CASE STUDY — SURF OHIO®
An Ohio surf brand, 48 years and counting.
Surf Ohio started in 1978 as a joke about surfing a landlocked state, drawn by artist Ron Kaplan, Zach’s dad. Today Traxler Graphics runs surfohio.com: the store, the reissues of Ron’s original designs, the new collections and the production behind them.
- Brand
- Surf Ohio®
- Founded
- 1978, Athens, Ohio, by artist Ron Kaplan
- Our role
- Operator: store, product, marketing, production
- Where it sells
- surfohio.com
The story we inherited
In 1976 Ron Kaplan printed shirts for a Beach Boys concert at Ohio State with a made-up “Olentangy Masters Surfing Classic” on the back. After the Blizzard of ’78 he took the idea to his t-shirt shop in Athens, swapped in the Hocking River, and Surf Ohio was born. Through the ’80s it grew into Surf Ohio Bashes at Buckeye Lake and Wyandot Lake, and the shirts made it all the way to Hollywood. HOMAGE later licensed the original designs for a new generation.
What we do for it now
- The store. We run surfohio.com on Shopify: collections, product pages, size guides, shipping and checkout.
- The originals. Reproductions of Ron’s 1980 Olentangy and Hocking river tees, with the same design carried to the Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Great Miami (Dayton) and Little Miami (Cincinnati).
- New collections. The Lagoon tie-dye line, the limited-edition Pink Tide drop, the ’90s logo collection and the 45th anniversary tees, built alongside the classics.
- Marketing. A full SEO pass with new product metadata across the catalog, and email campaigns such as the Pink Tide launch.
- The range. Tees, long sleeves, crewnecks, hoodies, joggers, jackets, hats, stickers and a sling bag, in adult and kids sizes.
Two audiences, one brand
A heritage brand sells to the people who wore the shirt in 1985 and to their kids who just found it. The reproductions keep the originals true for the first group. The new collections give the second group a reason to keep coming back. Product pages carry a relaxed-fit size guide in inches, because a vintage-style fit bought online needs one.
What it means for your brand
Running Surf Ohio is where we learn what we tell clients about merch: which pieces sell, how to stage a limited drop, and how to write a product page that answers the sizing question before anyone asks it. If you are building an apparel brand, or bringing an old one back, tell us about it.
If it can be printed, we make it.
One studio for brand, print, apparel, and web — in Columbus, Ohio.
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