Improve young salaryman quality of life by allowing them to reengage with the waves by giving them the accessibility and freedom.

While the conventional approach in promoting a new lifestyle is to push existing products through traditional ads, we disrupted the category by designing a product catered to our target’s lifestyle.

Our concept – a dual-purpose wetsuit for on and off time was developed through extensive research of our target. Many enjoyed starting their day surfing before heading to work, but frustrated with process and time it took them to change into their business suits. As they lead a busy lifestyle, too often they would have to give up surfing due to their tight schedule.

With this insight, we began our development of dual-purpose wetsuit from scratch.

The suit was collaboratively designed between Japan’s top fashion designer and wetsuit craftsman. The suit jacket / pants were made from 2mm thick Neoprene; first to be applied for business suits. We also worked with 3M to develop a special fabric, DRY FLIGHT, for the world’s first waterproof dress shirt.

Our newly completed high-performance suit combines the two functions of office attire and wetsuit in one garment. And it comes with a total package with shirt, tie and even a pen-shaped digital device to email your boss when running late.

‘True Wetsuits’ became a worldwide sensation. The 2015 model sold out within three days of its launch, and more orders are flocking in all the way to 2016 delivery. It has accumulated over 10 million impressions in Japanese media and over 120 million impressions globally, and featured in over 100 online stories and blogs up to today. ‘True Wetsuits’ has not only brought back the men who once traded their wetsuits for business suits, but revolutionized their work-life balance.

A powerful product that brought back the young Japanese workers from the boardroom to the surfboard.

Surfing is one of the most popular sports in Japan. However, the unfortunate truth is that 90% of young Japanese surfers hang up their wetsuits for good once they start working in the real world.

Sadly, between the brutal early morning commutes and the eye-burning late nights, there is no time for ‘salaryman’ to hit the beach and practice what was once his ‘way of life’. Quiksilver wanted to bring these men back, back into the fold, back into the line-up with a revolutionary product.