Hurley has been a fixture in surf and beach culture for decades. But lately, people have been asking if the brand is finished. News about layoffs, an ownership sale, and a UK company called Hurley closing down has created a lot of confusion.
Here’s the short answer: Hurley International is still operating. It has not shut down, filed for bankruptcy, or gone through any formal insolvency process. What it has done is go through some significant changes — and those changes, from the outside, can look like a brand falling apart.
This article breaks down what actually happened, who owns Hurley now, what the layoffs meant, and what customers can expect.
Hurley Is Still Open — But It Looks Different Than It Used To
Hurley International is not closed. The brand still has an active website at hurley.com, continues to sell products through e-commerce and wholesale, and maintains its headquarters in Costa Mesa, California.
Business data platforms like CB Insights classify the company as “Alive.” Data providers like ZoomInfo list Hurley with hundreds of employees and revenue in the hundreds of millions. Those are not the numbers of a company that has folded.
So why are people searching to find out if it’s done? Because the brand went through a sale, job cuts, and a leadership change all around the same time. Each of those events, on its own, sounds alarming. Together, they created the impression that something was seriously wrong.
Nike Sold Hurley in 2019 — That Is Not the Same as Closing It
Hurley has been around since the late 1970s, originally as a Billabong distributor before developing into its own brand. Nike acquired it in 2002 as part of a push into action sports.
In December 2019, Nike sold Hurley to a company called Bluestar Alliance LLC. That sale is where most of the confusion starts.
A sale transfers ownership. It does not shut a brand down. Bluestar Alliance is a brand management firm — its business model involves acquiring and growing consumer brands. Buying Hurley was a strategic decision, not a last resort.
Nike’s decision to sell reflected its own shifting priorities. The company was narrowing its focus, and Hurley didn’t fit the core plan anymore. That’s a Nike strategy call, not a sign that Hurley itself was dying.
Think of it this way: when a house sells, it doesn’t disappear. It just has a new owner who may do things differently. Hurley is still the same brand name with the same product focus — it just answers to different people now.
What the 2019 Layoffs Actually Meant
After Bluestar Alliance took over in late 2019, it cut 56 jobs. Most of those cuts were in design and marketing roles. Retail operations, which employed around 320 people, were largely expected to stay intact.
Bluestar described the cuts as part of building a “sustainable plan for long-term growth.” That kind of language sounds like corporate spin, but the underlying reason is straightforward. When a new owner takes over a company, they often eliminate duplicate roles or shift focus to match their own strategy.
Post-acquisition layoffs are common. They’re disruptive, and they’re hard on the people who lose jobs. But they don’t signal that a company is collapsing. They usually signal that someone new is in charge and reorganizing.
The layoffs made news — especially locally in Orange County — and that coverage contributed to the idea that Hurley was in trouble. In reality, the cuts were part of a restructuring, not a warning sign of closure.
Bob Hurley No Longer Runs the Brand
Bob Hurley, the founder, and his family are no longer involved with Hurley International after the Bluestar deal. That’s a real and meaningful change.
When a founder leaves, a brand’s culture often shifts. The decisions that shaped Hurley’s original identity — the surf credibility, the community feel, the product vision — came from Bob Hurley and the people around him. That influence is gone now.
The Hurley family has moved on to other ventures. They purchased the Simple shoe brand and are applying their apparel experience there instead.
Some longtime customers and people in the surf community genuinely feel that Hurley lost its identity when the founder left. That’s a fair reaction. But a founder’s departure is not the same thing as a business closing. The company continues under different leadership with a different direction.
If you loved the old Hurley because of what Bob Hurley built, it’s reasonable to feel like that version of the brand is gone. What remains is a different version — still using the name, still selling product, but operating under a brand management company with broader commercial goals.
A UK Company Called Hurley Did Close — But It Is Not the Same Brand
Here’s where some specific confusion comes from. A UK-registered business called Hurley Menswear Limited was dissolved on July 12, 2024, according to Companies House records.
That company is not Hurley International. It’s a separate legal entity that happened to share a similar name. Its dissolution has nothing to do with the California-based surf and lifestyle brand.
“Hurley” is also a common business name. There are entities like Hurley Business Park in Connecticut and Hurley Group in Massachusetts — none of which are connected to the global surf brand. If you came across a news item about a Hurley company closing, it’s worth checking which Hurley it actually refers to.
What Bluestar Alliance Is Doing With the Brand
Bluestar Alliance CEO Joseph Gabbay has talked publicly about plans to expand Hurley beyond surfwear into broader action sports and lifestyle categories — including snow, skate, music, and art.
That’s a significant shift from what Hurley was built on. The brand made its name in surf culture, and expanding into lifestyle and licensing is a common move for brand management firms. It can grow revenue, but it can also dilute the original identity.
Whether that strategy works or not remains to be seen. But the plan itself is a sign of a company trying to grow, not one trying to survive long enough to shut its doors.
For more coverage on brands going through ownership changes and what those transitions actually mean for consumers, visit OnBizDaily.
What This Means If You’re a Hurley Customer
You can still buy Hurley products. The website is active, and the brand is sold through wholesale channels as well. That part hasn’t changed.
What may have changed is the feel of the products and the brand’s direction. Under Bluestar Alliance, Hurley is being positioned as a broader lifestyle brand rather than a core surf label. If you bought Hurley because of its surf heritage, the current version may feel different from what you remember.
That’s not unusual for brands that go through ownership changes. It’s something worth knowing, but it’s not the same as the brand going away.
The Bottom Line
Hurley International is not going out of business. It went through a sale in 2019, a round of layoffs in early 2020, and a leadership change when the founding family stepped away. Those are real changes that altered how the brand operates and what it prioritizes.
But none of that is the same as closing down. The company still has employees, headquarters, an active website, and ongoing sales. A UK business with a similar name closed in 2024, but that has nothing to do with the surf brand most people are asking about.
What Hurley went through is restructuring and repositioning. That can look like a brand falling apart from the outside, especially when you’re hearing about layoffs and a founder’s exit. The reality is more straightforward: a new owner took over, made organizational changes, and is now running the brand in a different direction.
Whether the new direction is better or worse is a separate question. But Hurley, as a business, is still running.
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