Southern California is the birthplace of several household brands.

Entrepreneurs of all backgrounds have made their mark in every industry imaginable, but what many might not know is that some of these household names got their start just minutes from UC Irvine. From restaurants and footwear to clothing and entertainment, entrepreneurs from Southern California have built several well-known companies from the ground up.

Read on for six nationally and internationally recognized companies that got their start in Orange County, California.

Yogurtland
Yogurtland started in Fullerton in 2006 as a self-serve frozen yogurt concept inside one of CEO Philip Chang’s existing bubble tea shops and quickly became the more profitable venture. Since then, the company, currently headquartered in Irvine, has developed a successful franchise model and expanded to over 280 locations around the world, including stores in Australia, Dubai, Guam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Oman, Singapore and Thailand.

Stance
Before Stance was founded in 2009, socks had largely been a mundane clothing accessory. Since then, however, the San Clemente-based company has created an empire of high-quality socks and other apparel that feature unique designs and styles. The company also develops partnerships and exclusive collaborations with household names, including recording artist Rihanna and New York City’s famous Katz’s Delicatessen.

Rainbow Sandals
It comes as no surprise that one of the most famous sandal brands comes from the coast of Southern California. Started in Laguna Beach in 1972, Rainbow Sandals has been a must-have for beach goers all around the world. Now headquartered in San Clemente, the company makes 2 million sandals a year across all their manufacturing facilities.

Vans
The iconic shoe brand popular with skaters the world over got its start in Anaheim and just celebrated 55 years of business this year. In 1966, the Van Doren brothers and their partners started the Van Doren Rubber Company, which manufactured shoes to order for the public. The company now has a 182,000-square-foot headquarters in Costa Mesa.

Blizzard Entertainment
Established in 1991 by three alumni from UCLA, this globally recognized video game developer and publisher is responsible for some of the most popular video games of the last 30 years. Each month, tens of millions of gamers play titles created by the Irvine-based company, including Diablo, Overwatch, Word of Warcraft and StarCraft.

RED Digital Cinema
In 2005, the founder of Oakley, Inc., decided to take on the digital cinematography industry and created RED Digital Cinema. Within a few years, the Lake Forest-based company had developed a digital camera that was far superior to others on the market and has had major motion pictures use their advanced camera technologies, including Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion.”

Create the next household name from Orange County with business-building resources provided by UCI Beall Applied Innovation.

Main Graphic: Julie Kennedy