O'Neill is an originally Californian
surfwear and
surfboard brand, now owned by Sisco Textiles, a privately held company headquartered in Luxembourg. It was started in 1952 by
Jack O'Neill in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, and was later based in
Santa Cruz. The company logo symbolizes a breaking surf wave. "O'NEILL" and the "Wave logo" are trademarks registered worldwide.
History
Jack O'Neill started the company in 1952 in the garage of his house near
Ocean Beach in San Francisco, later moving to a site in a bar parking lot on the
Great Highway.
By the end of the decade he and the business moved to Santa Cruz,
where he opened his second store in 1959.
Jack O'Neill was one of the originators of the use of
neoprene
Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene.Werner Obrecht, Jean-Pierre Lambert, Michael Happ, Christiane Oppenheimer-Stix, John Dunn and Ralf Krüger "Rubber, 4. Emulsion Rub ...
for
wetsuits.
[ and also sells lifestyle apparel and snow sports-related apparel.
In May 2007 the ownership of the brand was sold to Sisco Textiles N.V., a ]holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
headquartered in Luxembourg. O'Neill now has satellite offices in countries including the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Chile, and Korea. Products are distributed to 86 countries, some by licensed distributors. In the United States, the O'Neill clothing license has been held by the La Jolla Group since 1993, and the company is now headquartered in Irvine, California
Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
. The O'Neill wetsuit business remains in the ownership of the O'Neill family, with its headquarters in Santa Cruz. The first Santa Cruz store, near Cowell Beach, was designated a California Point of Historical Interest in 2012.[ Jack O'Neill died in 2017.][
In early 2025 the company announced the closure of its flagship store in downtown Santa Cruz, while retaining other stores in the city.][
]
Charitable and stewardship activities
The O'Neill Sea Odyssey, established by Jack O'Neill in 1996, is a free program to strengthen mostly disadvantaged children's connection to the environment, which is a non-profit arm of the company.[
O'Neill also promotes responsible stewardship of the marine environment through donations to Surfrider Foundation and through its O'Neill Blue brand of sustainably sourced swimwear, introduced in 2015.]
References
External links
O'Neill Europe
O'Neill U.S.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill
Sportswear brands
Companies based in Santa Cruz County, California
Clothing companies of the United States
Swimwear manufacturers
Surfwear brands
Clothing companies established in 1952
1952 establishments in California