Imperfects

James Lynch

It was June 2020, and Michael Lynch’s phone lit up with notifications: an Instagram tag in Thrasher, another in Gear Patrol, Cool Material. Then, SURFER calls. Can they speak with the brains behind the art of Imperfects, the account catching all the attention? It’s a modern-day technological love story.

Imperfects, founded by Lynch, is a lifestyle brand run out of an office-cum-storefront in Liberty Station. The brand sells top-of-the-line custom surfboards, skateboards, and stylish, monochromatic unisex apparel built to last. The two things that really broke the internet are his signature asymmetrical surfboards, shaped by hand, and Imperfects’ Shepherds Shirt, best described as a sexy, smart smock for grown-ups.

A handful of years back, he started a creative agency focused on sustainable and outdoors-oriented lifestyle and apparel brands. Lynch started shaping surfboards for fun, which naturally led to making skateboards. Ever the creative mind, he began designing clothes that spoke to the lifestyle of those sports, using second-use, high-quality fabric he sourced from his contacts in the garment industry.

Imperfects-Retail-Store

James Lynch

True to the Imperfects moniker, it was more an undefined creative outlet than a side hustle. He tinkered with it, quietly assembling a plan piece-by-piece while running the agency and building a home with his wife and two kids in Point Loma (Lynch grew up in North County).

But that day in 2020, he realized it was “time to give Imperfects the full go.” He was able to hit the ground running thanks to the back stock he’d built up over the years, a made-to-order collection at the ready.

What followed was selling out across product lines, a bi- coastal pop-up collab with Ilegal Mezcal, being carried in Nordstrom’s top five busiest stores in the U.S., and a cult-following sneaking up on the mainstream. Imperfects surfboards have been commissioned by crusty Moonlight Beach locals and home collectors alike, who both use the pieces in the water and as art.

imperfects

Titus Huag

More growth is coming, Lynch assures. He thinks back to a conversation he had with a friend some years back: “We were saying, ‘Will our art ever get out there? Are we just not ballsy enough to put it out there? Are we afraid of judgment?’ The answer was ‘yes’ to all that—we didn’t think we would ever be seen.”

Leave it to the internet to fix that in short order.

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Imperfects Mike Lynch

James Lynch

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James Lynch

Imperfects.Stab

Imperfects.Stab

James Lynch

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