thinking, yeah lets keep the program going. By 2007 we were working with what one might refer to as the ‘avant guard’ of the wetsuit market working with a triathlon based manufacturer that had been in business since 1964 and was an absolute expert in smooth-skin production using Japanese glue & neoprene and keeping everyone they suited both warm and toasty. Yes we had some small issues with zipper heads pulling off but we moved from PK zip heads to YKK and never saw another issue. What we didn’t realise is working with smooth-skin and having only a single side to blind-stitch is a masters game.

In 2008 we were contacted by a very well known producer from Taiwan and they helped re-design the range, they were good – but not the same nice homely lightweight, quick drying, warm and supple neoprene that we had been enjoying from Yamamoto. 1 season in and we were ready to move back and by chance we were met with another supplier who claimed to work closely with Yamamoto and would deliver great suits again. This was the beginning of the learning curve tht has taken 3 years to work on. I write this personally and to travel the coastlines picking up arm fulls of wetsuits that were ripping open almost made me quit, it was at some stages a 20% return rate. One weekend, a few years back we were at a trade show and after breaking the stand down we travelled to LAX, slept for 3 hours and took the next available flight to Shanghai followed by a deep trek into China to find the source of the issues. For the next year we had to manage returns, help with issues, find out and understand all the various glues that are used, reactive components in wetsuits and understand how temperamental working with smooth-skin really is. Even our competitors had started to stop using it – but us, me – we stubbornly refused to quit.

This has led us to working with the best people in the wetsuit market again for 2011. This has made us memorise the whole Yamamoto catalogues, this has led us to test every stage of the suit manufacturing process, this has led us to test the glues and their origination and this has led us to spend whole nights thinking about how we can get back to making the warmest, understated, comfortable and stylish suits on the market while avoiding heartache at times we have felt. How can we actually do this? By failing. How? Beacuse failure creates either 3 things, bitterness, defeat or experience. Failure that costs means you start measuring twice & cutting once, receiving emails from around the world from upset people helps your customer service skills better than any outside mentor, understanding the qualities of the neoprene, stitching and glue is priceless and how exactly does one learn those skills held by decades of understanding of older generations – through failure? It is always agreed that those who bear the scars are the only ones who can accuratly describe the battle. As the UK’s World War 2 – Prime Minister ’Winston Churchill’ famously once said, ‘Success is never final, Failure is never fatal, it is courage to continue that counts. Behind the scenes we continued and we have worked very hard to learn from a steep learning curve and early indications is that our new wetsuits are ‘the bomb’ – how?

Failure, embrace it.

Ingredients !!!