Pirate's Cove

This is what Rip Curl did

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Kathmandu, Rip Curl owner slumps to huge full-year loss

The parent company of Kathmandu and Rip Curl has posted a shock $93.6 million statutory loss ($82.9 million US) – its worst in at least a decade.

KMD Brands said when excluding a $45.5 million non-cash writedown of its Oboz footwear business and other items, it still lost $28.3 million on an underlying basis for the year to July 31.

KMD said it was once again not paying shareholders a dividend, as it hasn’t since 2023, and was taking steps to carefully manage capital.

KMD announced earlier this month it was closing 21 stores, mostly outside Australia, out of its global portfolio of 328 company-owned Kathmandu and Rip Curl shops.

As for its individual businesses, its Rip Curl surf lifestyle brand made $30.6 million in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amorisation (EBIDTA), down 27% from last year, while its Kathmandu outdoor store chain posted a $1.3 million EBITDA loss after a $16 million profit in 2023/24.

Surfers know who women and men are, and with the ever growing number of women surfing, they can go with O’Neil, Body Glove, Billabong, Quicksilver, and so many other brands for surf apparel, wetsuits, boards, and more. Too bad, because Rip Curl has an awesome line. Their surfing wetsuits fit best, have room in the shoulders. Did Rip Curl think women would be appreciative of replacing Bethany with what is clearly a man in a dress with fake boobs?

With the store closures there are also supposed to be a lot of layoffs.

This is January 2024

Rip Curl’s U-turn on promotion of transgender female surfer is living proof that women are finally fighting back against erasure, and winning

With “R.I.P. RipCurl” trending this week, there are two questions we should be asking.

First, when will big corporates learn that “go woke, go broke” is real?

Second, when will discrimination against women and girls end?

Thanks to the actions of Rip Curl over the past five days, the once iconic Australian surf brand is living proof that women are finally fighting back against companies using transgender women to promote products for women and girls.(snip)

Late last year Rip Curl dropped their popular brand ambassador and living embodiment of resilience and strength, surfer Bethany Hamilton, because she does not believe transgender women should be allowed to compete against women at the sport’s highest level.

And men shouldn’t. There are certain moves that are much harder for women to make due to core and leg strength, not too mention men having stronger shoulders and back muscles, easier to catch waves. So, women just stopped buying Rip Curl. And men stopped buying Rip Curl, because surfers like real women.

It seems, however, that Rip Curl like so many other big corporates (it was purchased by Kathmandu for $350 million in 2019) decided inclusion was more important than biological female role models for women and girls.

And that is one hell of a good point: you have a good, upstanding, responsible female role model for girls wanting to get into surfing, and you replace her with a guy with mental illness (who has been photo’d wearing a hijab, too boot). Which one is a better role model?