* Wild Things Turns One
Wild Things is turning 1 and they're throwing a huge sold out party to celebrate. Andy Findlay, one of the founders of Wild Things, regularly appears in Sprout Daily but yesterday I caught up with him to talk about the journey so far and what's in the pipe for year #2. MF - For those that have never set foot inside the Wild Things studio can you let us know what it's all about
AF - Evan and I needed a shaping bay and showroom for Gato Heroi and Jessamyn Jean and I had this bigger idea for a space where all the people we knew who were doing rad things could come and have the option to stay for a while and work and showcase whatever it was they made. Almost a place where we could help expose new brands, bands, artists, or whatever. So basically, its a shop where we sell what we source, make and get manufactured, and where new brands can be exposed, its a gallery, and it's where we distribute our products from and its our work space.
MF - You're about to celebrate your 1st year in existence, how's the journey been so far?
AF - It's been busy! But its been fun. We have had the help and support from lots of rad friends and people in our community whom we couldn't have done it without and hopefully some of the things we have done to give back are recognized as a massive thank you!
We have gone from a tiny space down stairs with a few boards on the wall and some art and vintage, to a 200m square showroom with a heap of product, studio spaces where we have Sarah Chicko our photographer friend, Sarah Kearney from Gypsy Jacket and my partner Bree Anna Avalon has a salon in here as well.
MF - The concept seems to be very fluid with few constraints or limitations; you're selling tees, tents; surfboards and army surplus. What's the common thread?
AF - The common thread is simple, we do things we love, we only select to make things, work with people, buy and sell things we love and would use or appreciate ourselves. I think the fluidity and lack of constraints comes from our size. At the start of summer we couldn't find board-shorts we wanted to wear so we worked with a designer friend Marcus Kersch, and 2 weeks later we had a rad little collection of functional trunks we now sell round the world. I've worked with big companies and its normally a years process to make something like that happen. I think we are able to do what we want and make it happen quickly because we are all pretty like minded in what we appreciate and like. Most importantly i think we respect each others skills.
MF - Surfing is obviously at the core of Wild Things and your own life, where's your surfing heading?
AF - For sure, we all surf and love surfing. I look at everyone involved and all of their surfing styles are super unique and constantly evolving. My surfing personally is heading to more locations with less people. I love surfing manly and our local beaches, but my surfing gets better when I can't see anyone else and be subconsciously influenced by what they are doing on the wave.
We are planning more days away to places with no one in the water where you can get more radical on the waves. We have a heap of new models rolling out this year, Robin (Kegel) has hit another level with his boards, they can be surfed so much more dynamically. There is this horrible stigma attached to surfing longer boards where people think its all about nose riding, although it's fun, hopefully people start getting a little more creative on them.
MF - What adventures do you have for the second year of Wild Things?
AF - We plan to make another movie, we have some incredible surfers involved and want to showcase them. We have a trip planned to France to go and do some shaping at Gato Heroi in Basque and want to go and surf over there. And we'll continue to make some more rad things.
For the first birthday, we gave The Growlers and Tomorrow Tulips from California playing and our favourite local Band the Goons Of Doom. The night is unfortunately completely sold out. But there will be more down the track...