Surfdog - About us

Surfdog Australia

This is a long story. Skim over the boring bits about the manufacturing if you want, but for those that ask us about 'Australian manufacturing' please read the whole story. So many are asking the impossible as they do not understand the logistics involved. What you should be looking for is small businesses like Surfdog that totally create their own products (from the concept to the designs, and keep stock here in Australia employing Australian Staff) even though they have to go overseas for bulk manufacturing. What you should be avoiding is the drop shippers who sell Chinese designed and made products as their own. They set up a website selling these products and send the orders to the factories for despatch to you without having any involvement or investment in the product and they bring in millions of $ of Chinese products into Australia without paying any import tax or duties. They have no staff (think dog harnesses, flapping fish, dog toys, grooming products etc... check the small print very carefully!) bring no revenue into Australia, increase the load in landfill, and waste the hard earned money of their customers.

Anyway... it all started like this..

I was sat on the beach one day with my Golden boy 'Captain'. A man next to me looked out to the ocean where his dog was running in the surf. "just look at it" he said. "what?" I replied. "they've got it. Dogs that love the beach. That joy.. that is what we are all looking for".

I never forgot those words and my inspiration today comes from that thought. I hope our products help bring that same sense of joy to you. 

My name is Sara. I am started Surfdog Australia in 2010 when I made a toweling coat for my beach loving boy, 'Captain'. We went to the beach so often and he came back in the car soggy and sandy... I wanted to dry him and save our car. I almost put off going to the beach as it became such hard to get him dry. I was losing that sense of joy! Dogs get dry by shaking.. how about we just contain that shake and protect our cars and homes from those splashes?

I found some towelling fabric.  I cut it to fit his shape so I could wrap it around him. I wanted it to cover him but not to smother him.  I also wanted it tie it up easily and I knew velcro would be a disaster as it doesn't work well with fur and sand! So I made a long belt which covered his tummy. I wanted it to be beautiful as my boy deserved the best.

Here's Captain back in 2010 wearing my first ever drying coat this had SURF DOG stitched on in patchwork.

Back then I did not have an embroidery machine.

My friends really liked my idea and I made them 'Drying Coats' too. They all smiled a lot …and  loved them too. I saw an opportunity. But how could I go from making one that took me a week to a commercially viable product?

And they had to be good. Very good. I have never liked cheap throw away products. I grew up in a generation where we never had a lot, and what we did have, had to last. We new about sustainable a long time before it became fashionable.

Australian Manufacturing

And they had to be Australia made... of course!  What a learning curve that was! After a couple of weeks on the phone searching for manufacturers in Australia I lost all hope. I contacted all our well know Aussie Brands, only to find they all manufactured overseas. Ok. so I'll get a small business grant and get some local sewers and we will do it ourselves! No business grant available. Each coat takes at least an hour to put together without the embroidery of the logo and the hourly rate for a qualified seamstress is around $60. so without the fabric I was looking at a cost price of around $100... I wondered... will anyone buy a dog towel for about $150... may be not.

I had to create patterns. I used my boy and my friends dogs of various breeds pinning fabric around them as I had with Captain. I created a pattern to fit each shape... its not just a matter of starting with a small one and going up 10% each size! This is an easy option as it takes no time but this is why so many dog products do not fit. Dogs are multi dimensional and all these dimensions need to be considered.

I had to source the fabric. Same story as above.. nope no Australian factories make any fabric. So my search continued. (I thought they would have to be beautiful cotton but this got so heavy when wet). I learnt about weaves, threads  and absorbency.Have your ever looked at your towels closely? The cheap ones give the impression of soft and fluffy by making the very thin threads into loops but it doesn't change the very low absorbency these threads offer. The loops usually snag very quickly which causes the fabric to tear. Then I found the one! A fabulous 350gsm fabric without loops but with single thicker threads that literally drew water out like a sponge from the coat and did not snag or shrink. I had to buy it plain so then I had to chose the Pantone colours to dye the fabric. This is another difference with our coats as vat dying is a more expensive method of giving colour to fabric but it is the only option if you use a thicker long thread fabric. I wanted beautiful colours and beautiful fabric so this was my only choice. It had never occurred to me that so many towels are printed (usually those with patterns) but the problem with these is the fabric has to be thin to go through the printing process and the inks used to print further reduce the absorbency. So we had to stick with the old fashioned traditional dyeing method.

I played with with the shape and added the tail hole as I knew dogs were not happy if they could not display their tails.  This also helped it stay in place. They had to fit and be comfortable and not too fiddly as I had a bad back and couldn't bend over for long! 

Finally ... I was ready and like it or not had to find a factory that could make more than my 2 a week. 

So I started to talk to factories all over the world to see what I could do. Turkey is great at manufacturing but the shipping costs to Australia double the costs.I went to Bali but they could not supply the fabric. I tried India but they too source their fabric of mircro fibre towelling from China. So I had to bite the bullet and go to China. Where on earth do you begin with the 1000's of factories making products there? I narrowed it down to go to a factory that was making products for quality human brands here..... I saw those making pet products were only interested in cheap. I found a factory that had been in business for many years making towelling products for a lot of the big brands here in Australia. They complied to 3 crucial certifications which showed they were meeting international standards of taking care of their employees, that they were committed to quality, that they met European high standards of environmental and operational requirements.

ISO 9001 quality management

BSCI (business social iniative)

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP)

After discussions they understood my idea and provided me with a sample that blew me away with its quality.

And so Surfdog was created. I started making in Yellow Large. (13 years later I have 8 sizes and 8 colours.)

More Interesting Bits..

I started before the days of Instagram so getting your products out there needed a different approach. No sitting on myphone 'posting' back then! No such thing as influencers. I set out to make the best quality product, and provided the service I would like to receive. Customers started talking. To this day I still do not use influencers. I just have happy customers.

I invested in a really cool Chevy Ute which drew a lot of attention.  I’d drive around the beaches of Perth to show off my Drying Coats and Captain was a fabulous ambassador. I also did local markets and met a lot of dog owners. I enjoyed seeing how they loved my coats and listened to their suggestions and ideas and also had an opportunity to try them on dogs of all shapes and sizes.

Here is Captain in my Ute parked at Port Beach in Fremantle where he received lots of compliments. Wearing my now famous Yellow Large coat.

Surfdog Australia is a bit old fashioned. 

I am passionate about quality.  I am also obsessive about service. My customers must be happy. I do not like chat bots! Im contactable 😁

Here's me at work with little dog ‘Mouse’.

I am grateful to all my customers for sending me photos, not just to use on my website but to help me to continue to improve. I use these images to check the shape, size and design of everything I make. I am humbled by the wonderful messages and time they take to send me photos of their dogs and feel like I know all of the dogs that wear my coats personally.

Sadly my beautiful boy Captain left me in 2018 at the age of 17.

I still have little 'Mouse' who is the face on my logo. One ear up and one ear down. She came into our lives to mend a broken heart and ended up staying. She is a beach lover too and full of attitude so she became our logo.

I was fortunate to find a new chief Surfdog, and soul mate in my Groodle girl 'India' who is now my chief model at Surfdog. She too stands to attention when I approach her with fabric and she is our house model if I need to show or explain a product to a customer. She too loves the beach and her coat is even more high maintenance. I don't know how I could cope without my Drying Coats.

I take great pleasure in making you and your dogs happy. We hope you feel the joy that your dogs feel when they go to the beach.

Captain is always with me. Every time I sell a robe it is great way of celebrating his life. I include a secret hug in each robe... and the dogs seem to know it.

Sara, Mouse, India xx