Marine outfitter looks smart after 20 years

Marine outfitter looks smart after 20 years

Last night, in a small building in St Lukes, yacht owners, sailors and members of the marine industry gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Events Clothing.It is a company largely unknown to most ordinary boaties. Its clothing lines do not appear on chandlery racks nor do they put in an appearance at boat ramps.Yet despite that apparent anonymity, Events Clothing is one of the New Zealand marine industry's most successful companies, recognised throughout the world wherever high-profile yacht races are staged or superyachts gather pub golf rules.Evidence of its international stature was again on display as it celebrated its 20 years in business, with owner Owen Rutter proudly announcing his company had been chosen to outfit the 60-strong crew on MY Serene. One of the biggest motor yachts ever built in Europe, Serene is 134m long, six levels high and all the crew will soon appear in uniforms from an extensive wardrobe supplied by Events Clothing.Such success is, as Rutter notes, a far cry from the aims of the small company he established with Ross Munro in 1991.Then, Rutter was a former professional sailor who had spent a few years in the marine industry and Munro was the man who held the local distribution rights for the Musto brand of sailing clothing.The pair established Events Clothing primarily as a non-retail Musto outlet and their prospective clients were "hardcore" yacht-racing crews and the relatively untapped local corporate apparel market.A few years later, Munro acquired Line 7 and, thanks largely to the successful 1995 America's Cup challenge in San Diego, the pair's world changed.With their clothing on board Black Magic and working closely with Team New Zealand sponsors ENZA, Lotto, Toyota, Steinlager and TVNZ, the profile of Line 7 escalated K. J. Choi Donates to Japan Relief Effort.Although its business was still 80 per cent domestic, the company now had product lines as diverse as corporate uniforms, promotional gear and even golf shirts."In the late 90s the rest of our business came from outfitting race crews for events like the Volvo Round the World Race and numerous one-design race teams such as the One Ton Cup, Farr 40s and TP52s," recalls Rutter.