World Industries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| World Industries | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Steve Rocco |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, CA,  USA |
| Key people | Steve Rocco, Rodney Mullen and John Lucero |
| Products | Skateboard equipment, apparel, accessories, videos |
| Website | World Industries Official Website |
World Industries is a skateboarding company that offers skateboarding products including decks, trucks and bearings, as well as snowboards, wax, and assorted apparel. The company was founded by Steve Rocco in 1987. In 1989, Rocco was joined by skater Rodney Mullen and Mike Vallely.
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 and decided to name the company Blind, the exact opposite to Vision. He took Jason Lee, a World Industries team member, and formed the Blind team.
H-Street co-founder Mike Ternasky wanted a break from H-Street, so in 1991 he formed a partnership with World Industries, starting the company Plan B. In the deal, World Industries was the distributor and manufacturer and Mike marketed the brand from San Diego. Mike got Rodney Mullen to street skate and he became a member of the team.
In September 1993, Rick Howard defected with seven other riders and started Girl. In January 1994, Girl started up Chocolate and took another group of riders.
Mike Ternasky was killed in a car accident in 1994. Plan B broke away from World Industries and was run by Danny Way and Colin McKay, and closed in 1998. In March 2005, Plan B was relaunched by team member Danny Way.
In 1997 the A-Team was formed. Because Plan B had left the World Industries fold, Rodney Mullen found himself on the team along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas. The A-Team never released its own video, there were only A-Team sections in the first two Rodney Mullen vs Daewon Song videos.
The company developed the additional brands Darkstar, Speed Demons and Almost Skateboards, and Tensor over the next years.
World Industries was sold in July 2002 to Globe International Limited. On June 25, 2007, Globe International Limited sold World Industries to i.e. Distribution.[1]
In 2007, Australian filmmaker Mike Hill released The Man Who Souled the World, a documentary about Steve Rocco and the creation of World Industries. The film release was accompanied by a skateboard art exhibition titled, ‘Censorship is Weak as F##k.’ The ‘Censorship is Weak as F##k’ exhibition will be touring the capital cities in conjunction with the release of ‘The Man Who Souled The World’.
[edit] Current team riders
- Cody Davis
- Jorge Comelli
- Kurtis Colamonico
- Lauren Perkins
- Malcom Watson
- Brendan Drakombs
- Alex Urquiza
- Peter Csonka
[edit] External links
- World Industries
- The Man Who Souled the World By Director Mike Hill. Official site of the film.
- Deadstock Magazine editorial article A personal retrospective of World Industries in the early '90s, by Chris Aylen.
