Surf City —

Saturdays NYC is a swell sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan
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Story — Alice An
Images — Janice Yim

It’s a sunny summer afternoon in SoHo, Manhattan’s popular downtown shopping and residential district. A few regular patrons have filtered into the backyard of Saturdays Surf shop and coffee bar for lunch, laptops in tow, clutching bulging brown paper bags from the corner deli and cups of La Colombe coffee pulled by Mitch, the barista at the front of the shop. Out front, a friend dressed in a grey heather Saturdays “Surf\NYC” T-shirt is tinkering with a toy bike that looks like it’s been rigged with a lawnmower engine. “Josh just bought this, it needs a little tune-up,” he replied when asked.

Settled in a sun-splashed corner of the backyard, Saturdays owner Josh Rosen blends right into the lunchtime crowd. Tall, rugged yet well-groomed, dressed casually in a flannel and khaki shorts, Rosen is completely representative of the community he and his business partners Colin Tunstal and Morgan Colette have championed at Saturdays.

“Surfing is really funny because it’s not really a hobby, it becomes all-encompassing. It’s your vacation, it’s your free time … it’s your money. For New Yorkers, it’s a huge part of their lives but they don’t necessarily get to live it in the same way as a surfer who would be in Southern California, or the beaches of Australia, or any of the major surf areas,” says Rosen.

Because of the lifestyle in New York, Rosen explains, surf culture in the city has evolved its own aesthetic and way of being. In order for surfers in New York to keep up with the demanding pace of their careers, they chase waves on the weekends and watch the weather reports like hawks all other times. If the surf is incredible on a workday, they take the train out to the beach at 4 a.m. to get time on the water before heading in to the office at 8 a.m.

The look in New York is also different than other surf towns. Rosen describes the New York surf style as more progressive, making references to a mid-century modern aesthetic as the inspiration for Saturdays. “What we take from surfing is really more the ’50s, ’60s style. Which is cleaner, tighter silhouettes, a generally more sophisticated feeling, like right at the kind of beginning of surf. It was these kids who [wore] pencil ties, really nice, beautiful suits … things like that. But when they were in the water, they were just surfers,” Rosen explains,” We try to embody that when we build our brand.”

Josh Rosen, originally from Seattle, Washington, and Morgan Colette, from Newport Beach, California, met in New York City. They both worked for men’s clothing retailer and design house J. Lundberg but in different offices across the country from each other. The two hit it off at an industry tradeshow, and Rosen made arrangements for Colette, then at the beginning of his career, to be hired permanently at the New York office. Shortly after Colette moved to New York, the two men met Colin Tunstal, the only one of the three owners originally from New York, who was working as an art director for a number of well-respected magazines including Esquire’s The Big Black Book, GQ and New York Magazine.

All avid snowboarders, bikers and surfers, the three bonded quickly and still spend a significant amount of their leisure time doing outdoor activities together. Even when “there’s no waves, we get out and go upstate and hike, and we’re big fans of jumping off of things into water whenever we can find that,” Rosen says with a smile.

This sense of togetherness translates into how they run Saturdays and the communal vibe of the operation. As with most small businesses, Rosen, Tunstal and Colette have a very hands-on attitude about the shop. “It’s only been two years, so obviously a lot of things have changed. We opened the shop in August of 2009 and our roles were shop employee/coffee-maker. We all worked every job, which I think is important to the survival of any business – that you really get your hands dirty. I designed and built the store [alongside] a proper builder. Colin [Tunstal] did our blog and helped to build our website. And Morgan [Colette] is technically the CEO of the operation, taking care of all the day-to-day workings. As we are able to hire more employees, and we are able to back away from the day-to-day routine of the shop, we’ve settled into our own positions, but all of us still do a lot,” says Rosen. ”Even though I don’t serve coffee anymore – we have the really good professionals do it . . , I’m not afraid to clean a toilet or wash a window.”

The actual reach of Saturdays’ design influence, however, is far from that typical of a local operation.

They built Saturdays to reflect the New York surfer’s lifestyle, which Rosen defines as “the lifestyle of hustling your architecture, or your marketing firm, or whatever you do in the city, but still [incorporating] the part of you that is surfing.”

The aesthetic manifestation of this way of life has struck a real chord with companies such as J. Crew, who have tapped into Saturdays as a way of promoting their own connection to New York design while strengthening their ongoing tradition of purveying great American style. They currently carry Saturdays T-shirts, tanks, shorts and button-up shirts. None of the items carried by J. Crew are licensed goods. They are designed and manufactured by the Saturdays team and sold to J. Crew.

Lately, 100 percent of all clothing sold at Saturdays Surf is Saturdays-branded clothing, which Rosen, Colette and Tunstal design with their in-house production designer. Rosen explains this decision as an evolution of their vision for Saturdays and how the brand is ultimately an amalgamation of their own tastes; it’s a reflection of their own lives. “Initially, our third party brands were essentially brands that we wore. We love the Levi’s Vintage clothing; they make the best jeans and those beautiful T-shirts. So we brought them in. Before we made our surf trunks, we loved Lightning Bolt, so we brought those in.” Rosen continues, “We’ll definitely keep bringing in accessories and bags and face products and hair products from other companies, but as far as clothing is concerned, we are going to go to 100 percent Saturdays clothing because we’ve just created so many categories within the brand, that’s all really we have room for anymore. And, it’s also the ultimate reflection of ourselves because we design everything.”

Beyond the United States, Saturdays has gained great respect in surf communities internationally, particularly in Japan. In fact, Tokyo is already on their list of great interest for other shop locations. On a recent trip to Japan, Rosen saw kids on the street wearing Saturdays apparel and felt that the youth in Japan really understood the Saturdays lifestyle. “There’s just attention to detail. The way they involve themselves in a lifestyle is so up our alley and very cool,” Rosen says of the locals he met.

Other possible places around the globe for new Saturdays Surf retail stores include London, Paris and Sydney. The key factor for vertical retail locations, of course, is that the shops are located in major metropolitan areas that have access to the ocean. As for more locations in the States, another New York location is a possibility.

Even as Rosen discusses Saturdays’ search for new places to expand globally, he emphasizes and re-emphasizes that community is a core value he wants to keep no matter where they are located. Which brings him to the reason why, in the middle of a retail store full of clothes, he decided to include a coffee bar.

“I’m from Seattle so I came from a really heavy coffee [drinking] background. It’s just part of your lifestyle in Seattle; you always have your local café. The local cafés in Seattle have this really wonderful vibe. You walk in, they know your name, there’s this really great energy, it’s not [like] the hustle and bustle of Starbucks where [they] put your name on your cup and then you move out of there. You go hang out in the morning and you hang out in the afternoon. You eat your lunch there.”

Rosen continues: “I always liked that, and when we found this location, we saw the backyard and realized immediately that if we had a reason for them to stay, whether it be beer and wine, coffee or light food, that it would help to build our community of surfers and generally just our community. So, we opened the coffee bar with that in mind, and also the space really lends itself to a coffee shop. But after doing it, [as] we look to open other locations. I think we are always going to look for a place that will have access to coffee. It’s just such an important part of our brand now.”

As Rosen finishes, a few new regulars rotate into the backyard and settle in nearby. Some open up books, while others simply sit, sipping their La Colombe coffees and enjoying the sun.
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saturdaysnyc.com