THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY AND REPRESENTATION IN BRAND-BUILDING

I’m rarely shocked by much these days. Aliens, floods, abuses of power, emo Jimmy Butler. But once in a while, I’ll get broadsided by a comment that jars me awake and reminds me of how much of an echo chamber I live in. I’m a second-generation, Asian-American person in Los Angeles, am probably best described as liberal, and am largely surrounded by young people from different backgrounds. Last year, I was on a surf trip with a group of people I didn’t know. We were sitting outside at picnic tables drinking beers and eating dinner out of to-go boxes when a white woman plopped down in front of me and interrupted my conversation.

“Do you really believe that?,” she inquired.

“Believe what?” I was talking to a recent college graduate who was embarking on her professional career. We were discussing how important it is to have fair representation of women in the workplace.

“You really think diversity is a good thing?”

There was a guy near the bar, crooning R.E.M. songs over an acoustic guitar. I thought I’d misunderstood her.

I spoke up. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

“Do you actually think diversity makes things better?” she repeated in a firm, but snarky tone. I felt her tongue flick that question mark like a whip.

I looked around the tables. More than half the people were white men, which is not out of the ordinary in surf culture. But there were a few minorities peppered in the mix and a handful of women. If it weren’t for diversity, this woman and I wouldn’t even be on this trip, let alone having a moment to share this debate. Speaking of which, I couldn’t even believe this was a debate…

“I do…” I stumbled, trying to read her face. Was she fucking with me? She was not. I learned later that this woman is well-liked and successful in tech and finance. She has a popular podcast and people really seemed to admire her. When I recounted this story later, many who knew her couldn’t believe it.

The woman unspooled about how diversity in organizations can lead to communication breakdowns and alienation. It can also collapse trust, which is fundamental for collaboration. I was speechless, searching the others to see if anyone was as flustered by her arguments. But they weren’t. One man sympathized with my rebuttal, but he ultimately agreed with her. “Diversity is just inefficient.”

The woman’s opinion on diversity is actually not that unusual. Many of you reading my Substack may wholeheartedly side with her also, just as confused by my stance as I was with hers. Just do a Google search for “diversity is harmful” and you’ll see how much literature there is on the subject. I’ve been interested in social issues since I was a kid and still I was caught off guard. This was a helpful reminder that there’s a diametrically opposing contention to every truth I believe in, with just as much advocacy, world belief, and philosophy buttressing it.

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Diversity and surf are an apt segue into a 2018 piece I wrote, entitled “Can Surf Learn from Streetwear?” Five years ago, I was invited to keynote the SIMA surf conference in Mexico. Every year, the head surf honchos gathered to discuss the state of the industry, emerging trends, and how to build better businesses. But the surf industry had been on hard times for generations.

In the 1980s, surf was the streetwear of the time. In some ways, the surf market and industry were bigger than streetwear has ever been. Yet, trends and demographics shifted over the decades and today, the surf industry is a shell of what it once was. Even since I wrote this piece, there have been seismic developments with surf companies. Most recently, Billabong, Quiksilver, RVCA, Roxy, DC, Element, and Honolua were sold to Authentic Brands Group (ABG) for 1.3 billion dollars, which sounds great, except for the fact that ABG will likely reduce these once eminent brands to slappy licenses.

Surf was looking for an answer, if not an explanation, for their flagging sales. But when they invited me to spell out how streetwear had come to such prominence in the 2010s, I had to clarify that I wouldn’t be flying down there to talk about collabs and sneakers. The most critical part of why streetwear became so popular over the last two decades was because of diversity, both behind and in front of the brand. As long as the predominantly white, male leadership was open to hearing me discuss this point, I was happy to afford them an hour of pulpit time (and spend a few days surfing off the balmy coast of Baja California).

I just read through my speech for the first time since then and although a few details have changed (Tremaine Emory became Creative Director of Supreme, Virgil Abloh passed), the principles remain. TLDR; Diversity is good for culture, for business, and for the human experience. And it forces us to become more empathetic by seeing the world from another vantage point. Just as what happened with the woman at the picnic table. I may not have liked what she had to say, but I became a more aware, nuanced, enlightened person because of our conversation. One day, I hope she can realize that she also benefited from our awkward interaction.

Read the essay HERE.