Boys ride wave of brand success
Youngsters create business, design surf-inspired T-shirt logo
Apair of entrepreneurial brothers from Ngunguru have created their own surf brand, Liquid Surf Co, with the help of local businesses. Surf labels are a popular staple for some beach-hopping Northlanders, and brothers Quinn and Dusty Borlase have added their brand to the list.
The idea came after the pair made band T-shirts for their busking at Whangārei markets. Their friend Lennox Lindsay thought it would be a “cool” idea to create some T-shirts, according to the brothers.
Proud mum Casey Munson said the entire project was “self-driven”.
“They had a play date and were just kind of mucking around with it, and then they kind of went oh, actually we do want to make T-shirts out of these,” she said.
“In the first lot we were just making T-shirts for the busking,” Dusty said. “We just thought it was cool.”
The brand name — Liquid Surf Co — is an acronym of Quinn, Dusty and Lennox’s names. The brothers then put together a design and surprised Lennox in time for Christmas.
The brothers also organised a membership with Te Kowhai Print Trust in Whangārei, where they booked dates for screen printing and figured out the hourly cost of equipment.
The design of the T-shirts came out of Dusty and Quinn’s love for surfing. They played around with some designs, and finally settled on the one featured.
Tūtūkākā Surf Shop now stocks the T-shirts, after the boys approached the shop with a letter introducing themselves and their brand.
What started out as a fun idea has turned into a full-blown business, with Monday — the first official day of sales — selling six T-shirts.
Quinn, 13, and Dusty, 11, raised the money for their brand through their busking, and budgeted for quality T-shirts.
The cost and time taken to create them was weighed up in order to decide whether it was a worthwhile cause to pursue, and has taken off.
“If this lot goes good, we’ll probably do another run,” Quinn said. “The first one is kind of an experiment.”
The pair say “hopefully” they will continue their brand into the future.
Their Instagram page, run by their parents, can be found under Liquid Surf Co.
In the first lot we were just making T-shirts for the busking, we just thought it was cool. Dusty
If this lot goes good, we’ll probably do another run. The first one is kind of an experiment. Quinn