Hurley and Fender get in tune for men’s clothing collaboration
Hurley is getting in tune with Fender for a men’s capsule collection that syncs surf style with rock music. Launching for holiday on Oct. 3 in Hurley’s bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce stores, the seven pieces in the men’s collaboration include an adaptation of Hurley’s signature Phantom board shorts, a wrinkle-free flannel shirt integrated with Nike’s Dri-Fit technology and a trucker hat decorated with a guitar-shaped patch.
Throughout the collection, Hurley’s team spruced up the Fifties-era two-tone tweed that cushioned Fender’s amplifiers from wear-and-tear with metallic embroidery, foil prints and tie dye in a black, white and gold palette.
“We wanted to make a kit that, if you’re a musician on tour, you wouldn’t need anything else,” said J.P. Olson, who designs products for athletes and worked on the collaboration at Hurley, which is owned by Nike. “Just like how our athletes are on tour on the CT [championship tour], going from surf break to surf break. There are so many similarities between Fender’s musicians and Hurley’s athletes.”
Ahead of the launch, Hurley has seeded pieces to some men in its squad, including pro surfer Conner Coffin, who also dabbles in music. One piece is the $28 T-shirt designed by C.R. Stecyk III, Hurley’s creative art director, who paid homage to Fender’s influential ad campaign created by artist Bob Perine. The screen-print projects the image of a buff surfer riding a wave while playing a guitar, sandwiched between letters that spell out “SRFGTR” and “FENDER.”
Retailing from $22 for a beanie to $85 for a water-resistant fleece hoodie, the collection is the latest project that allows Hurley to show the major role that music plays in its brand messaging. Over the past five years, it’s worked with Fender to raise over $100,000 for a water charity. Last year, the two companies came together for an exhibit of painted guitars. In 2010, Hurley not only welcomed rock band Weezer to record some songs in its Costa Mesa, Calif., headquarters but also invited the band’s frontman, Rivers Cuomo, to design a puffer jacket as part of a collaboration that included green plaid button-up shirts and graphic T-shirts for men and women. A year earlier, it jammed with Motorhead for a collection.
The difference with a 70-year-old maker of musical instruments like Fender is “we’ve never done a collaboration with another hard goods company, especially one outside our industry,” Olson said.
Through its chief executive officer, Los Angeles-based Fender knows its way around the waves, too. Prior to joining Fender in June 2015, Andy Mooney served as president and ceo of Quiksilver. He’s also friends with Roger Wyett, who once headed Hurley and Nike’s action sports business.
“There is so much synergy between the two brands,” Olson said. “We definitely are going to stay close with Fender and maintain that relationship.”
