Brand History

Reef's twenty-five year heritage traces back to two brothers from Argentina, Fernando and Santiago "Santi" Aguerre. Fueled by their passion for surfing, and armed with a unique entrepreneurial spirit, the brothers acted on an idea to create a high quality, comfortable, active lifestyle sandal. Attracted to the Southern California lifestyle, Santi moved to California in the early 80's and would shortly be reunited with his brother. Fernando graduated from Law School, and headed to La Jolla to help co-found Reef. With $4000 working capital, hard work, dedication and some savvy marketing ideas, the brothers built Reef into the #1 sandal brand.

Fernando and Santiago knew they had a great product, but they wanted to separate themselves from the other surf companies. Inspired by the notoriously beautiful women of the beaches in South America, the brothers saw an opportunity to introduce the surf market to an exotic element that they called Miss Reef. Never revealing her face or identity, the brothers used the intrigue of Miss Reef to help convey their idea of the surf lifestyle. The first advertisement involving Miss Reef was rejected from the surfing magazines for the controversial content, but after some convincing, the ads finally ran. The surfers who read the magazines were instantly intrigued by the exotic and beautiful figure in the ads. Since then, Miss Reef has become a global icon of the surfing community. She has remained an integral component of Reef's DNA, and can easily be attributed to the success of Reef.

Through all the change over the past twenty-five years, Reef is driven by the same constant – we are surfers at heart, drawing influences from the world around us. We still stand for the same foundation that the company was founded on by Fernando and Santi back in 1984. Reef is a core surf company. We create authentic and innovative products intended to nurture an incredibly fortunate lifestyle that involves surf, sensuality and a life filled with happiness.