https://www.badbillys.com/tags/dc-shoes/Recent content in DC Shoes on BadBillys.comHugo -- gohugo.ioenBadBillys.comTue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.badbillys.com/post/quiksilver-skate-history-80s-crossover/Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.badbillys.com/post/quiksilver-skate-history-80s-crossover/ <h2 id="two-surf-companies-two-different-skate-bets">Two Surf Companies, Two Different Skate Bets</h2> <p>Two Australian surf companies spent the 1980s building global businesses on boardshorts and wetsuits, and when skateboarding's late-80s boom made a skate identity look worth having, only one of them tried to build that identity from scratch. Billabong launched <strong><a href="https://www.billabong.com/">Bad Billy's</a></strong> in 1987 as an in-house skate and streetwear sub-label — a new name, a new graphic language, sitting under the parent company's roof. <strong><a href="https://www.quiksilver.com/">Quiksilver</a></strong> took a different path, and it took it on a different timeline: rather than inventing a skate label of its own during the 80s boom, its most documented move into skate credibility came years later, through acquisition rather than construction.</p>