Amphibious
Urban Professionals
Saturdays NYC and the Creative Power of Surf-to-Street Living
Interview: Thomas Bettridge
Photography: Alessandro Simonetti
Founded in 2009, Saturdays NYC’s
flagship location on Crosby Street is a coffee shop and boutique
frequented by a mix of skaters, bankers, and downtown professionals. It
is 17 stops away on the A Train from Rockaway Beach, one of the many
spots where its co-founders Morgan Collett and Colin Tunstall surf in
the mornings before work—sometimes in the freezing cold and always at
ungodly hours. As the authors of a growing line of menswear products,
their time chasing waves has led them from designs driven by Americana
beach culture to new silhouettes and dyeing techniques discovered during
trips to the coast of Japan. Surfing to them is not a moodboard
concept, but rather an engine for the creative process itself. It is a
release valve for urban chaos, but also a source of inspiration, one
they share with friends like Acne Studio’s Jonny Johansson.
On
a morning in New York, Collett, Tunstall, and photographer Alessandro
Simonetti take us on a trip from the fringes of Rockaway Beach, to the
Saturdays warehouse in Ridgewood, to their store at the center of
downtown New York.
“I
came to New York to work in publishing and Morgan moved here to work in
the fashion industry, but we always still had a passion for trying to
get in the water and go surfing. Both in the mornings and on the
weekends. A lot of people didn’t realize this eight years ago when we
formed the brand, but there’s actually a whole community of people
living in New York City who do this. A lot of people need to get out of
the city, because it’s a sensory overload.”
—Colin Tunstall
“Growing
up in Southern California, I could literally just paddle across the
bay, run across the boulevard, and be in the ocean surfing. That was my
childhood. I had no idea the ocean was so close when I moved to New
York. It was a pleasant surprise. New York is a vibrant, diverse, and
opportunistic city. I love the everyday battle of hustling here and then
to still be able to go in the ocean and surf whenever there’s a swell.
That’s the biggest thing for me—being able to combine these two
worlds.”
—Morgan Collett
“When
we first started our brand, we couldn’t relate to how a lot of brands
were using surfing as a side note in their Spring/Summer collections.
But now you can see fashion getting involved in surf culture in a way
that you would never see eight years ago.”
—Colin Tunstall
“Jonny
Johansson of Acne Studios and I have a close relationship, and I think
you can see that for him, the time he spends surfing isn’t separate from
his work. He’s drawn so much inspiration from it, in the same way that
he’d go to a museum in New York to look at artwork.”
—Morgan Collett
“When
we conceived of Saturdays, the idea of being able to bring a community
together was always a part of it. When we saw the space on Crosby St.,
we jumped at it because it had the backyard. We thought that would be an
integral detail for the ability to get people to come and hangout and
spend time and chill. And when we go there, we’re really happy to see
the mix of people—people who are into skating, who surf, people who work
in high-end fashion, who work on Wall Street. And everybody somehow
fits in and feels comfortable.”
—Colin Tunstall
“For
us, it’s always been about doing things with purpose and
meaning—especially when it comes to creating this community and looking
for inspiration for our next collection. It’s never been about hitting
budget. It’s like, ‘Let’s do this, because it feels right.’”
—Morgan Collett
