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Shawn Stussy continues to buck surfwear trends, and now the rest of the industry is beginning to follow his lead.

Stussy, 35, began his surfwear manufacturing operation in a garage nine years ago, and last year his sales grew to $9 million. His firm, Stussy, Inc., based in Irvine, Calf., continues to pursue the boutique customer.

“I’ve been on a constant quest for uniqueness,” he said of his design. And now others are taking notice. Several buyers interviewed recently at the Action Sports Retailer Show in Atlantic City stated they were becoming cognizant of “Stussy imita-tors.” They said Stussy is generating broader interest in activewear circles at a time when the active market is producing lines abounding in seas of neon. But Stussy is different, they emphasize.

“Stussy is definitely out there doing his own thing,” said Harley Zinker, a buyer for SoHo Skate-boards, etc., in Manhattan.

In a market inundated with washed-down neons and neon accents, Stussy’s color palette focuses on earth tones, as well as black, gray, white and red. He puts minimal designs on his apparel, such as crowns and jaquard collars with a Stussy “S” motif. There are also elaborate patterns on T-shirts and long-sleeve shirts. Perhaps most novel are his urban-inspired T-shirts, featuring street-wise slogans such as “No follow no fashion monkey, ‘dis ain’t no puppy dog show!” and “Clothes for the bro’s, not the pro’s.”

“It’s like an urban, bohemian, prep look gone awry; sort of a beatnick prep,” explained Stussy. “Yeah, that’s it. Beatnick prep.”

Not exactly a crystallized design philosophy, but that’s the way Stussy wants to keep things.

“Hey, I’m just makin’ clothes the way I like,” he said. “Let the buyers interpret the look as they wish. I don’t want to be pigeonholed.”

Writer: Jeff Black

Scans from DNR October 16th 1989.