Company History

Hot Tuna was born in Australia in the summer of 1969 to serve the demands of sojourning surfers, the product of a dedicated surfer’s passion fueled by the skill of his fashion designer wife. Spreading on the bodies and boards of watermen through coastal locales in the South Pacific, the brand quickly burgeoned globally, becoming an influential leader in the nascent surf industry and one of the progenitors of the neon era of surf in the '80s. Through the brand’s storied history, a long list of notables, in and out of the water, have waved the Hot Tuna banner at one time or another in their careers, including pro surfers such as Richie Lovett, Robbie Page, Beau Emerton and Drew Courtney.

In September 2005, Hot Tuna (International) PLC purchased the Hot Tuna brand from a consortium of investors and listed it on AIM, a division of the London Stock Exchange.

In the interest of managing its brand profile and distribution globally, the public Company began a rapid acquisition of its licensed interests around the world. Talented designers and key management with apparel business expertise from Quiksilver, O’Neill, Ocean Pacific, Rip Curl and Perry Ellis International, among others, were recruited to drive the process in the key markets of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. In July 2006, entrepreneur and fashion icon Elle Macpherson, who grew-up with the brand in Australia, was appointed as an executive director of Hot Tuna (International) PLC, her interests focused on design and distribution issues, as well as overall youth fashion and market insight.

In a world that’s becoming increasingly homogenous in its offerings, Hot Tuna today is renewing the excitement, expression and diversity that was born of the lifestyle it serves, balancing in fashion the extremes of gravity and levity in a day-in-the-life of world-traveling surfers.

This season, Hot Tuna is recommitting itself to the brand’s history and roots in world travel, drawing from global fashion and surf-cultural inspirations, emphasizing '60s, '70s and '80s treatments, and infusing in every thread of clothing the timeless values that the iconic Piranha logo has come to embody: authenticity, creativity and good times.