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  Reef Spring '15

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  Reef Spring '15

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  Reef Spring '15

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  Reef Spring '15

Reef launched a new footwear technology called Swellular that it plans to utilize to help expand the brand’s closed-toed footwear offering, and to support the continued growth of its sandal program as well.

The brand is also putting more emphasis on boardshorts for 2015. We spoke with Reef VP of Marketing Mike Matey to find out more about the new technology, the new boardshort line, and what the new products mean for Reef’s overall business.

Tell us a little about Reef’s Swellular Technology and why it’s so important to the brand.

Mike Matey: We’ve been conducting a series of consumer insights studies, and one of the key findings from those efforts pointed toward a strong consumer need and desire for innovation. The product team had a clear mission to create a new technology that would be brand unifying, dual gender, and solve the consumers’ desire for innovation, and more specifically, to bring an element of versatility to our product range.

Swellular Technology is a collection of men’s and women’s sandals and shoes for the surf travel lifestyle that you can wear from day to night, from the beach to around town.

The technology is built around three layers of material: a super-soft, contoured foam deck for instant comfort, a medium-density foam midsole for long-lasting support, and a high-density rubber outsole for traction, protection and durability.

Is closed-toed footwear a bigger part of sales these days or becoming a bigger part overall?

Mike Matey: We are really encouraged by our double-digit growth in closed-toe footwear over the past couple of years and we see that business as a major growth opportunity for the brand.

The consumer insights study we conducted also indicated that the consumer is wanting and open to the category from Reef, and certainly the sales trends confirm that. Swellular Technology is a big indication of our commitment to closed-toe shoes and sandals as a whole, with both categories complimenting each other.

Reef has made some key hires in product design, especially in closed-toe footwear, and because of that focus and expertise we are seeing styles like the Deckhand 2, Spiniker Mid and the Reef Summer become mainstays on ActionWatch.

For Fall 2014, the Reef Ridge is a new style that sold in extremely well, and we are just starting to hear about strong sell-through at retail, as well as online. The Reef Ridge and Outhaul are part of a focused closed-toe footwear campaign for fall that the consumer will see in print, retail and the digital space.

What about boardshorts?

Mike Matey: Boardshorts are the focus to grow our apparel business, so we’re building a franchise called Reef Surfaris that is centered on comfort and style. Again, our consumer insights guide us, and the consumer already gives Reef a ton of credit for being a comfort-driven brand, so we are taking the equity of that message and applying it to the Surfaris message.

It’s about great boardshorts for traveling to exotic places, finding great waves, and having fun rather than space age high-performance technology invented on the moon to help you win the World Championship Tour.

Reef Surfaris have the right amount of technology, including four-way stretch, quick dry, lightweight slick elastane fly, moisture wicking, etc.. We believe that combined with our exotic styling will lead to the boardshorts doing really well in 2015 and beyond. 

What’s the marketing strategy for Sufaris and Swellular? Anything new?

Mike Matey: The marketing strategy is all about hyper focus on Swellular Technology and Surfaris. Those are the only two product stories we are going to tell for Spring 2015, and we are putting all our marketing resources behind them.  It’s better to drop two giant bombs and make a big impact that drives your brand at large rather than spreading your marketing energy across too many product stories that become dilutive in the end.

Tactically, we plan to harness the power of every Reef ambassador to push Swellular Technology, as opposed to other seasons where we had ambassadors pushing various products. We just re-signed Mick Fanning, and along with Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, and Taylor Knox and on the women’s side, Tia Blanco, Paige Maddison and Alana Blanchard, the entire team is behind Swellular. Our head-to-toe ambassadors will push Surfaris as well, lead by Luke Davis, Nick Rosza, Cyrus Sutton, Mikala Jones, Billy Kemper and our newest head-to-toe ambassador from Australia, Mitch Crews.

Digital/Social is our main channel of communication to engage our audience and we have some amazing content from our trip to Barbados to feed those channels. We connect it all at the in-store level with an emphasis on branding and visual merchandising to help the product stand apart.