Liberated Brands, operator of surf brands such as Billabong, Quiksilver and Volcom, filed for bankruptcy in early February after losing its licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group, which owns the brands, because of its significant debt of $226 million.
The company, which also held licenses for Roxy, RVCA, Captain Fin, Spyder and Honolua, filed for bankruptcy in the District of Delaware on Feb. 2, after Authentic Brands decided to terminate its licensing agreement in December 2024. As a result, roughly 124 stores across the nation are to close in the coming months.
In a signed court filing dated Feb. 3, Todd Hymel, CEO of Liberated Brands, said that the termination resulted from a “dramatic rise in interest rates” and “supply chain delays.” Liberated was granted a limited right to sell through prior-season branded inventory. The brands are currently listed 60% off sitewide using the code “SITEWIDE” without an option to return.
As part of the shutdown, the company laid off 1,400 employees, according to a Fortune report. Cascia Collings, a third-year graphic design major at Point Loma Nazarene University, has been a manager at Quiksilver in downtown San Diego for over a year and a half. She was notified on Feb. 3 that she would lose her job sometime in April.
“I was pretty stressed out and bummed only because I am a student so it’s hard for me to find a job that is easy with getting spring breaks off and going home for the summers,” Collings said, “so it was really nice when I found this gig and was able to still be a full-time student and have a full-time job.”
Some of the brands sponsor hundreds of professional and amateur surfers. Quiksilver sponsors about 500; one of them is Makana Franzmann, a third-year business major at PLNU. He said that his sponsorship is not affected.
While Quiksilver is owned by Authentic Brands, 05 Apparel holds the brand’s wholesale license, which means they act as a distributor by placing Quiksilver products in various stores.
“The headlines are misleading,” Franzmann said. “Quiksilver is in a good place.”
Hymel said, in the court file, that toward the end of December 2024, entering January 2025, supplies began holding back shipments and inventory that was on its way for the spring 2025 season. This reduced the borrowing funds by more than $10 million.
Shortly after Liberated was formed in 2019, it experienced a dramatic increase in product demand during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a heightened time spent outdoors, according to the court file. The company’s revenue increased 20% in just a year from $350 million in 2021 to $422 million in 2022.
However, while all stores are closing, the brands’ licenses are being transferred to another operator to continue making inventory, according to a CNN report. The apparel will be sold in department stores and specialty retailers like Sun Diego, Jack’s Surfboards and Tillys in addition to the brands’ online sites.
Collings said it felt like she and her bosses were being withheld “70% of the information regarding almost anything about it.” She said she doesn’t know who the new operator is that the brands are being transitioned to.
“They have been really, really quiet about a lot of stuff,” she said.
There already has been a decrease in in-person shoppers, Collings said, because more surfers tend to go to places like Sun Diego or Tillys for convenience since they carry all of the brands in one place.
Some of the more popular brands under Liberated, including Billabong, Roxy, Quiksilver and Volcom, were founded 30-50 years ago. They specialize in surf, snow and skate gear and beach apparel like wet suits, swimwear and casual clothing. However, local shops seem to be the go-to place in recent years.
Reaves Dayton, a third-year nursing major, formerly worked at a local surf shop in Oahu, HI, called Hawaiian Island Creations (HIC), which carries all of the brands, she said. She also said that the brand retail stores, like Volcom, are priced higher than local stores like HIC, which brings in more customers.
Another reason surfers may choose to shop local, Dayton said, is because certain brands specialize in different things, such as wetsuits and snow gear.
“It’s more common for you to walk into something that has all of them [the brands] than to walk into a singular brand because a lot of the times, a singular brand won’t have everything you need,” Dayton said.
Carissa Cannon 
Tessa Balc