Tradie's simple solution to 'annoying' beach clothing problem
A hardcore Aussie surfer and fisherman was fed up after his favourite clothing brands were sold off to multinationals, so he started his own.
If you swim, surf, fish, or boat then it’s a problem you’ve probably faced. You try to do the right thing by wearing a cap, but once the saltwater works its way into the fabric and touches that metal button on top, rust begins to discolour it with a gross brown stain.
But an Aussie tradie thinks he’s found a simple solution – make the button plastic, so the cap doesn’t degrade and end up in landfill. It’s just one of the problems electrician Daniel Muntz is trying to fix with his new outdoor clothing brand, which focuses on environment, innovation and quality.
Newcastle-based Muntz began developing Aclassic towards the end of 2022 with his mate Geoff Doig because they were frustrated that the surfwear brands they grew up loving had all been sold off to multinationals. They launched the brand online a couple of weeks ago.
“Geoff and I have been die-hard surfers and fishermen our entire lives — we work to fund that,” he told Yahoo News.
“When we grew up there were brands we really resonated with, they made us feel a part of something. But over time we realised the quality was dropping, but also the authenticity of the brands. They were owned by faceless corporations and we didn’t feel anything for them anymore.”
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It’s being out on the water rather than cooped up in an office that is leading to clothing innovations. The hat was the first, and the second was making boardshorts out of recycled drink bottles to help reduce the amount of plastic they see choking the oceans.
“We want it to be good to wear. We want it to look good. And we want to fix those little annoying problems,” Muntz said.
Massive response to tradie's company social pages
The company's TikTok account has close to 300,000 followers, and its Instagram page has a further 155,000. But you won't see pictures of millionaire surfers or celebrities on the Aclassic's social pages.
The company’s approach focuses on everyday people who love the ocean, and that’s reflected on the company’s Instagram account which features a stream of selfies of people on boats holding big fish. While its YouTube channel is mostly long-form interviews about "insane" but true ocean stories with titles like "Caught in a real Sharknado" and "Broken bones in the Mentawai".
“Our goal is to showcase underground men and women who are just chasing a passion, and they don’t have to be wearing our clothes to get on our pages,” Muntz said.
“And it’s just gone crazy… It tells us people want raw stories.”
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