Vans Foot The Bill
TO SEE THE SHOE:
FROM JUSTIN QUINTAL:
Our story
Sunrise Surf Shop is a core North Florida surf & skate shop based out of Jacksonville that has been around since ‘76. Black Rose MFG. is a surfboard label that focuses on building traditional single fin longboards/alternative surf craft, founded 5 years ago, as the collective effort of myself (Justin Quintal) and the legendary East Coast shaper Ricky Carroll. I started riding for Sunrise and Ricky Carroll around the same time at age 15. In many ways Sunrise Surf Shop and Ricky Carroll have been two of my longest and most loyal supporters. Fundamentally I would not be where I am today without them, I consider them family. Sunrise Surf Shop and Black Rose MFG. work closely together to provide the community with quality surfboards and community-based events. When Vans approached me to pick a local business for Vans Foot the Bill, Sunrise was one of the first places that came to mind. When Sunrise first received the news that they had been picked for Foot the Bill, they reached out to me and wanted to do a collaborative shoe with Black Rose MFG. I am proud to ride for a brand like Vans and I can’t express how grateful I am for the opportunity to give back to two of my sponsors that have given so much to me and our community.
How we will spend the money
The net proceeds will help support our businesses in the most essential way. In these crazy times we are depending on our small online presence and a few hours of deliveries here and there. This will literally go towards keeping our employees paid and surviving for the time being. Black Rose MFG will be giving 100% of their portion of the net proceeds directly to Ricky Carroll at the R&D Surf Inc. factory in Rockledge, Florida. Being small businesses, we want to do everything we can to keep the employees we have had for so long. These are not high turnover businesses. Most of our employees are literally like family, and Ricky and Justin are family, so we all appreciate Vans giving us this opportunity.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this shoe comes from a popular abstract resin tint Black Rose MFG. has done on a few of our traditional single fin logs with Sunrise Surf Shop. Our boards are glassed by Rob Opperman at Ricky Carroll’s factory in Rockledge, Florida. Rob has worked with fiberglass for 35 years now. He previously worked for Natural Art back in the day and has worked with prestigious boat brands Hells Bay and Sea Ray building boat hulls. Dan Brookes (the owner of Sunrise) often requests boards with resin tints from us that draw people in. He really gives us the opportunity to get creative with the boards we build for the shop. We’re proud to display Rob’s work on this collaborative shoe with Sunrise. The beauty of these abstract resin tints is that they always come out different and each one is unique. Personally, one of my favorite parts of the design we are displaying on this shoe is how the opaque black resin bleeds into the transparent tinted resin and you can see the weave of the volan cloth in the spaces in-between. You can almost smell the resin.