Pretty insane, what I saw.
You're on this beautiful white sand, there's palm trees
and amazing waves and you're like,
this doesn't make sense.
It was trash everywhere.
A HIGH VIBE LOW IMPACT PRODUCTION
We're at a very critical time.
If we want to continue to be here,
we really have to reverse a lot of the damage
that we started to create.
KÅSEBERGA
Why would IKEA want do anything with surfing?
I don't know any Swedish surfers,
and that surfing was even happening in Sweden.
MAGNUS NORD CREATIVE LEADER, IKEA
No, I know Magnus now.
So I'm Magnus.
I guess I'm a surfer.
Yeah, we have waves.
Windblown waves, though.
It's a very cute little port
on the southeastern part of Sweden.
I didn't know that that was happening.
IN 2019, WSL AND IKEA STARTED DEVELOPING A NEW PRODUCT LINE
FEATURING SUSTAINABLE, SURF-INSPIRED GOODS.
We are a curious company, and we want to understand
different types of people.
We are super curious how surfers live.
They have this great engagement with nature,
and we are super inspired to understand
and get that learning from this surf community
that we're working with.
It's been a true collaboration with the World Surf League.
We've got Rob and Kassia in L.A.
We've combined them with our IKEA designers,
Mikel and Vivica.
It's been an incredible journey for us to immerse ourself,
and really think of what resources we use today.
Something that Ingvar started off with at IKEA.
Low impact products.
That's where we can make a difference on this collection.
World Surf League is the WSL.
We're the leading authority for professional surfing.
Crowning world champions,
defining those standards of what it means to be the best in the world.
I feel very special that IKEA has taken such an interest in surfing.
They're doing that deep work
to really understand real needs that surfers have
by talking to people all over the planet.
OVER 3,000 SURFERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
CONTRIBUTED FEEDBACK AND IDEAS FOR THE NEW PRODUCT LINE
Hey I'm Felipe from Sao Paulo.
-I'm from Brazil. -Central Japan.
-I'm a surfer from Philadelphia. -North Shore, Oahu.
We would create a line that pulls in like
what solves problems that surfers might have,
but we also wanted to infuse it
with some of the stoke around surfing.
Rob and Kassia embody that.
They are icons of the sport.
I think me being from California, I want to be like Rob.
Rob really embodies what I think
people fall in love with, with surfing.
It's that dreamy, wonderless lifestyle
that people want to be a part of.
Also see him as this great designer.
He has like a beautiful design eye,
and he creates surfboards that have a lot of sensibility
about sustainability,
and he's also one of my favorite surfers ever.
Incredible.
Incredible surfer, human.
I first saw Kassia surfing at Cardiff Reef.
It wasn't long after that, she became this phenomenon.
All over magazines and traveling the world.
She is also an amazing designer and like creates these wet suits.
Everyone was just wearing black wetsuits and then Kassia came along.
It's sort of opened everything up for surfing.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
It mattered to them to like come out to California,
to go to Rob's house, to meet Rob,
to see how he lives.
I'm really kind of interested now.
Surfboards are made
with very functional-driven and making products.
If you could just explain to me what it is,
shaping a board?
-I think we could learn a lot. -We have to go to my shaping room.
I think they really lit up
when they saw like me building things.
You know with my background as a surfboard shaper,
it just gives you a whole new appreciation for shape
and form and function.
We started talking.
It was about making stuff that would kind of blow people's minds.
Your everyday surfer is going to have to have this.
ÄLMHULT, SWEDEN
So...
We traveled to Sweden and we went to the IKEA headquarters.
We had a blast hanging together.
It's like every time we came around a corner, it was like,
"What?! What is going on here?"
We got to see how they roll,
and then it was like, "All right,
let's go all sit down in a room
and let's just start brainstorming."
We had days of just throwing out ideas.
Like, "What if we did this?"
And they would be over there sketching it.
We started talking about a table and chairs
that you could have at the beach,
and that piece of wood, might as well be shaped as like
some sort of an Alaia.
Let's build it.
When we all left Sweden, we kept on filling this think tank.
Oh, there's Vivica.
Yeah, there you are!
The communication was very frequent.
-What are you drinking? Tequila? -No, water.
To actually get a little package in the mail
and tear into it and touch something finally...
Wow! OK, this is happening.
This is legit.
So this was somewhat of an inspiration for it right here.
An ancient Hawaiian surfboard.
Since I'm not a surfer, I send them to Rob,
and then after that, we adjust it
until it becomes perfect.
Yeah it's like, really kind of sharp.
I would maybe just smooth it out and just round it.
Thing is a pretty amazing little device
that you could take this out into the ocean
and use it to ride waves.
That energy pushing you towards the beach
is a pretty special feeling.
A hand plane is a great way to experience it.
I love the backpack so far.
I've been road testing in the wet, dry pocket.
It's perfect.
I'm really happy with the closures of it as well.
It's been super nice.
It was a really awesome process, funneling all those ideas down
to a very distilled collection that's really supporting
what people want on the go, at home or at the beach.
I just had this conversation yesterday with my son,
about relationships, the ocean.
For me, it's a relationship that I want to share with him.
Since he was born, I take him to the beach.
It was probably a year ago,
I saw him start picking up trash.
I didn't ask him to,
and he just started like, doing exactly what I did.
And so,
it makes me think that it's just all about leading by example,
right?
It's just like if you can
show people a good way to do things,
I think they would just naturally do them.
I hope that people that buy products from this collection
that that it will solve some problems in their lives.
And I also hope that it will make it easier for people
to live the more sustainable life and take care of the nature.
We kept coming back to high vibe, low impact
because that was something that, like Kassia would always say,
and it was just an ethos that I think she carried.
To me, high vibe-low impact,
really, it's like, cool design,
super cool visual, aesthetic,
supercool functionality, and then low impact like,
"Hey, we're taking plastics out of the ocean
and we're not polluting waterways
and were inspiring people that it's possible."
When you hear Rob and Kassia talk about being and engaging with water,
this feeling it gives catching that right wave...
We wanted to bring that to the many people.
To give people access to the ocean,
whether they're catching waves or not,
people need it.
It's like I call the ocean 'saltwater therapy'.
Just floating in the water and feeling that
and like hearing the sound of the water.
That feeling right there is why we surf
and why we play in the ocean.
It is the best place
to go and have a good time.
KÅSEBERGA
KÅSEBERGA IS INSPIRED BY THE OCEAN AND THOS WHO PROTECT IT.
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORLD?