What Year Two is Teaching Me

Journal No. 04  ·  AUGUST 2026

What Year Two Is Teaching Me

I thought I knew what I was building. Year two is showing me it's bigger — and more human — than I imagined.

When I wrote the one-year update back in April 2025, I was honest about where we were: growing steadily, learning constantly, grateful beyond words. Eight retail partners. Markets in New York and LA. A shop-in-shop in Ventura that taught me more about real customers than any spreadsheet ever could.

Now, a few months further into year two, I find myself wanting to capture something that's harder to quantify. Not the numbers — though those are moving in the right direction — but the texture of what it actually feels like to build a brand you love, in real time, with real people.

WHAT THE MARKETS KEEP TEACHING ME

We've now done four markets across New York and Los Angeles. Each one is different. The New York customer asks different questions than the LA customer. Each store sees the brand through a completely different lens than someone picking up a Bucky Over Shirt at the Livery in Ventura after a morning surf.

What strikes me every time is how universal the feeling is, even when the context changes. People respond to ARIKO not because they all surf — many of them don't — but because they recognize the feeling we're after. That easy, sun-drenched, nothing-to-prove energy. It turns out that translates.

THE FIT ADJUSTMENTS THAT MATTER

I've been sitting with feedback from the Post Surf Crew Sweatshirt and the Surf Tanks — the kind of granular, specific notes you only get from people who've actually worn the pieces by the water, on the sand, and everywhere in between. Quarter-inch adjustments. An eighth -inch tweaks at the shoulder. Details that sound small and make an enormous difference. Fabric adjustments for softness, feeling and movement. 

This is my favorite part of year two, honestly. The refinement. Year one was about getting the vision out into the world. Year two is about honoring it with precision. Every tweak makes the garment more itself.

Ariel adjusting the Bucky Ocean Tiger Camo Jacket for a flat lay shot. 

WHAT'S COMING

I'm not ready to share everything yet — but I will say that the new styles in development are some of the most bold ARIKO things we've ever made. We pushed further into the design sensibility that makes this brand what it is: fashion-forward without being inaccessible, surf-inspired without being costume-y, built for real life on the coast and everywhere the coast takes you.

The French Terry Day Short has been one of our best received new pieces. It told me a lot about where the customer wants us to go. We're listening.

Post Surf Crew Sweatshirt with the French Terry Day Short in Sea Grey. 

THE THING I DIDN'T EXPECT

I didn't expect to feel this connected to the people who wear ARIKO. The emails, the messages, the conversations at markets — they've made this feel less like a brand and more like a community. A group of people who share a set of values about how to live, how to move through the world and what they want to wear while doing it.

That's what we're building. Year two is making me believe, more than ever, that we're building it right. 

As always — write to me. I read everything. Reach me at ariel@ariko-la.com.