It’s taken more than a decade, but Australian brand The Critical Slide Society finally sees itself in a position to make a major push in the North American market.

The competitive landscape is changing, crucial supply chain lessons were learned during the pandemic, and the brand is sitting on roughly 40% growth notched in the market over the past 12 months.

“We feel it’s probably taken us up until now to get all of our ducks in a row, get our supply chain dialed back in, and there’s been a lot of change within majors and even a change in brands,” said founder, creative director, and co-owner Sam Coombes.

More traction and good sell-through have given The Critical Slide Society, or TCSS for short, the confidence to ramp up activities in North America. That began with the hiring of Brooks Riley as North America head of brand nearly a year ago, charged with building out a regional sales team, standing up a new Southern California headquarters and showroom in the fall, and increased visibility efforts such as a Birdwell collaboration launching in February.

“People that have known the brand or heard of it here are excited that we have organized now in the U.S. for the first time officially,” Riley told SES from his car as he jumped from one appointment to the next on the East Coast recently. “It helps to be – not new – but the cool kid back on the block again. People are like, ‘Oh, Critical’s back,’ or ‘Haven’t seen you guys in a while.’ There’s definitely newness on the market from Critical.”

Diverse Distribution

TCSS launched in 2009, with roots in blogging, and an aim to build a brand that bridged surf, art, music, photography, and film.

Coombes and Jim Mitchell started the men’s brand and built a business largely around wholesale. The company’s first door was Sugar Mill in Australia, which was started by two former original sales reps at Insight. The line’s now distributed in about 400 doors globally (majors are counted as a single door).

Stockists include Tilly’s, Backcountry, Thalia Surf, Proof Lab, K-Coast, Summer Sessions, Sunrise Surf Shop, United Arrows, and Beams. In the U.S., the company counts about 30 wholesale partners.

Outside the U.S., the business has TCSS stores in Thailand, Australia, and earlier this year opened in China. In Japan, the company works with the boutique retailer Port of Call, which has 13 stores in the country. TCSS product makes up anywhere from 30% to 40% of the Port of Call assortment, according to Coombes.

It’s possible North America could see a TCSS store in the future, but it’s not a priority given the focus on wholesale, Coombes said.

Pinpointing Consumer Lifestyles

Much of the diverse distribution, straddling core surf and more directional boutiques, is chalked up to TCSS designs.

“We’ve got different segments to how we structure a collection,” Coombes said.

That is, there will be pieces aimed for more fashion-forward retailers, with others that make more sense in a core specialty shop.

“Not comparing ourselves to Supreme, but a brand like Supreme, which was a core skate brand, has evolved into this brand that can sit in Louis Vuitton and in core skate shops,” Coombes said. “I feel like that’s (reflective of) a changing consumer and not necessarily a changing brand. Surfing or skating is part of what you do, whether you’re a person that drives a beat up, old Falcon, or a Mercedes G-Wagon; you still have a love for the ocean.”

TCSS now sits in a segment of the market often described in shorthand as “coastal lifestyle,” with brands such as Banks Journal (whose co-founder Rama McCabe is a former TCSS creative director), Faherty, and Rhythm.

“I always see the surf market as being divided into two things. You’ve got athletes as surfers and surfers as surfers,” Coombes said. “Athletes do competitive surfing and wear (for example) Hurley and maybe a Monster Energy hat. And then you’ve got surfers going out for the pure pleasure of being in the water and having a good time. Some people call that soul surfing, but it’s probably a dated term and 95% of people these days are out there not necessarily to try and join the tour any time soon; they’re just out there to have a good time.”

Looking Ahead

TCSS remains largely runs as a lean start-up to this day, with about six people in Australia and all creative continuing to come out of that country. Coombes remains co-owner of the business with Matt Christie, who was named general manager and director in 2020.

“There’s something nice around the fact that we’re still an independent brand,” Coombes said. “There are not too many in the market these days. When you send through an email to the [email protected], there’s probably either Matt or I still answering the email.”

The team retains a laser-like focus on the men’s market, even with some signs pointing to interest from the female consumer. The Bondi Beach TCSS store, for example, sees about a third of its transactions coming from women.

“It’s a nice pick-up as opposed to it being more of a strategy,” Coombes said of the door’s performance. “We’re a menswear business and we realized that going into the women’s business – that’s almost like developing a whole new business again. It’s a new supply chain, new designers, new sales channels.”

In the coming months, the team will open its Southern California office – the exact location is yet to be announced.

In North America, there will be a boost in investment into the wholesale channel, with in-store support, windows, collaborations and other retail partnerships, and increased social media marketing.

“We’re working with growing our wholesale list across the country from coast to coast,” Riley said. “But that also means getting the gear in the right hands, whether that’s sponsoring athletes or maybe friends of a shop.”

Meanwhile, Riley – who joined the business after working at performance sportswear brand Aztech Mountain – said TCSS’s presence at trade shows more recently has gone from “zero to 100,” with the business planning to show at the upcoming Surf Expo in September.

Ultimately, The Critical Slide Society is set to come out of the year with growth projected for the overall business.

“For us, it’s a focus period for at least the next 12 months in getting deliveries to stores on time, supporting that product, and producing quality,” Coombes said. “It sounds like a given within business, but sometimes you can get distracted by a lot of other projects. It’s about grinding away at the edge for constant improvement in everything we do.”

Kari Hamanaka can be reached at [email protected].