Founder of Salty Johnson

Tom Johnson grew up in the water. Competitive swimming through school, coaching squads through his twenties, and more ocean swims than he's bothered to count. He's a Bondi local, the kind who's in the water before most people's alarms go off.

He started Salty Johnson because the swimwear market had a blind spot: brands were either premium and unsustainable, or sustainable and uninspiring. The technical case for recycled performance fabric was already closed, REPREVE® is chlorine-resistant, durable, and made from verified recycled materials including ocean-bound plastic. Nobody was building a genuinely premium brand around it in Australia.

So he did.

 

Salty Johnson is built around the idea that living close to the ocean comes with a responsibility to protect it, but that responsibility shouldn't mean compromising on the quality of your kit. The brand runs Salty Sundays, a free weekly community run-swim-coffee event at North Bondi every Sunday at 7am. No sign-up, no fee, just rock up.

 

On the brand

"I wanted to build something that felt like Bondi actually feels — irreverent, physical, not taking itself too seriously, but genuinely caring about the right things. Sustainable swimwear shouldn't be a niche product for people who read the fine print on certifications. It should just be the best option on the shelf."

— Tom Johnson, Founder

 

Connect

•       Brand Instagram: @salty.johnson

•       Instagram: @tomljohnson

•       Community events: Salty Sundays - North Bondi, every Sunday 7am