Julian Wilson certainly isn’t the first professional surfer to take his name and likeness and start building a surf brand. It seems the past decade has seen a boom of them relative to how many surfers had the influence (and career earnings) to take on something as ambitious as supporting an entirely new lifestyle or outerwear brand. Kelly Slater, Dane Reynolds, Kolohe Andino, and John John Florence come to mind, of course, but there are countless others in the game who have quietly faded away since this became a trend in the industry.
I’d argue Rivvia Projects seems like it’s on the exact opposite trajectory — a brand that didn’t launch without notoriety, by any means, but has obviously started to build more momentum and recognition as the years have gone by. That bodes well. But Wilson’s acknowledged it hasn’t been an easy path to sustain a new-ish brand.
Earlier this year, the former Championship Tour vet shared that his ambitions to return to the tour were taking a backseat to growing his business. Changes in the global economy had brought new challenges for the brand, and as he saw it, he could either choose a full-time Challenger Series slate or a full-time investment in saving his business. He chose the latter.
“I’ve basically been rescuing my business since the Gold Coast (CT) event, which is why I haven’t been able to make it to Challenger events,” Wilson told The Inertia in January. “I have had to decide to save my business and all the effort that I put in there, or otherwise, I would have had to walk away from it to chase the dream of going back to the CT,” adding that “There’s still a lot to go to become a proper, established business and profit, but it’s definitely stabilizing.”
As far as surf brands go, one of the things you expect in the process of becoming a “proper, established business” is building a team of athletes. And with that, you have the customary team edit. Rivvia has a CT presence in Mateus Herdy, who finalized his deal at an In & Out in California last year before going on to qualify for the tour this year. Ryan Callinan is also on the Rivvia team. The Australian has two CT campaigns under his belt (2022, 2025), and is grinding it out toward requalification through the Challenger Series. Meanwhile, Cadin Francis just finished at the top of the Surfing Australia U18 Junior Series rankings, and Manning Gregory, whose incredible story is highlighted by returning to competitive surfing after breaking his neck in 2023.
Watch ’em have a go.
