O’Neill is celebrating 60 years in 2012, honoring Founder Jack O’Neill for being a true entrepreneur and pioneer. The brand will be holding special events all over the world, culminating with the O’Neill Cold Water Classic in Santa Cruz, California in November. On top of that, O’Neill released a photo biography of Jack O’Neill’s life, “It’s Always Summer On the Inside,” launched the “O’Neill Experience” during Winter X Games to celebrate its snow team, and will unveil a special “60 Years Of Innovation” advertising campaign. Read up on what else is new for O’Neill in 2012:
Jack O'Neill Portrait
Santa Cruz, Calif. (February 6, 2012)– O’Neill, the world’s leading surf, snow and youth lifestyle brand, has officially turned 60 and will be celebrating this year from surf to snow. O’Neill’s history is draped in tradition and innovation, beginning with the invention of the wetsuit that has been the building block for the entire surf industry. Jack O’Neill opened the doors to the world’s first surf shop in 1952, while the brand also spearheaded the development of the surf leash, board bag, wetsuit bootie, four-way stretch boardshort and Superkini. The concept of the athlete team was created by O’Neill as well, and has included a long line of monumental talents, including surfers Shaun Tomson, Martin Potter, Jordy Smith and John John Florence, and snowboarders Sebastian Toutant and Jeremy Jones.
O’Neill’s 60th anniversary celebration commenced in October 2011 with the release of the photo biography, “It’s Always Summer on the Inside,” a chronology of Jack’s life, inventions and business pursuits across water and Winter sports. The hardcover book has been widely popular to date, selling out on Amazon.com within three days. Last month, O’Neill celebrated its Winter athletes with the launch of the “O’Neill Experience” at www.oneillexperience.com, a special microsite that followed Toutant (Seb Toots) and other O’Neill Snow athletes during their pursuit of gold at the 2012 Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.
Another special microsite, launching this month at www.oneill.com, will further chronicle the brand’s immense legacy in action sports. The 60th microsite will include an innovation timeline honoring the past six decades of brand highlights, six 60 years videos, exclusive 60 years product collections, “60 Years of Innovation Art Tour” schedule and highlights, and a heritage page showing a retrospective of the brand.
O’Neill’s “60Years of Innovation” advertising campaign has been unveiled, and will appear in a number of action sports and lifestyle magazines. The campaign features iconic visuals of Jack O’Neill taken throughout the decades, incorporating bold taglines that recognize Jack’s contributions to the industry.
A major centerpiece of the 60th anniversary will be a worldwide art exhibit, titled “60 Years of Innovation Art Tour.” Starting in Australia, the special exhibit will also visit Asia, Europe, South Africa and the U.S., exposing fans to the story of Jack O’Neill and his many contributions to various outdoor sports. The tour will recognize six decades, six innovations, six commissioned artists, six local artists and six charities. Silent auctions from all tour stops will benefit charities including Surfaid International, Japanese Tsunami Relief and O’Neill’s own Sea Odyssey Foundation.
“Jack O’Neill’s contribution to outdoor sports and the sophistication of O’Neill apparel has been vitally important through the years,” said O’Neill Snow’s Juliet Korver. “Because of his wetsuit invention, O’Neill introduced a new product category, and as a result, created an industry that now spans across the ocean to the mountains, allowing people to stay in the water and on the snow longer.”
Several other events are planned throughout the year in celebration of O’Neill’s 60 years. O’Neill began it’s roots in snow in the mid 70’s, and continues to elevate the newly launched “O’Neill Evolution” snowboard event as one of the most progressive in the world. This Fall, O’Neill and TGR Films will present “Further,” the movie sequel to big mountain snowboarding legend Jeremy Jones’ “Deeper.” Generation Next, O’Neill’s popular fashion and music event, is taking its 5th installment to San Francisco, where one young designer will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship and an internship with the brand. In November, O’Neill will officially culminate its 60th anniversary at the Cold Water Classic in Santa Cruz, where Jack started the brand and remains a legend in the area. Upgraded to a World Tour for the first time since the early 90’s, the 2012 O’Neill Cold Water Classic and Steamer Lane will showcase the best 34 surfers in the world.
“We’re excited to see a World Tour level event return to Santa Cruz as part of O’Neill’s 60 Year anniversary,” said O’Neill Wetsuits President & CEO, Pat O’Neill. “Mainland surfing started in Santa Cruz, Jack O’Neill developed many pioneering surf inventions here and it’s been home to the O’Neill brand for over half a century. With a World Tour event in 2012 and the possibility of the World Champion being crowned, we expect to see an exciting chapter in surfing history written in our front yard.”
The launch of a new Jack O’Neill Originals Collection leads a series of special product offerings across surf and snow. A homage to Jack, the collection of men’s t-shirts, boardshorts, wovens, along with a capsule of men’s and women’s snow styles, combines six decades of graphics and timeless styling to offer a premium line that is true to O’Neill. Other special apparel and wetsuit offerings include the Hyperfreak XT2 boardshort, 60th anniversary men’s t-shirt, 60th girls dress inspired by an the original 1968 “It’s Always Summer on the Inside” ad, and 52/12 limited-edition wetsuit. Many O’Neill retail products in 2012 will feature the well-known ‘circle surfer’ logo on tees, boardshorts, snow jackets, pants and other merchandise.
For more information on O’Neill’s 60th anniversary, visit http://www.oneill.com.
