Plenty Of Exposure For Local Firm Swimsuit Designed By Hayden Company Makes A Splash In Sports Illustrated For Third Year

Forget winning two Super Bowls in a row. Bendigo International has come up a winner in the swimwear industry’s “championship” for three years running.

Bendigo makes luxury swimsuits, the kind you’ll find on the models of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition now being ogled at newsstands across the country.

In fact, the tiger-stripped two-piece that Kathy Ireland’s sporting about midway through the magazine sprang from the mind of Bendigo’s Denise White right here in Hayden.

There can be no higher honor in the fiercely competitive swimwear fashion industry than to have a suit modeled in the annual glossy, making it a sort of “Super Bowl” of swim wear.

“It’s just a great feeling,” said White, who has designed hundreds of suit patterns for eight years with Bendigo. “It’s nice to have something to show for all the hard work we do.”

For owner and president Herman Roup, seeing Ireland in his company’s suit was especially sweet this year because in the photo she’s standing in a pool at an exclusive club in South Africa, Roup’s homeland.

The dozen Bendigo workers huddled around a computer late last week as the Internet version of the swimsuit issue - out two days before the printed version - rolled each picture across the screen.

The magazine producers pick thousands of suits from dozens of companies to start with. Bendigo provided about 60 suits to the crew, who went to South Africa to shoot thousands of rolls of film, Roup said.

“It’s the right combination of the suit, the model and the surroundings that make the picture,” Roup said. Only 30 or so pictures make the issue, and Roup and White roared with delight when Ireland appeared on the computer screen with the Bendigo suit.

What it means for Bendigo’s bottom line: The pictured suit, in stock before the magazine came out this week, has sold out in a matter of days.

“The only real way you can tell you’ve had a good year in this business is when they’re lined up out the door in your showroom in Miami next year,” Roup said. “Then you know that you had a great year.”

The swimwear business has fallen on hard times, Roup said, noting that his company is one of the five longest-running operations in the country. Many others have folded or been bought up by larger apparel companies.

“You’ve got to have a passion to compete,” said Roup, who took, by his account, 128 flights last year to buy fabrics, oversee photo shoots of his suits and to sell them. “I’m not selling suits here - I’m selling images.”

Bendigo - meaning “blessing” in Spanish and also the name of an Australian town - tried for years to have its suits show up in the issue that touts 50 million readers. With three consecutive appearances, Roup said he hopes it means bigger things to come for his company, which he located in Hayden so he could live a less stressful life.

Swimwear and coconut oil can be tough to envision when the office faucet has icicles on it, Roup said with a smile. The deep freeze forced Bendigo to replace pipes under its shop on Hayden Avenue.

Now the arduous process of producing suits begins again. White will soon travel to Paris and Italy to select the luxurious fabrics and begin designing for the next swimsuit edition, as well as for Bendigo’s own promotional brochures.

Roup is off to New Zealand, Australia and other markets to sell the 1996 line to other markets. “Having this in this magazine gives us instant credibility across the world,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo