Owner / Founder / Current CEO
Founded in 2017 James Banuelos, Beach Grease Beer Co. (BG) The world’s first privately held, independent California coastal lifestyle craft beer brand, Beach Grease paid homage to California’s tradition and culture. The tasting room featured hand-selected art, photography, surfboards, skateboards and a collection of classic custom cars and motorcycles, including a 1964 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. BG focused on five poundable West Coast-style craft beers from its state-of-the-art Vista, Calif., brewery and tasting room: Surf Reaper Golden IPA, Surf Zombie Hazy IPA, Pistons & Palms Pilsner, Surf Mummy Pale Ale, and Tears of My Enemies Lager. In 3 short years, self distributed Beach Grease was saved in over 600 locations throughout Southern California.
In 2010 after much convincing and one trip to SE RACING corporate Headquarters James was hired as Special Projects Manager ( A position he created ) to build out a Urban lifestyle component to SE RACING. After being appointed Special Projects Managers he spearheaded collaboration projects with Streetwear The Hundreds , Crooks & Castles, Us Versus Them , Famous Stars and Straps, Agenda Trade Show and a few others. He also seeded product within music videos of Yealwolf, Curren$y and Dom Kennedy. He also designed bikes, creative directed, handled catalog design, ad layouts for the years he was there, designed/built their website and hand selected/managed their fixed freestyle team. Fast forward to today SE RACING historically exclusively known for their heritage in the BMX race scene is now known for their dominance in the urban market. With tens of millions in revenue they are the undisputed global leaders in the inner city flossy big BMX bike category which James assisted in laying the foundation for.
In late 2007 founder James Banuelos became a investor and took the reigns in building the brand out, with international recognition in mind, without looking back he the streets running. From 2008-2012 the focus was cultivating marketing initiatives from subcultures that had a level of originality and thus his personal involvement in and history. Him never a fan of tracking or forecasting trends or what would be “cool” next season he decided to stick to just building campaigns from things he represented and was involved in. James was very hands on and instrumental in building sales, distribution, marketing direction, mezzanine financing, production, managing of retail/warehouse, e-commerce management/shipping & receiving, product placement, celebrity and athlete endorsements. With much success in those 4 years accompanied by a growing global word of mouth virus spreading like small pox the brand piqued the interest of one of the most successful and legendary street wear brands around (Stussy) . In late 2012 negotiations commenced with Stussy, shortly after James and his partners decided to take advantage of a global licensing offer and a deal was put into play. Fast forward to today, with surging sales in the millions being trademarked in 37 plus countries the sky doesn't seem to be the limit for them.
As a side project James was enlisted to carry out a rebrand for cash mfg. Cash MFG was created, owned and is operated by Steve Boysen. Steve Boysen is an honest craftsman of which you'll find hand built motorcycles, classic cars and one of a kind custom guitars. Steve is the mastermind of Boysen and cash surfboards where he is the founder and shaper. His affair with the ocean surfaced at the age of 17 when he shaped his first surfboard. Pursuing his linage in the world of drag cars and motorcycles, steve began his own future in drag racing following the footsteps of his mother, who was a seasoned racer. Motorcycle culture influences and bike building became second nature to him growing up watching his pops work on and ride norton's and triumphs. S.B. Has taken from his roots in these diverse cultures and has applied them to everything he builds and creates.
James integrated his prominent action sports management experience and expertise, along with his contacts, to serve as the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of The DigitalX. Banuelos founded an action sports management agency in 2004 and grew its client list to more than 25 of the world’s top action sports athletes. By 2005 under Banuelos’ direction, the agency extended its services to include marketing, public relations, creative licensing, trend research and consulting. Clients included Interscope Records, ESPN, Boost Mobile, Red Bull, Reebok, and Apple just to name a few.
The DigitalX camcorders ( pre- GoPro ) were developed to be utilized by his agency clients, primarily for the action sports retail market. The product is all-digital in design and offers high resolution to all pictures and videos that you capture. This handheld action camcorder was compact, lightweight and would take 3 to 10 hours of high-quality video while taking up to 1000 still photographs. Its design featured SD card technology and played MP3’s. The DigitalX also worked as a DVR and was compatible with a PC, Apple, TV, and or DVD. Other features included video games, a voice recorder and the ability to use it as a PC web cam. All these features combined at a $399 retail price made The DigitalX unparalleled to any other product available at the time. The DigitalX camera was the first of its kind to hit the market. Lack of proper funding to scale in a hyper competitive market led to James having to close the doors and move onto different endeavors.
OWNER - CEO/CREATIVE DIRECTOR
After a hiatus from fashion and his subcultural roots, James took the reins to developing and building out the world’s first surf/streetwear brand. Surf Crime to him represents the droves of inner city youth that are not marketed to by any mainstream surf brands. The brand position from his perspective was a grossly under represented market segment, a disruption to traditional surf, Surf Crime brand is positioned to encompass Art, Surf, Hip-Hop, Skate cultures and urban city life. At this point in his entrepreneurial career the business/brand building process is second nature and a rhythm he is very tuned into. Once again he sets the brand vision, develops creative team, creative directs, rebrands, designs, builds out global distribution, sales strategy and team, deploys quantifiable business development strategies and designs a showroom/retail concept. With successful collaborations with artist/brands and athletes in the likes of Barry McGee (AMAZE), Remio, HUF, Gothic Dolphins, Grant Noble, Andy Davis, Bill Rebholz, Dylan Graves the brand is well on its way in gaining its foothold in the industry. After 2 successful years at the helm James sold his ownership, stepped down from his leadership position and parted ways to participate in new projects. A new start up maybe ? LOL
Show Founder / Curator James Banuelos agree’s traditionally oil and water do not mix. The surf, hot rod and motorcycle cultures that grew out of California from the 50's-70s however, were all connected by the idea of personal freedom and expression-not conforming to the standards of the societies they existed in. Oil & Water show has brought a diverse group of global artists and craftsmen from these respective backgrounds and beyond-from legends to rookies. With the sole purpose of the continuance of serving as a conduit for these sub-cultures and documenting their heritage, we pledge to push this show worldwide.
City Fog Surf Co. (CF) was another clothing company founded by James Banuelos, along with professional surfer, Cj Nelson. CF began in Santa Cruz, California in the fall of 2010. As the ceo and director of design and marketing, james has continued to state that the idea for CF was simple. He drew inspiration from all things he was subjected to and blessed with while growing up in Santa Cruz, CA. Cj focuses on combining his over 20 years of contest surfing/r&d on developing surfboard shapes with the focus on retro shapes combined with performance functionality. Combined this makes cf surfboards stand in league of it’s own. The influences from surf, lowbrow, custom car and motorcycle cultures are consistent within it’s graphic designs, ad campaigns and video look books. "We are cultivating projects and originating products that coincide with our surroundings. We do what is a reflection of our lives and from subcultures we have been part of. James says, "i don't believe in creating campaigns and designs from things i have not been part of, or making money from a sub culture i did not partake in or assist in cultivating. I believe this to be a cardinal sin. The world doesn't need another culture-vulture corporate feeding frenzy. We will maintain strict branding codes, stay true to our roots and ourselves while in pursuit of life’s stokes.” with a ton of momentum built in under a year and mass distribution in retailers like Pacsun and billabong, the brand became sought after by investors. Early 2015 city fog was acquired by a private party and is currently under new ownership.
Outraged by non-existent regulations and lack of mandatory laws for bottled water companies, James decided to do a deep dive into the world of drinking water. His journey also lead him into understanding the manufacturing process of plastic bottles and learned about the toxicity of them for humans and our environment. After a year of research he felt that our ecosystems were out of balance and this was making the earth & humans sick. 100% of the 50 Billion plastic water bottles are not biodegradable they actually photo-degrade which means it will take up to 500 years for every plastic bottle to decompose leaking all of its pollutants into our soil and water. He believes that we were sold that recycling was the answer that has also proven to also be a massive failure and has never worked ( 90% of the world's plastic never gets recycled ). To create a shift and achieve consumer trust 100% transparency is vital. He created Phuture Water as a movement to help our planet rid itself of the billions of plastic water bottles and a healthy water source. His conviction is that the bottled water industry needs to be disrupted ! Phuture Water set out to bring to market the world’s first globally certified biodegradable water bottle.
Created for awareness. As reminder to himself and others to do what’s right no matter what, he creates Trustworthy brand. He is quoted as saying, “Trustworthy brand stands as an immovable pillar for all cultural provocateurs, infused with subversion against all kinds of power trippers. If you can't stand big business moguls, fat cats, "the authorities," courts, politicians, wall-street greed, governments that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor and anyone corrupted by money and power than join us. I don't care if we lose followers for standing in what I believe. As long as it’s morally and ethically right. Hope you do the same."
Being a surfer James always thought surfers always took themselves to seriously and that the industry needed a good laugh. He dreamt of developing a surf brand with a range of parody products. Affordable products with a sense of humor attracting beach lifestyle fans. The barns position he felt would be a hilarious addition to a, he feet a stale industry. In later 2024 he set out to do just that. He named the brand Part Time Lover which aimed to provide positive customer experience to all and promote good laugh. “No strings attached ”. The envisioned brand responsibility was that PTL would create the world’s first connection between funny, light hearted and unapologetic and the surf enthusiast. This would be accomplished by strong brand DNA, trendsetting and setting the pace for this groundbreaking connection. The brand was to closely follow fashion, home goods and accessory trends therefore making it unique in comparison to other mainstream “surf” brands.
