World Industries Logo
World Industries is a skateboarding company that offers skateboarding products including decks, trucks and bearings, as well as snowboards, wax, shoes, and assorted apparel. The company was founded by Steve Rocco in 1987. In 1989, Rocco was joined by skaters 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 Asked Jason Lee to help him form blind, 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 from the fold of World Industries 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 in 1997 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 founded the team along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas. The A-Team never released its own video. There were only cameo A-Team sections in the first two Rodney Mullen vs Daewon Song series of videos. The A-Team never gained the popularity of Plan B and it was decided that the A-Team would be discontinued. enjoi emerged as the successor brand with Marc Johnson as its head.
As the company matured, the additional brands Darkstar, Speed Demons, Almost Skateboards, and Tensor Trucks were added over the next years.
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. In October of 1998, Steve Rocco and his then five other shareholder partners, sold a 70% majority interest of the company to an outside private equity group, SPC, while maintaining all key management and employees. A parent company emerged by the name of Kubic Marketing which owned the branded company of World Industries, ran separately; and Dwindle Distribution, which housed and distributed most of the other owned brands: Blind, A-Team (then enjoi), Darkstar, Speed Demons, Tensor Trucks and Axion shoes (owned 50% by Kareem Campbell, professional skateboarder); and lastly Merge Inc., which was created to own and distribute the brands of Dub outerwear and Droors jeans acquired from DC Shoes in late 1998. Kubic Marketing (fka World Industries) quietly acquired its largest customer and the largest online/catalogue retailer in the industry, CCS, in 1999. CCS was sold to a public company by the name of Alloy the following year for near double its purchase price. Steve Rocco effectively retired a wealthy man in or about the year 2000, while maintaining a financial interest in the overall company.
Kubic Marketing (fka World Industries) was purchased in July 2002 by Globe International Limited.
On June 25, 2007, Globe International Limited sold the World Industries brand 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 as well as his other skateboard related companies and ventures. 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’.