(Unconfirmed) Body Glove co-founder, Bob Meistrell, 85

[BobF]

Reported on surfing and diving forums and on Bob's Facebook page. I've
met his brother, Bill, and bought several of their wetsuits over the
years. And they did fit like gloves.

https://www.facebook.com/bob.meistrell.3

More when mainline media catch up and confirm.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/04/04/octogenarian-entrepreneur-seven-lessons-body-glove-founder-bob-meistrell/

The Octogenarian Entrepreneur: Seven Lessons From Body Glove Founder
Bob Meistrell

This summer Bob Meistrell celebrates both his 85th birthday and the
60th anniversary of Body Glove, the iconic surf brand he built six
decades ago with his twin brother Bill on the beaches of Southern
California. The Midwestern sons of a banker bought into a Redondo
Beach surf shop in 1953 for $1,800, where they developed the first
commercial neoprene wetsuit (“It fit like a glove,” Bob remembers).
They soon built an empire of gear for surfers, divers and water sports
enthusiasts that’s become an industry leader to the tune of $80
million in annual sales.

These days Meistrell still runs the operation from the company’s
Redondo Beach headquarters. His brother, best friend and cofounder
Bill passed away in 2006 after a battle with Parkinson’s, and today
Bob’s business is held together by their legacy of sons and
grandchildren who have helped to take the brand into the new
millennium with extensive licensing partnerships. What began with a
wetsuit and a single surf shop is now a massive branded empire.
According to the company, it remains entirely family owned.

As anyone with a grandfather or who has ever spoken to
an entrepreneur knows, both qualities make a person uniquely
predisposed to telling stories and sharing down advice. In celebration
of 60 years of success at industry leader Body glove, the soon-to-be
85-year-old founder talked to me to share his secrets of life, love
and the bottom line for today’s driven entrepreneurs.

No. 1 Set goals and stick to them

Bob and Bill had three goals when they moved to California at age 16:
own a submarine, find buried treasure and go deep sea diving. Over the
next 60 years, they accomplished all three, and if you ask Meistrell,
inventing the first commercial wetsuit and build a million dollar surf
brand was just something that happened along the way.

Sort of. “We had three goals for what we wanted to do in business,”
Meistrell told me by phone from his California Riviera home. “to live
close to where we worked, because in Missouri the roads were so bumpy
you could barely read on the bus—two, to make a good product and sell
it for a fair price and three to love what we did every single day.”

Still, that whole submarine, deep sea diving, treasure hunting gig
didn’t fall by the wayside. Bill famously discovered more than a
million dollars in gold coins along the Northern California coast and
Bob found a trove of jade off the Catalina coast. “Last year for my
84th birthday I went down 300 feet in a submarine with my diving
partner,” Meistrell says, making it clear he’s still in the business
of setting goals and achieving them. “I think we’re engaged now
because it was really, really crowded in there.”

No. 2 Love what you do, do what you love

When Bob and Bill were growing up in Missouri, where they lived until
the family moved to the coast when the boys were 16, they fell in love
with the ocean from afar. “We’d read any book on the ocean we could
get out hands on,” Bob says. “We hadn’t ever even seen the sea and we
were in love.” He recalls building submarines out of cardboard
appliance boxes pilfered from an older brother’s store and playing for
hours and, at age 15, building their first diving helmet prototype out
of an oil jug, a garden hose and some tar found along the roadside.
“We developed a switch valve out of a spring and a marble.” Remarkably
the thing worked in a nearby pond.

It goes without saying, Meistrell says, that when they finally reached
the California Coast they knew they had found the love of their life.
“The first thing we bought was a used diving helmet, because we’d left
our homemade one back in Missouri.” It cost $35, a steal Meistrell
says they got because the previous owner had died underwater, the
result of a bad switch valve, a safety valve that releases pressure in
diving suits. “If you didn’t have that in there and the pump failed,
the pressure would chuck your head up into the top of the helmet and
kill you,” he says, but it was easy work for the brothers. A marble
and a spring did the trick.

“We love the ocean and everything you can do in it,” Meistrell says.
“We’re in the hall of fame for diving and the hall of fame for
surfing. For two kids from the farm that’s a real kicker.”



From WIkipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Glove

Body Glove International, LLC is a major surf/skateboard/watersports
brand started in the United States. Body Glove was founded in 1953 by
twin brothers Bill and Bob Meistrell. The brothers invented the very
first practical wetsuit in the early 1950s in the back of their
Redondo Beach, California surf shop, Dive N' Surf. From those wetsuits
Body Glove began to branch out into other product categories, they now
make: wetsuits, swimsuits, clothing, shoes, life vests, sunglasses,
wakeboards, towables, backpacks and snorkeling equipment. The company
wanted to be able to give people product options for every watersport
they participated in.

Body Glove products can be found all over the world.

Body Glove company history

Body Glove was started by identical twins in Missouri, Bob and Bill
Meistrell, who were always interested in the water. Moving to
Manhattan Beach in California in 1944, they suddenly got interested in
surfing, and were one of the first to put fiberglass on the nose of
their surfboards to protect the foam filled plywood boards. Becoming
lifeguards and surfing by the lights of their car, they realized how
cold the water could be. Finally in 1953, they found the insulation
used in the back of refrigerators, neoprene, worked well for first
practical wet suits. Bob and Bill borrowed $1800 from their mother and
each bought one third of the local sports shop called Dive N' Surf.

Business started slow so the Meistrells were grateful for any extra
sales and happily designed and tailored their own brand of wetsuits.
In the beginning the wetsuits were named Thermocline.The Meistrells
didn't think this was a great name so they hired a marketing
consultant, Duke Boyd. Duke asked about the characteristics of the
suits and Billy said, "They fit like a glove," so Duke came up with
the name Body Glove.

They were among the very first crop of South Bay lifeguards and are
part of an elite group of watermen who were inducted to both the
surfing and diving halls of fame. The company's headquarters is in
Redondo Beach, California.[1]

Founders

Bill Meistrell was a pioneering waterman and lifeguard whose
inventions, talents and exploits helped transform surfing and diving
into worldwide phenomena and billion-dollar industries.

Bill and twin brother Bob are two of the three watermen named to both
the surfing and diving halls of fames. Bill and Bob were born in
Booneville, Missouri; Bill on July 30, 1928, and Bob 20 minutes later
on July 31. Bill and Bob started diving as kids in the farm's pond
using an oilcan for a helmet and a bicycle pump and a hose for air.
Bill and Bob had big dreams as Missouri farm-boys. Bob Meistrell
explains, "We had three goals when we were small boys: own a
submarine; go deep-sea diving; and treasure-hunting. Somehow we
managed all three."

A former business partner murdered their father when the twins were
only four years old. Bill and Bob moved to Manhattan Beach with their
mother, two brothers and three sisters in 1942. Bill attended Redondo
Union High School and graduated from El Segundo High School in 1947.
Bill, a Korean War veteran, was awarded the Bronze Star. Bill and Bob
were among first crop of Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguards in the
1940s and were among the first generation of California surfers and
divers who blazed a path for generations to follow.

Bill bought into their retail store Dive N' Surf in Redondo Beach in
1953 with brother Bob, legendary surfboard maker Hap Jacobs, and
renowned surfer and diver Bev Morgan. Dive N' Surf was the first and
is the oldest surf and dive shop of its kind in the South Bay of Los
Angeles. Bill and Bob became sole owners in 1958. Bill, Bob and
partner Morgan, are best known for inventing (in 1953) the first
practical wetsuit, which revolutionized surfing and diving. Bill came
up with the phrase "fits like a glove" and Body Glove was born. Body
Glove's boned-hand, which Bill helped design, is one of the most
globally recognized brand logos.

Body Glove's success was not lost on Hollywood. Hired to consult, they
provided equipment and custom wetsuits for "Sea Hunt," the TV show
that made Lloyd Bridges a star. The custom wetsuit sported by Bridges
was integral to his character. They have been involved in dozens of
movies since. Bill and Bob taught the entire Bridges family to dive as
well as Gary Cooper, Hugh O'Brien, Charlton Heston, Jill St. John, and
Richard Harris. Bill and his son, Billy even made a custom wetsuit for
LA Laker legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Bill also retrieved millions in
gold coins from shipwreck Brother Jonathan off the Northern California
coast.

--

"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[BobF]

On Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:20:24 +1200, BobF <b...@surfwriter.net.not>
shouted from the highest rooftop:

>
>Reported on surfing and diving forums and on Bob's Facebook page. I've
>met his brother, Bill, and bought several of their wetsuits over the
>years. And they did fit like gloves.
>
>https://www.facebook.com/bob.meistrell.3
>
>More when mainline media catch up and confirm.

Confirmed.