Summer Gleaning

The summer of 2016 was marked by a long flat spell on New York City’s shores. During that wave-less period, we took regular trips to Coney Island, to swim the jetties and cool off from the city heat.

New York City was melting away under the long and humid days.

It was on one of those hot afternoons, while a stiff southwestern wind was blowing sand and debris everywhere, that I noticed the dozens of broken beach umbrellas in the trash bins. I couldn’t help but think about their fate and glory. The short-lived existence of an object that was bought and trashed, both on the same day.

It gave us an idea.

After that day, we went back as often as possible, to collect the colorful umbrellas from the trash, after they had been swiped by the relentless sea breeze. During that summer, hundreds of beach umbrellas were collected and brought back to the studio for laundry and cutting.

A long story short, besides being long and very hot, that summer was extremely productive. We were able to create these fun-looking pouches to accompany your trunk purchase. And, we love to think that we left the beach a little bit cleaner.

I guess that since then, we established our ritual of gleaning and cleaning our local beaches. Adding it to one more in the vast list of New York City’s summer rituals.

The pouches are now available for purchase in our web store, and 100% of the proceeds go to the Surfrider Foundation.

They are great to tag along with, and will for sure become your new essential at the bottom of your everyday bag.

Enjoy the beach, …and, keep on surfing!