World Industries
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| Type | Private |
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| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder(s) | Steve Rocco Rodney Mullen Mike Vallely |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, CA, USA |
| Key people | Rodney Mullen, Steve Rocco, Mike Vallely Frank Messmann, Scott Drouillard, Marc McKee |
| Products | Skateboard equipment, apparel, shoes, accessories, videos; snowboards, outerwear, etc. |
| Parent | Nuyna Guya Jore |
| Website | World Industries Official Website |
World Industries is a skateboarding company that offers skateboarding products, accessories and apparel. The company was founded by Steve Rocco in 1987. In 1988, Rocco was joined by skaters Rodney Mullen then Mike Vallely in 1989.
Later in 1989, Mark Gonzales approached Steve Rocco with the desire to be involved in his own company. He liked the independence that having control of his own company offered. He was riding for Vision at the time, which then was the largest skateboard company, so they jointly decided to name the company Blind. Jason Lee, a then-current World Industries Team member, helped the two form Blind.
In 1991, wanting to break from H-Street, co-founder Mike Ternasky formed the company Plan B with an exclusive production and distribution alliance with World Industries. In the deal, Plan B marketed itself from San Diego while World Industries did the rest, paying a royalty fee to Plan B.[citation needed]} Mike Ternasky was able to convince perennial freestyle world champion[citation needed] Rodney Mullen to switch to street skating thus becoming a member of the Plan B team.[citation needed]
In September 1993, Rick Howard defected with seven other riders from the fold of World Industries and started Girl. Mike Ternasky was killed in a car accident in 1994.[citation needed] Plan B and World Industries parted ways in 1997, and was run by Danny Way and Colin McKay, closing its doors shortly thereafter in 1998. In March 2005, Plan B was resurrected by team member and part owner Danny Way.
As a direct response to Plan B's departure, Rodney Mullen created A-Team along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas.
The years of 1996 to 1999 were years of significant restructuring and explosive growth for the company, led by the newly appointed executives, and subsequent shareholders, CEO Frank Messman and CFO Scott Drouillard. By the end of 1998, World Industries and Blind had achieved the status of number one and number two brands in skateboard hardgoods.[citation needed] This was in large part due to the re-positioning of the brands with Mark McKee's hugely popular cartoon characters of Devilman, Flame Boy and Wet Willy for World Industries, and the "Blind Reaper" for Blind.[citation needed].
In October 1998, Steve Rocco and his then five other shareholder partners (including Rodney Mullen, Frank Messmann, and Scott Drouillard), sold a 70% majority interest of the company to an outside private equity group, SPC, while maintaining all key management and employees.[citation needed] The company was valued at $29 million at the point of sale. A parent company emerged by the name of Kubic Marketing ("Kubic") which owned World Industries and Dwindle Distribution.[citation needed]
In 1999, the parent company Kubic, bought the then largest retailer (catalog and internet) CCS in the skateboard industry for $21 million. In 2000, due to financial issues, the company sold CCS to Alloy, a publicly listed company for approximately $50 million.
In 2002, Globe International Limited, an Australian public company, purchased all companies of Kubic, including World Industries.[1]
On June 25, 2007, Globe International Limited sold the World Industries brand to i.e. distribution.[2]
In 2007, Whyte House Productions released The Man Who Souled the World, a documentary about Steve Rocco and the creation of World Industries, as well as his other skateboard related companies and ventures.[3] The film release was accompanied by a skateboard art exhibition titled, "Censorship is Weak as F##k."
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- World Industries
- The Man Who Souled the World Archive of official site of the film.
- Trashfilter.com editorial article A personal retrospective of World Industries in the early '90s, by Chris Aylen for Trashfilter.
- The Man Who Souled the World at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2011-08-17.
