Maui losing 10 stores, 80 jobs after company overseeing iconic surfing brands files for bankruptcy

At the Honolua Surf Company store in The Shops at Wailea, the big sign says: “Nothing Held Back.”

Behind the counter, are a box of placards with numbers in multiples of 10 going up to 90, revealing the increasing markdown percentages that will be going on the merchandise as the once popular store approaches its permanent closing date, likely at the end of April.

It is one of 10 surf stores on Maui — four Honolua Surf Company, two Quiksilver, two Volcom and two Billabong — that are liquidating their stock and closing their doors for good after their operator, Liberated Brands LLC, filed for bankruptcy a month ago in the U.S. District of Delaware.

Approximately 80 employees of the Maui stores were told in late January that they had about 12 weeks of employment left before the stores sell out their remaining boardshorts, bikinis, hats and other surfing- and skateboarding-inspired merchandise.

All of Liberated Brands’ Billabong, Quiksilver, Honolua and Volcom stores will close in the United States, according to the Associated Press.

Liberated Brands has more than 124 retail locations across the country, which also include the brands Spyder, RVCA and Roxy. 

In a declaration supporting the bankruptcy, CEO of Liberated Brands Todd Hymel said, “Macroeconomic issues, including a rapid and dramatic rise in interest rates, persistent inflation, supply chain delays, a decline in customer demand well below the historical trend line, shifting consumer preferences, and substantial fixed costs placed significant pressure on Liberated’s revenue and cost structure.”

USA Today reported that Liberated owes $83 million in secured debt and $143 million in unsecured debt, according to Hymel’s declaration.

On Feb. 24, signs in several of Liberated Brands’ Maui stores said 10% to 30% off of most merchandise, but those numbers were pushed to 20% to 40% within the last week. Billabong, Quiksilver, Volcom and Honolua all have stores at Whalers Village in West Maui and The Shops at Wailea. Honolua also has stores in Pāʻia and Kīhei.

“The prices are changing and then it’s more promos,” said Kenny, a store manager at the Honolua store in The Shops at Wailea who declined to give his last name. “It gets more and more aggressive until everything’s gone.”

Kenny said he has lined up a new job, but plans to stay with the company he has been with since 2022 until the bitter end: “I’m sticking around until we end up closing. … Just a good thing to do.”

Four other employees at stores in the Wailea mall said they had already been approached by different companies about employment in a Maui job market that had a 4.0% unemployment rate after the third quarter of 2024, according to data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

Pamela Tumpap, president of the Maui Chamber of Commerce, said the loss of 10 stores and 80 jobs is bad news.

“It’s tremendously devastating for our island,” Tumpap said Tuesday morning. “Anytime we lose a business on our island it’s devastating. And, especially for Maui, we are an island extremely dependent on the visitor industry, maybe most dependent on the visitor industry. … Over time we’re  seeing challenges in retail, but this is not that. This is a huge hit.”

The latest closures are different, she explained, because “we’re seeing it all in a very condensed period of time. All of this has been exacerbated by the wildfires on Maui and the fact that our visitor industry has been slow to recover. Now we’re seeing tremendous impact and to be laying off that many workers is huge.” 

As for the future of the surf shops’ current locations, Diana Whitt, the general manager and vice president for the property management and leasing company for The Shops at Wailea, said via email: “On behalf of The Shops at Wailea, the stores are currently open. However, we have no additional information at this time.”

Kenny, the store manager of the Honolua store in The Shops at Wailea, said there have been inquiries about the space his store currently occupies.

“There’s been people already looking and asking, like, ‘what’s the square footage?’ I don’t know, so I can’t help them much,” Kenny said. “They aren’t going to kick us out until we’re done with everything here.”

Tumpap noted that there is a shortage of workers available on the island right now. The loss of 10 stores in visitor hotspots like South Maui and West Maui are tough hits.

“Every loss of a job right now is terrible for our community because we’re trying to keep people here,” she said. “We’re trying to sustain them on this island and we need strong visitor industry support to say, ‘Maui is open, please come.’ People know to be respectful and we’ve talked to some visitors and they’re not sure if they’re still welcome back.”

Joe and Michelle Smith of Lake Stevens, Wash., come to Maui for about a month every year. They found out about the pending closure of their favorite Honolua store in Kīhei when they drove by on South Kīhei Road Monday morning.

“We’re super sad,” Michelle Smith said. “We buy all our surf wear here. We buy our son’s surf wear here. And it’s good prices and good quality, if you like that style of clothing.”

The Smiths spent several minutes speaking with Nichole Flores, a 25-year-old Maui High School graduate who has worked in retail on island since 2017 and has been with Honolua for the past year. She plans to look for work in the hospitality industry after her current job runs its course.

“I think after this it’s time to branch out and try something new,” Flores said. “This happening is an eye-opener. I actually really like this job and having it close down, it’s sad. You make new friends, you get close with them, they become your family, and we’re going to end up separating from each other.” 

Flores added that customers “are shocked. They’ve been here so long and it’s sad to hear from them because they’re sad. This is kind of their home store as well.”

Kim Ball opened Hi-Tech Surf Sports on Maui in 1982 and now has five stores and about 60 local employees. Ball, who sells Billabong, Volcom, Roxy and RVCA brands, said he has seen a decline in the quality of some of those products since they have been under the Liberated Brands umbrella.

“Well, for us, it’s been going on for a couple of years, ever since those brands sold to a licensee,” Ball said. “So it’s been a gradual decline for us with those brands, because those brands are all heritage, iconic surf brands, but they’re not the same brands that we knew a few years ago.”

Ball said when the brands were folded into a conglomerate company, Liberated Brands, the quality of the products went downhill.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be going forward, but I know for us personally, it was hard to get goods because they were undercapitalized, and I think they took on way more than they thought, the new licensees,” he said. “They took on the wholesale — which is to us — direct to consumer, which is online. They took on the retail. That’s a lot to take on with all those brands. And they failed.”

But the brands like Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom are not disappearing. Authentic Brands Group owns those labels, and had partnered with Liberated to license them in the United States.

Authentic told The Associated Press in February that all licenses previously held by Liberated were transitioned to new partners prior to the bankruptcy filing.

“Quiksilver was the first boardshorts we ever carried,” Ball said. “We’ve been in business since 1982, but now they’re in Costco. So obviously we’re not carrying them anymore. We’re not going to carry Costco brands.”

Ball also is the founder of Maui Interscholastic League surfing, the only high school league in the nation to have surfing as a sanctioned sport, beginning in 2014. Billabong has been its sponsor from the start, providing funding to pay for MIL surf judges and water patrol lifeguards, and to run coaches certification clinics.

“I brought them in as an industry sponsor,” Ball said. “They’ve pledged that they’ll be still an industry sponsor in 2025, but who knows after that?”

Ball added that with the void created by the shutdowns will be openings for new and rejuvenated brands in the surf industry, including Katin, Salty Crew, Tenore, Florence, AVVA and Vissla.

“The good news is we have other up-and-coming brands that will take their place,” Ball said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains a correction to accurately state Diana Whitt’s comments about the future of the business spaces at The Shops of Wailea. A previous version of the story inaccurately characterized Whitt’s comments. The Hawai’i Journalism Initiative apologizes for the error.