Justin Bauer

Isn’t it funny how things turn out? You expect one thing and life hands you something totally different. Like when you plan for sunshine and get Santa Anas, you’re stoked on good surf and it’s crowded, or you think they’ll always be there and suddenly they’re gone.
    As I drove up the 405 to Huntington in unplanned traffic, I thought about my interview with the kid who I grew up with, my brother’s best childhood friend, Quiksilver boardshort designer Justin Bauer. The one who, according to Justin, when we played Star Wars I begged to call me Princess Lea and he instead called me Chewbacca. Whatever, I don’t remember that.
While hints of that kid were definitely still there, I found a designer for one of the largest surf companies in the world, a partner who understands the value of team work, and a philanthropist looking to leave his mark on the world.
The 27-year-old artist was born in Orange, California and had plans of becoming a comic book artist. “I started to take design classes in college just ‘cause I had to. I didn’t really like design. I thought design was lowbrow and I would never want to do that. I kind of had an ego … little did I know,” Bauer said.
Bauer went on to take classes in portraiture and fine art and started to acknowledge its depth and potential for his life. He searched for a way to make a living doing something creative. “It occurred to me that the action sports industry would be that venue just because there’s so much progressive style, always new trends and a welcoming of different artists,” Bauer said.
Bauer applied for a position designing boardshorts at Quiksilver in 2004. “It was a shot in the dark,” he said. But he got it, landing right under the wing of Huntington Beach local and surf aficionado Steve Fontes.
“I brought on Justin and it was great ‘cause he came from such a different [place], not being born in the surf industry and having such a different perspective that it was just a perfect mix,” Fontes said.
“You know, there are so many times when he and I are thinking the same thing, or we’re working from a different perspective, but we come to the same resolution … Like he said, it is really cool to see, me coming completely from outside the industry trying to absorb everything and him being absolutely 100 percent involved in the industry, it sort of created a marriage of two worlds that we’re both happy with and proud to put forth with our line,” Bauer said.
With my idea of what a designer’s job was like, I planned to ask Bauer about trust in oneself and the self-assurance it must take to push an idea all the way from the drawing board to the stores. Instead, he taught me that it is less about individualism and more about finding a team that you trust.
“It’s not just us. We have to be intentional with boardshorts early on because we know how important it is to the company. We have to go out there with specific eyes looking for these looks, but we have to work with the rest of the team because a lot of this artwork goes throughout the whole line. At the end of the day, we can only trust ourselves so much. So it’s a matter of working with those guys and checking our opinions against their ideas. It kind of starts with a few of us, in a way, and expands. You know you’ve got something good if we’ve all put our input in and we’ve all said what we need to say. So there’s trust, but that only goes so far,” Bauer said.
Maybe his eastern ideals of teamwork stem from his travels to over seven countries in less than three years. Regardless, what he’s saying is something to listen to. Without the support of a team that you work well with and trust, you can only go so far.
Bauer has carried these ideals into all facets of his life using the participation of others to make a positive impact on the world. Bauer and his best friend James Toney co-founded the charity organization ACTVST earlier this year. According to their mission statement, ACTVST seeks to mobilize a generation to the service of humanity worldwide through creative initiatives in art, fashion, music, film, literature and athletics.
Naturally, ACTVST’s slogan is “action is greater than apathy,” a statement that Bauer holds true in his own life. In both his work at Quiksilver and with ACTVST, Bauer aims to resist the urge toward complacency and instead recognize the value of hard work and the need for change.
Join him in his effort Jan. 18 where Quiksilver and ACTVST come together for the first time at the ACTVST Fashion Show and Charity Auction where unique apparel will be showcased in order to benefit ACTVST’s primary charity EPIC. Or visit www.theactvst.com for more information on how to get involved.