Read up on Cica, she belongs to the Brazilian National team and if you were doing fantasy football but with water polo, you’d want her on your team. Here’s her Wiki page which in our opinion, doesn’t quite tell enough.
Read up on Cica, she belongs to the Brazilian National team and if you were doing fantasy football but with water polo, you’d want her on your team. Here’s her Wiki page which in our opinion, doesn’t quite tell enough.
Southtown love. Rest in peace
Tanya jumped in with her water proof housing for her camera and grabbed some video when she was at UCLA. Click on the links below to check out our professional filming!!!! Haha!!
Check out their swimwear here! They have always helped our brand out in the past, so make sure to help us return the favor and spread the word about their swimwear (as if they need any help, their clothing is awesome)!!! Their new pieces are meant for surfing, swimming, and paddle boarding, and they’re rocking the tie-straps like we do! Seriously how rad is that?! They have a good selection of 1pcs and 2pcs you can choose from, and they have swim trunks / boardies good for yoga and serve as a great alternative if you want to rock a two piece without having to wear a bikini bottom.
I know we’re a little late posting this, but just wanted to say congratulations(!!!!) to Cal womens swimming on the NCAA win!
awesome blueberry color suits from winter
We just got another photo from Jana today from the Cronulla Sharks that they won NWPL Finals. Congrats Sharks!!! That’s huge!!! And then we saw Nicola “Ziggy” Zagame won MVP, Highest Goals, and the Debbie Watson Medal. Congrats Ziggy!!
Ziggy’s on our flier in Australia!!
Love this music and these short films, and hope you do too. Click on the names to watch.
We would get them all if we could! Lindsey is with the US Snowboard team and has won XGames gold, may be one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and picks colors really really well. Visit her blog (Amie surprised us with the pic, thanks Amie!)
Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! Can you guess the team??
Wrapped in Piano Strings is goooooooooooooooood. Listen to it here. Music via Radical Face
We’ll be at Far Westerns on Friday and Saturday, heading back home to southern california on Sunday. We’re bringing our new colors to the show, a lot of neon.
See you there! Tanya Gandy will be running the show on Saturday.
The other night I stumbled across this feature by Nylon Magazine. It’s from last month’s issue, where they unconventionally mixed things up in athletic apparel. See more in Nylon’s February 2012 issue photographed by Nick Lawn, and create some of your own style with your favorite soft goods.
(above) sweatshirt and socks by American Apparel, top and shorts by Thomas Tait, shoes by Nike in collaboration with Thomas Tait, hand strap by Lonsdale
Jacket by Cacharel, sweatshirt by Nike, skirt by MCQ
(above) jacket by Burberry Prorsum, bra shorts ansd sandals by Nike, socks by American Apparel
Jacket by Boss Orange, tshirt and sandals by Nike, shorts by Cheap Monday, watch by G-Shock, socks by American Apparel
Hello, we have new suits in. Well… we got about 70% of our shipment in, and the other 30% we’re picking up next week. You’ll be able to see some of our new colors in our online store, all solids, including neon green (named Lime), neon orange (named Sunkist), a new seafoam color named Beach (slightly lighter than our classic seafoam color), and a coral. If you’re a sucker for neons, you’ll like Flamingo, Watermelon, Lemon, Lime, Electric Blue, and Sunkist.
In around a month we’ll be restocking our classics including red (in time for lifeguarding), electric blue, mango, blueberry, purple and ocean; and introducing 2 new colors: Peach and a pastel violet color we still need to name – hit us up on Facebook with any recommendations! Pastels are in season, and will be in 2013 as well. We’ll also have new prints, something that’s long overdue for all of you print lovers out there.
Forel Davies (USC polo, USA polo, UNSW Killer Whales polo, Oceanside/ Pendleton LG) taking a break, wearing watermelon. That’s her own artwork on that board.
This is an incredible trailer for the Australian Surf Movie Festival, showcasing many different forms of wave riding that have evolved over the sport’s history. Watch it here.
Thanks for the pic!! We go crazy when you send us photos!! Rocking the rare first generation jolyn suits with the front logo – stoked they’re still working!! There aren’t many of those tops around these days
Anonymous destined for greatness.
Get to know the Cronulla Sharks here. They’re good… really good. Thank you Cronulla for all of your support and photos! We like your style. We think it may be time for us to take a holiday in Australia.
From the Missouri Grand Prix, courtesy of USA Swimming. Watch the video HERE.
Just received this photo from the Amberjax! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!
“Out of the Boat Swim’s” founder and close friend of ours, Michelle, just moved with her new husband who is currently stationed in Korea. And she sent us a few pics from across the Pacific! OBS charity was founded by Michelle, a San Diego Lifeguard, and is now being handled by Naomi Shinnick while she is away. Naomi can be contacted at outoftheboatswim@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved!
via USA Swimming: “15-year-old freestyler Annie Driscoll saved a swimmer from drowning and then swam a lifetime best in the 800. Learn Annie’s story in the latest Navy SEALs Hardcore Moment.” Watch the video here
Woohoo! We’re going to be at the CDM water polo tourney the weekend of February the 2nd.
DNA recently interviewed Mallyce about her company LAEKEN, working in Los Angeles, consulting for Kill City, Wasteland, and Guy Baxter, loving the blog Dirty Flaws, and even our collaboration together. Here it is below…
“If you’re an L.A. girl, you’ve seen and met Mallyce Miller at our pop-up’s at Space 15 Twenty. She’s very outgoing, knows how to hustle her brand Laeken, a great collaborator and like us is obsessed with the “NEW, THE NEXT, and THE INNOVATIVE.” Designer and Trend Forecaster, Mallyce has been a part of the fashion industry for 11 years and now consults with contemporary brands like Kill City, Guy Baxter and Wasteland. What is Trend Forecasting? “It’s about paying attention to the different & the diverse, the patterns that we recognize & the anomalies that disrupt & confound them.” (Read more here.)
Laeken denim & Sarah Silverman
We stopped by a local meet to watch Ashley’s cousin swim, and we saw some familiar faces there. We want to tell everyone who was at the event who has supported us over the years, “thank you.” You know who you are! Wish we could give you a shout out, but we may get you in trouble with your team sponsors and NCAA, so we’ll keep quiet.
This is incredible!! See the time lapse video here
Bright contrast coloring, visible seams, semi glossy textures, and zippers can either give off an athletic look or a throwback to Body Glove wetsuits from the past. Either way these suits are perfect and make the covers of the biggest magazines.
The brand new Women’s Health cover – Jan / Feb 2012 Marissa Miller in Puma.
Last year’s Sport Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover, Irina Shayk in Sauvage. Note the molded cup at the bra.
Haha! good photo. They also have a few more brands called Kiargo and Funkita, out of Australia, that you’ll probably like a lot – check them out here. You can find them all over the world, plus at Norcal Swim Shop in Northern California & Washington.
…and you’ve probably heard it already. Kotye (AUS) feat. Kimbra (NZ/AUS). Enjoy it here.
Mallyce and Warren planning a collaboration between the two companies for sometime 2012. Click here to become a fan.
We were having a little fun with color blocking pastel floral prints in an athletic way…
We stumbled across a photo of a bear collage suit we designed last Spring, but never sent to production. Thought we’d share it with you.
Lanakila Outrigger Canoe Club Girls 19 & Under racing Dana Point. Thanks for the photo Julia!
Seeing these images of Christina Ricci in stripes and dots in a recent Nylon magazine photo shoot just immediately got our attention, especially just after we returned from Biarritz. Yeah yeah, they’re from September’s issue, but whatever…
Surf label advertisements via Nylon Magazine.
Cristina Sanchez
Found a book at the Opera in Paris showing a history of Jean Paul Gaultier’s work, and took some BLURRY iPhone photos of 2 of the pages because we felt we had to share them with you. We feel bad about taking these pictures, but couldn’t resist!!!
Click here to watch, and don’t blink at 1:20. (He’s known for parkour).
Our trip’s been fun, but this weekend we’re leaving Paris and returning to Los Angeles (if your order has been delayed, we’re sorry!!!). Look into future collections to see new ideas we’ve developed while staying in Biarritz, Hossegor, and Paris. We hope you’ll like them! And we hope we can come back to Paris next Spring!!
Ms. Hendry tore it up at the Minneapolis Grand Prix this past weekend, and got all of her winter national cuts and another Olympic Trial cut. Finaled in all her races and swam lifetime bests in everything. Represent!
We’ve been in coastal France during the area’s off-season to check things out a bit. We wanted to skip the tourist crowd and see what normal people wear in the Hossegor and Biarritz towns, and have eaten more baguettes and cheese than we can handle. We ended up chatting with two womens designers from Quicksilver Europe, who told us they just hit Los Angeles for an inspiration trip for upcoming collections.
Next week we’re in Paris (Ooh la la!)
Way to go on the promotions!! You both landed sweet gigs
Go Wisconsin Badgers
Jenna and Warren were in Los Angeles last week working on ideas for next year. Are you interested? What do you want to see? Let us know through Facebook.
Kim Basinger in the Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983) wearing a tiger piece.
We were sent this pic today from somewhere in America!!!!
Surfing history was made this year at the Billabong Chopes event. Whatever sport you do, you must watch this VIDEO to see the new benchmark the ocean & human kind have reached in their game of trying to “out-do” one another.
Post via Billabong, greatest music ever by the Delta Riggs, song titled “Get Back.”
Sharks are the buzz right now. Todd Rice from SDLG spotted a Great White off of Mission Beach where Michelle guards (see her in older posts); and Jaime Chambers, Warren’s friend from high school and former lifeguard, is ironically reporting on sharks for KTLA years later about one illegally caught in Huntington Beach.
For some reason, even though you can be scared of “our ocean friends in the grey suits,” it hurts when you see this happen.
In her own words…
-Clara
In her own words…
”
Tanya will be at Bay Shore in Long Beach this weekend with some of the other girls on the National and Olympic team watching the ocean water polo tournament. She’ll have some suits with her as well. You can email her at tanyagandy@yahoo.com to learn more about it.
You know those people who do everything perfectly? And we mean everything? Well, this is one of ‘em… Taisuke Koyama.
this caption below the book says it all
more photos on Arcademi blog
How rad is this?! We received this email and these photos from our friends over at Long Beach lifeguards!
“Hi Jolyn,
Long Beach Lifeguard Girls- East Beach girls would like to thank you guys (especially Tanya) for accommodating us on such short notice with the awesome suites for our annual Dutch Miller Lifeguard Competition. Our beach won and we looked fabulous while winning. Attached is a picture of us!
-Maddy Martin”
Here’s another SUP event we’re a part of: Stand Up to Parkinsons SUP-O-Run, happening in the Newport Beach area, Read about the foundation’s story, and about Pamela Strom, the person who’s putting it all on. It’s happening late October, so you still have time to sign up for a good cause.
Outdoor Retailer is a tradeshow for outdoor and athletic brands that happens in January and August. Typically Nike, TYR, and Speedo showcase here alongside Patagonia, The North Face, and others, and because ASR (Action Sports Retailer) went belly-up, the action sports companies had a strong presence. Shop-Eat-Surf.com covered the show pretty well, telling how action sports brands are blending in with outdoors brands, how outdoor brands are moving into action sports. We even saw a photo of our friends over at Hippy Tree‘s booth. And coincidentally, our very own Shelby Stanger wrote this article
A little while ago we wrote about the many surf brands coming over to athletics showcasing technical apparel… Here’s just one of them: O’Neill 365 – pretty rad huh? It will be available Spring 2012. And there are more brands to follow.
While at a CDM trunk show in Newport Beach, we heard one from of the girls’ parents that their daughter surfs in our suits, and is also an actress in “Soul Surfer” and rocked her skimpies in the film. How happy are we that our suit is in a film based on NSSA Champ, Pipeline Finalist, and one of the most inspirational surfers of all time?!
Thanks again for all of your support everyone!
Taylor Harkins is a water polo coach in Corona Del Mar, and she has this rad little blog named Holiday Helpings reviewing & recommending all types of products for skin care, hair care, gift ideas, etc. The best thing is she has a focus – to problem solve for holidays and seasons throughout the year, like finding a good gift, or taking care of your skin and hair for Spring events. And she just posted about us! Thanks Taylor, you rock!
Lifeguards travel to work international beaches during the USA off-season. We had a concept to gather photos from our guarding friends and plaster them all over suits. We thought the idea would be great, and we actually had this image (seen below) printed on our gold foil fabric and it ended up in TriMag, and we thought it photo’d pretty darn well,…but we had no inquiries. Oh well, better luck next time
This photo was taken from our own camera in La Jolla.
We’ve been getting a lot of emails asking if we’ll be at Nationals next week. Unfortunately we don’t really know yet….
If you’re in the Orange County area, Leah and Tanya are putting on a show at Newport Harbor High School. Check our Facebook page for updates.
We won’t have a booth this time at Far Westerns, but you can ask Dana from PASA about them while at Far Westerns. She’ll have a few on her.
Warren’s been spending some time at Obey‘s offices, getting advice on how to do things. Here’s a quick photo taken in their warehouse, where they craft wall art for stores and boutiques , made out of every type of material imaginable. Some of their advice about Jolyn Co.? To “keep doing what we’re doing.”
You won. Good job. When can we party at Travers Island again? Photo via Tanya Gandy
Hi everyone! Our 2011 Fall line will be available for sale this Monday.
Our concept was simple: to do onto swimwear what’s done on t-shirts. We started working with fine art/ acrylic in 2009, and people gave us funny looks when we said we wanted to put a giant howling wolf on a 1pc. In 2010 Casey Wisden worked with us on collage art where we created our foil suit experiments (you can see them in our older entries) to see how print would react when placed on a gold fabric. In 2010 Mallyce from Laeken showed us what AUS brand We Are Handsome was doing with photographs, and everyone’s mind was blown, because they do what they do so well. Now take a look at some of Wildfox‘ 2012 collection. How rad would this be on your water polo uniform? Imagine a team named the Broncos having a giant photo of a bronco on their team suit.
We Are Handsome 2010 & 2011 Collections…
Wildfox’ 2012 collection…
2011 has been a ton of ruffles and1pcs. Check out Apparel News‘ presentation on the recent swimwear trends. Suits pictured are by Inca and Tavik
Volcom’s Spring 2012 collection, via Apparel News. Rumor has it the men’s designer is working on pant long swim trunks.
Winter collection inspiration??
By Speedo, via Static Lookbooks website. Wish we had a better photo of it. It’s such a beautifully crafted back.
We also tried to find a suit Speedo released in the 90′s that had a photographic print of a pool shot underwater, which was some truly original photographic print work completed on swimwear. It was an awesome looking suit, but we couldn’t find it anywhere online, and none of us have an old catalog. We gave up after Google made us view countless oiled up male models in their skimpies.
By 2013 you’re going to see some action sports brands hitting the all encompassing outdoor market (a.k.a. the athletic market) with ferosity, re-branding themselves and putting companies like Patagonia, The North Face, Athletica, Lulu, and yes, even TYR & Speedo up against even more competition in an already hyper-competitive marketplace. Wonder if they’ll make caps and goggles, and mens skimpies… we could use some over here.
We can’t wait… we’re expecting to see some fresh ideas, a different look at things, and just look at their media – go to Surfer Magazine’s blog to see great photography. We’ve been wanting to film swimming and water polo like Taylor Steele does surfing, with adventure and character being the focus of the product, but unfortunately nothing’s been able to fall into place due to our sports’ political roadblocks. We hope they can get somewhere- with enough financing anything is possible.
…together at last.
This screen grab is for a break in AUS called “Tombstones.” Read the “Wave Quality,” “Dangers,” and “Additional Information” sections.
Stella McCartney for Adidas, via Jen Fitch Style blog
Anyone know what University this is? Hint, they like to play 4 square.
We wanted to let you know that new colors (and your past favorites) are on their way from Europe for our 2011 Fall / 2012 Winter line, probably somewhere around Panama right now. If you’re interested in hearing more, or would like to pre-order, send us an email through the site! Cheers.
We just received a few photos from Triathlon Magazine annual swimsuit edition. Issue’s out June 14th at Barnes & Noble. Here’s a pic of Lesley Paterson in our ECO suit, made of “recycled water bottle” polyester. You can go to Triathlete.com to see more.
Anonymous?
Trunk shows, pop up shops, what ever you call them, we love em. But most places we go have programs with pre-existing sponsors. Big sponsorships too, so we can’t always mention them, or take photos with them. So can anyone guess what school this photo was taken at? Hint: these are a tradition.
Thank you for all of your support!!!!!! Your team rocks!
We can’t get enough of this video of this talking dog! Click here to see it!!!!
We’ve been getting heaps of help from Lululemon in Carlsbad, San Diego CA. It all started when an employee won a silent auction at a YMCA event to help raise money for the organization. We hit it off, and next thing you know, our fliers are in their store!!!!!! What a great company, everyone is so nice, and really cares about their brand and more importantly, about yoga, the very reason behind it all. Best customer service and great products. Thanks everyone, and thanks Amie for being our model!
We were recently involved with a regional event hosted by a very well respected organization, the San Diego Canoe and Kayak Team, at the Olympic Training Center here is San Diego, to help raise money. Tons of athletes competed SUP, surf ski, kayak, canoe, etc…. basically anything to do with a paddle. Glad we were a part of it because the races inspired us to design durable, efficient swimwear inspired garments these athletes can wear, in our brand’s vibe. We already have our line selected, and are in the middle of design now. Newport Outrigger Club hosted a trunk show in Costa Mesa not too long after the San Diego event….hmmmm….. a sign of things to come? Below is a photo from the dock at the Olympic Training Center.
If you live in Saskatchewan Canada, or just stopping through, stop by this coffee shop that has more than coffee, it has insanely good food. It’s named 13th Ave Coffee House and here’s their link. Oh yeah, and the owner proudly wears Jolyn
You’ll probably see our online cart isn’t showing much. Don’t worry, it’s because we’re on the road again doing pop up shops in the southern california area. We’ll have product back up shortly!
A little while ago we took some photos of our gold foil print experiment, where we let the fabric act as a canvas, but the lighting was a little off and kind of hard to see. So we re-shot them. Here we took a high-res scan of denim with overlayed Polynesian inspired tribal print Casey made for us. The gold foil washed out the denim to give it a distorted, almost gold dyed look. So what tribals are we working on now? Native American and African inspired, working with our friends at Laeken on these, along with dyes – linear dyes with attention to color harmony. The production suit will be printed on durable, prepared for print fabric which will bring out the denim greys and blacks. Let us know what you think! And would you want the tie-back or the cross back?
We’ve been playing with photographic prints for some time now with Casey’s help. We’ve showed a few, but kept most of them out of the public eye. We want to know what you think of the concept, and what you’d want on your suit? And more importantly, are photographs better than hot pink? Let us know!
No doubt you’ve seen Goeff Taylor’s wolf suit posted a while back. Here it is on prepared for print fabric instead of the editorial gold foil. We showed it at Far Westerns and got a lot of interest from Team Jacob. Cheers!
We’ve been all over the place lately doing swim meets and having fun too. We wanted to post at least a few pics of our travels. From top to bottom: Ashley and Emily backstage at Lady Gaga in San Diego, the “Super Start” breakfast at our hotel during Far Westerns, and Niki with Makenna & Jan, the only 6 yr old who went to the Sierra NV J.O.’s.
Our whirlwind tour of pop up shops and trunk shows is finished! (well, we have a few more actually, but they aren’t back to back any more) It finished up with Far Westerns, the first meet we’ve ever done. We met soooo many great people there and had a chance to meet some of our Northern California customers in person. Now it’s time to post all of our new suits on the online store! Check it in the next few days. Here’s a pic from the meet – Warren with Dana Kirk, butterflyer.
…we’ve been out on the road doing trunk shows, and we had to hide some of our items from our online store 
But we promise they’ll be up after this weekend! We’ll be at Far Westerns this weekend, hope to see you there!
Our Spring/ Summer 2011 line is ready, and we’re out on the road showing and selling it. We’ll be at Canyonview pool at UCSD tonight, then off to Far Westerns in Morgan Hill, Northern California for the rest of the week. We’ll have the suits posted for sale online end of next week!
When the dust settled after the trunk show in Newport, a few good friends stopped by you may recognize
From top to bottom: Michelle Ericson from Out of the Boat Swim with Ericka Lorenz and Heather Petri; Petri again, Leah Robertson, and Forel Davies; and the Anae sisters (Jordan and Tumua) with the new addition to the family!
Hi! If you’re wondering why all of our two pieces are missing from our online store, it’s because we’re out on the road showing a few trunk shows across CA over the next 1 to 2 weeks We’ll post the new suits with the new colors when we’re back. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email!
Here’s a van we wish we had while out on the road.
This is cool… a coincidence? This blue is called Petrol Blue, and we need to get it for our line! Posted via the Sartorialist blog.
Hi! We’re having a trunk show with our new two piece colors in Newport! It’ll be at Newport Harbor High School Pool, Wednesday March 23rd at 4pm. Hope to see you there!
I’d go see this play. Watch it here
Each year a few of their guards come here, and a few ours go there, called the “Exchange.” Warren worked with his friend Slim at Muriwai plus a few other beaches out there. View clip from an episode here.
Remember thinking, “what if there was a wave in there,” when you drove by your local lake near ur house? Well, that’s a reality now. See the Wave Garden here
Base jump in the Bahamas at Dean’s Blue Hole (yep, that’s the real name of this submarine cave). Watch the video here
Some feel good music during lunchtime… Rainbow Connection
From top to bottom: San Diego CIF Finals in La Jolla in the miserable weather (Torrey Pines vs Vista); Casey and Warren going to Father’s Office Pub in Santa Monica after working on some new prints; a rad vinyl cover of a band that looks like Lawrence Welk but with a name that sounds like an apocalyptic gang.
Academy Awards are tonight, rooting for Exit through the Gift Shop
Ideas, ideas, ideas – we printed artwork on gold foil fabric to see how the ink would react. What do you think? We made some really nice prints from responses we received on Facebook from our fans. Triathlon Magazine has some of these suits now, scheduled to be photo’d end of this month on location in Hawaii for their annual swimsuit edition.
The Wolf painting is by Geoff Taylor, a world famous wildlife artist; and the Rocket Galaxy collage is by our very own Casey Wisden, artist. Expect to see similar art in our upcoming childrens line too.
…The Dirty Secrets’ “Five Feet of Snow”
…Two Door Cinema Club’s “I Can Talk”
…The Presets’ “Down Down Down”
The Split Enz’ “I Got You” (call me crazy, but at parts kinda reminds us of “That Thing You Do” movie with the Wonders and Tom Hanks)
The Exponents’ “Why does love do this to me”
Our friends in the gray suits are back in town, making things interesting in the water here at home sweet home
see the video HERE
UFOs!!! here’s a link
Originally posted via dayna washere
Originally posted via lilyflower
Originally posted via girlsgottafacelikemurder
We’ll miss you brother.
The Sartorialist – one of the best blogs out there. Time Magazine ranked it one of the top 100 influences on fashion. Here’s an interesting short film about the creator. Watch the video here
Despite their success, everyone at Obey is as nice as can be, and deserve all of the respect they’ve earned. The owners told me the stories about how they second leveraged their homes to keep the business going during the early years.
Obey’s video portion of their website will keep you on your computer. Here’s the Link
Can’t stop listening to this… click here
Originally posted this for the rad denim on the left, but check how much the ’90s are influencing apparel. Posted via Insight 51
Originally posted via coolbananas
originally posted via polaroidme
I wonder how many swim companies this will inspire? …Speedo let a few students take a pair of scissors and a needle to the infamous LZR suit after the product recall from the ban. While you’re watching this video on 80′s Purple’s blog, check out the rest of their site because they carry rad brands and post good fashion posts.
originally posted via fractalnetwork
Windshield Shark
Radical… check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-vb20srZI
Michelle, a fellow lifeguard, and JOLYN are teaming up to throw an event next summer to raise money for her charity “Out of the Boat.” We’ll keep you posted with details… Check out her website at http://outoftheboatswim.org
CAF half ironman (Challenged Athletes Foundation) was last Sunday at La Jolla Cove – good turnout, good times, and a lot of money was raised. I heard over a million.
For more info click here… Challenged Athletes Foundation
Casey is a friend of mine out of Los Angeles with a background in snowboarding and skateboarding. He’s been a contributing artist to women’s collections for Top Shop, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Pronounced Love, and Groceries just to name a few. We’ll be updating our site with new suits with his signature artwork starting in December. Hope you like them! You can check out more of his previous work at
http://www.caseywisden.com/index.php?/project/workshop-la/
I met Karen Schmidt Allard a year ago. I didn’t meet Karen because of her product, but because of her personality. Let me explain: I met her through a swim buddy of mine when we were trying to get things going here at Jolyn. He did me a favor and got us in touch so I could learn about entrepreneurship, so I raced up to her Orange County office to meet her.
She has a shampoo company named Tri-Swim, an anti goggle fog lubricant named Foggle, and an anti rashing/ chaffing spray on named Tri Slide. When we met she didn’t talk about her own success one bit, or any of her products she’d spent years developing. She only thought about how she could help me. She made calls to the biggest swimwear boutiques in the Western USA to help get my product into stores; she put my fliers into her outgoing packages to customers to help promote my online business; and returned every one of my phone calls and answered every question I ever asked a favor of. On top of that, she hired the nicest, best employees you could imagine who have all extended help to me in one way or another.
She’s an innovator and has an unbelievably helpful and giving personality who puts others before her own self. Check out her website… just google Tri Swim Shampoo and/ or SBR Sports and it should come up (I’ve also posted a link below). And her shampoo works- it really does do the job without giving you an oily head like other “swim” shampoos.
http://www.sbrsportsinc.com/testimonials_triswim.htm
Just for fun… we know two gold zippers won’t work. But who cares, right?
This is the third installment on Color Theory from Dwell, and I’m so happy to be able to upload it. If you missed the first two series, be sure to scroll back a few posts and check them out!
http://www.dwell.com/videos/The-Full-Spectrum-Herman-Miller.html
In one of my last blogs I briefly mentioned a company named TIEM – a swimwear company created and managed by a long time Los Angeles County and California State Lifeguard named Tandis Morgan and her brother Tyler. All I had known about Tandis before I met her was that she spent A LOT of time designing, trying, and testing her suits. The rumor is 10 years, but I have yet to hear this from her own mouth, so don’t quote me. So when you buy a TIEM suit, you can think to yourself, “10 years of testing went into this piece.” The company name is her initials spelled out… fellow lifeguards and surfers started getting her suits before there was a name and simply used to refer to them as her initials.
During our first phone call, all we did was agree on everything. We agreed on how there is ALWAYS a better fit to discover and it’s up to both of us to find it; good customer service is a necessity; and swimwear should be made in a way where we would personally want it, except for the fact that I’m a guy and I can’t wear what we make here at JOLYN. Although Tandis does all of the above (she personally answers and attends to every customer question, diligently develops her own pieces, and importantly won’t put anything with her company’s name on it that she wouldn’t buy herself), she hugely stresses this last point and finds it to be the driving factor behind the success she’s had. She’s been able to design for the female water rippers out there, which she embodies. For those who don’t know, she’s put in her time competing for the USA in international lifeguard competition. Back in the day we crossed paths but never knew it.
We’re supposed to grab a bite to eat here this week up in Hermosa where she just moved into a new studio next to the ocean. If I wasn’t already jealous enough, she’s got a new place on the sand.
Tandis in the middle, and her inspiration – the 1960′s San Onofre surf scene on the left and right.
We’ve been playing around with color blocking. Here’s Stacy in a new top of ours. If you want one, or would like to see some of your favorite colors together, hit us up on facebook or shoot us an email through the website. Cheers!
Even though we introduce different suits on a regular basis, this one seams to be the most exciting. Everyone’s ecstatic about it – Ashley Miller (Int’l badass and former team captain for Berkeley Water Polo) and Stacy Peterson (former D1 swimmer and recent strength training coach for UCSD) are claiming it’s the best top they’ve ever worn. Stacy’s heading to Maui to swim the Maui Channel race next week and picked hers up just in time. She also wants to do some underwater shots with it when she gets back.
Jolyn Clothing is probably best known for tie-back suits. Our tie-back full suit one piece, a.k.a. “Mini,” has become our most recognized suit because of its different look, and our “tie top” is our most successful top because it offers athletes incredible hold while being ultra comfortable. We found the two separate cups work in the athlete’s favor because the lack of fabric in between the bust allows water to move through freely. In my opinion, “tie-backs” are the most functional top on the market because the alternative, fixed straps, have a tendancy to become useless once the straps lose their elasticity or stretch out a little too far. Tie backs (without the use of hardware or buckles) are gaining acceptance in the sports swimming industry due to companies like TIEM Surf and Jolyn Clothing, and the fact that the best competitors in the USA and even abroad are turning to our products equal to big companies like Speedo and Nike. And yep, Tandis (owner of TIEM, pronounced Tee-Em) and I are friends. I’ll be writing about her company soon, because she has a super awesome thing going on in surfing and lifeguarding, which translate into a great product for the aquatics industry. She’s a ripper for sure.
The suit in the photo below is the latest top Jolyn Clothing is introducing. A little bit about it’s history: We’ve been making what the industry calls a “demi” top for about 3 years now. A “demi top” is basically a spin-off of a sports bra, where a lateral piece of elastic runs across the top of the chest, and a second lateral piece of elastic runs along the bottom of the bust and torso, holding one large piece of fabric that spans across the entire front. Although I can’t speak for other manufacturers, I have tried to slim out this center front over the years doing the best I could to make it dissappear. Problem was I critically lost support in the bra dealing with larger bust sizes. Fabiola and TIEM have probably the best looking demi tops out there, and I highly recommend both companies.
Many athletes want the support of two lateral elastic lines, and what we wanted to do was eliminate the “parachute” effect, where water catches between the bust when they have a B cup chest or greater. Parachuting causes suits to either bag out over time, or worse flash others during a bad dive or a strong push off the wall. So what we simply did here at Jolyn was add a way for water to exhaust through a gap in the center front of the top by sewing in two separate cups, while keeping the upper and lower lateral elastics. We hope this suit will become one of the most accepted tops in the aquatic sports industry, in addition to being the best top to accommodate larger chested athletes. When combined with tie-back straps, this top is subtly but intricately engineered to help with the range of differences of women’s bodies and torso volumes.
We already have a few tops out there proving great results with a few selected swimmers. We’re starting another production run with various colors to be ready mid September. We’ll get a photo with a model for you soon so you can see how they look when worn. Trust me, they look great, and will be economically priced during these hard times. If you are interested, please email us through our website at contact@jolynclothing.com to be one of the first to have one.
What inspires your forecasts?
I look at the world of entertainment, such as upcoming films that might have specific colors attached to them. The art world is important as well. And sometimes two (or more) trends converge, such as the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. The logo and attention-getter for that film is the Mona Lisa—it’s appearing in ads and feature stories. The colors and sensibilities of that piece of art converge with many designers’ thoughts about using more painterly touches in their designs. The best example of how influential films can be, especially in children’s markets, is Shrek. When I first read about this film and heard that the main character would be an acidic yellow-green, that caught my eye. Monsters, Inc. was also a vibrant green. Kids will always follow the color trends of their favorite characters. Yellow-green filtered into every other area of kids’ lives—bedspreads, wall coverings, clothing, notebooks, and even the packaging of Skittles and other foods.
Are there other areas, besides entertainment, that influence people’s color predilections?
Social issues and their emblematic color can create trends. Green is the obvious color as symbolic of preservation of nature and sustainability. The economy can also come into play. When people are concerned about spending money on high-ticket items with longevity, they often want to resort to neutral colors. That does not mean that vibrant colors go away, but it does mean that they have to be used more judiciously, perhaps in accessories as opposed to the bigger-ticket items. Fashion, of course, is always important. The 2005 fall shows featured blues and blue-greens heavily, especially in combination with brown. That has now transitioned into home furnishings.
How do your forecasts affect designers and consumers?
We don’t update the Pantone colors based solely on trends, although that does have something to do with it. But if people feel that lavender is going to be a strong color, we’ll make sure we have a selection of lavenders in the color offerings. It’s not about reinventing the color wheel. It’s about getting the color wheel to evolve and change slightly. That’s really what forecasts are about—how to use colors that resonate. Every designer isn’t going to rush out and do what they saw in my forecast—they don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. But it does help inspire them, or help them to look at a palette and say, Wow, I’d never thought about combining that shade of rose with this shade of blue-green, but I like the way that looks together. Forecasts are simply a guideline; they’re not dogmatic.
How many colors are currently available in the Pantone pantheon?
In the textile system, for example, there are 1,925 colors. Every couple of years, we survey the market and when the designers say they need more white, or yellow, or darker greens, we pay attention to what they want and we introduce new colors to the system. That’s why the number of colors keeps going up—because designers are like greedy kids: There’s never enough color out there and they’re always going to want the nuance of a color that doesn’t exist.
-Fred A. Bernstein
A little musica by The Drums, and a little stretching demo too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OsTUnkqSi4&feature=related
Dain and I had a chance to get together the other week to talk about her new company Dainty Handcrafted. We both grew up in the same area and she used to make these headbands everyone liked. She recently got back into the game after college and has been killing it! Coolest girl, coolest bands, and coolest vibe. Check her out at http://www.daintyhandcrafted.com.
I was down at my local pool doing what I call a “whatever” swim, where you don’t really swim much at all, but talk your brains out with anyone who’s willing to listen to your banter. I had just finished selling some suits on deck and was now talking about new Jolyn products that have yet to hit the internet market, like our suit sewn with polyester fabric made from a yarn produced by recycled water bottles (pretty neat huh!), that are on limited order. My friend and I then started talking about slogans, and we thought it would be cool to have something like, “1,000 colorful swims in one purchase,” or, “1,000 swims while looking good,” or something like that, hinting at the fact our suits are super durable. This evolved into “1,000 MORE swims while looking good.” And from there we came up with “1,000 more swims while looking good, sounding good, and tasting good.” You can see where we started getting weird…
I looked up from the pool and saw a man typing away on his cell phone while my friend and I were jabbering about these “business like” ideas. He was wearing a hat with a big De Soto label on it and had a De Soto backpack next to him. Could this be De Soto himself?? Of course not. No way, not at the same pool I’m at. Then his wife got out of the water and she had a De Soto swimsuit on. So I asked my friend if he or she was sponsored by De Soto… Turns out the man was De Soto, like of THE De Soto mega company that makes Triathlon apparel and swimwear. Oh no. Not good. A competitor- and not just a competitor, but the owner of an incredibly well establish company, and former part owner of Tinley, one of the first triathlon apparel companies in existence (check out the photo of Scott Tinley and I from about 10 blog posts ago!). Should I be concerned? What was he typing into his phone? Was he sending out an email, and if so, what was it about?? Am I being narcissistic by thinking he cares? Crud! I don’t know what’s going to happen now – he was there during EVERYTHING, and would had to have heard everything. All of my friends told me his company’s product is way different than mine and not to worry, so I’m going to try my best not to.
Ugh. I tried calling Ashley to tell her all about it, but she didn’t pick up.
This is our "Eco Suit," made with a polyester fabric made from recycled water bottles. Patagonia and The North Face use the same yarn this suit is made from, and from what I understand, will be using a lot more of it over the next few years.
So Ashley’s really good friends with a lot of the National Water Polo Team (aka the Olympic team) and used to play with many of them growing up before college and while in college, and as teammates at UC Berkeley. I just got this photo from Elsie of some of the team sporting their practice suits made by us. One of the members is still in high school, so we had to creatively hide her because of NCAA rules…
I have no idea why this insect spray poster from Switzerland should be posted, other than the fact her dress (or is that a swimsuit?) is rockin’.
If anyone’s read our “About” statement, you’ll know that we pay extra close attention to color here at Jolyn Clothing, from our full suit prints grabbing inspiration from the whimsical pastels of Australian style to our bikinis’ chromatic values inspired by Cuba and Brazil. I first saw this beautifully done video from Dwell Magazine about Josef Albers, the first part of a three part series on color theory a while ago, and ignorantly failed to post it. A second video was just released and I couldn’t upload it quick enough for everyone to see. All you need to do is click on the links below!
http://www.dwell.com/videos/The-Full-Spectrum-Seize-sur-Vingt.html
http://www.dwell.com/videos/the-full-spectrum-josef-albers.html
The Del Mar Lifeguard Department hosts and annual tiki torch surf party when the New Zealand Lifeguards are in town on the exchange program. I grabbed a little clip of my close close friends Slim and Ash from Muirawai Beach, Aukland, doing the Haka- a Mauri war dance.
The crowds get bigger and bigger every year. The biggest problem is there aren’t enough surf boards to go around. Click the link…
CLICK HERE TO SEE HAKA
Sydney Gstettenbauer is an American transplant in Australia for the Adelaide Jets. She was team captain at UCSD for 3 of her college years, had a few records there, and more importantly was one of my first fit models during the dark days of figuring out fit when working on everything from different materials to silhouettes to printing processes and how they affected materials. You name it, she tried it, she practiced in it, and best of all was super patient about it. She stayed with us for the long run when most models stopped meeting us at the pool or answering their phones, and even got her friends involved (and most of them are named Stephanie by the way). She’s invited back to play for Adelaide again next year and rock the pretty bitchin Top Gun suit.
Sydney (left) and Jess Martin (right)
I met Jenna through a surf competition in Huntington Beach a few months ago where Jolyn Co. was offering suits as a first place prize at the comp. Jenna won it and it started from there. Our fits ended up working perfectly for surf + we made the some of the first “eco” suits for her, made from fabric created out of recycled water bottles. Right now she’s on an extended surf trip to Australia.
This hat is by Jenelle Shelby, funniest and coolest thing at the same time, and got the attention of everyone at Nationals. Ashley got her story- here it is in Janelle’s own words…
“Ok, I thought of the idea when we were at a tournament last year, my friend was sick and couldn’t play, I told her to wear her cap on the bench because she was still apart of our team, she wore it but felt weird wearing the cap, so I told her I would make her a beanie instead, because she was cheering from the bench, that is why the name “Bench Beanie” is perfect for it . Also, I use recycled ear caps from broken or ripped caps. The first time I wore it was to a game at a snack bar and a mom asked me where she could buy her daughter one. Everywhere I go that has to do with water polo people are always interested.”
-Janelle
Ran into Scott Tinley on the second to last day, and it turns out his niece is on the USA team. I’ve lifeguarded with him since I got my drivers license, and if you don’t know who he is, you should… just look him up online. He was also one of the first to give me business advice when I started this whole Jolyn thing.
I’m a little late to post these, but it’s worth it anyway. My pattern maker grabbed a few of our suits and it turned out this blue suit opened the show.
We wanted to get some random pictures showing what life was like outside of the pool, but still represented our lifestyle relative to our sport(s). Ashley was team captain for Berkeley water polo and sent me this Bridge Run pic. If we only knew what they put their freshmen through back then… I quit swimming and water polo way earlier – didn’t retire – just burned out, so I inserted these old lifeguard photos from the New Zealand Airport during the exchange, and another from my home beach just after returning from boat training with the Kiwis in the other hemisphere. I’m the wussy sitting crew in the front – the driver is the one who earns recognition for the shot. Coincidentally, the guy with the dark hair at the airport, Tomas Bryant, is the boat driver in the boat pic. He actually won some kind of crazy award for New Zealand Lifesaving while we were out there. Unfortunately I wasn’t there to see it because I was out backpacking the country because of a broken heart over a lifeguard vixen from the country’s international team. Ugh.
Ashley (#14)
So Water Polo Nationals is happening right below my house and just up from Ashley’s, so obviously we bought a pass for the entire week. Go Petri & Rulon + team USA.
Below are photos of Netherlands, Russia, and Greece.
Most people think of a thinly cut back when talking about Brazilian swimwear. To me, I think color… very chromatic coloring and lots and lots of it. It’s easy to see why… inside and outside of bars around SoHo, including Cafe Felix during the Brazil vs Ivory Coast game.
above: Mara from Journelle, taken with the Hipstamatic camera app on my phone;
Above: Von bar with Kate from French Connection (and former Berkeley Varsity Water Polo);
Marissa from Bigprototype Architecture;
Jason from UHURU;
Alysa, my new traveling friend on the rollercoaster flight out of NYC to CHItown to SD (also taken with my favorite new toy, the Hipstamatic camera phone app).
Brooklyn doors;
misc. views in Manhattan.
So glad to make it out to Travers Island for the weekend. Here are the photos….
Anna surfs, and she kills it. She started off as one of our fit models because we knew she rode for Rusty Surfboards for a long time and modeled with them for a long time as well. I got these photos from her at the lake just the other day and had to post them because it’s cool to see our suits used in other water sports.
This kid was running around the deck holding this awesome sign. It ended up being the only photo that worked, better than any of the game shots i could get on my lame point and shoot camera. Their hamburgers were pretty good.
I think this sums up our company perfectly
Over the last 3 years we’ve been developing swimwear for water polo players and swimmers and the feedback has been awesome. To continue this momentum we decided to create a blog showing who we are and what we do. Keep checking in for updated photos and videos (we’re into the visuals more than the paragraphs!) of our people, places, and things, and the latest projects we’re working on.
