\n\tThe 3,000-square-foot store is located at 28 Rue Gambetta, in the center of the town of Biarritz, which Mike Faherty, chief creative officer and cofounder, described as \u201cthe European hub of surfing<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFaherty, who founded the brand with his twin brother Alex in 2012 as a sustainably sourced East Coast-skewed men\u2019s sportswear collection <\/a>that offered an alternative to the brightly colored California surf brands, said he\u2019s been spending his summers in Biarritz for the past eight years and has immersed himself in the community and culture.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI first heard about Biarritz in 1994 watching \u2018Endless Summer 2\u2019 on repeat,\u201d he said. \u201cSurfing<\/a> in France<\/a> wasn\u2019t even on my radar then, but the vibe of the Basque coast and the feeling of French summer stuck with me, and I promised myself I\u2019d get there one day. Twenty-three years later I finally did, with my now wife, who had been spending her summers there. From the moment you arrive, there\u2019s a slower pace to life, a warmth and sense of peace \u2014 bakea in Basque \u2014 and a deep respect for the earth, the ocean and tradition. Biarritz [has] that great mix of surf culture with amazing food, and a laid-back spirit made it the natural place for us to open our first store in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tInside the Faherty store in Biarritz, which opens Thursday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Faherty<\/p>\n \n\tThe store, which will open on Thursday, was designed in collaboration with architect and designer Louise Pastres and blends the casual and comfortable Faherty aesthetic with influences from the local beach community. In addition to the brand\u2019s core men\u2019s and women\u2019s product, it will offer some custom product such as sweatshirts with the word Biarritz printed on them and some locally produced co-branded espadrilles. The store will also feature the photographs of Turbulente Kombucha founder Julien Binet showcasing the local surf community.<\/p>\n \n\tHe said that showing at Pitti helped the brand gauge how it would \u201cfit in the international landscape.\u201d The results gave them the confidence they needed to take the plunge.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe saw that we were ready,\u201d he said. \u201cWe could just tell by how our collection looked compared to other collections, the response from international buyers, and the way we were able to get the right distributors across the different regions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFaherty\u2019s first entry into international waters started with the Spanish department store El Corte Ingl\u00e9s, where it has five shops-in-shop. And this fall, the brand will be added to a variety of retailers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAll that momentum made me really confident that we\u2019d have success opening up our own international store,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tIf successful, the store will be the first of many. \u201cBy 2030, our plan is to have international be almost 30 percent of our business \u2014 that\u2019s in our long-range plan. I really think that against all of our American contemporaries, we can go international and be a world-class brand. I learned that from my education at Ralph U,\u201d he said, referring to his earlier career at Ralph Lauren. \u201cBeing a part of that brand, and seeing how Ralph is so relevant overseas, I think that\u2019s made his brand stand the test of time, versus a lot of his contemporaries.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the European customers may not know Faherty, he believes it\u2019s only a matter of time before they discover the brand. \u201cWe\u2019re finding everyone overseas shares the same love of the Faherty lifestyle: laid-back beach vacations, ski trips. We\u2019re seeing success already in wholesale so it\u2019s looking like it\u2019s going to play out a similar way as in the States.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn the U.S., he said the company started opening stores in coastal communities such as Malibu, Calif., and Nantucket, Mass., before moving into cities. \u201cThat\u2019s how we feel about Europe: Let\u2019s get our people on vacation. Let them love the brand in their happy places, and then they\u2019ll find us down the road when we\u2019re ready to open shops in international cities.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe said the distributor network that the company has created for its wholesale business will also oversee the international stores. He said the company is looking for additional locations in the beach areas of Germany as well as in the U.K. and London. \u201cWe\u2019re starting to plot our city rollout.\u201d Toward that end, Faherty will open a monthlong pop-up at the Merci concept store in Paris this April.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFaherty is a big fan of brick-and-mortar stores.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Faherty<\/p>\n \n\tHe said the goal for the company is to have \u201cthat classic 30-30-30 split\u201d of wholesale, retail<\/a> and online, although right now, retail<\/a> accounts for a more than one-third.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2023, reports surfaced that the family had hired a financial adviser to find investors or sell a stake surfaced. Faherty wouldn\u2019t tip his hand, saying only: \u201cThe Fahertys still own the majority of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fahertys are heading overseas. Less than a year after testing the waters with a booth at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,363,114186],"class_list":["post-833074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-retail","tag-surfing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116247901551241134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Faherty](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n