During the march dumps of 1991 Volcom founders, Richard Woolcottand Tucker Hall set off on a snowboard trip that would forever change their lives. Tucker had just been laid off of work and jumped in the car on a routine Tahoe trip to visit Nathan Fletcher and Mark Gabriel. After riding four days of fresh, Richard called work with the excuse that they were snowed in and extended his stay. For more than a week, these Volcom stone masterminds awoke every morning with two new feet of snow. It was their first real experience riding powder and the new obsession wouldn't stop.

Two weeks later Richard quit his job to take some time off and snowboard. He and Tucker had also talked of starting a clothing company, which would later develop into Volcom Clothing. Later that spring, the two came up with the idea of starting a riding company based around the three sports they enjoyed. With an initial $5000 from Richard's dad, they started the process. First the name and then the stone. Volcom stone was born.

The Volcom stone idea would incorporate a major philosophy of the times, "youth against establishment". This energy was an enlightened state to support young creative thinking. Volcom Clothing was a family of people not willing to accept the suppression of the established ways . Volcom Clothing started in a time when snowboarding and skateboarding was looked down on. The U.S. was in a recession, there were riots in LA and the Gulf War. Change was in the air. Nirvana and Pearl Jam expressed it the best. And the guys at Volcom loved to wear boardshorts.

For the first two years, Richard and Tucker traveled around the world on wild journeys with friends riding whatever they could. The Volcom business side of things was minimal. The Volcom headquarters were set up in Newport in Richard's bedroom and all Volcom sales were run out of tucker's bedroom in Huntington. The two knew nothing about how to make Volcom clothes but that didn't matter. It was all about the Volcom spirit and creativity. Volcom clothing sales for the first year were a mere $2600.

Since those wild beginnings, the Volcom Clothing has spread slowly across the world. Volcom Clothing has matured internally but continues to run off the same philosophy it started with. Now with a wide selection of Volcom clothing, the manufacturing process has become much more developed. In a collaborative effort between the Volcom Clothing team, designers, and Volcom's hand-picked most advance fabric manufacturers, Volcom clothing has developed the highest quality garments available. Volcom clothing created a V-Science rating chart, which essentially is a 7-level rating system for waterproofing and breathability designed to match each Volcom garment's specific function intentions. Basically, this whole system is totally rad and just one extra step that Volcom Clothing inlcuding the line of Volcome Boardshorts takes to deliver you the best. Volcom has come a long way, which is why the Volcom Clothing including Volcom Boardshorts thinking now flows through its art, music, films, athletes and clothing.

Volcom Clothing grasps youthful attention by helping to express the artistic talent of the future leaders of this country, something greatly overlooked by so many companies these days. While Volcom minds Jamie Lynn and Neil Harrison were in Seattle floating around some shopping area (like an outside mall) a guy was there with his portable cart selling t-shirts with Salvador Dali paintings printed on the front. First it was Dali's art that caught their eyes and then it was the soft feel of the screen print and the reproduction of these detailed paintings. During this time Jamie and Neil were spending a lot of time drawing and painting together and then seeing these Dali t-shirts hit them with thoughts of creating artist t-shirts and what better person to start this project then Jamie Lynn. So they bought the shirt, Neil still has it in the Volcom archives, and when they got back to Volcom, Jamie went to work on a water color of a guy sitting in the corner of a room playing the bass guitar with all these colors flowing around the room inter-twining into the Volcom stone. They printed the art using a 4 color process, which was new to Volcom Jackets at the time, using water based inks for the soft touch. It's still one of the best t-shirts Volcom Clothing has ever made and was a truly defining moment in Volcom's history. The Volcom Jacket Featured Artist series was born.