O'Neill Surfs Into Santa Monica
NOT THE NEW FLAGSHIP: When Jack' O'Neill's surf shop opened in 1952, it helped launch a new sport, lifestyle and fashion style. Photo credit O'Neill.
For some, retro brings to mind the fashions of 60 years ago. For pioneering surf brand O’Neill, it conjures visions of the garage of company founder Jack O’Neill.
He is credited with crafting the first wet suit, and in 1952 opening one of California’s first surf shops. Fifty-nine years later, O’Neill opened a flagship store in Santa Monica July 13, which was inspired by the look of Jack O’Neill’s garage in Santa Cruz, the capital of Northern California surfing.
Garage-like wood beams line the walls of the flagship store on 131 Broadway in Santa Monica. Some advertisements for the first O’Neill wet suits line the store walls. Toby Bost, O’Neill’s chief executive, said the flagship’s new garage look will be the template for the look of O’Neill stores that may be built in the next two years. The brand’s first flagship opened July 2008 at The Shops at Anaheim GardenWalk mall.
The Santa Monica flagship offers everything from surfboards, O’Neill’s perennially popular Hyperfreak performance boardshorts to its fashion collections for men and women. Cowabunga!
O'Neill CEO Toby Bost. Photo credit Felix Salzman/LookBookLA
An exterior of O'Neill's Santa Monica flagship. Photo credit, Yours Truly.
