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Bob McKnight — The Quiksilver Story and How Boardshorts Started the Modern Surfing Industry
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Bob McKnight is the Co-Founder, Former Chairman and CEO of Quiksilver and one of the pioneers of the modern surfing industry.
Bob McKnight majored in business at USC and had gone on some major surf trips. One of them being to Bali where he met pro surfer Jeff Hakman and his future wife. That trip would change Bob’s life forever.
Jeff had met Alan Green in Bells Beach, Australia after he won the contest there. Alan had set up a company called Quiksilver making the first ever shorts for surfers. Jeff and Bob convinced Alan to license Quiksilver for the North American market. They started manufacturing and selling board shorts out of Bob’s VW van up and down the country to surf shops.
The surf shops couldn’t get enough of Quiksilver. They were at the beginning of the modern surf industry and they went from being a start up to becoming a multi-million dollar business. Quiksilver were the first surfing company to go public on the New York Stock Exchange and the first to launch a female range, Roxy.
They expanded into skateboarding and snow and by the mid 2000’s Quiksilver was worth 2.5 Billion dollars. Competition increased, recessions came and Quiksilver hit some rocky times. They restructured and formed Boardriders Inc incorporating brands Billabong DC Shoes, RVCA, Element, VonZipper, Kustom. Bob still wears boardshorts and the stoke is alive and well.
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