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Dive into insightful conversations with entrepreneurs and leaders shaping the outdoor industry.
Each episode explores practical strategies and inspiring stories to help you navigate your career in the outdoor industry.
Your host, Christian Rawles, brings 15 years of experience as the former owner of Ambler Mountain Works and his current role as KORE Business Advisor.
This podcast is a production of KORE - the Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise. KORE is a non-profit organization based in the Kootenay region of interior British Columbia. KORE’s mission is to support the growing network of gear and apparel makers, designers and entrepreneurs within the Kootenays.
Dario Phillips
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[00:00:00]
Welcome to the KORE Outdoors Podcast. My name is Christian Rawles. Today's conversation is with Dario Phillips, the co-founder of Slow Tide Dario, along with his two co-founders, started Slow Tide as the go-to beach towel brand for the surf industry.
This conversation follows the arc of Dario's founder story. From leaving some of the biggest brands in action sports to launch Slow Tide to today, where he and his co-founders are running the company remotely from Vancouver Island and Hawaii. We get into the benefits of being a category specific brand, doing things that aren't measurable and what it takes to learn how to be more confident in your ability as an entrepreneur.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Dario Phillips.
Christian: talking about the board sport thing, I listened to a few of the podcasts that you, um, have been on and I can just, through our conversations I can tell that like, sliding sideways has been an important part of your life and, you know, it's like probably helped make [00:01:00] some decisions that you've, uh, made throughout your life.
And I'm just curious if you have maybe like an earliest or like a clearest fondest memory of, um. Sliding sideways for the first time, whether it's skates, surf, or snow.
Dario: Yeah, I mean I was first introduced to skateboarding before surfing and snowboarding and my, I would watch my cousins do it in Vancouver and yeah, I mean, it just looked so intriguing and technical and I got my first skateboard and would literally just like skate for hours on end by myself, you know, literally I had like a little curb in front of my house and I would just skate and do nose stalls and little like five oh stalls, but just like hours on end and just like the amount of work it takes to.
Get better and to grow at it. And then eventually you like hit this level and you're like, oh, I understand it now. I get like where foot placement can be and there's so much like falling and getting back up. I think that's like the biggest thing of [00:02:00] skateboarding and board sports in general of just like, you really have to learn to be persistent and be relentless.
And it's like such a, yeah, just a long-term life lesson beyond just boarding. It's just like falling and getting back up and doing it over and over and over again and um, yeah, that's just like. Definitely fond of those life lessons, but skateboarding's just so fun. Like the freedom of it. We would take the bus to UBC and pay 75 cents and get our Slurpees and just like felt so free.
Um, I think at that point in time too, this would've been like the early nineties, like just a little bit more like counterculture too. Like it was less of a team sport and it wasn't in the Olympics, so it definitely felt like you were kind of rebelling and doing your own thing. So that was definitely excitement about it being like a young kid.
So yeah, I mean there's, I could go on for hours about my love for skateboarding and board sports in general.
Christian: Yeah, WW was that love for the board sports? Were you like in junior high and high school thinking like, yeah, this is, I'm gonna figure out a way to do this. Like I've gotta figure out a way to do this. Did that, was [00:03:00] that part of your career plans or like, 'cause it seems like you quickly went into the action sports world.
Dario: Yeah, I don't think it was really my career plans. I just loved it. It was my passion. And I was like, after I graduated high school, I did a season up in Whistler and I was like, how do I snowboard more often and how do I continue to skate and travel to Europe to be able to skate? And I didn't really understand what like board sports world jobs were other than like I worked at the boardroom snowboard shop and I was like, okay, understood how to like sell.
Product and met my first sales reps and they're like, oh, you can be a sales rep and sell to the shops. I didn't really know what a marketing manager was in some of these other, like more corporate roles. It just seemed so like far stretched. And I, I think there was really much education in the industry on like what these career paths were.
I just knew I wanted to keep skating and snowboarding and surfing and just kind of pushing towards those. But I guess my dad was really entrepreneurial growing up and he kind of always just pushed like that hustle. So I always wanted, knew I wanted to do my own [00:04:00] thing and I wasn't really sure what that was.
Initially, I thought it'd be like some type of skate clothing company. That's kind of what I had initially, like a thought. But um, yeah, I've always like, just wanted to be able to board as much as I can.
Christian: Okay, so that's interesting. You, you had the idea, you know, from watching your dad and earlier on it's like, oh, I, maybe I could do this too. Like, so you had that kind of entrepreneurial dream a little bit.
Dario: Totally. I mean, he just like promoted. A business and being a little bit of like a hustler. Like he would actually like take us to, I have five brothers and one sister and he would take us to garage sales like every weekend and like show us how to negotiate. He'd like find out something that we wanted to buy and like give us less money and be like, oh you need to like figure out a deal, like make this work.
Which is like kind of wild to think we'd go home like crying sometimes. 'cause we wouldn't get like the toy or the bike or the old school skateboard. But like, just a lot of those lessons of, you know, like making us pick up the phone if we want something when we're young. Be like, call the person like you want it.
Like [00:05:00] ask them, you know, and just kind of like making us be independent from a young age and just like promoting entrepreneurship. I mean, I used to like deal baseball cards, like buy the packs and like sell them to friends and I mean, he honestly used to, used to. Sell firecrackers. We would like drive across the border and like buy firecrackers from Lummi and like bring them back and he's like, oh, it's a good business.
Like let's do, you know, you're just like learning how to do business. So, um, yeah, I owe a lot to those lessons like still ring true to me today of just like, you know, there's a problem, there's always a solution and just be able to like pick up the phone and talk to someone is definitely like something he really hammered home.
Especially now running my own business with, when everyone like really defers to, oh, I emailed them and they didn't respond in two weeks. It's like, well, did you call them? No. You know? So I think it just like shows that you can go one step further.
Christian: That's an amazing example that of to, to be given to you as a kid. Like that's so valuable. Regardless if you become an entrepreneur or not, you're
Dario: Totally. [00:06:00] Totally. For sure. Yeah. No, it's interesting looking back at that, it's also like, at the time it was pretty annoying too though. You're like really like, no, I don't wanna do this. But then you look back and you like appreciate it.
Christian: Yeah, no kidding. I should back up a little bit. You have two co-founders at Slow Tide, so you, there's, there's three of you, and we're gonna get into that a little bit. But you've all kind of, you all came from let's, for lack of a better term, corporate board sport world. And you had, you know, you had this seed of this entrepreneurial idea.
Um, talk to me a little bit about like life in the action sports board, sports, corporate world, and then what initiated you to be like, uh, we should probably think about doing something on our own.
Dario: Yeah, I mean we all, it was kind of serendipitous how we all met. We were all kind of had similar roles in these corporate companies. My business partner Kyle was running, um, design DC shoes and I was marketing director at Quicksilver, so we had like offices close by. Um, so it was interesting like how we met, but all three of us [00:07:00] had retail backgrounds too.
They worked at High Tech in Maui. I worked at Boardroom in Vancouver, so all of us like started in like surf, snow, skate retail. So we like understood that types of business. Both my co-founders have more of a design background and myself more of a marketing background. Um, but yeah, just the, I mean board riders in specific, like we kind of came at the tail end of the heyday of board riders and there was a lot of amazing things that were going on.
When I started, I was the Canadian marketing manager. And I had a pretty decent budget to essentially like make the brand cool in Canada, like build a surf program, an escape program, and a snow program, and do these cool trips, but then also like do retail marketing. I did a lot with a little and got noticed by the senior executives in Huntington and kind of the dream for any like Canadian at the time was like, how do you grow, like make it to California where all the headquarters were And I was able to get down there.
But during my path down there, there was a new CEO who came on board [00:08:00] who really got the kind of like athlete program. There was like 170 athletes cut in a day. The skate program was cut and that's really what I was meant to be going down to help run. So it was just like really crazy movement from moving from Vancouver to Huntington Beach and like calling the head of HR and being like, am I still moving down?
Like my, my boss just left like 170 athletes got cut, like, what is happening? And they're like, yeah, come down, we still need you. And I'm like, okay, this is crazy, but let's go for it. Um. So, yeah, it's, there's definitely like tumultuous times in looking at the industry now. It's like continues to be that way with like all the change to the licensing model.
But I think it's really cool to understand that yeah, the, that experience of how big it can be and how you can give back, but then like how, you know, important the, these athletes are and these stories are, and if you like pull away from kind of giving back to the community, your brand just dies. Um, so it just shows that like you have to be authentic, um, and true to [00:09:00] your customers.
Um, but yeah, it was a crazy time and it still seems crazy, but it's leaving a lot of space right now for new brands up and coming brands to open up and, and take over and do cooler things, which is really amazing to see.
Christian: Yeah, I mean it very much mirrors what's happening in the, or what's happened in the outdoors that you, I mean, I talk about it all the time. It's like private equity and publicly traded companies, gobbled. What used to be core brands and then it, they dilute it, which then creates this opportunity for the up and comers to who are actually still connected to the communities that they're trying to serve.
And then they have all this white space that gets created for them to, to open up and take on.
Dario: For sure, and the up and comers can be so nimble, like you had got an idea, you can just do it. You know, in the, in the corporate world, there's like so many channels you've gotta go through an approval process and it just like the, how, how fast you go to market in the corporate world is much slower. Where like at Slowtide now we have an idea like we can do it tomorrow.
Like it's not, it's a small enough [00:10:00] team that we can be nimble. And I think that's what makes these smaller brands unique.
Christian: Yeah, for sure. And so you, the three of you are working these corporate jobs, you're seeing kind of the, the beginning of the decay of the authenticity, authenticity of these brands. And you're like, Hey, let's. Let's try something on our own. And, and was this was Slow Tide the first try, or did you try some other things or did you kinda kick some other ideas around First?
Dario: Yeah. So as I mentioned before, like I knew I always wanted to do something kind of in the industry. I wasn't really sure what it would be. Um, and when I met Kyle and then later Wiley, you know, we became good friends. We were initially roommates and they had talked about a couple different ideas. Kyle's wife actually Alana started with an idea of like, oh, towels could be cool.
And Kyle Wiley and Alana kind of thought about a towel idea for a couple years. And I remember just hearing about it at parties and they're like, oh yeah, we talked about towels, that'd be cool. And I was coming to a point in my career where I was like, oh, I really want to do something different. Like, I'm kind of just like stuck here.
And I know they had talked about it and they're like, okay, [00:11:00] could we do this thing? And um, I was like, I remember when I heard it, I was like, oh, that's a good idea. And. Um, we saw the rise of different categories, specific brands like bags and socks and all these brands doing well with it. And so I, I approached them one day and I was like, that towel idea, like you guys have been talking about for a couple years, like, I wanna be a part of it.
Let's do it. Like I'm fired up. Like, let's go. And they're like, okay, you're fired up. We're fired up. Let's, let's do this. And yeah, I mean it really started with us committing to it, finding a factory, doing designs, and then like quitting our jobs. It was crazy at the time. 'cause Yeah, I had just gotten married, my wife was pregnant.
We like left our good jobs. Kyle had just moved back to Hawaii. Wiley had just left Nike, sb like all of us were kind of like. Leaving these pretty, like these jobs we've worked our whole careers to get to, to like roll the dice on this thing. And um, but we were super excited and all in a very similar stage in our careers too.
Like [00:12:00] I feel like, you know, we could have continued to grow, you know, in the corporate world, but it was really exciting to like take that step. Um, but it took a long time to like get where we are today. I think like just thinking about how long that grind is and looking back at it of like, you know, the towels coming to my garage in Venice Beach and be like, okay, we have 800 towels.
Like what do we do now? You know? So it was crazy to start
Christian: I'm, I want you've, you've dropped down a, a few things that I want to touch on. The, the first one I wanna go back to is this idea of these category specific brands. You said like socks and bags. I assume you're talking talk, probably talking about like Stance and Herschel,
Dario: exactly.
Christian: which is, so previously you just have these brands like Quick, Quicksilver, Volcom and whomever, and they would just be a brand that would cover a bunch of different categories.
Like let's just call 'em the lifestyle of whatever that consumer would be. We'd cover all the categories thanks to maybe to e-commerce. I'm not quite sure exactly what it, what caused it. But then we started to see these brands specific, like, I'm, we are going to serve, we're gonna dominate [00:13:00] this one category for that customer subset.
So you have stance socks and Herschel bags and what are the other brands that you, you saw out there that were doing that you're like, okay, if they're doing it, we can do it. And then also. What are the advantages of doing just category specific?
Dario: Yeah, I'm just trying to think back to other category specific brands, I guess. I mean, you can think about like the, the dawn of footwear in general, you know, with like the Nikes and like the big players in the space. Those were some of our like big goals. But then you can look at, you know, umbrellas and just all these different like underwear and all these different like category specific things.
But yeah, we just saw that that was an opportunity. I will say that like. Towels as a category. It, it, it was pretty hard for sell. Like, honestly, I remember just like us three sitting at in Wiley's, uh, living room, like calling up Jacks and like HSS and being like, Hey, we wanna, like, we're starting this towel brand, we're gonna sell you towels.
Like, no, no, no, we [00:14:00] have our like $10 towels, like we don't need towels. And I was like, well, like what about like stance introduced socks? Like it crushes for them. It's a category specific thing and it really took a while for them to buy it and bite on it. Um, and I do think towels is a category too. It's a little different.
It's like, it's a little, you buy socks more often, you know, they, they get dirty, they get holes on 'em. Like our products last a really long time and I'm super proud of that. But it's also like, can be really tough. Like, I have friends that have our towels from 2015 and you're like, okay, that's amazing. But like, you're buying a towel from us every 10 years.
Like, so, I mean, that's kind of where we go into like category expansion. And I think a lot of those brands. The stances and the Herschel is like, you have to go beyond that one category. Um, even when you think of like more the D two C focused brands, like a ridge wallets or whatever they're doing, like rings and all these other like small accessories that kind of like once you've, I hate to say acquired that customer, but like once you have someone following you, [00:15:00] um, you kind of need to give them something else to come back for.
Christian: Yeah. Lifetime value.
Dario: Exactly.
Christian: Yeah, it's, okay. So back to the 800, 800 towels and these conversations with the big, uh, board shops in Southern California like Jack's, and did you order the 800 towels and then try to sell them, or did you do some kind of like early market research and be like, Hey, imagine this, it's towels, but it's like stance for socks.
I mean, did you kind of do those comparisons for people to
Dario: Yeah, we had like a little PDF selling deck, but we went like pretty hard. Like we, we just ordered them without it. We had, we had a good friend too, um, Gavin and Damien Faren Fort, who owned a shop in Venice Beach called General Admission, and they were like doing a ton of parties at, at, at the time. And they allowed us to have like a launch event there.
And I'd say we'd lived in California for a while and we're pretty well connected. So we had like a, a good support network of people and artists. And I think a lot of the, the inception of the brand was really supporting our friends that were artists. And [00:16:00] photographers we're like, Hey, that was like, we're putting beautiful art and giving it a new canvas.
Like that was the real angle. So it was like. You know, we had big visions of it working, but it was still just like kind of a test at the start to be like, Hey, let's order 800. There's not that much risk. Like what do we've got to lose? Um, you know, and then that's kind of where it started. You know, we got better at manufacturing a better quality product and kind of just really just doubled down.
Um, but we were really wholesale focused first and it was an interesting time 'cause that was also the time when like D two C only brands were just starting to start up. So I'm like, it's interesting that we were wholesale first, but it might've been like not the most beneficial for us 'cause we were so focused on it and if we were just like D two C, it probably would've spearheaded our D two C growth quicker.
Um, and wholesale's been like up and down over the years. It's grown, but like it's not amazing compared to D two C.
Christian: Okay. Did you guys bail on your jobs? Like, Hey, we got [00:17:00] 800 towels, I'm quitting, I'm leaving Nike, sb, or did you guys kind moonlight or in side hustle, slow tide so you could get to a place where you felt comfortable?
Dario: Yeah, so Kyle had started kind of a little bit of a design agency in Hawaii. So he had like a little bit of a side gig. Wiley was done at Nike SB and I had, we had started Slow Tide, but then I got offered a position to help with partnerships at what youth, which was like a California like skate serve publication.
So I was helping them with their skate content and some of their partnerships. So I had like a little bit of side income helping for the first like year and a half. Um. Yeah, it was definitely a grind, like looking back on Yeah, like the sacrifices we were making to make it happen. And, um, yeah, not taking a paycheck for a couple years was really tough.
Um, you know, for a small, for a starting family. But luckily, like we had a saved up and lived pretty frugally and like, you know, rented cheap apartments in Costa Mesa and [00:18:00] yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's wild to look back. I like, look at my wife, I'm like, damn, we like really went through a lot to get where we are today, especially like having a newborn at the time.
Um,
Christian: Yeah. Which if you're down with it, I wanna talk about it a little bit. 'cause it's, um, typically things that get glossed over in podcast and interviews is like we see, well, you know, it's like the 10 year overnight success. We look at slow tide down, we're like, oh, amazing. You must have, wow, that must have been so great.
What a smooth ride. And then we talk about it. And so what were those first few years like?
Dario: yeah, it was pretty grindy. Um, but I think like all of us were down, like we were. Kyle Wiley and I are like, so committed, like we believed in each other and we believed in a thing and we were in this ride together. So I think that like really helped, um, get through it. I think there were some like, obviously benefits, like the fact that Kyle lived in Hawaii be like, okay, there is one benefit, like we can go visit him once a year and get like a bright spot and like we, me as a Canadian, like living in Costa Mesa, it was cool.
It was just like, Hey, I'm, I'm down at the beach, it's [00:19:00] sunny. It's like, it was cool to experience that and like I feel like the hustle in LA or Orange County is just like a lot stronger. I think it'd been really challenging for me to start slow tide up here in Canada or on Vancouver Island. Like you kind of needed that, the fire, like a lot of people down there just have that fire and have like a new business startup or an idea.
And it, I mean I guess it's like not great looking back on it now, but like. People are comparing each other, you know? And like, Hey, like how big is your business? How fast can you grow this thing? And there's like a little bit more competition, a little bit more fire. Whereas I guess here now on Vancouver Island, it's more like, how often are you at the beach?
That's your like comparison.
Christian: That's how you measure.
Dario: Yeah.
Christian: Well, I mean, it's a good point because you need to go where the action is and if you're in, if you're selling. Product into the board sport world. Being in southern California is where the action is. So if you're an outsider to that, if you're doing it in from Vancouver Island, the [00:20:00] chips are stacked against you for sure.
To begin with. So it makes sense that you gotta be down there. Yeah. Um, so what were the indicators early on that's kept you in it? I mean, obviously the passion, the grind, you know, you, guys were kind of supporting each other and going for it, but I would imagine that there's times throughout the first few years where it's touch and go like, are we gonna make this?
Is this gonna happen? Like, what were those early indicators that kept you in it other than just the pure passion?
Dario: Yeah, I would say like some of the success of the collaborations, like picking the right collaboration and being like, oh, this moved a lot quicker than some of the inline products. And having those partnerships and being able to tell like an authentic story of like, Hey, here's this artist. We work with our photographer telling a video and our photo story and like the team being us, being like, oh, it's really cool.
We get to tell this story beyond the product. Um, and then introducing new products, like we kind of reinvented the changing poncho early on, um, in [00:21:00] 2017 and that like really took off. Um. And it was a higher price point item. It was a product that we're really like innovating, whereas like towels, you're innovating by like having nice quality and nice art, but you're not really like changing a lot to it.
Where like the poncho, it was a double layer head, like plat snaps, draw strings, uh, kangaroo pockets so you can change inside. And it felt like we were kind of like making people's lives better through like changing privately in public and at the beach. And I was using it a lot when I'd come up to Vancouver Island and people were like, oh, this product functions really well and just makes my like day to day better.
So that was really cool to see and it kind of opened our eyes up to be like, oh, we can do more than just towels. Um, and it's been like an evolution since then.
Christian: So when you talk about collaborations, is that about, do you mean like finding an artist, working with a specific artist and releasing like a limited collection of their art on your products?
Dario: Exactly. Exactly, and or like we collaborate with brands as well too. [00:22:00] But uh, most of the time it's picking an artist that has incredible artwork or photography, you know, working with them on a, on a flat fee or royalty basis and telling their story and using ours and their audience to promote it.
Christian: Right. And you were, so you started with wholesale, that was kind of the first, 'cause that was your, your background, everybody's experience was in that wholesale world. Kind of alluding to e-commerce, eventually taking off. At what point did you get serious about e-commerce and then, you know, how did those two, how did you bring those two things together?
'cause that's a, that's a topic of conversation that comes up a lot for brands. Typically now we start with e-commerce and then we go to wholesale. 'cause it's like, okay, I wanna expand, I wanna do those things. So it seems like that's kind of a decision process that a lot of brands, early brands need to make now is like, how do I do both effectively without cannibalizing my other customers?
So what was that like for you?
Dario: I think because we had so much experience in wholesale early on that it was like we need to go wholesale first. We understood that there's like a [00:23:00] sales rep model and you kind of can have a team of reps around the country promoting your brand. So we knew that that was an opportunity. We also knew that the value of like partnering with the right surf shops, um, I think I mentioned in one of our earlier conversations, but I had a mentor from Quicksilver, Tom Holbrooke, who is like their original sales person and he really.
Push it home to me the importance of like face-to-face with retailers and like seeing how your product looks on the floor, you know, is a huge reflection of the brand. So anytime we would travel together, he would travel anywhere at Quicksilver. He would take photos and like send company-wide emails and be like.
Here's what we look like in New Jersey, or here's like what we look like in Halifax. You would essentially travel the world like meeting retailers, shaking hands, and making sure that the brand matters. And yeah, that really rang true to us and we were really trying to instill that, um, in our business. But yeah, we knew, you know, we were starting to shop more online.
You know, Shopify had been launched and was making it easier to have a website and saw the future [00:24:00] of that. Um, at the time we didn't really know much about Facebook or meta advertising or Google and all that stuff. It's been like a crazy learning process over the years. Um, and even just like the, the logistics of shipping e-comm and wholesale, I think that's one thing that you like, overlook.
You're like, oh yeah, like, are we shipping this stuff ourselves? Are we renting a warehouse? Are we having a three pl or do we have a buddy that owns a shop? Like we first started just with like, our friends in San Diego shipped our stuff for us. That was like kind of crazy to think about and then we're like, oh, there's such thing called a three pl.
Like we didn't know any of this. This was kind of like learning as we go.
Christian: What year in the business was this?
Dario: I mean, the first year we launched, our friends were shipping in San Diego and then we got a, our first three pl, I believe like a year and a half in. So it was like, it took a while to get like a proper warehouse and to even figuring out an ERP system of like, how do you ship wholesale orders and how do you like invoice people like.
I mean the accounting [00:25:00] side of things. Like, we were like, shit, did we invoice them for that order? Like how do we like track this? Like it was, it was crazy. 'cause none of us come, came from a finance background either. We're all just like, let's make the brand cool, like rad design and like get it everywhere.
But we're like, okay, how does this backend fig, how do we work this? Um, so that's been like a huge learning exercise over the years. But it's really incredible to think, like, I've learned way more in the last 10 years running my own brand than I ever did working for another brand, um, in the corporate world.
And I think when I was at Quicksilver, the business was very siloed. It was like marketing was marketing make the brand cool. They didn't even really talk to sales at the time. It was like sales was trying to sell it. Like they, it, it was like there was no correlation, but like a lot of the sales were not trackable either, right?
Like you weren't running meta ads with a return on ad spend and tracking pixels. It was all just like. Make it cool and hope that people buy it, you know, and, and get eyeballs on it through billboards or retail [00:26:00] imagery or sponsoring a snowboard video. So it was a, it was a very different time.
Christian: . So how do you see the relationship now between wholesale and direct to consumer? Right? Like both are important and you, you have a third revenue stream, which is, um,
Dario: Custom. Custom, custom. Yeah. Yeah.
Christian: so, which is great. It's amazing to have three revenue streams. I think that's very important for a brand like, that's like a proper tripod of stability.
How do you view those two channels like, um, wholesale and direct to consumer so that they, they feed each other and don't compete with each other? Because that's something that we see a lot in the outdoors that, you know, I'll have a conversation with a retailer and unfortunately they are the customer of a brand who they're also competing with.
And like, how do you at slow tide deal with that idea of like, okay, well I'm gonna be selling towels to the same customers that my wholesale customers are gonna be selling to.
Dario: Yeah, I think it's like picking the right retailers to partner with doing an incredible job and having them like these are our A retailers that we really want to [00:27:00] work with. Making sure you have really good imagery. Like I'm still doing like in-store pks. Like I love that of like going and meeting all the staff, especially locally here on the island and when I'm traveling, like going in and.
Yeah, chatting with everyone and giving away free product and quizzing on like how our product's different and like what we do to give back regionally. But I think like how they tie together is now as our product's expanded, like a lot of the time you want to see the product in person too. So there's a lot of value in like touching and feeling that product.
Especially with some of our new product categories like the poncho and now like the all-weather parka. It's like you want to try it on and make sure it fits. And I think like the brand awareness through D two C can really help the wholesale and we've seen like when we're spending more through Google and through Meta in a region, our wholesale sales lift as well.
So it's like rising tide lifts all ships and I think there's definitely some benefit to that. Um, you know, where our wholesale is strong, generally our D two C is strong as well.
Christian: Yeah, that makes sense. There's, there's a lot, there's a lot of [00:28:00] truth to that. Sometimes it's hard to convince the retailers that that's actual facts.
Dario: Totally, totally.
Christian: Yeah. Um, so you talked about it a second ago, is that this. The corporate world being siloed, and I'm curious, like what preconceived notions did you have to unlearn?
Like you kind of, did you come up in the corporate world? What did you have to unlearn or what are you still unlearning from life in the corporate world as an entrepreneur?
Dario: It is tough. 'cause there's some things like when I go back to, you know, marketing at Quicksilver and Huff is like, you want to do things that like are not measurable sometimes that are just like, this is badass. And I think, like I, when I worked with Keith Huff niggle, the at Huff, it was really about like, is it cool?
Like, does it make you say f Yeah. You know what I mean? And that was like the, I don't know if I can swear on this, but the,
Christian: can swear,
Dario: the, the fuck it mentality was just like, is it cool? Are we all like, fuck yeah. Or we just like, uh, that's okay. And if you're saying like that and you're super hyped, it's generally [00:29:00] gonna work.
Um, so not that we are doing that a lot in the corporate. At quick, but when I was at Huff it felt like that you're just like, and that's really what I'm trying to instill back and, and continually with slow tide is like I want the team to be hyped on what we're doing and if it we're not hyped, let's not do it.
Um, so yeah, I dunno if I answered that question,
Christian: No, to Totally. I mean, I, it's funny 'cause you know, you talk to people who spend some time or a part of their career in, in a corporate setting and then come into be being their own boss in the entrepreneur thing. It's like, yeah, you gotta, there's a lot of things that you can learn that are helping you, that will help you in your entrepreneurial world.
But there's a lot of things you just gotta quickly unlearn. 'cause it's like, this does not help us here. Like, this is too slow and too bloated. Um, but on the, uh. Fuck. Yeah. What is an example of something lately, or that's just in memory at slow Tide where you're like, uh, I dunno, I'm just gonna try this, or We should try this, and then you're like, yep.
Told you it works.
Dario: I mean, [00:30:00] one of my like biggest examples or one of the funnest like campaigns we did, uh, I think it was 2021, we did it. We were approached by New Balance and did a collaboration with them. My friends were working over there, uh, new Balance numeric, and we were thinking about campaign ideas and you know, our ties to Hawaii are very strong and we had seen friends do some shark diving and we're like, Hey, wouldn't it be cool to like see the shoes outta the water and then like swimming with Tiger and Reef Sharks?
And we're like, that sounds insane. Is it like a liability? Like, has anyone done this before? And it was kind of just one of those, like, those moments and we did it. And like the imagery and the video turned out so sick. And I'm still like, looking back to that. I'm like, how do we recreate a moment like that and take a risk like that again?
And it was such a cool process from start to finish, from creating the footwear and the towels that align with it. And then like working on a campaign that felt like really creative. Pushing the boundaries. And you, you know, when you get that feedback too, it [00:31:00] feels really good afterwards you're like, whoa, that was really rad and we took a risk.
Um, but there's constantly, now it's more like, yeah, what are these product innovations or what are these things that we're like, uh, seem risky, but you know, you want to take a swing. Um, 'cause it's just fun. Like, you gotta think of a why you're doing this. You know? It's, it's definitely not just about money.
There's a lot of like personal things and how much time commitment we've done and what are we like bringing to the world.
Christian: , I have to ask then, do you have some examples or an example of Rick where you tried it and it didn't work, it just landed flat. You thought, oh man, this is gonna be great, and it's like, Nope, didn't work. I'm putting you
Dario: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I would say probably some collaborations, like we kind of have done quite a bit of music licensing in some groups. Like the Grateful Dead has been like an incredible partner for over almost 10 years. Um,
Christian: Does the Grateful Dead licensing ever not work for a brand? I mean, it seems like
Dario: I,
Christian: put that on anything.
Dario: yeah, I honestly recommend it to a lot of people who haven't done it. I'm like, have you worked with the Grateful [00:32:00] Dead? Like I think the biggest thing is they have such good artwork too. Obviously a dedicated fan base, but like even if you're not a deadhead, you know, the steely is just an amazing piece of art.
Um, so yeah, you know, after that we had so much success with The Dead. We like went with the Beatles and Pink Floyd and kind of just tried a lot of things just 'cause their names were big and a lot of them like fell flatter, even like Marley and different ones fell flatter than we would've expected. So I think like, not that those were like huge risks, but some of them can be pretty risk with like minimum guarantees and big royalties.
And I think, you know, partnerships and licensing are really like, it's a little bit different than your inline business and it's kind of a risk in doing it in general 'cause you're kind of going after a totally different audience. But, um. Yeah, I would say it wasn't that big of a failure. I can't really think of like one big bomb off
Christian: I'm glad you brought up the licensing thing for, for fear of boring the audience. And I don't care if this is the podcast that I'm doing 'cause I ask the [00:33:00] questions I wanna ask. So I've always wanted to ask these questions about licensing. 'cause I'm curious, I mean, I've been to, um, what is magic in Vegas and like, been to the whole licensing pavilion.
I'm like, oh my God, this is how licensing works. But this is just, I'm, I was a outsider. Help me understand what li how licensing works. So, you know, you've got these amazing canvases with your towels. Your products are like a perfect canvas for artwork. So you go out and find, okay, so you wanna work with whatever brand that already exist out there.
What does it work? How does it work for licensing and how do you approach those decisions?
Dario: Well, when we started it was really difficult 'cause like licensees are, are not gonna like talk to you if you're like unknown. So like when we, even when we first approached or we chatted with the Grateful Dead, they're like. Who are you guys? Like, oh, you make towels? Oh, we've never done that before. Like, I don't know, like is it going to like work?
You know, is there a minimum guarantee? But essentially, I mean, at least the licensing show is like all these brands have IP and they're trying to sell their license for [00:34:00] royalty at a minimum guarantee.
Christian: are you dealing with the entity, are you dealing with the Grateful Dead office or are you dealing with some, uh, like a, a third party who handles their licensing.
Dario: Yeah. I mean usually it's their like record label, like Warner Music, um, or like Rhino Records. But depending, a lot of the big groups have like an agency, like a licensing group that manages tons of different bands. Um, so it kind of depends. It's a bit of a case by case, but I feel like once you've got one successful license and it works, everyone notices it, so then everyone's coming to you.
So like once we did dead and it worked, everyone emailed me and I could essentially get any group. So I think that was like it, the first one's always the hardest, but then it's, it's a bit of a slippery slope, you know? 'cause there's so many, and a lot of them, like, we haven't done Disney, but it's a behemoth.
You know, like you can get, I've heard like, you get massive audits, you know, like it can cost you a lot of money. You have to have like a full team on the approval process. There's huge advances in guarantees. So like it's, [00:35:00] it fits for some brands, but I would say not all. And I would like tread lightly on who you partner with.
'cause there's definitely, um, you know, financial obligations and the approval process can take a lot longer, you know, of submitting artwork, getting approval, submitting samples. Like there's definitely more steps, um, than people anticipate. But I think once you do one successful one, it becomes a lot easier.
But the first one's always the hardest.
Christian: And I can imagine, yeah, the, the decision making process has gotta be challenging. Like, who, who do you wanna partner with and what feels right for your brand? And what will your audience resonate with? I'm curious what the, and you don't have to go into the specific details of it, I'm just curious like what the economics look like in the sense of, um, how you balance out like, well, what am I have to pay for the margin versus what am I gonna make up in the revenue?
Like, and what percentage of, so that's one question. And the other question would be, what percentage of licensing pro licensed products makes up your, like, total revenue? Like, is that a really significant part of the business?
Dario: So the first [00:36:00] question, essentially like when you're getting a license, now you, you've built out a sales forecast. So we build out a plan to be like, okay, we're gonna do this three seasons. We're gonna do two towels. Our MQs or this unit say, we think we're gonna do a thousand units per towel, or whatever the volume is.
We're gonna do two blankets. You kind of run the sales calculation and then you build in whatever royalty rate you're working with and kind of project to them to be like, this is what we think we're gonna sell. Hopefully, you know, we have a lot now with, we have a lot of sales history, but at the start you're like, you're kind of just guessing.
Um. Then they will make up a guaranteed amount that you need to pay them. So the economics kind of works like that. Um, for some categories, historically we've charged slightly more for the product if it's licensed product. Um, so say it's like five bucks more for a Grateful Dead towel than a non Grateful Dead towel.
Um, and then in terms of percentage of business, it was a lot larger. Kind of like the start of COVID, now it's probably like five to 10% of the business. It's definitely [00:37:00] gotten smaller 'cause our inline products have grown. We've got such good in inline creative and expanded our product categories. So it's in a healthy place right now, but still, still love some of those partnerships.
And I think a lot of 'em start with like, what do we like, you know, as founders first and our team, like we, who do we wanna work with? And then we also survey our customers annually. So like anyone that's bought dead will get a survey and be like, Hey, what band would you like to see next year? Um, and they'll.
Fill out a response and we'll look at that and be like, okay, here's, here's some potential options of like what our customers want next.
Christian: And all the Grateful Dead people are just like, more dead, please.
Dario: More dead. And then they asked, asked Fish is number two. So yeah,
Christian: Oh my God. You guys, you're such a stereotype fish. Um, are there any, uh, are there any like licensing dreams that you have? You're like, oh God, one day we're gonna have this. I, I,
Dario: I think it's more collaborations, not like, not
Christian: that you're like wishing for?
Dario: I mean, I think big in the footwear [00:38:00] side of things, like whether it's the, the Nikes or the Adidas of the world are always like, it's just fun to do something that's like out of your realm and it's fun to like work on products. Um, but yeah, there's definitely, we've worked with a lot of brands and I kind of like talking about, I know you mentioned the custom channel, but we produce custom products or co-branded products for a lot of different brands as well.
And a lot of those are like. Brands we've dreamed of working for and working with. So I think that's a really cool, I'd say they're not like a traditional collaboration that we're both selling through our channels, but it's still like slow tide product sold through these, you know, elevated brands that we're super stoked on.
And it's been really cool for the brand.
Christian: And is a slow tide name on those products
Dario: It is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we don't do any white labeling, like everything's co-branded, so there's always like a clamp label or, you know, obviously our care labels and things like that. Sometimes they're less marketed through social channels because we're not selling 'em through our direct to consumer.[00:39:00]
Um, but yeah, it's, it's pretty, it's a win-win for both parties.
Christian: Right, because it's, it's like sales and marketing at the same time, essentially.
Dario: Exactly. Like say, you know, us doing all the bath towels for Kith, you know that Kith customer might not know about slow tide and they're getting this. Really amazing product and you know, they're like, oh, slow tide. Okay, here we go. I'm gonna follow up with an order from us. And just like brand recognition.
And yeah, it just feels good to be able to make best in quality product and be like, they need to come, like they could do it themselves, but they're coming to us for a reason. So
Christian: That's very cool, very smart. Are you actively pursuing those or are they coming to you? I mean, much like that licensing deal was you do the first one and then they start to come to you. How do you, how do you pursue, how does it look now? Are you pursuing them?
Dario: yeah, we have a custom team that kind of operates. You can obviously fill out forms through our website and I mean, the challenge with custom, the MQs are significantly higher, so you have to be like a, a bigger brand to, to be able to work with us. But yeah, we are, we are actively pursuing more than we were historically.
Um, but there's still like quite a [00:40:00] filtration system of like who gets approved and who doesn't get approved. Um, so yeah, it's definitely. Been growing and it's a healthy part of the business that we're like excited to expand upon. And I think kind of goes along with like product line expansions of like, hey, they want a towel one year.
They might want a custom blanket the next year. Okay. What are these like follow up products and, and that live within like the slow tide ecosystem? Um, we currently don't have like a, our own brick and mortar store, but I've had some pop-up shops in Huntington Beach years ago and we definitely like see a future of having a couple brick and mortar locations and then like we just think about what is like the slow tide ecosystem or what else could live in that.
Um, that's kind of how we think about new product categories.
Christian: Okay. Um, can you share any of those potential future product categories or is it, uh, on under wrap still?
Dario: Yeah, I mean there's definitely different material updates. We just launched like a, a packable [00:41:00] picnic blanket that like folds into itself with like a waterproof DWR coating. I mean, the one that I'm most proud about is we launch an all weather parka. I think we've got some, some of the camo sitting behind me here.
But, um, the parka is a very interesting story. Um, essentially I live on Vancouver Island. It's very wet, rainy. I surf a bunch, so I was using the poncho all the time and we wanted something that was more waterproof, good for driving to the, to and from the beach in your wetsuit. Good for hopping on the SeaDoo in the boat, in the rain.
Um, and we developed, uh, the parka and we were originally gonna launch as a Kickstarter. I mean, at that point, this is five years ago, most of our business was still California and Hawaii and Canada was a really small part of the business. And we all kind of like sat together, like really like. Parkas and I was obviously the one pushing it 'cause I'm up
Christian: I need this part.
Dario: like the rest of our teams all in California and Hawaii and, and some of our advisors are like, this seems like kind of like farfetched. Why do we, why do we need this thing? [00:42:00] You know? And we kind of put it off for a while. We actually filmed the Kickstarter, but then we like looked at the product like, hey, we could make this product better.
We continued to evolve the product and continue to sample it. Didn't kill it, but like took longer to launch. And then this past holiday we launched and it was in terms of like return on ad spend and like a product that has really moved the Canadian market. It's like been incredible and it's been, yeah, I'm super proud of it.
Um, so in terms of like, yeah, fulfillment. I like, I use it every day and my friends are using it and our friends on the soccer field are using it. And you're like, oh, this isn't just like. A beautiful product, like it functions well and makes your day better. So I'm just like, if you can make that ease in terms of getting into cold water better for someone, it makes, it's really fulfilling.
Um, and I guess the interesting turning point of that too, that I'll kind of further explain is a lot of our media right now is kind of shifted more to like founder content. I mean, part of the reason I'm chatting with you is just like to try to tell our [00:43:00] story and to our audience, people want to hear the true story.
And we never really did that before we hit hid behind the veil of like. Beautiful people, beautiful static imagery. For years it was just like a beautiful beach, a beautiful towel, beautiful people. And I feel like lots of brands, like everything was just a mood board. And now people really wanna hear an authentic, true story and like, why is this product better and how will it make my life better?
And yeah, the, the ad and the product kind of reward you for that. If you create a product that actually does that, you know, the sell through and the ad performance reflect that. So it's been cool to see how well that product has performed. We sold out way too fast, which is also like really had no anticipation of that happening.
And now there's like a bit of a gap, but, um, the challenge is now is like, who else can talk about our product in authentic way other than the founders, you know? Um, so that's kind of my next project.
Christian: Yeah. It's funny you said the, uh, friends using it on the soccer field. 'cause that's exactly when I, the first time I saw it, I was like. Dang. I could, there's a lot of different [00:44:00] applications beyond cold weather surfing that, that would be super good for primarily soccer.
Dario: Totally. Yeah. I, my son plays on the travel team. We go down and I help coach one of the teams and it looks kind of like a soccer coach's jacket, but the amount of people that asked me there, I was like, it was kind of a light bulb moment. I was like, oh shit. Like I'm pushing this to surfing, but like there's way more people that are doing using it for other purposes.
Christian: Yeah. Um, hockey moms too, maybe. Um, the, I'm glad you brought up the founder, like telling the founder story. I'm curious 'cause I feel the same way we, I talk about this all the time with people is like, you know, kind of building in public and, and people wanna buy from people, right? So like, we think like, I gotta build this brand and all this stuff, but at the end it's like people are actually gonna connect to the people who are behind the brand.
So. What's your strategy in thinking? And maybe it's not even baked into a strategy, it's more of a feeling at this moment, but like what are you thinking about bringing the founder stories more towards the forefront and what does that look like? You know, I, I, I've watched the, the video that you, you made for the all-weather parka, which [00:45:00] is essentially you and an iPhone a day in the life type thing.
Like what do you, what else, what other iterations or where do you wanna take this and why do you think it's so important?
Dario: Yeah, I mean, I think it's important 'cause it's also like what I'm watching and what I'm resonating with, with other brands and other founders. Um, it's really hard though, I have to say. Like, we've been talking about it for a long time with myself and my co-founders and we all live like pretty different lives.
My partner Wiley lives up in Haiku and Maui up in the fields and, and, and Kyle's in, um, the north shore of Oahu and he is got a beautiful family. And, but it's like hard to put yourself out there, like if you're not an influencer already or like into that, it's, it's challenging. Like it's been, uh, honestly struggling for me to be like, you look at your stuff, you're like, do I, does this sound cheesy?
Like, is this, but then I kind of think back and people like reaffirm that like, as long as you're honest and like not. Bullshitting, then it's like, it's legit. Um, so yeah, I definitely think it's important. I think we'll expose more of our like, travels and day-to-day life and we'll be creating [00:46:00] product that kind of like help us through those things as we evolve the brand.
And just like really finding, um, kind of more of our ambassador network. 'cause generally most of our partnerships are through an artwork partnership and using their artwork. But like, who really continually resonates with our brand and loves our brand and how do we use our fans to kind of also tell their stories on how they use our products.
Um, another big thing with the brand is we've been looking a lot of the fact that I live on Vancouver Island and my partners live on the Hawaiian Islands, and really like the juxtaposition between like island life and like where we live and the kind of, I guess you could say like, not mission, but like morals.
Like we all have similar beliefs in terms of the founding and like. Our staff and yeah, just trying to tell stories about the islands really and island lifestyle.
Christian: I'm here for it. That it's amazing and it, yeah, it's the first time you told me that, you know, your co-founders on in Hawaii and you're in [00:47:00] CLE lit. And I'm like, dang, this is like, you're living the dream here. Like this is like a, this is ama, like just boom outta the bottle. This, there's amazing content.
You just walk out your doors. Um, so there's a lot of fertile ground for you guys to work with for sure.
Dario: Totally. But it's funny, you like, forget about it until someone outside is like, whoa, like, where you live is crazy. Like, and it's interesting, like even looking at Ariel photograph of like Tino and, and the North shore of Oahu, they, they like look the same. It's pretty wild to see. Yeah. Obviously the temperatures are quite
Christian: Yeah. The water feels a little different.
Dario: the water feels a little different, but it's, yeah, it's pretty interesting to see how similar they're from the aerial perspective.
Christian: On this idea of having to, we've kind of been swirling around it. So there's three, there's three founders who are working together, different, uh, different countries, different islands, you know, separated by, by an ocean. Um, I'd imagine that there's some things that you guys have had to work around about how you make decisions and what your relationship work looks like.
, I've had conversations recently with other couple, other [00:48:00] brands that have, that will be on the podcast here soon, that are working with like, multiple founders. And I'm always interested, like, what does this look like in the brass tacks? Look, how do you guys operate on a day-to-day basis? Like, what are your roles and responsibilities and how much do they overlap?
And then how do you make those big decisions? And like, how do you look at decision making as a group?
Dario: Yeah, so it's been an ever evolving process. Obviously we used to like be closer when we were all in Costa Mesa at the start, and then have all kind of like moved our separate ways. I mean, we're having weekly check-ins with the three of us in terms of like founder check-ins and all have our own teams that work with us.
I'm more handling the marketing and partnerships. Kyle's more on operations and sales, and Wiley is more on design. So there's definitely like sort of clear categories for what we're looking at, but there's definitely a lot of overlap. Um, we trust each other. We all are pretty different in how we work. Um, like I would say Kyle and Wiley are much more like slow perfectionist, but to a good, to a good [00:49:00] extent.
It's like you want the product to be perfect and I'm much more like. Problem solution, let's go. Let's have like, I think that's like it works well together, um, to have that balance. But yeah, I mean there's definitely been challenges over the years in terms of communication. Like we've worked with executive coaches to try to like help our working relationships.
I think it always gets harder when we don't see each other in person for a long span. And it just, like, our communication is all via Zoom or Slack. And I think Slack is an interesting one of like, messages can get pretty short and get like misunderstood, um, depending on how people write them. And I'm definitely pretty guilty of that in just terms of my personality and how I write emails of just like, okay, get pretty straight to the point.
And I think, yeah, I'm learning to be a little bit more like sensitive with how those things are sent. And I think everyone is kind of like a learning process in this digital age, but. I think what really keeps us together is we really have the same values and that's what we've kind of like [00:50:00] learned through coaching.
We don't have coaches anymore, but we did for a year to try to like work through a couple things. And yeah, just the fact that we like all love to surf, we all really enjoy each other's company in the surf. We all like, love our families have a pretty like relaxed, laid back lifestyle. Like we would all dream of similar things in the future of whether, like when we first started, our dream was to be like, okay, let's spend some time in the south of France in the fall and then, you know, surf Hager and then go to Hawaii in the winter and come to Canada in the summer and live in the it's, and it's like a lot of things are coming to fruition now.
Like it's interesting how it's taken a long time, but I think having these values and these beliefs and, and the fact that I trust them so much that like none of us are gonna give up. Like there's failure is not an option. Like that's like really like. Feels good to be like they, I have their back and they have mine.
So, um, I dunno if I'm rambling off, but it's like, yeah, it's, it's cha it's challenging but it's very rewarding and it's, [00:51:00] especially when you get to like, do what you love around those people and get like feedback. Um, I guess one recent example, we generally meet in Hawaii every December around Kyle's place and we recently partnered with Florence John, John Florence's, uh, company around the Florence Pipe Pro.
And we brought a bunch of like blank white indigo towels, uh, out front of the shop and had free towels or donation-based towels for all the community and did like indigo dying. And all of us were together with our families, our kids were involved, our staff was out there and we're all like indigo dying towels for the community.
And it just like, felt so good to work together as a team, like, and get your hands dirty and be able to like give back. And we were donating to the North Shore Lifeguards Association and like. Yeah, just those give back moments are so important. And we ask our staff every year at the end of the year, like, okay, what was the highlight of the year?
And it's always our give back moments. Like that's, that's always what's most important to them. Um, and it's, [00:52:00] yeah, it's just cool to like hear that and feel that in person. And I think the, the digital age like removes a lot of that. So the importance of like in-person events and connection and founder relationships, if you don't see them in person, it's gonna be hard to have a great relationship over the long term.
Christian: Right. And so the three founders are, are in their separate, uh, island paradises, for lack of a better term, and you have a, you still have a headquarters that are in Southern California. So you're, you're, uh, the core staff is still actually kind of in person meeting together on a regular basis. Is that right?
Dario: Yeah, but when you say regular, like once a week, um, we're pretty like lax on, yeah, yeah. Regular enough. We're pretty lax on like in, in home versus remote. And I think obviously 'cause we're remote, um, when we come into the office we generally like have the team come in a bit more often, we'll do something fun and go to the beach and go to lunch and kind of like do more kind of like bonding pieces.
But yeah, I think it's still important to have like a place for our team to connect. 'cause it kind of goes back similar to the founders, if they're not seeing each other in person, those slack messages [00:53:00] can like, change feelings. So if they like each other, obviously they're gonna work better together as a team and want us to strive and succeed as a team.
So, um, that's pretty much why we've kept that office.
Christian: Okay. Yeah, that was my next question is why keep an office if three founders aren't even there?
Dario: Yeah, that's, I mean, we still have a pretty strong connection to Costa Mesa, a lot of like friends and family in that zone. Um, having our staff in that area. Samples need to be sent somewhere. There's definitely like things that like have to happen. Honestly, like behind me, I have a lot of samples back here.
It's just like for photo shoots and all that kind of stuff, you need, you need a base somewhere. And I think logistically, you know, the North Shore of Oahu and Vancouver Island are pretty remote places.
Christian: Yep, yep. Good choice. , I'm curious what the arc of your entrepreneurial journey is. Like, we've touched on it a little bit, but if you could kind of give, you know, you've been at it for over 10, over 10 years, right? No way more than 10 years. 'cause you, when did you start?
Dario: Oh, for slow tide. Yeah. I [00:54:00] mean, we officially launched in 2015, but the brand, I would say inception was like 2014, early 2014. Yeah. So.
Christian: more than a decade you've been at this and you've, and we've kind of touched on this like arc that you've been on. What are the milestones? Like, what would, how would you describe that arc of like where you started to where you are today? Leading to the question is like. What have, what have you learned over the last decade in this experience that you're taking with you into the next 10 years?
Dario: I mean, I, I would say that like I've learned to be more confident in our abilities as a team. I think you, like when you're going through struggles, you look to outside advice and advisors so much and like kind of lose confidence in yourself. Even when we go back to the early days of us not understanding like what a three PL is and what finances and how to collect on payments and three pls, like if you're driven of enough, you figure it [00:55:00] out.
And it's even easier now, like honestly with AI and like what's happening. It's like there's. You can figure things out. And I think if you have that persistence and like that never give up attitude, you can figure it all out. And yes, it's good to have a sounding board, but I think having like more confidence in yourself.
Um, we have over the years like hired some senior sales, different, different leaders at the time and like, oh, we're gonna hire this guy and, you know, pay an outlandish salary and like, it's gonna change everything for
Christian: your problems.
Dario: And that doesn't happen. And I've never seen that happen even in the corporate world, you know, when they bring in a new CEO and it's gonna solve everything, it's like, it rarely works.
A lot of it is at the root of figuring out. Okay. And I think being, I guess, what's the term founder mode of just like understanding how the business works and never being like too big for anything. Like even just like going back to like doing a retailer pk, like, it's so important to get your hands dirty and understand like the little jobs.[00:56:00]
But the big jobs as well. So I think like the biggest like arc and learning point is just like encouraging founders to have more confidence in themselves and their own abilities to like, they'll be able to figure it out. You don't necessarily need to hire outside help, you know, just grind and get, get a little dirty and, um, yeah, that's kind of what I like look at, especially when I'm thinking about our, like next year's growth targets.
I'm like, we got this, we've gotten this far. Like we can, we can make it happen and continue the growth. Um, yeah, I dunno if that's like a crazy tidbit of advice, but it, it feels like it rings true to me right now in terms of just like being confident and believing in yourself.
Christian: . And on that idea of growth, like how do you, let's, you know, maintain this idea of looking into the future for the next decade. How do you look at growth versus, for lack of a better word, like sustaining? You know, there's, there's a bunch of different ways you can approach your business. You can [00:57:00] hyper growth, we need to be doing this every single year, or we're, or we're gonna be losing market share, versus, hey, we're happy with, let's just do this, this, this, and this.
And it's still like, how are you guys looking at taking slow tide in the future? Is it like slow and steady wins or is like, okay, now we've got a bunch of wind in our sales, let's crank.
Dario: Yeah, I mean I think we're putting, like we want to grow, but we're putting less pressure on ourselves. 'cause I think when we put a ton of pressure on ourselves, that's when we burnt out and that's when our like founder relationships really were hurting when it was like we have to grow. And that's when we brought in the outside executives that were putting in a lot of pressure for this like unnatural growth.
I mean, throughout COVID we had an extreme amount of D two C growth like many brands did. And was that, you know, partially our doing, but it was just like the ecosystem of how. Things were shifting to DD two C, but it was an interesting time 'cause most of our staff was furloughed. Like we were, kind of, the three of us were checking in every day and be like, okay, what can we do today now to like, make this thing work?
Um, and the, the growth was like pretty hockey stick [00:58:00] growth, but now we're really looking at more sustainable growth. Um, we're definitely working hard, but I think like us as founders, like we definitely value our like, work life balance and like be spending time with our families and like, why are we doing this?
Making sure we're having like a good give back component to what we're doing, um, and building products that we actually want to use. But, um, yeah, definitely like, I would say more slow and steady growth and not trying to like make some Yeah. Artificial growth.
Christian: Yeah. Where do you want to be in the future as a, as a founder for you personally, but also as a brand? Like wh where do you want to be? Let's pick whatever timeline in the future you want to be? Three years, five years, 10 years. What do you pick?
Dario: I mean, I, I'd want this to be a global brand to be pretty much, you know, present in all countries around the world. I'd like to have brick and mortar locations and really have like a slow tide ecosystem in terms of like product offering. [00:59:00] Um, and continue to give back and, and try to like really figure out, um, our give back strategy.
I mean, currently we work with a lot of different nonprofits regionally. Um, and I think it's really helpful, but I think like sometime the messaging can be like, oh, you're working with them, them, them, them, and there's so many different ways to give back. Um, so definitely wanna like hone in on that. Um, but yeah, I think just trying to like, make sure our team is happy.
Make sure we're happy and, um, yeah, revenue is not the most important thing.
Christian: Yeah. Cool. And you've brought it up multiple times and I, I'm curious, I wanted to end with it is like, what does that give back? What does that look like right now? Um, for the give back strategy and Yeah. What drives that?
Dario: Yeah, so our give back strategy now, I mean a lot of it has kind of like come down to, or I mean last year came down to like some things that happened within our regions, like the massive LA fires that happened, like a lot of our staff and. Artists we work with are based in the LA region. So last [01:00:00] year, yeah, we partnered with, um, 12 different artists and donated a hundred percent of the proceeds to limited edition towels, um, and raised over 30,000 US dollars, um, to, to give back to LA Fires.
But we work with a company called Beam Impact, where we give back 1% of our sales, um, through our D two C channel. And you can actually select regionally. So if you're on our Canada website, you can select regional Canadian charities like Surf Rider Canada, uh, Redfish Restoration, the hat that I'm wearing right now.
Um, and then in Hawaii, like North Shore Lifeguards Association, uh, surf Rider and Un Mar de Calor, and a couple different, uh, nonprofits. So continuing those partnerships. But I always love to create custom products and donate all the proceeds 'cause it brings awareness to the organization as well. And it's kind of like a, a collaborative storytelling moment, um, for both brands.
And it's. The best way to raise like funds quickly. So want to continue to do that, um, [01:01:00] and really kind of get involved on, in person, uh, with these organizations that we work with. So, um, yeah, it's exciting.
Christian: Very cool question I always end with is how do you define success for yourself?
Dario: Yeah, so success for myself and I, I think I could probably echo this with some of my co-founders as well, is, is really that balance between fulfillment from work, but then fulfillment through your family and balance. So I, I keep saying the word balance, but I want to be able to surf every morning. I want to be able to spend time with my family and go to soccer practice and I want my team to be able to ha to be happy and be able to do the same thing.
Um, so I think that's like really important in the company that we're building and to be able to like share those wins with your team, um, is super important. And yeah. Um. Myself and my co-founders are actually gonna Fiji next week. So that's our, that's our 10 year, uh, win. So I'm, uh, I think we're on the right track.
Christian: Amazing. Good for you. Well, I wish you more of that [01:02:00] success. It's, uh, it's, that's a beautiful definition and, um, you can tell that it's, it's coming through in how you run your business and also how you run your life. So congrats on that.
Dario: Cool. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Christian: Yeah. Where can people go learn more about slow tide? Where should they follow you and, and learn more about what's going on there?
Dario: Yeah, so through our social channels, uh, slow tide and then our websites slow tide.co. So yeah, check them out. Or your, uh, nearest retail we sell in mainly, uh, surf specialty. And, um, yeah, check us out.
Christian: Cool. Thanks Dario, man. I really appreciate it.
Dario: Thank you.