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August 10, 2002
And sew it goes Henderson Aquatics now threading its needle through surfing wetsuitsBy G. PATRICK PAWLING For The Press, (609) 272-7210Prepare yourselves. The days are shorter now. Soon will come the Time of Darkness. Some know this as The Season of Cold (Water). I say unto you: Be not afraid. Rejoice! For wetsuits have never been warmer or more comfortable. Let us all now stop for a moment to say a silent thank you to the material that keeps us in the water six, eight and even 12 months a year - our second skins. It's thin, (fairly) warm, pliable, stretchy, black and, a lot of times, fairly smelly, too. Give thanks now to neoprene, the synthetic rubber that becomes wetsuits - chemistry's gift to the surfer, the waterman, the kiteboarder, the clammer, the diver, the windsurfer, the Hobie sailor, kayaker and anybody else who wants to stay warmer - and much safer - in the water. But who invented the wetsuit? Was it a guy in San Francisco named Jack O'Neill, who says he found neoprene carpeting the aisle of a DC-3 airplane in the early '50s, then used it to make the first vest and went on to found O'Neill International, one of the big dogs in wetsuits? Was it Bob Meistrell and Bill Meistrell, a couple of kids from Manhattan Beach, Calif., who claim to have started messing with neoprene around 1953, and whose company would later be named Body Glove? Either would make sense. Much of California's water is cccccc-old year round. But there's a southern New Jersey connection here, and it brings us right up to modern times. The name is Henderson Aquatics. They make wetsuits. They're growing. And they're a long way from California - all the way over in Millville, matter of fact. They've been making wetsuits there since 1974, and before that they were in Port Elizabeth. Not exactly the wave capital of the world, but there you go. If you're a diver, you probably know about Henderson. That's their primary market. With some 50 percent of their product manufactured in Millville, they're the largest maker of wetsuits in the U.S. (other U.S. companies' wetsuits are made elsewhere). Now they're trying to make a bottom turn into surfing. Their first shot was the opening, two years ago, of a discount store in Avalon - Wetsuit World, where they sell their line of surfing wetsuits. The store is their beachhead, a way to establish a word-of-mouth vibe among East Coast surfers and to test their new products. "This is our turf, and we are going to control our turf," promises Joe Polak, vice president of marketing for Henderson. They must be doing something right. They're about to break ground on a project that will double the size of their warehouse in Millville to 20,000 square feet. A visit to their factory on Route 47 is a little like a ride back into another time, when sewing factories were common in southern New Jersey. People - women, mostly - work at desks and sewing machines, sewing and gluing pieces of wetsuits and rash shirts into products shipped, in the case of their dive line, all over the world, including Russia and the Middle East. If you wear wetsuits, it's interesting to see the seams come together, to watch the skilled hands apply the glue and run the sections through the sewing machines. But it's also a world of secrets. There are as many recipes for neoprene as there are for cookies, to borrow an expression from Polak, and nobody likes to say exactly what goes into their special batch. The same with the glue. Ask what kind Henderson uses and Polak gives you one of those I-could-tell-you-but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-you looks. "Took us a long time to find that glue," is all he'll say. Standing by a desk in the corner of the factory was the son of the guy who started it all, Allan Edmund, president and owner. After World War II, somewhere around 1948 or '49, his father Everett began buying and reselling surplus Navy diving gear - which consisted of those old metal diving helmets and rubber-coated canvas suits. Then one day, a salesman from a rubber company came by with sheets of something called foamed neoprene. It was lighter and more pliable than rubber. Everett Edmund saw the possibilities. Soon, he was making wetsuit kits. You bought sheets, cut them out into a rough approximation of your size, glued them together and prayed a lot while you were in the water, I assume. So Edmund was one of the pioneers. But now? Now it's a David vs. Goliath thing, with Henderson playing the little guy up against O'Neill and Body Glove and Rip Curl and the rest. But Henderson doesn't sound like it's afraid of a fight. "O'Neill tried to come over to the dive side, and they went home with their tails between their legs," says Polak. Selling it to surfers won't be easy. They can be some of the most fashion-conscious people on Earth. It's very strict, this Surfing Code, and violators are quickly dismissed as Kooks. I thought I was finished with dress codes when I successfully begged my parents to let me out of Catholic School after eighth grade, but once I started hanging with surfers I realized it's never over. Fortunately, I have no hope of being cool so it doesn't matter what I do. Anyway, I wish Polak luck. He's the person who picks colors and styles. When I visited the factory, he showed me a new boot with a split toe on the inside. Though I only wore it a few minutes, it seemed more comfortable than conventional split-toe boots. But it had this saddle shoe thing going on, a red strip running across the top meant to bring attention to its high-techness. I can't see surfers going for it - my guess is they'll find it tacky - but I'm not a fashion leader. Polak says it's tough to tell about surfer fashion. "Every year the leading companies throw some things out there to see what sticks," he says. "If it sticks, they do it some more. You can't force a trend. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. But you can seed a trend." If the next trend is Henderson Going Big in the Surfing Market, the big boys are hiding their fear nicely. "It's been tried before. This is nothing new," said Scott Daley, vice president of marketing for Body Glove International. "I will say this: Nothing is easy in the wetsuit market. It's extremely competitive and extremely image driven." One Henderson advantage: The guy running the Avalon store. Meet Dow (yes, that's his name) Stewart, who is retired CFO (chief financial officer) of Merrill Lynch. Apparently Merrill's retirement plan isn't what it should be. (Kidding!) Stewart happens to be a nice guy whose store has a very friendly vibe, as compared to some too-ultracool surf shops. "What we have brought to surfing is dive quality," Stewart says. "We repair everyone else's suits. There is no better way for us to learn what to do and what not to do than to repair everybody else's suits." Welcome aboard, Henderson. If you leave me with a nice warm feeling after a January session, I'll be your friend forever. For more information: www.hendersonusa.com Wetsuit hints This is On The Water - a summertime column about the bays, ocean, rivers and lakes of southern New Jersey and the people who enjoy them. To reach Pat Pawling, call (609) 398-6593 or e-mail: onthewater@pawling.net |
