Ocean Pacific Sunwear Opening 2 All-OP Stores

Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd., the Tustin-based clothier of the casual-beach set, is taking another step to bring younger buyers back to the label by opening its first two all-OP stores.

A free-standing, 2,100-square-foot store in Westwood Village will open May 11. The second store opened last week in a Dallas mall. A third is on the drawing board to open soon at a Thousand Oaks mall.

To date, the concept of an exclusively OP shop has been tried in the United States only as a boutique within a Hawaiian department store. But if the three new shops succeed, Ocean Pacific stores could spring up across the country--as they already have in Mexico.

OP has been the well-heeled granddaddy of the surfwear industry for the past decade. But at the same time the brand has become accepted by a larger consumer base, it has lost popularity with younger, trendier buyers.

The new stores are aimed at “creating a showcase . . . and exposing more of the line” to 16 to 24-year-old buyers by offering a much bigger selection of OP T-shirts, shirts and shorts than they would see anywhere else, said Jerry G. Crosby, executive vice president of marketing.

OP’s promotional efforts should get another boost from endorsements by Tommy Curren, who Wednesday became the world’s top-ranked surfer for the second consecutive year.