DC Shoes

Founded in 1994, DC quickly grew to become a leader in performance skateboarding shoes and a renowned action sports brand. Today DC stands as a global brand whose product line has expanded to include men’s, women’s and kids’ skateboarding and lifestyle shoes, apparel, snowboards, snowboard boots, outerwear, and accessories. As one of the cornerstones of its marketing strategy, DC has built a world-class team of professional skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross athletes that exemplify and enhance DC’s brand, develop its signature products, and support its promotional efforts.

History

The company was founded in June 1994 by Damon Way, Ken Block and Clayton Blehm. It was originally based in Carlsbad, California, but is now based in Huntington Beach, California, United States. DC originally stood for "Droors Clothing", but since the sale of Droors Clothing, DC no longer has ties to Droors and is simply DC Shoes, Inc.

On March 8, 2004, DC Shoes was acquired by Quiksilver in an $87 million transaction. In 2010, DC Shoes moved from Vista, California, to Quiksilver's headquarters in Huntington Beach. A video entitled Skateboarding Is Forever was released online in 2010 and featured parts from the amateur DC skateboard team at the time: Marquise Henry, Matt Miller, Wes Kremer, Evan Smith, and Greg Myers. Apart from Myers and Henry, all of the skateboarders from the video remained sponsored by the company in 2013, and have since attained professional status.

In 2011, the brand underwent a rejuvenation process that included the design of a new flag logo.As part of this process, new skateboard team announcements were progressively made and a series of advertisements, under the direction of new team member Steve Berra, were released online. The other new team announcements were Mikey Taylor, Mike Mo Capaldi, Nyjah Huston, Chris Cole, and Davis Torgerson. Felipe Gustavo was introduced at a later stage.

A progression of the brand relaunch was the "Rediscovery" campaign that commenced in December 2011, following the addition of Capaldi and Huston to the skateboard team.

Co-founder Block died in a snowmobile crash in January 2023.