The history of Saltrock mirrors in many ways the history of the UK beach lifestyle clothing industry in the last 25 years. It began with a couple of young South African surfers who left their homeland in the early-1980s in search of adventure. After many beaches and paths less trodden they arrived in the UK and were astonished to find that despite the fact that there was a vibrant surfing and beach culture, the commercial side remained largely untapped. After their experience of South Africa which already had a huge industry in this area they realised that this was a potential goldmine and that it would not be long before, like skiing, the beach lifestyle took off in the UK attracting millions of people both in the cities as well as at the coast.

With all this in mind, brothers Angus and Ross Thomson settled in Cornwall and launched the beach lifestyle clothing company Saltrock in 1988 specialising originally in t-shirts. From the start they divided their responsibilities with Angus running the finances and Ross the design. After a year they had saved enough money to secure a single room which acted as an office and design room and a year later they were able to move into larger accommodation. By this point they had developed their own print system out of scrap wood and metal and the t-shirts were dyed in dust bins on the premises. Initially due to financial constraints Saltrock only supplied a handful of local surf shops in and around Penzance. However, despite domestic recession the quality and originality of the t-shirts won through and the brothers found their distribution growing in an industry that had previously been dominated by international brands from Australia