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  Life Distribution is relaunching the Split brand. It also owns Ambiguous.

I talked with with Split founder David Patri on reclaiming the Split brand, the strategy for Ambiguous, and his long industry roots.

David is the President of Life Distribution LLC and Brand Director for Split. Life Distribution US and Europe and Rays Manufacturing (not Rays Apparel) now own Ambiguous, a transaction that happened in 2008. This year, Life Distribution acquired Split.

Can you tell me a little about your background? You come from Split and O’Neill and then you bought Ambiguous?

I was offered a job at Vision Street Wear right out of school and got a huge dose of reality in the action sports industry.

The company was growing fast and there were so many talented people there.

That year, Brad Dorfman, the owner of Vision received entrepreneur of the year, and a year later the company was broke and almost went out of business.

Split was still something I was playing around with. I was taking what I was learning and applying it, hoping at some point I could turn it into something.

Gotcha was the hot surf company at that time and I started as a graphic artist for them in 1990. I connected with a friend from college and decided to try Split again, moonlighting creating graphics and apparel. Soon we had some interested people to invest. Scott VanDerripe, Scott Bailey and I decided to put the business together legitimately.

Rapid growth

The Split brand grew quite fast and we struggled to keep up. I was always looking ahead and wanted to go faster. I was obsessed with the process and created databases and networks at a time when these things did not exist to make the design and development process easier and more efficient. After all, we had to snowboard and surf in Mexico as much as possible, so we needed to be efficient.

Through the 1990’s we had some great times and I met some incredible people who really cared about Split and its success. The idea of being a cross boards sport brand was a new idea; we decided to push it to the limits. We were interested in a wide range of sports, so it was natural to support all the cross board sports, and art and music, which is general practice for brands today.

In 1999, we introduced the Split Girl brand and in a few short years were able to create a viable brand that was recognized as a leader for young women.

Financing difficulties

Financing was always a challenge. We had gotten personal loans, lines of credit, investors like Michael Stipe but it wasn’t enough to keep up. Rays Apparel offered us stability and best of all incredible manufacturing. Financing was not a problem anymore, our prices came down and the quality went up. The business was getting streamlined and I was able to focus on the marketing and development of the Men’s and Girls’ collections.

The growth was consistent and Split was becoming a well-known name. Athletes like Mikala Jones, Ryan Nyquist and Billy Marks were really making a name for Split. In 2003, we agreed to move operations into Rays Apparel via a license. The whole staff moved to their new building in Irvine. Here, I assumed the role of Marketing Director. After a few years at Rays I decided to take a leave of absence and finally take a breather.

Go to Page 2 to read about plans for Ambiguous

 

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On to O’Neill

It didn’t last long as I accepted the role of design director a few months later at O’Neill under Kelly Gibson and Rick Petri. O’Neill was an awesome experience for me. I did not have the pressure as an owner with the day-to-day business and I could focus on design, what I enjoy most. I was fortunate enough to travel to some exotic places to photograph the team. My time there was short, about a year and a half, but I met so many great people.

Ambiguous opportunity

Months before the collapse of Rays Apparel Irvine I was approached to start a new distribution company solely for the purpose of taking Ambiguous and turning it into a International brand.

With European and Chinese partners, we set up offices in France and here in California. This was in the thick of the downturn of the recession so it was a good time to plan and re-launch. As we unveiled the first line the reaction was one of caution. “Are these guys for real?” was a typical reaction.

Quickly, retailers gained confidence in Ambiguous again with strong sell-throughs in a bad economic climate. In 2009, our sales surpassed our goals and in 2010 they doubled and will easily surpass our goals again.

(Right: Ambiguous team rider Derek Burdette.)

How is Ambiguous doing right now?

Ambiguous is gaining awareness globally. Our focus has been on high quality product with a forward look and feel. The athletes have been a central role in creating the image for the brand.

Where are you guys selling? What shops?

The Closet, Jacks, Active, CCS, PacSun, Nordstrom.

Internationally, we are in Canada, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay, Europe, Australia, Indonesia, China and Korea.

(Right: Ambiguous team rider Sid Melvin.)

Any challenges in the current economy? Strategies you guys have used or are using now to help you get through it?

My philosophy for these times is to get back to basics. Keep a tight and talented team to maintain a small overhead. When the infrastructure becomes too bloated, there is no room for adjusting to economic downturns.

Go to Page 3 for a Split update

 

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How are you guys financed?

Self-financed

What are your annual revenues? Are sales up or down or flat this year?

Doubled from last year

Why did you acquire Split? What are your plans for the brand now that you own it again? It was sort of a mid-tier brand there at the end. How will you position it?

Split is an internationally recognized brand. Consumers and retailers alike were left scratching their heads went it left the market place.

I am very happy to have the brand back. I have a personal attachment to it and plan to regain its notoriety.

Split will be positioned in the core specialty, chain store level and the better department stores.

Split is positioned differently than Ambiguous in that it sits beside brands like Element, Volcom and DC where Ambiguous is on the level of Obey, RVCA, Insight. Ambiguous is a fashion brand. The design concept is for the open-minded, free-thinking people who are not afraid to stand out and be unique.

The distributors and licenses around the world were very surprised and happy to hear the news that we will be re-launching it in 2011.

Current licenses are maintained in Canada and Brazil.