Social media has been full of claims that Rip Curl is finished. If you’ve seen those posts and wondered whether the brand is actually shutting down, the short answer is no — but the longer answer is more complicated than that.
There are real financial problems at play. Stores are closing. Executives have been replaced. The numbers are not good. But none of that is the same as a brand going out of business. Here’s what’s actually happening.
Rip Curl Is Not Closing — But It Is Shrinking Its Retail Presence
As of current reporting, Rip Curl is still designing, manufacturing, and selling surfwear and wetsuits. The brand has not announced a shutdown, a liquidation, or a discontinuation of its products.
What is happening is a reduction in its physical retail footprint — and that’s a meaningful difference. Closing stores is not the same as closing a brand. Many clothing companies have done exactly this: cut underperforming mall locations while keeping the brand alive through flagship stores and online sales.
Rip Curl is still sponsoring athletes and events. That alone signals that the brand is still operating and still investing in its identity. You can still buy their products online and through remaining retail locations.
The confusion comes from mixing up what’s happening at the brand level with what’s happening at the group level — and that requires some context.
Who Owns Rip Curl Now and Why That Matters
Rip Curl was founded in 1969 in Torquay, Victoria, Australia. For decades it grew into one of the most recognized names in surf. In 2019, New Zealand outdoor retailer Kathmandu acquired Rip Curl for approximately AU$350 million.
That acquisition folded Rip Curl into what eventually became KMD Brands — a portfolio company that now owns Rip Curl, Kathmandu, and Oboz. The key thing to understand here is that strategic and financial decisions are now made at the group level, not just for Rip Curl in isolation.
So when KMD Brands runs into financial trouble, the effects ripple across all three brands. Rip Curl doesn’t have to be the main source of the problem to feel the consequences. If the group is cutting costs, every brand in the portfolio gets affected.
This is a common outcome when independent brands get absorbed into larger conglomerates. The brand keeps its identity, but its financial fate becomes tied to the parent company’s overall performance.
The Financial Numbers Behind the Headlines
The numbers are genuinely bad — that much is fair to say. KMD Brands reported an NZ$83 million statutory deficit in a recent financial year. By the group’s own framing, it was the worst performance in more than a decade.
Rip Curl specifically saw sales fall nearly 10% — roughly AU$25 million — in a single half-year reporting period. That’s a significant drop for any brand in a relatively short window.
KMD’s share price tells a similar story. It fell from around NZ$1 to under NZ$0.50 over roughly one year. A share price declining by half in twelve months reflects serious investor concern about the direction of the business.
But here’s the important business context: a large loss and a falling share price typically trigger restructuring, not liquidation. When a conglomerate underperforms at this scale, the standard playbook is to cut costs, close underperforming locations, replace leadership, and stabilize the core assets. That’s exactly what KMD Brands is doing.
There has also been commentary linking some of the sales decline to a controversy around trans inclusion and resulting boycott calls. It’s worth noting that according to BeachGrit’s reporting, Rip Curl’s sales had already dropped nearly 10% before those boycott effects fully materialized. The financial pressure appears to have multiple causes — macro retail conditions, post-pandemic spending shifts, and increased competition among them — not a single incident.
Store Closures, Cost Cuts, and the KMD Turnaround Plan
KMD Brands announced a formal transformation strategy that includes closing at least 21 stores across its brand portfolio and cutting approximately $25 million in annual operating costs. Key executives have also been replaced as part of the effort.
It’s important to be precise here: the 21-store figure covers the entire KMD group — Kathmandu, Rip Curl, and Oboz combined. Not all of those closures are Rip Curl stores specifically.
Closing low-traffic, underperforming stores to cut fixed costs is a standard move in struggling retail. It’s not pretty, and it matters to employees and local customers. But it’s a restructuring action, not a wind-down signal.
The logic is straightforward: fewer unprofitable locations means lower overhead, which improves the group’s margins and gives it time to focus on what’s actually working — whether that’s online channels, flagship locations in strong surf markets, or wholesale distribution through third-party retailers.
What This Means for Customers
If you’re a Rip Curl customer, the practical takeaway is simple. The brand is still operating. Products are still available. Warranties should still be honored as long as the brand continues to run — and right now, it is.
Some physical store locations are closing or have already closed, depending on your region. If your local store is one of them, your options are the official online store, remaining flagship locations in major surf regions, and third-party outdoor or surf retailers that stock Rip Curl products.
Core product lines — particularly wetsuits, which are central to Rip Curl’s identity — are not being discontinued. Seasonal updates to product lines are normal in any apparel brand and should not be read as a sign of collapse.
How to Read This Situation as a Business Observer
For anyone watching this from a business or investment perspective, there are a few clear signals to track.
First, follow KMD Brands’ financial statements directly. Social media speculation and commentary sites often lag behind or misrepresent what’s in official earnings reports. The NZ$83 million deficit and the store closure plan came from KMD’s own announcements — that’s the primary source to watch.
Second, look at whether the turnaround plan is actually changing the numbers. Cutting $25 million in annual costs is meaningful on paper. The real question is whether those cuts improve profitability in the next one to two reporting cycles, or whether revenue continues to decline fast enough to offset the savings.
Third, watch for any change in Rip Curl’s sponsorship activity. Active sponsorships signal brand investment. If those start getting pulled back significantly, that would be a more concrete warning sign than store closures alone.
If you’re researching this as part of broader business planning — whether you’re a retailer that stocks Rip Curl, a wholesale buyer, or someone evaluating the outdoor apparel sector — resources like StartBizAdvice can help put this kind of brand and market analysis into a wider strategic context.
The Bottom Line
Rip Curl is not going out of business. It is, however, going through a painful period as part of a struggling parent company. The losses are real. The store closures are real. The executive changes are real.
But there’s a clear difference between a brand contracting and a brand collapsing. Right now, Rip Curl sits in the first category. Whether it stays there — or moves toward something worse — depends on whether KMD Brands’ turnaround plan actually delivers results over the next year or two.
The best thing you can do, whether you’re a customer, an investor, or a business observer, is ignore the social media noise and look at the actual financial filings when they come out. That’s where the real story will be told.
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