What O'Neill is known for

Surfwear brand traced to Jack O'Neill's first surf shop, opened 1952 on San Francisco's Ocean Beach, moving to Santa Cruz in 1959. O'Neill is popularly credited with the modern wetsuit, though physicist Hugh Bradner's earlier prototype predates it; the wetsuit business remains family-owned and Santa Cruz-based.

The O'Neill brand traces to 1952, when Jack O'Neill opened his first surf shop on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, experimenting with neoprene to make cold-water surfing more bearable. He moved his family and the business to Santa Cruz in 1959, where the wetsuit side of the company remains family-owned and headquartered today. O'Neill is widely credited as the inventor of the modern wetsuit, though the claim is contested: an earlier prototype was developed and tested in Lake Tahoe around 1950 by UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner. Ownership of the O'Neill name has since split by category - the wetsuit business stays with the O'Neill family in Santa Cruz, while the O'Neill apparel license for the US market has been held since 1993 by the La Jolla Group. In early 2025, O'Neill closed its flagship downtown Santa Cruz surf shop after 25 years, though three other O'Neill retail locations remain open in the city.