INDOEK | HAYDEN’S HOME FOR SURF SHACKS
Recently, Indoek was invited into Hayden’s home in Sydney, Australia to capture a photo story for their next Surf Shacks book, Volume 2, currently underway. What ended up transpiring for the feature was an open and candid interview with Hayden about design, the Haydenshapes brand and his take on the differing views within the surfboard manufacturing industry. It’s worth a read.. Here’s a few highlights.
To read the interview and view the feature in full, head here.
ON THE DESIGN AND STYLE OF HIS HOME…
"It is surrounded by water and the ocean which creates a good energy. From a design perspective, it is quite minimalistic which suits both Danielle and my taste – similar to our Haydenshapes retail store which we also designed ourselves. We did basically all of the renovations for our home from the sanding and bleaching of the floorboards, to ripping out tiles, laying concrete, all of the painting, building some of our own furniture pieces etc."
ON CAREER TURNING POINTS AND TURNING A ‘HOBBY’ INTO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS…
"I think that there have been so many ups and downs over the years that I have never yet sat back and thought “yep, Haydenshapes is successful” because there is so much to achieve yet and not just for me or my brand, but the surfboard category in general. I wrote my first and only business plan for Haydenshapes when I was in high school and I have taken it pretty seriously from day one to be honest. Surfboards have never been a hobby for me and I’ve always had a big vision in my head of where I wanted to take it."
ON HIS INTEREST IN INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY…
That’s just my personality. Shortly after buying the house we made it a Samsung smart home where all of the appliances sync and link to one another from my fridge to the TV’s and our even our washing machine and oven. I can control a lot of it from my phone. I geek out on that stuff, I love technology and have always been an early adaptor. It’s a big part of Haydenshapes DNA because of my genuine interest in design, aesthestics and innovation. It naturally carries through the brand, rather than being forced.
ON CRITICS WITHIN THE SURFBOARD INDUSTRY AND CHALLENGING MANUFACTURING STIGMAS…
I respect everyone in our industry whether they are selling product globally or not beyond the local beach, building product offshore or in their back yard. I also respect them whether they like what we do or if they hate it. We all play our part and there is room to co-exist. One thing that the surfboard industry is not short of is passion, and passion has multiple layers to it. It isn’t black and white. I try to focus my time on ensuring that the materials and processes used to build my boards deliver the highest quality and the most consistent performance to our customers whether they are built in my Australian factory or in Thailand.
Don’t be scared to evolve and learn and put that back into what you are doing. Customers are interested in your stories and the path that you are taking, so stay focused on that rather than what others are doing.
Photos and interview by Matt Titone.
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