DC Shoes reinstated its surf team after a three-year hiatus. The footwear and apparel brand, owned by Quiksilver Inc. in Huntington Beach, will sponsor four athletes: Bruce Irons and Ezekiel Lau from Hawaii, Kanoa Igarashi from Huntington Beach, and Leo Fioravanti from Rome.
“Since the surf program’s inception, it has always been part of DC’s DNA and we never lost sight of the program,” Global Brand Lead Jeff Taylor said in a statement. “We initially launched the team in 1998 with the Irons brothers and Shane Dorian. Moving forward, DC will continue to support riders who believe in the brand and strive to defy convention for years to come.”
The brand, better known for its skateboarding offerings, marked June 21—Go Skateboarding Day—by hosting its second annual Global Skate Jam in 20 countries.
The grassroots skate events, which include barbecues and best trick contests, “enable the brand to connect with its core community in an authentic way by partnering with local skateparks in every corner of the world,” said Global Skate Category Manager Jeff Goforth.
Best of the Best
Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A. in Irvine said its Ninja H2R motorcycle was named to Robb Report’s “Best of the Best,” which highlights the newest luxury products in transportation, fashion, home living, technology, real estate and other categories.
Cypress-based Yamaha Motor Corp. USA’s XSR900 also made the list, with editors calling the motorcycle “one of the most entertaining standards in recent memory.”
The two Orange County-based brands were among more than 150 products, services, designs and destinations featured in the magazine’s June issue.
“The process began a year ago, and during that span of time, the opinions of the editors and the contributors inevitably shift,” Robb Report Editor in Chief Brett Anderson said in a statement. “Still, in the end, our final decisions are guided not only by our obsessive passion for absolute quality—that’s a given—but also by the people, places, and creations that speak to our imaginations in a language uniquely their own.”
Acura on Board
DealerSocket in San Clemente said it won a contract to provide “websites and digital marketing solutions” for Acura dealerships in the U.S.
The Torrance-based automaker, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. in Japan, is now one of eight major car manufacturers to deploy DealerSocket’s DealerFire proprietary platform, which integrates data on sales, customer relationship management, service and inventory.
DealerSocket ended last year with an estimated $200 million in revenue, a 30% organic growth rate supplemented by a string of bolt-on acquisitions that have expanded its capacity and range of services.
It’s backed by Vista Equity Partners in Austin, Texas, a private equity firm that bought a majority stake in 2013. President and Chief Executive Jonathan Ord and co-founder Brad Perry own just under 50% of the company.
Bits & Pieces
Ruby’s Diner in Irvine launched a Show Us Your Shake Face photo contest, asking fans to share selfies taken while enjoying its new Candy Shake Extravaganza—a shake made with chunks of peanut butter Snickers and M&Ms. … Arlington, Va.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named Mazda North American Operations’ 2016 CX-3 its 2016 Top Safety Pick+. The subcompact crossover earned the highest rating of “Good” in five body-structure categories, including “small-overlap crash testing,” and has an advanced rating in collision-prevention technologies, including automatic braking, according to the Irvine-based automaker. … Netlist Inc. in Irvine hired Richio Aikawa as senior director of marketing and alliances. Netlist has a market value of about $50 million and provides high-performance and hybrid memory solutions for the cloud computing and storage markets.
