Animal
Animal was founded in 1987 and is based in Poole, England. The brand was created by two surfers who wanted to find a way to prevent losing their watches while surfing as traditional straps broke under the high pressure. Their solution to this problem was a fairly simple strap constructed from webbing and Velcro.
Although Animal is primarily a surfing brand, Animal now produce clothing and accessories for other extreme sports such as surfing, snowboarding, windsurfing, kite surfing and mountain biking and, clothing aside, it is the sole sponsor of the three day long annual water sports festival, the Animal Windfest.
The very first watches were manufactured in a bedroom at one of the duo’s houses and these were then sold to their friends who were also surfers. The money made from these sales funded surfing trips to other countries selling more straps on their travels helped to allow them to continue to do so and also to make their brand better known on a global scale.
The watches were soon adopted by sports enthusiasts outside of the surfing community, due to them being simple, waterproof and tough. Animal have progressed a long way since the 80s when they produced just a small amount of watch straps. Now their brand contains clothing, watches, footwear, eyewear, accessories and even luggage.
