Agent Eighteen Wetsuits

Over the past 12 months Agent Eighteen have been busy… really damn busy! While to the general public it would seam as though nothing has really been going on at all, behind the scenes we have been working around the clock, in and out of meetings with companies, flying all over the world in search of the best manufacturing and materials, pulling all nighters working on designs and campaigns, testing and prototyping new materials and ideas… the list goes on.

The truth is though we were not happy with our product, we were not happy with our manufacturer and we were certainly not happy that our suits were made in china.

In 2007 we set out with a goal to become the leaders in wetsuit design and innovation, we had dreams of all extreme sports enthusiasts from Bodyboarding to Freediving entering the liquid in an Agent Eighteen suit, kids lining up at there local retailer eager to see the latest ranges and designs. In an Industry dominated by so many corporate identities they were big dreams indeed. But dreams none the less. So what happened you ask?

Well one day whilst frantically trying to meet a deadline so our winter range would be in stores on time I stopped to look at our first DPS we ran in movement issue ? And it got me thinking about goals and dreams and why I started this company in the first place.

I’m not sure what the general person sees when they look at this shot but I see my brothers, my best mates standing tall and Confident. Stoked to be part of something fresh, innovative and unique. Because of our joint effort and ideas Agent Eighteen was an instant success.

So why after years of blood sweat and tears are we still no closer to achieving our goals and dreams. Why do we put so much effort in but still fall short time and time again with nothing but problems, complaints and inferior product over and over.

So many times I’ve just wanted to give up… Is it really worth it I would ask myself, how do I keep walking forward when all I want to do is walk away, when everything is good and it turns bad… really bad its hard to see the light in a dark place. It got to the point where everything seemed negative and it was too much to deal with. Not the fact that things were going wrong but the fact I felt like I had let everyone down that believed in Agent Eighteen.

Even though I wanted so badly to fix all the problems and help everyone out that supported our company I couldn’t see any possible solution. Everything had failed and no matter what we did it seemed impossible to get the quality product we so badly desired.

Thinking I had let down my best mates my family and the customers that supported us and believed in us was the lowest point in my life. And to think like there was nothing that could be done and it was time to give up made me feel hopeless.

That Sunday I sat in church and our pastor preached a sermon on Faith. Less talk about the idea and theory behind the word… And more talk about the practical overcoming faith.

It really hit home for me when he read the following quote from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris 1910.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

This was our Pastor’s picture of practical overcoming faith and to me it couldn’t have been more relevant.

Agent Eighteen was never about the money, power or fame it was about being part of something that can make a positive difference. My mates had put all there faith into our brand so who I am I to lose faith when things get difficult.

It was time to stop dwelling on the past and present and put the right things in place for a positive future for the company.

The first thing I did when I got home that day was stop production on our entire 2009 range. That was a really hard thing to do when you have invested thousands of dollars and 6 months into developing it. But I realized then and there that without the best materials and manufacturing available how could we ever be the leaders in wetsuit development… We couldn’t.

If you’re the best Chef but have poor ingredients it doesn’t matter how you present the meal it will still taste bad and Vice Versa, you can have the best ingredients but if you’re a bad chef then the meal will still look and taste bad.

Agent Eighteen needed the best Chef and the Best ingredients in order to achieve our goals. So the quest for perfection reignited.

Its amazing how quick things turn around when you change your frame of mind, within a week through a series of fortunate events I was in meetings with companies that could take Agent Eighteen where it dreamed to be. I spent the next 2 months designing an entire 2010 range 12 months in advance. People in the right places took note and were very impressed. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was on a plane to meet up with the best wetsuit manufacturer on the planet armed with a product book full of the best materials available to man. I spent the next week in a foreign country going over every single detail of the new designs from the contoured fit right down to where each individual bartack stitch is placed.

The last 9 months we have been receiving prototypes every 4-6 weeks… and have been advancing rapidly and done our best to keep everything as secret as we can. The last thing you want when you develop a new recipe is other company’s trying to copy it again!

All that being said it gives me extreme pleasure to announce we are in the final stages of prototyping our entire 2010 range. As you read this, our summer range will be going into mass production ready for a Christmas release. Finally we can confidently say we have developed a product that is a benchmark in wetsuit design. No expense has been spared on our 2010 range, simply put we have sourced the best of the best no matter what the cost. The hard yards have been done the effort has been made the money has been invested.

And the end result is YOU our valued customer will enter the water everyday with a dirty big smile on your face and know your wearing the good stuff made by good guys that are doing it all for the right reasons.

Yours Sincerely,

Bryce Thurston
Director
Agent Eighteen