Jim Ganzer, the founder of reborn cult 80s skate and surf brand Jimmy'Z, has been likened to The Dude. He lives in Malibu, speaks in a slow California baritone, and when I asked him if he wears Jimmy'Z shorts every day, he said, "Pretty much. I just lounge around in them. They're like pajamas." But that's not the whole story. Jim built up his own business, grassroots-style and with an unfailing sense of humor, into something truly iconic.
Last week, Jim told me the Jimmy'Z story from the beginning: how it started out as just him selling T-shirts from his car, how it grew with help from skaters like Steve Olson and Dave Hackett, and how it became the voice of an emerging subculture. This year, the brand relaunches almost exclusively at OC, and we couldn't be more excited. Check out our favorite images from Jimmy'Z iconic 80s ad campaigns and keep scrolling for photos from Jim's 1970 trip to Panama in a VW bus.
Shop the complete Jimmy'Z collection here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Apparently Hunter S. Thompson was a Jimmy'Z fan! What was his favorite T-shirt?
Jim Ganzer: There was this one shirt called "A Can of Worms." It was a picture from a National Geographic of a guy holding foot-long night crawlers in his hands, an I'd added a can to the image. A friend of mine gave Hunter a couple of these shirts and he really liked them! So that was his favorite shirt.
ANH: So you were doing all the Jimmy'Z T-shirt artwork yourself?
JG: Well, I had a team and we did all sorts of stuff. I had a couple guys in the studio—Dave Hackett and Steve Olson—that were absolutely hilarious characters. And we just had fun. The more outrageous we were, the more people would like it. It was really unusual. We used to do these big trade shows in the 80s and we would throw a party with dancing girls and guys and it was really amazing. It was all about the humor, you know?
ANH: When did you move to Pacific Palisades? Did you get into surfing right away?
JG: Well, I was born in Chicago but I moved to California with my parents in 1957. When I came out here, I knew nothing about surfing. But sometime in that first year I started hanging out with a friend whose older brothers were pretty famous surfers—Kemp, Danny, and Steve Alberg. I went over to their house in the Palisades one day and one of them had these amazing pictures of surfing on the wall. I just thought, "Wow, how cool is that?" and by the following year I had gone down to the beach and tried it.
ANH: Do you surf every day?
JG: Well you know, I surfed a great deal until I went to art school but then I sort of stopped. And that was in 1966. I didn't really pick it up again until about 1970. So I stopped for about four years and got really involved in art . But then I went on my first trip... An old friend of mine said, "Hey! I wanna go down to Panama, I hear you can drive all the way." So we did this incredible pilgrimage all the way to Panama, through Mexico. It's one of the most fantastic trips I've ever taken. It took a month on the way down, in a Volkswagen bus that would only go 55 mph.
ANH: What happened when you got back to California?
JG: I was an artist—a painter and sculptor—with a studio in Venice. So when I came back, I proceeded to make art again. I was surfing occasionally at Malibu but I wasn't dedicated to doing it every day. But one day I came up with this idea for making surf clothing. I had a baseball uniform that had a velcro belt inside the pants. There was no buckle or a
Last week, Jim told me the Jimmy'Z story from the beginning: how it started out as just him selling T-shirts from his car, how it grew with help from skaters like Steve Olson and Dave Hackett, and how it became the voice of an emerging subculture. This year, the brand relaunches almost exclusively at OC, and we couldn't be more excited. Check out our favorite images from Jimmy'Z iconic 80s ad campaigns and keep scrolling for photos from Jim's 1970 trip to Panama in a VW bus.
Shop the complete Jimmy'Z collection here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Apparently Hunter S. Thompson was a Jimmy'Z fan! What was his favorite T-shirt?
Jim Ganzer: There was this one shirt called "A Can of Worms." It was a picture from a National Geographic of a guy holding foot-long night crawlers in his hands, an I'd added a can to the image. A friend of mine gave Hunter a couple of these shirts and he really liked them! So that was his favorite shirt.
ANH: So you were doing all the Jimmy'Z T-shirt artwork yourself?
JG: Well, I had a team and we did all sorts of stuff. I had a couple guys in the studio—Dave Hackett and Steve Olson—that were absolutely hilarious characters. And we just had fun. The more outrageous we were, the more people would like it. It was really unusual. We used to do these big trade shows in the 80s and we would throw a party with dancing girls and guys and it was really amazing. It was all about the humor, you know?
ANH: When did you move to Pacific Palisades? Did you get into surfing right away?
JG: Well, I was born in Chicago but I moved to California with my parents in 1957. When I came out here, I knew nothing about surfing. But sometime in that first year I started hanging out with a friend whose older brothers were pretty famous surfers—Kemp, Danny, and Steve Alberg. I went over to their house in the Palisades one day and one of them had these amazing pictures of surfing on the wall. I just thought, "Wow, how cool is that?" and by the following year I had gone down to the beach and tried it.
ANH: Do you surf every day?
JG: Well you know, I surfed a great deal until I went to art school but then I sort of stopped. And that was in 1966. I didn't really pick it up again until about 1970. So I stopped for about four years and got really involved in art . But then I went on my first trip... An old friend of mine said, "Hey! I wanna go down to Panama, I hear you can drive all the way." So we did this incredible pilgrimage all the way to Panama, through Mexico. It's one of the most fantastic trips I've ever taken. It took a month on the way down, in a Volkswagen bus that would only go 55 mph.
ANH: What happened when you got back to California?
JG: I was an artist—a painter and sculptor—with a studio in Venice. So when I came back, I proceeded to make art again. I was surfing occasionally at Malibu but I wasn't dedicated to doing it every day. But one day I came up with this idea for making surf clothing. I had a baseball uniform that had a velcro belt inside the pants. There was no buckle or a