‘Just went nuts’: Secrets behind Aussie $600m streetwear juggernaut Culture Kings
Simon Beard was just a teenager when he took a gamble on a humble Queensland market stall. Now, the move has made hundreds of millions.
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Simon Beard was still a teenager when he started a market stall that would catapult him onto Australia’s most coveted rich lists.
The Queenslander always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur and “to never work a real job in my whole life”, and started selling various items in the Carrara Markets on the Gold Coast with now-wife Tah-nee.
Some products took off while others didn’t – but the turning point came when Mr Beard realised – thanks to his own love of streetwear – that there was a massive gap in the market.
“I was always buying it for myself, and I couldn’t believe people were just wearing surf clothes – I thought, ‘that stuff is whack’,” he told news.com.au.
“I bought some Dickies shorts from Walmart in America for $16 that surf stores were selling for $100, sold those, bought more, sold them, and I kept seeing that gap in the market.
“It all started with a pair of shorts and it quickly grew – I saw way more potential in it and I was passionate about it and loved it, so it got all my focus and attention and I just went nuts on it.”
That was in 2008, and by the following year, the couple had scraped together enough cash to open their first store in Southport, leasing it month-by-month.
That humble market stall and first store would soon become Australian streetwear juggernaut Culture Kings, which by 2020 was turning over almost $200 million with a $20 million net profit.
The company gained a cult following after cementing itself as “a premium streetwear brand with exclusivity and superiority across a wide range of genres, styles and cultures”, offering 100 international brands and “world exclusive pieces”.
It also attracted a following thanks to daily DJ performances and in-store challenges allowing shoppers to compete for up-market prizes including everything from holiday packages to Yeezys, successfully blurring the lines between retail and entertainment.
Over the years it has attracted legions of fans including world-famous athletes, artists and celebrities, with Drake, Migos and A$AP Rocky among the A-listers seen in stores.
And in February this year, Snoop Dogg appeared in a Melbourne store, after previously visiting a store in Nerang Mall and snapping up $25,000 worth of merchandise in 2011.
It became such a phenomenal success story that in 2021, it was snapped up by US buyer a.k.a. Brands for $307 million in cash plus 23.3 million shares, making it a brand worth more than $600 million in total.
That same year, the husband-and-wife duo made their debut on the Australian Financial Review Rich List with a total net worth of $626 million while still in their 30s.
But it wasn’t an overnight success, with the pair grinding away to grow the fledgling business, adding one new store per year.
“I slowly built it with my wife … we shut up, put our heads down and worked for five years straight, and slowly grew by 20 to 40 per cent a year …” Mr Beard said.
“When we had enough cash to invest we would double down, and for a huge period there we paid our staff way more than us, for years. Some people don’t have the discipline to do that, but we just wanted to keep investing (in the business).
“We were just building it brick by brick, and not getting distracted was key. But we were betting the farm every time.”
In 2017, they came close to losing it all, after a devastating fire saw the Beards lose a staggering $10 million in a day.
“We thought we were broke. We thought, ‘Oh my god, we’ve worked on this our whole life’, but we managed to save it and recover and worked really hard to grow out the back of it,” Mr Beard said.
“And then when Covid happened, we had the same initial thought that everyone did – that we were screwed.
“But we actually suddenly jumped to 120 per cent growth, and as much as I want to pat myself on the back and think ‘I’m the man’, we didn’t get 120 per cent better – the government stimulus definitely helped, but we were able to pivot fast and seize the right opportunities too.”
Mr Beard said his wife was a driving force behind the company’s success, adding that she helped make the business “sing” and was a whiz at the operational side – as well as keeping him grounded.
“I’m so lucky to have had my wife – if I was a young single guy, I probably would have bought the Lambos and been popping bottles at the club, but because we built it together, we consciously made the decision to just grind this out – we never did interviews, we didn’t tell anyone (how successful the brand was) until (the sale) came out, and all of a sudden people said, ‘what the hell? Culture Kings is worth $600 million?’” he said.
After inking the deal, Mr Beard said the couple finally splurged a little after years of restraint, and were also able to take a well-earned break.
“I bought a few well-deserved toys – a boat and Lambos and stuff, because I always wanted them,” he said.
“But I think the biggest thing was that the feeling of pressure on your neck that never releases for an entrepreneur was gone.
“It just released and I didn’t realise how much pressure there was until that moment. These days, I just enjoy the present – it takes a lot for something to stress me or pi*ss me off.”
However, he said it was “definitely weird” after news of the deal broke and friends and family finally realised just how successful the Beards were, and that he clearly remembered the surreal experience of going to the ATM to double check the balance of his account once the cheque finally cleared.
“It was definitely weird at the start, especially with friends who never knew the business was that big, because we never spruiked it,” he said.
Mr Beard said while he made a “million-dollar mistake” every year, he always made sure to learn from his missteps, and was always confident he had a global brand in the making.
And ironically, Mr Beard said one of the biggest secrets to his success came down to an earlier failure.
In the very early days, he was selling digital cameras from China – a product that was “killing it” – and he had the idea to make them waterproof. He spoke with his factory in China but hesitated to pull the trigger – only for GoPro cameras to explode in popularity soon after.
Mr Beard was “sour and salty” to see GoPro blow up into a $10 billion company while he missed the boat, but said it taught him an important lesson to “trust my gut”.
“I knew that next time, nobody was going to stop me, so when I first saw the gap in the market and realised my love for streetwear, I did it with momentum and energy because I had already been through that,” he explained.
“I truly believed we had a global model for iconic stores around the world with theatre and emotion in the stores and a great brand experience.
“We launched our first US store (late last year) which is off and racing, but I think the real story is that so many people think they need to borrow so much money, but you’ve just got to grind it out.
“It was all done with no loans or investors. We proved you can build a $600 million brand without it (outside investment).”
Mr Beard has recently stepped away from the brand’s day-to-day operations to focus on other entrepreneurial endeavours, but remains on the company’s board.
Simon Beard’s story will be aired on Sky News’ The Secrets of My Success on Sunday, July 9 at 8:30pm AEST
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Originally published as ‘Just went nuts’: Secrets behind Aussie $600m streetwear juggernaut Culture Kings
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