born slippy caps every product at 1,000 and says the business has to earn the right to give back

British founder Charles Gadsdon, based in Valencia, Spain, has written a new mission for Born Slippy's website. It opens with an admission: "For too long, businesses have taken from the ocean." Gadsdon wants his company to do the opposite, once it has earned the right to. Born Slippy makes one product so far: APTUS 1.0, a €1,295 made-to-measure wetsuit developed with big-wave surfer Andrew "Cotty" Cotton. Like every product Born Slippy plans to make, it is capped at 1,000 units. Gadsdon doesn't surf. He spent two decades in the music business, including as Global Director of Growth at MassiveMusic, before turning to wetsuits. "I like that Charles isn't from the surf world or even a surfer," Cotton told SURFER in October. "He's thinking outside the box." His idea came at the 2019 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Huntington Beach, California, when a young competitor told him he simply wanted the best equipment. "He wasn't asking for a sustainable product," Gadsdon told SURFER. "He was asking for the best product and I feel those two ambitions shouldn't have to compete." The model runs against volume. The aim is the best product Born Slippy can make in each category, and never more than 1,000 of each: "Not the most. The best," Gadsdon writes. The mission goes further than the product. "We believe that if we're going to build a business around the ocean, the ocean should get a share of its success," he writes. "Our ambition is to build a profitable company that helps fund the people and organisations working to restore and protect the ocean. Not as a marketing campaign. As part of what Born Slippy is here to do." Gadsdon is clear that this is a long-term ambition, not a current profit-sharing commitment. "First, we need to build a business worth believing in," he writes. "Then we can put its success to work." The people he has in mind are pulling abandoned fishing gear from the sea, bringing marine habitats back to life, protecting wildlife and giving the next generation a reason to care. "They know what they're doing. And they deserve more than likes on a reel," he writes. "They deserve real backing." Born Slippy's journal already carries conversations with ocean figures including explorer Fabien Cousteau, microplastics scientist Dr Imogen Napper, Jo Ruxton MBE and Vincent Kneefel. They are editorial interviews, not partnerships. "We've spent years telling their stories," Gadsdon writes. "Now we want to build a business that can help fund their work." On the product itself, the company is plain. "We recognise that making wetsuits has an environmental cost," it says. "We won't pretend otherwise." APTUS 1.0 is made to order from 26 body measurements, with Japanese Yamamoto #39 and #40 limestone neoprene and advanced micro-chamber thermal insulation integrated into the torso panels. Cotton tested the prototypes at Croyde Bay, Devon, and then at Nazaré, Portugal. "The goal is to have the best wetsuit on the planet, not the most wetsuits on the planet," Gadsdon told SURFER. Wetsuits are only the start: "Born Slippy was never just about making 1,000 wetsuits," he writes. APTUS 1.0 costs €1,295 including VAT and is available exclusively through bornslippy.co. Interviews are available with founder Charles Gadsdon and, subject to availability, Andrew Cotton. Press enquiries: info@bornslippy.co.