O'Neill is an originally Californian

surfwear Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion, and lifestyle surrounding the sport of surfing. The history of surfing began with the ancient Polynesians. That initial culture directly influenced modern surfing, which began to flourish a ...

and

surfboard A surfboard is a narrow plank used in surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding an ocean wave. They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as ''papa hee ...

brand, now owned by Sisco Textiles, a privately held company headquartered in Luxembourg. It was started in 1952 by

Jack O'Neill Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in the MGM's military science fiction franchise ''Stargate'', primarily as one of the main characters of the television series ''Stargate SG-1''. Richard Dean Anderson played O'Neill in all th ...

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 The Great Highway is a road located on the West Side of San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard ( Sta ...

. 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

wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on the water. ...

s. O'Neill was a pioneering retailer of

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 O'Neill Sea Odyssey is an American non-profit organization located in Santa Cruz, California, Santa Cruz, California (California Non-Profit Corporation ID#77-0464784). It was founded in 1996 by wetsuit innovator Jack O'Neill (businessman), Jack ...

, 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 The Surfrider Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization that works to protect and preserve the world's oceans, waves and beaches. It focuses on plastic reduction, water quality, beach access, beach and surf spot preser ...

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