Instinct was launched in 1979 by South African surfer/businessman and the 1977 IPS World Champion, Shaun Tomson. In Australia, in the 80s and early 90s, Instinct was a top 5 brand sitting behind Billabong/Quiksilver and Rip Curl and was sold into over 500 retail doorways. Instinct had a strong team of athletes and Tom Carroll was our first ASP World Champion, winning in ’83/’84 and ’84/’85 before moving to Quiksilver, and then Manly’s Barton Lynch took the title in 1988. The brand folded in 1994 after founder, Shaun Tomson, had walked away from the brand and had sold off his interest. Poor management plummeted the business into bankruptcy and by 1994 it had disappeared from global markets.

Now, 30 years on, we are bringing the brand back to bricks and mortar retailers here in Australia! We’ve launched a mix of heritage prints and styles, combined with a lifestyle offering of fresh branded Instinct products in an 80s colour palette. In our new collection, we are using 100% recycled materials in all products, printing with earth-friendly inks and delivering all our products in biodegradable packaging (sustainability is one of our new ethos)! We also have aligned the brand with several youth empowerment charities, and a percentage of sales are donated to those.

Shaun Tomson has the global rights back in his control, and works with us in an advisory capacity.  We have some major team (we like to use the word tribe) and brand ambassador announcements we are about to release over the coming weeks. We are taking bookings now for our high summer and winter collections and enquiries can be made via sales@instinct.surf.