The Weekly - June 9, 2020 - 9

The Pulse
# W E A R E C O M M U N I T Y

To watch
the full interview
with Cory
Higgins, click on
this photo.

Lift All Boats

When Hurricane Sandy devastated the Jersey Shore in 2012, Jetty learned how to do good in times of
crisis. Owner Cory Higgins tells how the brand is sharing that experience now. By Bevin Wallace
Name: Cory Higgins
Company: Jetty
Title: Owner
Founded: 2003
Location: Little Egg Harbor,

turing was allowed to stay
open, we said, 'OK, well, we
can still print T-shirts,'" Higgins says. "And that's what
we did."

New Jersey
The Downlow: In 2003, Hig-

gins and a few high school
friends each pitched in
$200 to start surf apparel
brand Jetty. Then, in the
wake of Hurricane Sandy,
the company founded
the nonprofit Jetty Rock
Foundation and became
a certifi ed B-Corp. Now
Jetty is stepping up to help
ailing retailers during the
pandemic by selling merchandise online through its
Rising Tides Initiative and
donating the proceeds to
its retail partners. "As soon
as the state of New Jersey
announced that manufac-

Doing good is good business.
After Sandy, we learned you
can't help everyone. Whether

it's a hurricane, a pandemic,
a tornado, whatever-there
are going to be thousands
of people affected, and it's
literally impossible for you to
do it all. So you should focus
on your group, your circle,
your tribe. If you help them,
you're going to empower
them to be able to help other
people, and you're going to
create a ripple effect that is,
in turn, going to help that
many more people.

Well, if you're a brand that does
screen print in your facility and
you have that capability, then

create a shirt and help raise
some money for some people.
If you're a brand that has a vinyl cutter and you can cut out
stickers for pennies, cut out
stickers and start selling them
to raise money. Everyone's
just got to be creative.
The millennial generation and the
younger generations coming up,

they're spending their dollars
voting for companies they believe in that are doing something to effect positive change.
It took 18 years for us to get to
where we are. We owe a huge

amount of that to the retailers.
I can say for sure that good is
going to come out of all of this.

We didn't think when Hurricane Sandy destroyed all
of our businesses and homes
that was going to be positive,
and the positivity and the
community that came out of
that were incredible.
I know that we're going to
come out of this stronger, and

that's why, from the very beginning, we've been preaching that we're in this together,
and I know it's kind of cliché,
but it's really true.
It's okay to go outside and do
stuff. You can still go fishing

with a buddy. I went kayak
fishing the other day with
a couple of friends. We just
cruised across this river at our
distances, and we fished at our
distances, and we cheersed a
beer at a distance.

OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2020 / THE WEEKLY 9

https://youtu.be/3sUbhs6wiy0 https://jettylife.com/

The Weekly - June 9, 2020

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