(via Cool Hunting)

Craftsmanship. Design. Life.

This month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my good friend Dave Allee of Almond Surfboards (owner & founder). We talked about brand, the intentionality they bring to every aspect of their design, and the importance of not defining life by surfing alone. However, one of my biggest takeaways from our conversation was learning his thought process for defining a niche and sticking to it. Or to sum it up… not trying to be all things to all people.

I think there is something for everyone in this short interview. Read the snippet below and feel free to read the entire article over on CoolHunting.com via the link provided. Beyond our philosophical meanderings, I also took the time to order myself a brand new Almond longboard. More on that to come…

How does [the idea of craftsmanship] play out in your brand?
We want our surfboards to be a small representation of a bigger need in humanity to have that sense of collaborative effort and accomplishment and common purpose. The ability to say, at the end of the day, this is what I made.

That’s why we do T-shirts with blue prints of boards on it. Honoring craftspeople of all types. The reality is, I know a lot of surfers that are incredibly talented in a lot of different areas. I like to think that the fact that we are surfers is not the thing that is the most interesting things about us. Professionals of all types are also surfers. In actuality, we are spending a few minutes a week riding a wave and hopefully we are spending the rest of our time doing significant or substantial things.