DISTINCTIVE THONG GETS FOOT IN DOOR AT CITY BEACH
THE Gold Coast entrepreneur behind Willi Footwear and its distinctive boomerang-shaped plugs has scored a major coup – gaining a foothold in trendy surfwear chain City Beach.
Willi Footwear launched on crowd-funding website Indiegogo in 2014 – cracking its initial target to raise $30,000 in under two weeks.
The company was borne out of managing director Brad Munro’s experience of an embarrassing thong “blowout” which saw him denied entry to a European nightclub.
He invented a thong with boomerang-shaped plugs, which minimise the chances of a plug pulling through.
Mr Munro said it had taken a long time to break into City Beach, which has more than 60 stores across Australia.
“It took years to get in. “They sell a lot of thongs already including the Havaianas range.
“For us to set ourselves apart we need a unique product. They saw something there, they thought it was a good idea and they have decided to give us a go.”
Mr Munro said City Beach, which stocks his thongs at 20 of its stores in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory, wanted to see his company established before taking a punt on his brand.
“It is definitely going to increase our exposure. Someone like City Beach they are a big supplier and distributer. They have the most surfwear stores, they are well known.”
The addition of City Beach gives him 60 stockists across the country, including 40 independent stores.
It comes as Willi Footwear (which stands for Why Ignore Life? Live It!) rebrands as Boomerangz Footwear – a move designed to align the company with its marketing in the US.
Willi expanded into North America earlier this year – setting up a business called Boomerangz US LLC – and selling through boomerangzflipflops.com.
Boomerangz products are also sold on Amazon.
Mr Munro said he had engaged a sales agent in Florida to get his products into retail stores for the next US summer. He said the Boomerangz name was chosen as a way to identify the brand with Australian surf culture.
Willi Footwear saw 100 per cent revenue growth between FY16 and last financial year.