News + Events: Articles

SANTA CRUZ — Riding the retail wave of increasingly active women are Gary Macbeth and Kim Ruby, a bi-national pair of high-tech entrepreneurs who jumped into the world of retail women’s surfwear in 2003 and already are selling internationally.

Women’s surfwear has been a whole different venture than online marketing and Web design, Ruby said recently from her Santa Cruz home office that looks out over Cowell Beach.

Girls4Sport designs and sells rash guards and matching shorts with bold, dynamic patterns. The clothes are tested for sun protection but customers have reported wearing them in Birkham yoga classes as well as on surfboards. The style is aimed at comfort for the 18-year-old-plus crowd and marketing leans toward women who celebrate outdoor athletics. The company "embraces the serious-yet-fun side of being both a real athlete and a female."

Macbeth, formerly of Tartan Technologies, a business systems consulting company, and Ruby, an engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Santa Cruz Clicks, met in Santa Cruz when they were working together to build Lighthouse Venture Forum, a Santa Cruz-based technology networking forum. In its heyday, Lighthouse Venture drew large crowds to panel discussions of Sand Hill Road venture capitalists and business strategists.

By the time the high-tech boom settled down to a distant murmur, Macbeth began considering his next venture. "In looking to explore new business opportunities, I looked for what interested me as a person," Macbeth said. "I love business and I love sport, so combining the two passions was really the ideal solution."

"In looking to explore new business opportunities in the U.K., I looked for what interested me as a person," Macbeth said. "I love business and I love sport, so combining the two passions was really the ideal solution."

Macbeth e-mailed Ruby and together they hammered out a business plan. The ocean surf lapped up against two shores: Cornwall, England, and Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz. With the help of Ruby’s business partner at Santa Cruz Clicks, designer Leanne Riem, they came up with several new designs, learned how to get them fitted and manufactured and the company was launched with sales reps in several states.


"One of the things that happened with the tech industry is a lot of money went into companies and products before we knew what was going to work," Ruby said. "A lot of companies were pushing the envelope more than customers or other companies wanted. We’ve taken a pretty slow, grassroots approach at Girls4Sport."

Now, she says, it’s time to push it a lot harder. "We really tested the market before putting a lot of money in it."

The company has been featured in women’s sports magazines, and Macbeth and Ruby are looking to expand. On the horizon are clothes for other popular women’s sports such as soccer.

Macbeth said he wanted Girls4Sport to try to make a mark in breakthrough sports for women.

"I still class surfing in that bracket," Macbeth said. "More and more women are breaking into sports that were seen as men’s turf. We wanted to promote awareness, opportunity and recognition for women in the sport and take the quality of technical wear up a notch or two at the same time."

Contact Jennifer Pittman atjpitt4@aol.com.

Girls4Sport Inc.
WHAT: Women’s active wear company.
WHERE: Santa Cruz
OWNERS: Gary Macbeth, Kim Ruby and Leanne Riem.
INFORMATION: 423-8755, www.girls4sport.com.