HEIR OF THE DOG

Mambo was born in 1984, under the concrete palms of industrial inner Sydney, Redfern, about as far from soul surfing as a Club Med surf camp. 

By the time we had missed our twenty third job interview and were being cut from government welfare support, the surf industry had grown up, and out, bloated on its own sense of importance (something that took us another ten years to achieve), and its staggering lack of creativity.

Our plan, once we had decided on a plan, was to ignore everything that was happening in the surfing industry, and to provide like-minded friends with a fairly authentic and reasonably intelligent product that would provide both entertainment and value for money, along with a reliable cash flow that would enable us to not have to do a runner when the bill arrived. Failing that, our Plan B was to have enough unsold product loaded into the van before the liquidators arrived, to give away as Christmas presents to friends and family for the next ten years.

But the liquidators never arrived, and Mambo grew from a precocious group of surfers, and itinerate artists clutching crayons and a second-hand sewing machine into an international surf and streetwear brand with a unique vision and a healthy disregard for account managers.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Mambo.