I have been looking for more representation in women's surfing for a while now - occasionally we get thrown a crumb of a nice story about Black or Muslim surfers, and I was excited to see more women of color in the last women's event I watched, though it's now been so long that I don't remember which event it was. Meanwhile, finally, there is a Black model on the Roxy website!! In the first page of results! I wish I was more excited about this, but it also coincides with this strange decision on someone's part at Roxy to come out with the most boring and ugly collection variation that I've seen in a long time. Roxy is really the only brand that I look for to throw money in their direction, and it's been a bummer to see them go from the colorful, fun collections of the 2010s to the muted, drab, boring collections they've put out as of late. Someone in design is asleep at the wheel. I have frequent longings for a pair of Roxy slip-ons I owned that were white with a sublimated palm tree print, and I wore them until there were holes in the toes. And even then I tried to embroider the holes closed just so I could keep wearing them. Unfortunately, every shoe must have its day, and so I bought a new pair of Roxy slides that I wore a little less often but that still lasted me three years - until I had worn a hole in the sole. I looked for a replacement, but everything at the site was either out of stock in my size or had jute on the bottom, and were mostly these slip-on shoes with laces that are basically fake sneakers. (So now I have Toms. That's cause I was too cheap to buy fancy Vans. Anyway.)
I also don't know what they are doing in general, as once I got a marketing email from them with a backpack or something in the header image of the email, and I scoured the site for it and finally got someone on chat to talk to me about it, and it was not on the site because it was out of stock. So they prominently featured an out of stock, unlisted item in their sales email. I always want to ask them if they are ok. Are they hydrating? Did they skip lunch? Mainly what I think about in terms of Roxy is that they seem to put out collections in line with the standards of fast fashion - I'm not 100% up on this, because I think I unsubscribed from their emails - and we know fast fashion is so bad for our environment. It would seem that because Roxy is a surf brand, they might make more of a commitment to the environment as well as to fair labor practices, but it ain't necessarily so. Unfortunately, companies have to do more than just recycle plastic into boardshorts or rashguards - there are other standards to abide by to be truly sustainable, and there's no evidence that Roxy or Quiksilver has been doing their part to put those practices in place. Do better, Roxy! I say that with love. Because once upon a time you were slightly cooler. Here's a list of actually sustainable surf brands, which probably no one reading this cares about! But I care! I know you don't care too much, but...I still care. Baby! If u don't like it u can get ur own blog. I wish you would! In Kentucky, I'm Royal Montgomery. No swell out here, as you can see. Back to you, Strider!
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AuthorArtist, essayist, divinity school dropout. Here for a good time, not for a long time. Archives
February 2024
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