ASR Digital LineUp - (Page 12) Workspace: Manufacturer Matuse Ichiban for Wetsuits “Let them fight the cost battle,” said Matuse founder and president John Campbell,“we’re going to concentrate on quality.” Over the past decade, wetsuit manufacturers have been patting themselves on the back for increasingly flexible materials and new seam technologies. Yet wetsuits are the most intimate product a surfer can buy. And in any frosty lineup, of all of the necessary equipment, surfers are most often underwhelmed by the very advances wetsuit manufacturers are so proud of. Why can’t suits be thinner—and even warmer? Why can’t suits last longer than a season or two? Are suit patterns designed for performance or cost-effectiveness? And in 2008, why are manufacturers still relying so heavily on petroleum-based neoprene? These are the questions surfers John Campbell and Matt Larson began asking themselves in 2005. The answers inspired a wager that a premium wetsuit market remained untapped. And while most young brands breaking into the industry rely on T-shirts as a staple, Campbell and Larson shot straight for the most complex product in a Team Matuse: Matt Larson, John Campbell, Aaron Kim and David Sargent (from left to right). Matt Larson’s early design sketches.
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