Shirt company takes its dudes seriously

Andrew Edwards

A new T-shirt company tucked inside a Balboa Peninsula apartment is

looking to make some sweet waves in the industry.

Beachdude, Inc. is the brainchild of K.C. Heylin, a former

carpenter whose old business also used the Beachdude, Inc. moniker.

But in the past year, he switched from wood to cotton. The transition

got off to a rough start.

Over the last summer, Heylin, 46, said he spent about $4,600

designing a line of surf-inspired casual apparel. The only problem

was that upon finishing, he didn’t like what he saw.

“I looked at it, and I kind of had the feeling that I’d been

punched in the gut, because I wasn’t feeling it,” Heylin said.

His dissatisfaction prompted him to redesign his products, which

he finished in November. Heylin’s gear is based upon three simple

designs: a yellow, nameless tiki man; the letters “BDI” in a spade

shape; and Beachdude Inc.’s spiky logo superimposed over a surfboard.

Heylin also has a design of baby clothes bearing the image of a tiki

man juggling baby bottles.

“It feels gratifying to see it come together,” Heylin said.

Beachdude Inc. has only one employee, 19-year-old surfer Ryan

Garvin, whom Heylin recruited from Saddleback Church in Lake Forest.

Heylin called himself the company’s “Young Dude,” and Heylin’s

business cards list his title as the “Main Dude.”

The pair are trying to promote their clothes at local surf shops,

and on Friday, Heylin hopped a plane to Hawaii, where he hopes to

convince stores on the islands to carry his products. Though

Beachdude Inc.’s inventory is confined to Heylin’s garage and another

in Huntington Beach, the company is online, and the Internet makes it

possible for the pair to sell their clothes on the other side of the

Pacific, Garvin said.

“I don’t know why, but the Japanese like it,” Garvin said.

Heylin and Garvin want to market their duds as a hip product but

also want to keep a clean image. hey’re both Christians, Garvin said,

so they won’t resort to racy promotions a la the Abercrombie and

Fitch catalog to market their clothes. They want the beach image to

sell.

“We want people to look at it and think, it’s cool, I want to buy

it,” Garvin said.