When Born of Water founder Ryan McClellan mentioned at a small, pre-Blue Wild Ocean Adventure Expo gathering of divers Friday night that his company had just acquired Speared Apparel, literally everyone at the table nodded in agreement that it made perfect sense.
Born of Water began as standard custom apparel shop, but three years ago started promoting itself as a lifestyle brand with t-shirts and hats. Speared adds a logical expansion with its board shorts, rash guards, shirts, hats, and gaiters. They even have a branded camo wetsuit through a partnership with Henderson.
The two brands complement each other, not only in depth of product lines, but also in design creating a cohesive brand of lifestyle products for divers, spearos, and water enthusiasts alike. The two lines were displayed alongside each other at Blue Wild 2018.
While the average retail buyer probably didn’t notice, the dive industry certainly took note and seemed quite pleased with the marriage. Both brands will benefit from each other’s reach in various retail outlets both domestically and abroad. While there will be some crossover, McClellan expects the transition to be “seamless,” if you’ll pardon the pun. He added:
“We’re excited to bring Speared into the Born of Water family, finding it a well-known brand and a great addition. Born of Water focuses on scuba and freediving and Speared fills out our lifestyle line.”
After our interview, this writer bought shirts from each line. One can never have too many cool t-shirts.
T-Shirts average US$20 (~16 Euros) to $30 (~24 Euros), hats are $24.95 (~20 Euros) to $26.95 (~22 Euros), and UV Shirts are $30 to $40 (~32 Euros). Women’s sizes run from XS to XXL, and men’s sizes from S to XXL. Hats include both round-bill and flat-bill styles as well.
You can buy both brands online (Born of Water here and Speared Apparel here) as well as at dozens of different retailers.
