Photos, videos and a recap of the launch party.
Hundreds of industry insiders mobbed the new Irvine, Calif., offices and distribution center of the La Jolla Group Wednesday night.
We’re just now catching up, after our camera crashed that night. So these photos are all courtesy of the shooters working for La Jolla Group.
At the party, and the next day, all the buzz was about “the jump” and appearances by LJG owners, including Kurt Rambis, the former Lakers player and current assistant coach.
I spoke to LJG and O’Neill Clothing CEO Toby Bost while he stood in the middle of the long front hall, surrounded by industry heavyweights 
such as Michael Tomson and Gary Schoenfeld, who was wrapping up his first official day on the job as CEO and President of PacSun.
That front hall is bookended by the Lusk Training Center – a first class weight room – on one end, and nearly a city block away, a half-court basketball court.
Ryan Divel, Lost’s marketing director, Joel Cooper, the CEO of Lost International, and Lost designer
Johnny Monson.
Along the way, it threads past offices of O’Neill Clothing, Metal Mullisha, Lost and Rusty. The halls are lined with murals and surf mag cover-posters.
Behind it all is a massive distribution center. The entire building is a hefty 200,000 square feet. It also includes a 2,000-square-foot concept retail store, an indoor skate park, an exhibition wall for staff art works and “Walls of Fame” for each of the licensed brands.
The offices in Irvine are about 5 miles east of the old campus. They pull all the brands in the LJG portfolio together into one space, Lost President Tim Garrett explained.
In the old offices, the brands were spread around in separate buildings, and communication grew difficult, he said.
“It was time to move,” he said.
Here’s a video clip from inside, followed by more photos.
CEO Toby Bost and Brian Deegan feeding a media frenzy.
Here’s a video clip on how it looked from Brian Deegan’s perspective.
