Wegener Tool Co.
Brand, Identity and Shopify Store
A new brand for an established surf name. Together, we built the positioning, identity and Shopify store for the shift from Tom Wegener Surfboards to a family company led by the next generation.
Context
Tom Wegener has shaped boards in Noosa since 1999. He’s been building hollow paulownia boards since 2002, reviving ancient Hawaiian designs that most of the industry had left behind, and Surfer Magazine named him Shaper of the Year for it. For most of that time the business was Tom Wegener Surfboards. One shaper, one name, finished boards sold to people who wanted a Wegener.
In 2024 the family changed the business. Tom, his wife Margie and their daughter Sunday set up Wegener Tool Co to sell the timber, tools, kits and knowledge to make your own board, with Sunday taking the lead. Same shed, same knowledge, different company.
The idea is bigger than a new website. Pass on what Tom knows before it’s lost, and carry the trust in his name into the company his family runs now.
Collaboration
I worked with Tom, Sunday and Margie from the brief in October 2024 through to launch. Positioning, identity, packaging, the Shopify store and the content structure that holds Tom’s writing and films.
The Challenge
This wasn’t a surfboard brand.
A shift like this pulls in two directions. The Wegener name is the reason anyone trusts the product, so the new brand couldn’t walk away from it. But a surfboard maker and a company that teaches you to make your own are different businesses with different customers.
The brand had to carry Tom’s name and Sunday’s direction at the same time.
Positioning
Surfing tools for life. Not boards to buy, the materials and the know-how to make your own, for as long as you’re in the water.
Timber, tools, workshops and films all sit under that, and so does Tom’s writing.
The second generation is the signal. Tom’s shaping and Sunday’s direction inside one company, passing the knowledge on while Tom is still in the shed to teach it. Prone surfing sits at the centre of the range, the cheapest way into the water and the tradition Tom has spent years bringing back.
Identity
We went through a lot of rounds before landing on the mark. The early concepts leaned on the usual surf cues, waves, ocean, board shapes. None of them earned their place.
The icon that stuck is a paulownia tree, the timber Tom builds every board from and the material he loves working with. It’s not what a surf brand normally looks like, and that’s the point. The mark points at the material, not the sport.
It works as a literal branding iron burned into the boards, on t-shirts and apparel, and across the web.
Shopify Store
I built the store on Shopify to carry the shift from one product to a full range. Raw timber, paulownia sheets, boards, surf tools, apparel and books all sit under the one roof, shipping worldwide. Workshops and films sit in the same catalogue, because for this company they are products too. Tom’s articles, previously on Substack, are now live on the store as well, under Stories from the Shed.
Outcome
Wegener Tool Co launched as its own brand with its own store, distinct from the surfboard business but carrying its weight.
The identity holds across product, packaging, apparel, film and web. A surf culture company with a system underneath it. Strategy first. Creative always. System to scale.
Strategy first. Creative always. System to scale.
If you are launching a new direction out of an established name, the brand has to do two jobs at once. It has to belong, and it has to stand alone.
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