In The Press: Shop Eat Surf
Shop Eat Surf "How Duvin Became a Favorite of Celebs, Athletes, and Musicians"
About 2,500 people showed up at Duvin's pop-up inside the former Lombardi Seafood fish market in Winter Park, Fla. last Friday to snag pieces from the brand’s collaboration with the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team.
The 13-piece collection of mesh shorts, swim trunks, button-ups, T-shirts, and hats – taking inspiration from the team’s retro memorabilia and logos, redone with the Duvin Design touch – was set to be sold through Feb. 19 during a week-long pop-up shop. Instead, the pieces ($39 to $75 at retail) sold out during the Feb. 10 launch event. A second release the next day at the Magic’s game against the Miami Heat also sold out.
“It got a little out of control,” said Duvin Co-founder and Creative Director Austin Duvall. “We were expecting a good amount of people to show up. When we’ve done events in the past, we had pretty good turnouts, and we had been releasing imagery of the collection every week on Twitter and Instagram, so we knew there was pretty big buzz.”
Duvin Design Co. calls itself the “Internet’s Go-to Beach Brand.” Yet, those spotted wearing the line indicate a reach that’s extended far past the sand and surf to Hollywood celebrities, musicians, YouTube stars, and professional athletes. The question is what’s next for the Florida-based business, now in over 100 doors, after seeing 100% year-over-year sales growth in recent years. Plenty, it appears.
Duvin expanded into sunglasses on Tuesday, with the $89.50 Sun Seeker in three colorways. A women’s line launches in summer. In late summer, Duvin will release a footwear collaboration with Puma. Long-term, the brand could delve into art, furniture, a coffee table book, and potentially brick-and-mortar.
“For us, I think people enjoy our perspective on design and how we’re approaching things, so we’re looking to branch out separate from the clothing. I think that’ll always be the core of the brand, but (expanding to) interesting things where we can tell the story on different, unique products,” Duvall said.
Duvin sales really took off after Chase Stokes’ character John B on the hit Netflix series “Outer Banks” wore Duvin’s Beach Day button-up shirt. It helped that Stokes went on to describe the shirt as “an iconic John B shirt” in a Men’s Health interview in 2021.
“That first hit cleared out our warehouse,” Duvall said. “Things like that started happening where celebrities were wearing our products and calling it out, and the growth happened that way.”
The brand doesn’t establish formal relationships with celebrities and does not pay them to wear the product. In some cases, pieces are seeded; other times, the celebrities find the brand on their own. Because of that, Duvall said, it can be challenging to ensure there’s stock on hand after a celebrity plug, but the business has so far kept up with fulfillment. Aligning with celebrities and athletes was never an intentional part of the business plan. Instead, it happened organically.
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