Roxy History

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The Company Description of Its Time

When Quiksilver decided to start a women's line in 1990, it was a gutsy move. The historical record opens with that judgement and explains it plainly: the surf market has always been fickle, and female surfers, despite their achievements in and out of the water, had not drummed up nearly the notoriety nor the community that men had long enjoyed. The company saw the untapped women's surf market as a huge opportunity, and, the filing says, they were right. Like all things Quiksilver, Roxy was born in the water: initially a swimwear line, it debuted in late summer 1990 to immediate success. By the next year a Roxy sportswear line was introduced and prospered, with sales of over $1 million; 1992 saw continued expansion with a new denim line and key snowwear pieces. This page is kept strictly to that product and company record - lines, dates, athletes and events - as a buying and research guide to the brand.

The Heart Crest, the Women's Boardshort and Lisa Andersen

By 1993 Roxy was, in the filing's phrase, on a serious roll. The ever-popular Roxy logo was born that year, a heart-shaped crest adapted from the recognizable Quiksilver logo. Then, one afternoon in Hawaii, as legend has it, the Roxy crew was sitting on a beach watching the surf when they came up with the idea of the women's board short - a product offering fit and flexibility while still managing to be feminine. The women's boardshort was an innovation that forever changed the women's surf market, the historical record states, and it perfectly expressed the brand's founding description in Quiksilver's 1990 annual report: Fun, Bold, Athletic, Daring and Classy. The boardshort became a huge trend, and Roxy, and women's surfing along with it, was suddenly the next big thing.

1994 marks another major milestone: Lisa Andersen, then the reigning ASP Female World Champion, became the first member of the Roxy team. Andersen went on to win three more world titles and crossover mass-market fame, is considered by many the most influential surfer in the history of women's surfing, and under her guidance the team grew into what the filing calls the most respected and accomplished pro team in women's surfing, with members including Megan Abubo, Chelsea Georgeson, Veronica Kay, Kassia Meador, Carissa Moore and Sofia Mulanovich as named in the historical record. A Roxy-branded professional event followed naturally: the first Quiksilver/Roxy Women's Pro took place in winter 1995 on Sunset Beach, Oahu's North Shore, leading to the Roxy Pro Hawaii, Roxy Pro Fiji, Roxy Pro Gold Coast and Roxy Jam UK events, and the filing's claim that Roxy is the largest corporate sponsor of women's surfing worldwide.

From Swimwear to a $400 Million Lifestyle Brand

As Roxy's popularity grew, so did its product line, and the historical record's dated expansion list is kept here in order. Accessories and eyewear joined in 1995; footwear, watches and Roxy Girl, a line for girls aged 7-16, emerged in 1996, the year Roxy made its New York Fashion Week debut and was nominated for the California Rising Star Award for design innovation. A snow line arrived in 1997 alongside Teenie Wahine, the children's line; 1999 added jewelry, bags, backpacks, travel accessories, skate gear and Roxy Room bedding, lamps and posters. A full line of snowboards was introduced in 2003 in partnership with Mervin Manufacturing, a toddlers' line reached stores in spring 2005, and the filing closes its expansion record with a fragrance line and Roxy Ski, produced with Rossignol's Dynastar brand - a catalogue that took the brand well beyond the beach while keeping surf and snow as its twin anchors.

Retail and media carried the same growth. The first freestanding Roxy store opened in Hawaii in 1997, another followed in 2000 at Southern California's South Coast Plaza, and the chain grew worldwide. The MTV collaboration Surf Girls debuted in 2003, and the Roxy Chicken Jam all-girls pro snowboarding events debuted in 2004 in Innsbruck and Park City. The historical record's closing measure is quoted exactly as recorded: Roxy is now a $400 million lifestyle brand, offering products for every aspect of the active girl's life, summed up in its own line - Daring, confident, naturally beautiful, fun, alive: Roxy. That $400 million figure and the mid-2000s team and product lists belong to the filing's period and should be quoted with it, not as a current snapshot.

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