A Conversation with Hayden Cox

Photography by Anson Smart

From shaping surfboards in his parents’ garage at fifteen to collaborating with global icons like Bang & Olufsen and Daniel Arsham, Hayden Cox has built a career that refuses to sit neatly in one category. As the founder of Haydenshapes, his surfboards now reach over seventy countries, yet his design practice extends far beyond waves. Furniture, interiors, fashion, technology, each project is approached with the same resourcefulness that first drove him to repair rather than replace. Cox’s work is defined by curiosity and precision, by a willingness to push materials into new forms while staying grounded in the hands-on process that sparked his journey.

To start, how would you describe what you do, and, why you do it?

I am a surfboard designer / shaper, manufacturer and founder of Haydenshapes. Haydenshapes is a surfboard company that I started when I was 15 and today we sell  in around 70 countries. Secondary to that role, I like to work on all types of design projects from fashion and accessories to furniture,  interior and architecture. I do it because I love it and feel challenged by it. 

You’ve previously mentioned that resourcefulness was instilled in you from a young age. What experiences shaped that mindset, and how has it influenced the way you create and problem-solve throughout projects?

Growing up, our family was very ‘hands on’ and practical. As a kid mum and dad would work on developing different homes that we lived in and more often than not we’d help out with jobs like painting, installing insulation or general help on the job site. We’d camp a lot too and were always building things. When I snapped my favourite surfboard one year, i didn’t have money to replace it so I built my own instead and spent my school holidays doing work experience in a surfboard factory. 

Growing up, surfing was an obvious influence, but outside of that world, were there architects or designers you found yourself drawn to, people who inspired your approach to design?

As a kid and teenager I was heavily influenced by 90s punk / surf culture. Surf films were a major inspiration for me, directors like Taylor Steele and Jack McCoy were my heroes. The  surfers, the boards, the music within the edits - I lived and breathed it. Moving into more recent years, I remember around 15 years ago walking into a Rick Owens store in Paris. The clothing, the store design and furniture the whole feeling and experience of that space really resonated with me. I really liked that idea of creative freedom in applying your design language to all types of things and not feeling pigeonholed so to speak and I feel like Rick does it better than anyone. I felt more open minded about my own creativity within and beyond making surfboards. 

As your career’s progressed, you have moved beyond surfboards into a wider world of design. Was there a particular project that you feel marked the turning point from being known primarily as a surfboard shaper to becoming a designer across a range of disciplines?

Separate to Haydenshapes, I was personally commissioned by Westpac in 2017 to design a range of wearables that housed a ‘tap and pay’ chip. A friend of mine was working at a creative agency and Westpac was a client of theirs. Long story short, what was meant to be a wristband turned into a larger project and 5 or 6 designs and although Westpac owned the design IP of the collection I created for them, I retained exclusivity of the manufacturing and with that came a whole host of learning the ins and outs of manufacturing a product that legally had to pass certain criteria and standards for the general public use within banking. There were many interesting design rules to abide by and quite different to the freedoms of surfboard design. I don’t think it was so much a project that marked a turning point from a public point of view,  but for me personally it set a new kind of challenge in applying my skill set to other things at a large scale and scrutinizing every detail. 

You’ve been a pioneer in upcycling surfboard materials. What first led you to explore this, and is there a project that stands out as a favourite example of how these materials can be reimagined?

Surfboards are not green and the industry is nowhere near where I’d love it to be from a sustainable material standpoint. Another large issue though is the subtractive nature of how surfboards are made and that they create so much waste of raw materials like fibreglass, foam, carbon fibre, resin. All of those things are very hard to recycle and typically end up in landfill. For around 6 years I've been creating upcycled concrete material that reuses these manufacturing offcuts into new beautiful forms from retail fixtures, objects etc and more recently if applied this to concrete forms within my own home’s design. I have also woven new fibreglass cloth using waste within the weave, which is a project I have going in the background and would like to finesse.

We were lucky enough to attend the launch of your recent collaboration with Bang & Olufsen. Can you take us inside the design process from early planning to execution, and share why the resin legs became such a critical part of the speaker’s identity?

The biggest challenge of this project was ultimately achieving the inclusion of the cast resin legs as a limited edition feature of the A9 which is in one of Bang & Olufsen’s most iconic speaker designs. I believe this is a first for the brand in terms of collaboration with a designer. Behind the scenes there were many months of strength testing and ensuring the performance of the speaker continued to perform at the highest standard Bang & Olufsen are known and celebrated for. In terms of the art, the storytelling is based around resin materiality and light interaction which is where the blue gradient comes from. 

Another notable project was your collaboration with Daniel Arsham. How did you approach blending both brand’s DNA, and what did creative direction look like in that partnership?

Daniel is a true creative and just loves making cool things - it was such a privilege to work on something with him. It took a long time for us to realise the ‘eroded surfboard’ and create something that not only aesthetically achieved his signature design language and hollow ‘eroded’ sections, but could be ridden by the worlds most talented surfers like 7 X world champion Steph Gilmore or iconic free surfer Craig Anderson. The footage of Craig doing airs on that board was a real pinch myself moment. I could see that in my head in the early days of design and what we wanted to achieve, but it took me 2 years of prototype failures before we actually got there. 

Looking ahead, is there an industry you haven’t explored yet that you’d love to collaborate with?

I love cars and I love watches. I am so fortunate to be long term ambassadors for both Audi and IWC and hope to one day create something unique and innovative with both of these brands. With that said, right now I am really  focussed on surfboards and hitting the road all around the world visiting our retailers and meeting all of our customers in the local communities.  I enjoy this so much and this is where I want to put my creative energy right now.  

Beyond products and collaborations, your recently completed home, Alaïa Palm Beach, feels like a very personal project. How did your years of surfboard shaping inform the way you approached materiality and detail in the home?

For one, using our upcycled concrete was a cool moment of weaving my love of surfboards within the materiality of the home. When it came to the overarching design, I didn’t want it to feel overcomplicated but instead feel more timeless in terms of colours and material palette. The building industry is very wasteful and we didn't want to go down the road of leaning too much into trends that might feel dated in a few years time. Our focus was choosing materials and neutral colour tones that framed the blue ocean aspect, positioning on the site and working in harmony with the landscaping. We wanted boldness and colour to come through art and furniture curation instead. 

You’ve spoken about using a neutral palette to let the furniture and artwork take centre stage. Which pieces or collaborations you have worked on were you most excited to see within the final result?

I really love the inclusion of our collaborative Refract resin pieces (Hayden Cox X SP01 for Space Furniture) within the home, particularly the coffee table and console. The form and shape of these pieces were designed to interact with light. Being a north facing site, the home is drenched in sunlight and the resin pieces really are artworks within each room. During the morning the colour is almost iridescent and as the light shifts throughout the day, the colour deepens and becomes more moody.

Has designing Alaïa Palm Beach shifted your perspective on space? With a background in product design, do you now see architecture as an evolving branch of your creative practice?

I have an appreciation for architecture and design for me is always performance based. How will that surfboard feel under someone's feet, how can I achieve a certain feeling and performance when it moves through the water? The home was no different in terms of designing it to create and elevate an experience. We really wanted to feel that sense of calm and being on holidays at home, which from a design standpoint was informed by choices that enhanced the wellness aspect  - the expansive lawns areas spilling from the bedrooms, the swimming pool that is bathed in light and connects to the entertainment zone, the dedicated wellness floor with pilates, Sunlighten mPulse sauna and ice plunge, the terracing off of each main level that gives a solid sense of groundedness while being perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Even as a steep site,  when you are in the home you feel connected to every space and surrounded by plants and nature feeling the sun and warmth all year round. Certain design choices were critical in creating that feeling and we are very proud of the finished result.