these australian girls took my heart by storm. be it their feminine and graceful designs of surf hardware or their embracement of pros, weekend warriors, stylish maestros and foamie fanatics, they make us gurfers feel special in the line up. I am sending love and a high five once around the world to she project.
first things first, who is she project?
she project was conceived by myself and co-owner, Sarah, with the idea of producing, fun and fashionable yet performance driven surf hardware for the women's market, and also being discontent with the options for female surfers from the major surf hardware brands. I grew up on the Gold Coast and was a competitive surfer for a few years, I also spent time working for a global surfboard manufacturer selling surfboards and liaising with key retail accounts. it was this very hands on connection with surf hardware that I started to realise an evident gap in the market and knew myself and other girls would like to be able to show style and fashion in the water just as much as out. in the past, surf hardware has been very male driven and as a result the styles available are very masculine, we wanted to change that as well as get women thinking about their equipment to enhance their experience in the surf.
how was it to start your own business?
when She Project was still just an idea over coffee, we knew it would be hard work, but we also knew there was a demand for funky surf products that we would prefer to use. my background is in marketing and graphic design, and my business partner has a sales and marketing background, so we work well together! I could have never expected how many challenges there would be along the way though. we knew we wanted She Project to be a business but also a platform for female surfers, a resource for blogs and info and a way for us to give back to the community around us through empowering others. the rest was not so glamourous, a lot of coffee and not a lot of sleep!
is there an idea she project is living by?
SHE is also an acronym for Surf, Humanitarian, Empowerment. we use these three pillars to influence any of our business decisions and initiatives. we are passionate about empowering women through surfing so any chance we get to help out charities or foundations we are all for it. we recently donated several sets of fins to an orphanage in Mexico called Mision Mexico, and have a great collaboration in the works there. surfing has given us friendships, connections and a place to connect with nature and forget about the troubles of the world, so if we can help give this experience to other people then we have done our job.
you also run the happy sea creatures project. please tell us more about it.
happy sea creatures is a simple concept, we wanted to limit any kind of materials that cause harm to our ocean... including all the nasty plastic wrap you typically see tailpads wrapped in. it seems crazy to make something that's meant to share the fun and happiness we get out of surfing and combine that with anything that could be negative for that environment. hence the happy sea creatures!
talking about sea creatures, what's your favourite one?
don't make me pick, argh all of them! I think I will always be in awe of dolphins, they are such intelligent creatures with such highly evolved communication.
if we would travel to Australia carrying our longboard under the arm what would be the most funny wave to ride?
well, I am a little biased towards my home break so I would have to say Greenmount which is part of the stretch of right-handers that form the "superbank" from Snapper Rocks to Kirra. Greenmount is generally a little gentler, less-crowded and perfect for a longboard. other than that you really can't beat the beautiful right hand point breaks of Noosa or Byron Bay. both beaches are apart of National Parks and the natural scenery is breaktaking. if you are lucky you can spot koalas on the walk around Noosa headland.
where do we get your pretty things?
at the moment in
our online store, we have made sure to make freight overseas as cheap as possible for our non-Australian customers. we are experiencing organic growth and starting to get orders for surf shops. we would love to get our products over your side of the world!
Read more...
_400.jpg)
