Cypher Series Boardshorts for Quiksilver

Email this case study to a friend

Friend's email

Your Name

Your Email

Subject

Message Cypher Series Boardshorts Quiksilver has been an innovator in boardshorts for 40 years. Its original model, released in 1969, was the first to feature quick-drying cotton, a yoked waist, and a fly enclosure with two snaps and Velcro (to make sure that they’d stay put even in the roughest surf conditions). Since then, the California-based clothing retailer has grown into a multinational apparel company and introduced the industry to even more now-iconic features, including drawstrings, bold patterns, and stretch and technical fabrics. But in recent years, competitors have widely duplicated its efforts and caught up. Quiksilver sought to step up its game. Because the company is so close to its own demographic, it enlisted outside support to explore potential innovations in the now-crowded boardshort category. IDEO studied Quiksilver’s market strategy and consumer mindsets, looking for opportunities that others had either overlooked or failed to articulate. Rising to the challenge, team members piled into a rental RV and immersed themselves in the surf culture. They roamed the Southern California coast for a week, talking with beachgoers and observing their rituals, styles, passions, and habits. Their research led to many insights about the shortcomings of boardshort designs. For example, during a casual conversation at a popular local surf spot, a team member asked a surfer why the tie on his boardshorts was so tattered. It turns out, that after long stretches of surfing, boardshorts become looser. Surfers frequently struggle to tighten their waistbands in order to keep the shorts securely on their bodies. The team later discovered that surfers had grown to accept this nuisance as a fact — and just dealt with it by either continually wrestling with their waistbands or by buying a new pair of shorts. The team recognized this as an opportunity. Armed with this and other information, the team identified four types of boardshort users: The Athlete, The Expressionist, The Landsurfer and The Traveler. It sketched out a range of new ideas, conducted experiments, and realized prototypes to address what they’d learned in the field and to inform and inspire design directions. These profiles helped Quiksilver rethink the design and construction of new boardshort silhouettes and to consider how and why the garments would function differently in and out of the water for different users. For Quiksilver’s latest line of boardshorts — the Cypher Professional Series — IDEO developed a new waist closure that enables a perfect fit. The Double-Up closure, featured on the Massive and Reflex models, allows wearers to lace a drawstring through two sets of eyelets to accommodate different sizes. The new closure enables a precise fit while surfing. The Cypher Massive shorts, which retail for $85, are already being worn by nine-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater. Other boardshort features include: • Quiksilver’s updated Diamond Dobby deluxe technology, which reduces or eliminates rashes by cutting skin contact by 30 percent; • four-way stretch panels that deliver ergonomic flexibility that moves with the surfer’s body; • a Neoprene fly that uses Quiksilver’s proprietary wetsuit technology; • a Lycra hem that minimizes leg friction to eliminate binding. http://www.ideo.com/work/cypher-series-boardshorts

Quiksilver has been an innovator in boardshorts for 40 years. Its original model, released in 1969, was the first to feature quick-drying cotton, a yoked waist, and a fly enclosure with two snaps and Velcro (to make sure that they’d stay put even in the roughest surf conditions). Since then, the California-based clothing retailer has grown into a multinational apparel company and introduced the industry to even more now-iconic features, including drawstrings, bold patterns, and stretch and technical fabrics. But in recent years, competitors have widely duplicated its efforts and caught up. Quiksilver sought to step up its game.

Because the company is so close to its own demographic, it enlisted outside support to explore potential innovations in the now-crowded boardshort category. IDEO studied Quiksilver’s market strategy and consumer mindsets, looking for opportunities that others had either overlooked or failed to articulate. Rising to the challenge, team members piled into a rental RV and immersed themselves in the surf culture. They roamed the Southern California coast for a week, talking with beachgoers and observing their rituals, styles, passions, and habits.

Their research led to many insights about the shortcomings of boardshort designs. For example, during a casual conversation at a popular local surf spot, a team member asked a surfer why the tie on his boardshorts was so tattered. It turns out, that after long stretches of surfing, boardshorts become looser. Surfers frequently struggle to tighten their waistbands in order to keep the shorts securely on their bodies. The team later discovered that surfers had grown to accept this nuisance as a fact — and just dealt with it by either continually wrestling with their waistbands or by buying a new pair of shorts. The team recognized this as an opportunity.

Armed with this and other information, the team identified four types of boardshort users: The Athlete, The Expressionist, The Landsurfer and The Traveler. It sketched out a range of new ideas, conducted experiments, and realized prototypes to address what they’d learned in the field and to inform and inspire design directions. These profiles helped Quiksilver rethink the design and construction of new boardshort silhouettes and to consider how and why the garments would function differently in and out of the water for different users.

For Quiksilver’s latest line of boardshorts — the Cypher Professional Series — IDEO developed a new waist closure that enables a perfect fit. The Double-Up closure, featured on the Massive and Reflex models, allows wearers to lace a drawstring through two sets of eyelets to accommodate different sizes. The new closure enables a precise fit while surfing. The Cypher Massive shorts, which retail for $85, are already being worn by nine-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater.

Other boardshort features include:

• Quiksilver’s updated Diamond Dobby deluxe technology, which reduces or eliminates rashes by cutting skin contact by 30 percent;

• four-way stretch panels that deliver ergonomic flexibility that moves with the surfer’s body;

• a Neoprene fly that uses Quiksilver’s proprietary wetsuit technology;

• a Lycra hem that minimizes leg friction to eliminate binding.