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La Jolla’s New HQ: Action Sports Palace

Clothing maker La Jolla Group Inc. has made a big investment in a new Irvine headquarters.

The company, which makes clothes under the O’Neill, Lost, Rusty and Metal Mulisha brands, recently consolidated operations in Irvine, where it used to be spread among five buildings.

La Jolla now operates from 200,000 square feet of space at 14350 Myford Road near Tustin, where it has 150,000 square feet in one building and 50,000 in an adjoining one.

About 140,000 square feet of warehouse space makes up the bulk of the operation.

La Jolla employs about 350 people in Irvine.

The new space is double La Jolla’s old headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum.

The company sells clothes inspired by surfing, skateboarding and motocross through J.C. Penney Co., Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., Macy’s Inc. and other retailers.

La Jolla’s new headquarters used to be home to computer maker eMachines Inc., which was acquired in 2004 by Gateway Inc., now part of Taiwan’s Acer Inc. with operations in the Irvine Spectrum.

La Jolla has revamped the space to include skateboard ramps, a gym, an indoor basketball court, a 2,000-square-foot store as well as 6,000 square feet of conference and showroom space.

Chief Executive Toby Bost, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, declined to say what the company spent on the improvements.

“We built the building around action sports,” he said.

The company’s workers mostly are in their late 20s and early 30s and tend to be surfers and motocross enthusiasts. The site’s 13 conference rooms are named for famous surf spots.

One office is set aside for social media marketing on Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Another is dedicated to photo shoots where many of La Jolla’s catalog pictures are taken with visiting models.

The company’s four brands are run as separate companies with their own spaces at the headquarters.

A team of seamstresses is on hand to make prototypes of its clothes before they’re sent to contract manufacturers in Asia for mass production.

La Jolla Group has yearly sales of more than $200 million. Last year, sales grew 15% in a tough economy, Bost said. In 2007, they were up 30%.

Sales last year were helped by La Jolla’s opening of six of its own stores in California and Las Vegas, as well as a flagship O’Neill store in Anaheim.

The stores employ about 100 people.

Half of La Jolla’s business comes from its O’Neill brand, which it licenses from brand owner O’Neill Trademark BV under a “long-term” contract, according to Bost.

The original O’Neill wetsuits that the clothing line evolved from still are made by Jack O’Neill and family in Santa Cruz.

The other half of La Jolla group’s revenue is split evenly among its three other brands.

The company is feeling the clothing industry’s challenges, as shoppers pull back on purchases and stores such as Wal-Mart and Kohl’s have come up with their own lines of surfwear, Bost said.

“There’s definitely a recession going on in surf,” he said. “Fall is usually the toughest time for the industry. This one should be the toughest.”

La Jolla is riding one of the industry’s hotspots with its edgy Metal Mulisha line inspired by motocross. The line’s tattoo-style designs appeal to the mixed martial arts crowd,fans of Ultimate Fighting Champ-ionship, a sport that combines boxing, martial arts and street fighting.

Mixed martial arts clothing companies such as Seal Beach-based Affliction Inc. and Irvine-based Silver Star Casting Co. have emerged as the biggest challengers to surf-inspired clothes.

Metal Mulisha, which La Jolla started making two years ago after taking it over from motocross star Brian Deegan, has been the company’s fastest-growing brand.

La Jolla started in 1992. Two years ago, it set out to make itself better known as the parent company of the four brands, Bost said.

About 20% of the company’s space is open as La Jolla looks to acquire more brands, he said.

“We want to diversify over a span of different action sports,” he said.

Competitor Irvine-based C & C; Cos., which makes shoes and clothes under the Sanuk and Liquid Force brands, outgrew its headquarters and moved into a 47,000-square-foot building last August.

Another rival, Irvine’s Ray’s Apparel, maker of Body Glove and Ambiguous clothes, closed last year after turning unprofitable in the downturn.

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