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  Tony Giordano of Ocean Hut and Lost International CEO Joel Cooper at Surf Expo Friday.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I accidently left original Lost partner Mike Reola off the list of investors in the new Lost project. He is still a partner and is on board with the new initiative.

 

Lost and the La Jolla Group are ending their licensing agreement before it was due to expire, and Lost partners Joel Cooper, Matt Biolos and Mike Reola are taking Lost clothing in-house.

 

The three are already assembling a team, including designers Dean Bradley and Scott Madison of Atwater; Bruce Friedman, an experienced operations executive who was an important player during Gotcha’s growth who is also becoming a partner in Lost; Andy Crane, a designer and merchandiser who worked with Mossimo, Paul Frank and RVCA; and sales veteran Greg Garrett who helped grow Gotcha to $200 million in sales.

 

So far, Lost has hired about 10 people, and expects to hire over 20. Lost will use essentially the same sales rep force.

 

Lost partners Joel, Matt and Mike Reola are investing in the new project, as is Bruce Friedman.

 

Joel said the parting with La Jolla was amicable. I asked Joel why the change is happening.

 

“With all the changes in the market, models have changed,” he said. “The licensee/licensor model where two people are collecting checks – that model is not an easy model in this environment,” he said.

 

La Jolla asked to renegotiate the agreement, and that led to a lot of discussion, including the possibility of selling all together, Joel said.

 

At the end of the day, the Lost partners thought it was a great opportunity to get control of the brand back.

 

“The challenge of that is exciting, and the bottom line is that owners running a company – any company – are going to have more passion than a third party,” he said.

 

La Jolla will ship the spring line, and Lost will ship summer. Lost inherited the previously designed fall sportswear line, but will create some T’s, fleece and other product that is made domestically as well.

 

The first full-line under the new team will be holiday.

On page 2, Lost’s future focus, and Toby Bost’s statement

 

 

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While the focus right now is getting staffed up for men’s, Lost still plans to produce a girls line as well.

 

The Lost partners see more opportunity to link the graphics on Lost Surfboards with the clothing, and will take inspiration from its very successful surfboards. Lost cruiser skateboards have also been very successful, Joel said.

 

Joel said retailers have been very supportive of the news.

 

At this stage of his life, Joel could have decided to take the money and sit in Cabo.

 

But chances like this don’t come along too often – to grow a brand that already has an international reputation and all the pieces in place – usually it takes a long time for a brand to reach that point, he said.

 

I asked Joel if he was worried at all about launching such an expensive endeavor.

 

“This is not a startup,” he said. “We have great support, a great international business, a great brand. But do I go to bed worried? Every night.”

 

Joel is gratified by the quality of people who have come on board, some of whom have heard about the move and called him wanting to be involved.

 

La Jolla Group CEO Toby Bost said the strategy behind the Lost move was to diversify its portfolio to not be as surf focused.

 

“The decision to move …Lost out of La Jolla Group is consistent with the diversification strategy that we have been implementing over the last year,” Toby said in a statement.

 

“Our vision is to focus on our bigger surf properties O’Neill and Rusty while we build additional business in various action sports and youth lifestyle categories. We came to a decision under the current market conditions that our surf portfolio was too saturated.

 

“We have added brands like Metal Mulisha and True Love, False Idols to venture deep into moto and street. Upcoming additions in 2011 will further define our strategy and mission as the premier apparel licensing company.”