LimeCoral™ Apparel Company

Context

Costa Rica's surf market in the late 2000s was crowded with international brands. A regional label had no distribution, no athlete roster, and no reason for a shop to carry it.

Challenge

A regional surf lifestyle brand needed a distinct identity, product story, and retail presence in competitive markets.

Mandate

Founder. Own the brand, the product line, distribution, retail, athlete marketing, and the interactive agency operating alongside it.

Constraints

• Building a consumer brand from zero in a market dominated by established international labels.
• Physical product economics: sourcing, inventory, and wholesale terms had to work before scale was possible.

System built

Brand direction, product launches, wholesale partnerships, event marketing, and athlete sponsorship storytelling.

• Created the brand end to end: identity, apparel lines, campaign photography, and creative direction.
• Scaled wholesale distribution to 100+ international retail locations with inventory logistics and partner management.
• Operated flagship stores in Jacó, Costa Rica and Granada, Nicaragua.
• Ran an athlete-marketing program sponsoring 20+ emerging and professional surfers, and produced or sponsored some of Latin America’s largest surf tournaments.
• Served as principal sponsor of Costa Rica’s national surf team and designed the uniforms it wore to win the 2014 World Surfing Championship.
• Ran the studio as a delivery engine in parallel, producing 1,000+ interactive projects for CareerBuilder enterprise accounts over seven years.

Execution

• Created the brand end to end: identity, apparel lines, campaign photography, and creative direction.
• Scaled wholesale distribution to 100+ international retail locations with inventory logistics and partner management.
• Operated flagship stores in Jacó, Costa Rica and Granada, Nicaragua.
• Ran an athlete-marketing program sponsoring 20+ surfers and produced or sponsored some of Latin America's largest surf competitions.
• Ran the studio in parallel as a delivery engine, producing 1,000+ interactive projects for CareerBuilder enterprise accounts over seven years.

Outcomes

Evidence

• Costa Rica's national surf team won the 2014 World Surfing Championship in LimeCoral™-designed uniforms.
• Retail placement across 100+ international locations.

From the work

Operating lesson

Cultural credibility outperforms ad spend in a consumer category. Sponsoring the athletes and the events put the brand where the audience already was, and a world title did more than any campaign could have.

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