iSea Surfwear stall 2017

An iSea adventure in London: This week we’ve been making, making making! We’re knee-deep in orders from The Telegraph Outdoor Travel and Adventure Show we attended last month and have been working hard to get all the made-to-measure wear posted out to their new owners! The show was such a success for us and we’ve had such a great response from new and loyal customers. Most popular on the day were our kids’ reversible hoodies – not surprising as the show was packed with young adventurers. We hardly saw Jaz on the stand, as she was busy making new friends at the climbing wall, testing out the cycling track, learning about protecting our sea life from plastic at the Ocean Fest, and we couldn’t drag her away from the Flapjackery, where she managed to trade an orange for an amazing palm oil-free chocolate flapjack – nice work Jaz!

Creating a buzz
We were really excited to launch our T-shirt range at the event – they went down really well! We’ve been asked to produce tees for years, but have resisted as it’s not cost-effective to make them ourselves and sourcing eco-friendly suppliers has been a challenge. But we finally found a fantastic company who can supply us with carbon-neutral, organic tees and we set to work screen printing onto them iSea style, customising them with our sharks, whales, waves and mermaid designs. We loved the look, so decided to showcase our newest print on them – we’ve created a bee-themed design, inspired by the bees that live in our roof and the nature we see on our coastal walks around Amroth. 

Celebrating individuality
One of the things we really promoted at the event was our made-to-measure service. We appreciate that we’re all unique and not everyone fits standard shop sizes. We had customers queuing up to be measured for our dresses and hoodies, and we took heaps of orders from people who find it difficult to get the perfect fit. Once we have your measurements, we’ll keep these details on file, so it’s always easy to re-order.

Highlights
As well as meeting so many of you, the show was a great opportunity to meet other businesses who share our vision of creating environmentally-friendly, locally produced, high quality goods and services. We were really lucky to be placed next to the Marine Conservation Society who we hope to work more closely with in the future. Other favourites included Whalefest, a not-for-profit company that supports a global partnership of major charities working for whales and dolphins – the World Cetacean Alliance. Jean-Michel Cousteau is president, and with strong media coverage we are drawing attention to win these vital campaigns.
We also met the Meek family who sold up, quit their jobs and took their girls out of school so that they could go on a year-long expedition around the UK. Jaz made great friends with Ella and Amy Meek who are two kids campaigning against single-use plastic bottles, with the aim of removing them from supermarket shelves in the UK, along side three other big aims. Ella and Jaz had so much in common and are now pen friends!
The Action Sports Tour, in the bike section was amazing, showing high flying displays from Europe’s best action sports stunt team! There was loads of the big companies exhibiting but it was smaller companies like Adventurenow who really stood out, as they offer exclusive unique products that are different and exciting.

There were too many amazing people and companies to mention, but here are some links to a few that really inspired us. We think you’ll love them, too:

Whalefest
http://www.whale-fest.com/

Kids against plastic
http://www.clearplasticuk.net/

The Meek family
http://www.dotrythisathome.com/

Recycling ghost nets
www.healthyseas.org

The Marine Conservation society
www.mcsuk.org/

Flapjackery – The best flapjacks ever (palm oil-free)
www.flapjackery.co.uk/

Adventure Now – Residential courses for aspiring outdoor adventure instructors
www.adventure-now.co.uk

Action sports tour – the UK’s premier Action Sports Entertainment provider http://www.actionsportstour.co.uk/