World Industries has its roots in 1987 when professional freestyle skateboarder Steve Rocco was kicked off the Sims Skateboards company team. In a bid to make ends meet, Steve borrowed $6,000 from credit cards to buy 500 skateboards. Later when he when he and others were trying to come up with a name for their skateboard company the name "World Industries" was suggested as a joke.Thus the birth of World Industries Inc. The humor and marketing in those early days resulted in Steve Rocco building a mini-empire. Rodney Mullen and Mike Vallely both left Powell to invest in the new World Industries skateboarding company.
