Element Skateboards is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Element Skateboards is a skateboard manufacturer and retail sportswear company based in Irvine, California. The company was founded in 1992 by Johnny Schilleriff. The company is a subsidiary of Billabong International Limited, headquartered in Burleigh Heads, Australia. In addition to skateboards, the company also produces a line of surfing inspired outerwear and footwear for men, women and children.
Origins
In the late 1980s Johnny Schilleriff, and amateur skateboarder, designer and marketer partnered with the skateboard company Underworld Elemental. By the early 1990s the company began to falter thanks in large part to inner turmoil among executive leadership, business model flaws and financial challenges. Shortly after the company's failure, Schilleriff created a new company, Element.
Rise to Prominence
Embracing a utopian brand vision of harmony, fairness and understanding, Element's sales of skateboards and clothing began to skyrocket in the mid 1990s. Shchileriff and his team marketed the brand aggressively through tournament sponsorships and the assembly of a group of professional skateboards to represent the Element brand.
Acquisition by Billabong
The Element brand was purchased by Billabong International Limited in 2001. After the purchase, Billabong pledged to operate Element as a separate brand entity while utilizing Billabong's manufacturing resources to foster the brand's technological innovations. Billabong's extensive network of distributors also gave the brand more exposure then it had ever had previously.
Element in Billabong Sales
The acquisition of Element resulted in a 50-percent increase in North American sales for the Billabong brand in 2002. The brand's standout growth was primarily attributed to the release of their line of apparel for women and girls, which represented one of the first whole brand immersions into both men's and women's markets for a skateboarding retailer.
Element Today
Element continues to flourish in the skateboarding retail market today and has also co-opted a wide variety of community service initiatives focused on youth character development through skateboarding, Element's "This is My Element" seminars aim at mentoring young people through vocational mentoring, self-esteem exercises, and by promoting social and environmental awareness.
