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, 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.[1] By the end of the decade he and the business moved to Santa Cruz,[2] where he opened his second store in 1959.[3] Jack O'Neill was one of the originators of the use of neoprene for wetsuits.[2][3]