Humble Beginnings
Wettie was started in a downstairs garage in 2007 with the thought in mind of creating a New Zealand designed range of spearfishing equipment & wetsuits. Darren Shields, the founder, brought his 40 odd years of experience in commercial, competitive, and recreational diving and spearfishing to selecting pieces of equipment from around the world. Spearfishing NZ requires a unique set of techniques that is not always catered for by European, South African and American designed equipment. So Darren sought components from all three industries to design a range of gear that suits the hunting of our shallows for reef species to spearing our world class Kingfish. The inspiration of Wettie was to design equipment for New Zealand conditions and New Zealand divers.
Fast forward 7 years, Wettie is now the leading brand for spearfishing gear & wetsuits in New Zealand & has a large retail premises in Albany, Auckland as well as a huge online shop that ships worldwide.
A little bit more about what we do
To expand and improve the wetsuit range we took over ‘2001 Wetsuits’, a local wetsuit manufacturer with necessary sewing machines, screen-printing and staff. This enabled us to create our own patterns to improve our existing wetsuit cuts. We now provide warranty, repair and alteration services for our own brand as well as others. Through having our own small manufacture we better our knowledge on how to make a great wetsuit that combines comfortability, warm and durability.
Our wetsuit range intern expanded into sailing, surfing, swimming, kayaking, and scuba along with any other water activity. This forced us to open two more buildings for storage and another show room. We now have wetsuits and equipment wall to wall all the way to the ceiling 7 metres above.
Our mask and snorkel selection is vast to cater for all face types and even prescriptions lenses. Selecting specific masks from the large mask manufacturers we covers kids, woman’s and men’s faces while have high quality silicone base masks. Our mask range is always being refined and added to as technology improves.
Both our carbon and aluminum tubes for our spearguns are made right here in New Zealand allowing for our design input and New Zealand quality produced products. As our carbon tubes get longer we strengthen the barrel by 50% to remove any bowing or splitting making them one of the strongest on the market as well as the best price.
One of our strengths to our fin range is our Workhorse composite blades that are light weight and have great snap back for high performance. They are well engineered in New Zealand and have never had a pair break.
We noticed a large gap in the market for good quality kids equipment so this is another strength of ours. Well fitting warm wetsuits, masks, snorkels & fins designed expecially for the little ones to keep them warm and comfortable in the water.
We are a family based business with Darren and Alison Shields being the owners and the two elder children Jackson and Gemma managing day to day proceedings.
Not only do Wettie boast great quality gear, but New Zealand champion spearfisherman amongst our staff as well as expert freediving & spearfishing course instructors. That means we cover specialized wetsuits, spearfishing equipment, spearfishing courses & trips, as well as online features like Wettie TV (Youtube) & our interactive Facebook page. You get the full experience at Wettie and deal with staff who know their stuff.
As a business we are constantly improving our gear range while up keeping the best customer service
– The Wettie Team
Meet the Team
Griff Shields
Andrew Downey
