Laird Hamilton | all images by Jose Cervantes
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Flaunt met up with Laird Hamilton, world renowned surfer turned designer, to get a peek into his life—coffee preferences, his own clothing brand and daily routine. His clothing brand, [Laird Apparel](https://lairdapparel.com/), is all about function which makes sense, considering his structured lifestyle.
Read our full Q&A with the American big-wave surfer below.
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**What are your morning rituals? And what does your day start like?**
I always wake up with a shower. I probably shower three times a day. I don’t know if I need my gills wet or something, but my coffee is a ritual. I always do some breath work. I have my [Invisalign](https://www.invisalign.com/news-and-events/2017/invisalign-on-the-view). How I look at it is, I say, "Okay I have my oral hygiene, shower, and coffee."
**I see you're making mushroom tea. What's that do for you?**
It’s the most powerful mushroom in the world. You can order it online from Z Natural Foods. They have all different kinds. [I make some of my own mushroom powders](https://lairdsuperfood.com/products/lairds-performance-mushroom-blend). We use landmine, shiitake, maitake, cordyceps, and they all have a super strong healing power to them. But that Chaga; that’s the king of them. It’s the most powerful one.
**How did you get into the apparel business?**
I kind of spent some time working in the industry because in surfing, all the companies that made money were garment businesses, so I was like well I don’t need to make money surfing, I could do apparel. So I got to learn a lot about that business and it’s a very difficult business.
In the back of my brain, I felt like if I could make my brand valuable. That’s the one thing, anybody can make a line of clothing. If you have enough money you can advertise it anywhere, but the thing you can’t buy with money is authenticity.
**So tell us more about your clothing line and working with a designer.**
When you make a line of clothing, and then you have a relationship with a designer, he starts to know my style and what I like. But to make a line really appealing you have to have pieces for everybody. If I made only what I liked, I wouldn’t be as appealing. So I need to rely on other people’s insight, though it has to stay within my philosophy, which has more to do with comfortable materials, materials that dry fast, that move, that are flexible.
The line is inspired by the things that I like and that can function. I once said to somebody “Birds look beautiful because they can fly.” So when something is functional, there’s gotta be something about that that makes it look nice, too.
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Written by: Sonum Kahlon
Interview by Linda Nyvltova
Photos by Jose Cervantes
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