I think you (alleged) old farts and you (so you allege) young...

I think you (alleged) old farts and you (so you allege) young cool guys both have an imperfect view of the competition. It is much bigger than you probably think.

I googled "coolest surf clothing" and came up with this from just one site, Shredhead, a British online retailer, based in Kent where there are not a lot of waves. This is the sidebar:


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Alpinestars

Animal

Animal Ladies

Billabong

Billabong Girl

Breo

Element

Enjoi

Fox Racing

Globe

Hurley

Ignite

Iron Fist

Lost

Metal Mulisha

O'Neill

O'Neill Ladies

Protest

Quiksilver

Reef

Rip Curl Girl

Rip Curl

Roxy

Rusty

Sanuk

Vans

Volcom

Santa Cruz

Hot Tuna

Go Pro Be A Hero

The Realm

Cult Industries

Dakine

Oxbow

Gotcha

Headworx

Kustom

Shredhead


Notice they even have their own brand.

Now imagine how much competition there is in Malibu (e.g.). Don't even try to google Californian surf clothing. It's enormous. You simply will not find it all on one google: you would have to go into many much smaller and tighter searches to get it all.

Many posters here are debating the value of the BBG brand. This ignores the possibility that the brand may have value but the distribution network (i.e. BBG minus the brand) may be worth not so much.

Brands are often traded between owners. A valuable brand says nothing about the value of the owner, which is merely an asset of the owner.

A better question is who will own the Billabong brands in one year (or two)?