SouthWest Project

Progressive design for universal waters.

SouthWest Project began during lockdown as a personal reset. During Covid I moved back home to Devon, reconnected with surfing after a decade away, and realised how overpriced and elitist the sport had become. So I called up Joe, my oldest mate, and we decided to do something about it.

Joe is a composite marine engineer. I am a designer. Who had the harder degree? I'll let you decide. Between us, we had just enough skill and naivety to build a surf brand from scratch. No funding. No shortcuts. I led the creative, built the brand, designed the products and ran the socials. Joe engineered the boards and handled manufacturing. Together we built everything, including a shipping system we had no business setting up.

We made boards from recycled ocean plastic and planted trees for every one sold. Our plus tree icon became the stamp of that promise. We grew a community of over 10,000 by being honest, showing the process, the mess-ups, the chaos. Like the time all our new stock got stuck behind the Ever Given in the Suez Canal. Yes, that ship. Nightmare.

But SouthWest taught me more about branding and business than any job ever has. We knew our lanes. I could not engineer, Joe could not design, but together, over a few beers and bro hugs, we made it work.

I am proud of what we built. No gatekeeping. Just good ideas, hard work and a bit of saltwater.

2020

Co-Founder