COR Surf: Moving Production from China to Vietnam and Expanding the Product Line
COR Surf is a Huntington Beach, California-based brand selling premium surf, skate, and travel gear. Founded in 2003, their product line includes bamboo board racks, backpacks, changing ponchos, car roof rack pads, and travel accessories. They sell direct-to-consumer through their own website and across major online marketplaces, with order volumes ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 units per product.
Moving bamboo rack production from China to Vietnam without losing quality
COR Surf was already manufacturing their signature bamboo surf and skateboard racks in China with strong sales. But they wanted to move production to Vietnam. The challenge was finding a Vietnamese factory that could match the quality of their existing Chinese product, specifically the bamboo construction, the silicon rubber padding, and the precision of the rack arm angles that keep boards secure.
Bamboo manufacturing in Vietnam is concentrated in specific regions, and not every factory has experience producing precision consumer products from it. The silicon rubber components added another layer of complexity: factories in Vietnam needed to source the same 3M-grade silicon rubber that COR Surf was using in their Chinese production, or find a Vietnamese alternative that met the same standard.
Factory sourcing across bamboo, textiles, and bags, one product category at a time
Bamboo Rack Sourcing
Our sourcing specialist Thuy identified bamboo manufacturers across multiple Vietnamese provinces, including factory audits in Thanh Hoa. We collected quotations, ordered samples from 3 factories, and shipped them to COR Surf in California for evaluation against their existing Chinese product.
Quality Verification
COR Surf arranged a V-Trust third-party inspection before the first production order shipped. The bamboo racks from the Vietnamese factory passed inspection, and our team coordinated the shipping logistics from factory to port.
Textile Product Sourcing
After the bamboo racks succeeded, COR Surf came back for microfiber changing ponchos. This required a completely different type of factory: textile and garment manufacturing instead of woodworking. We sourced across 7 factories, navigating fabric sourcing challenges and price targets.
Bag & Accessories Sourcing
The relationship expanded again with backpacks, toiletry bags, and car roof rack pads. Each product required different manufacturing capabilities, and we matched each category to the right factory type rather than forcing everything into a single supplier.
From One Product in China to Five Categories in Vietnam
What started as a single project to move bamboo rack production from China to Vietnam has grown into a multi-year, multi-category sourcing relationship. The Vietnamese factory's bamboo racks passed third-party inspection and matched or exceeded the quality of COR Surf's original Chinese production.
One project became five, and they keep coming back
COR Surf started with Cosmo Sourcing in 2022 to solve a single problem: move bamboo rack production out of China. Three years later, we've sourced across bamboo racks, toiletry bags, changing ponchos, backpacks, and car roof rack pads. Each new product category required a different type of factory, and our team matched each one. The relationship is still active and expanding.
Visit COR Surf →Outgrowing Your China Supplier?
Whether you're moving one product or your entire line to Vietnam, our team will find the right factories and manage the transition. We've done it before.
