The Short History of Katin USA

As a teen learning to surf back in the early 1990s, I used to consume everything to do with surfing that I could, including surf movies on VHS tapes, surf magazines from the UK, Australia and the US, and even episodes of Baywatch, just in case they featured someone surfing!

Amongst the copies of Surfer and Surfing magazine, I vividly remember seeing ads for boardshorts made by Katin USA. At that time the brand was already over 40 years old, but this year the original business it grew out of turns 70.

In this article we take a look at the history of this iconic surf brand.

The origins of Katin

The year was 1954 and in the town of Surfside in California (near Huntington Beach) a couple - Walter and Nancy Katin - opened up a small business making boat covers.

They called the business 'Kanvas by Katin' and quickly gained a reputation for producing incredibly sturdy canvas covers. It wasn't long before some of the locals started getting interested in what else could be made using the same materials. 

Walter Katin, affectionately known as "The Captain", experimented with making a few pairs of custom board shorts, but it wasn't until a young local surfer named Cork Carroll approached him, that he realised there was more to the business than just boat covers.

Corky was said to have visited their shop and talked about the real need for a sturdy boardshort for surfing that didn't fall apart, like the denim cut-off shorts most people wore did. 

Walter made Corky a pair and California's first 'surf trunks' were born.

Word quickly spread amongst the surf community about how durable the surf trunks were and the Katins' soon found they were inundated by surfers looking for their own pair. At this time Walter was making them custom fitted for each and every person, but demand was increasing rapidly, so he hired a local seamstress named Sato Hughes. According to the Katin website, Sato still works in the Katin shop today!

Photo: Corky Carroll in front of the Katin store

Sixties surfing explosion and seventies contests

During the 1960s, the popularity of surfing had started to reach mainstream popularity across the USA and other countries. And Katin's reputation grew alongside this, with many of the top surfers iof the time wearing a pair of Katin surf trunks. These included the likes of Gerry Lopez, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Peter Townend, Midget Farrelly, Reno Abelliro, Shaun Tomson and the legendary Eddie Aikau.

Walter passed away in 1967 and wife Nancy not only kept the business running, but she went on to be even more active within the surfing community. 

Katin had already sponsored some of California's first surf contests and events, with one being the "Katin Underdog Contest". Nancy also provided several surfing scholarships.

In 1977 she launched the Katin PRO/AM Team Challenge, an event held at Huntington Beach Pier that saw amateurs from the U.S. competing against some of the world's best surfers. During it's time, winners included Shaun Tomson, Tom Curren, Martin Potter, Sunny Garcia and Kelly Slater.

Continuing the legacy in the 80s

Through the 1980s, with a growing surf industry and companies expanding their size, numerous offers were made to Nancy to sell the business. However she ignored these and carried on making surf trunks out the back of the Surfside store up until her death in 1986.

She left the business to Sato, who with her son Glenn continued to run the surf shop and surf trunk production.

Photo: The iconic 'Kanvas by Katin' surf trunks logo

Riding the wave in the 90s and early 2000s

Throughout the 1990s, with the surf trunks remaining popular with surfers looking for functional over fashion products.

The business saw several changes during the next two decades, with the wholesale part being acquired by other people, until Glenn was able to regain the rights to sell wholesale again in 2005.

A highlight for the Katin name was Nancy being posthumously inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, in 2000. 

Katin in 2024

Fast forward to today and Katin USA is still going strong, with their commitment to 'quality, durability and good looks' very much at the forefront.

They are still producing boardshorts, including the classic Waterman Shorts, but have expanded the brand further to include tees, crews, hats, shirts, socks, jeans and more. 

We stock an extensive range of Katin products for both men and women, so check them out today and relive the bygone days of the past, with a modern style.

All images from katinusa.com

Featured image - Nancy Katin with professional surfers on the North Shore of Hawaii. Photo by Rus Calisch.