Dickies’ new California headquarters is ‘designed for expressive creators.’ Take a look.
In just a few months, Dickies will no longer have headquarters in Fort Worth. The iconic clothing brand started in Cowtown more than a century ago will have a new home in Southern California — and what a different home it will be.
We spoke with the San Francisco firm that designed the Costa Mesa building where Dickies will relocate by May 2025. The 15-acre campus about 30 miles south of Los Angeles is the headquarters for Vans, which is also owned by Dickies parent company VF Corporation.
VF Corporation’s announcement in November that Dickies is moving came as a surprise to Fort Worth officials, just months after Dickies had finished renovating its now-former headquarters in downtown.
Founded in Fort Worth in 1922, Dickies was purchased by VF Corporation in 2017. VF has struggled to make all of its brands profitable over the past few years and has been cutting millions in costs.
Here’s what we know about Dickies’ new home on the West Coast.
Dickies’ new California headquarters
Opened in 2017 and expanded a few years later, Vans’ headquarters at 1588 S. Coast Drive in Costa Mesa was designed by San Francisco-based design firm Rapt Studio.
The firm designed Vans’ building in two parts. The initial space took about a year and a half to create. A few years later, the company expanded its offices into a second building, which Rapt also worked on.
“Designed for expressive creators, the Costa Mesa HQ brings innovators and new perspectives together to shape the future of Vans,” Rapt’s website says of the project.
Rapt’s CEO David Galullo said the space is designed around a central courtyard. Workspaces become increasingly private farther away from the main shared space. The building also has an outdoor terrace.
Gallulo described the building and courtyard’s relationship as similar to a freeway that loops around a city, with individual neighborhoods branching off. He thinks the setup will allow Dickies to easily fit into the space and establish its own footprint.
“I think because that design is so strong and so clear that I think you can lay Dickies into that in a way that allows them to have their own space, to have their own identity, and won’t feel like they’re sitting in Vans’ building, but in fact, sitting in a building that houses, you know, two very distinct brands,” Galullo said.
Galullo said Rapt sought to reflect Vans’ skateboarding roots by incorporating materials like plywood, which skate ramps are made out of, into its office. Rapt also wanted the space to encourage collaboration and innovation, two ideas at the heart of the Vans brand.
“We try to work with our clients to really understand who they are from a cultural perspective, what the brand says, so that when everybody shows up to work they’re reminded of what’s important about working at Vans, or any client that we design for,” Galullo said.
Rapt also designed VF Corp’s Denver headquarters, which opened in 2020.
Galullo said Rapt wanted to bring the outdoors inside and reflect the overarching story of VF’s brands through the design of the Denver office. Like Rapt’s work on Vans’ space, culture was also an important part of VF’s headquarters.
“What we tried to do there was to design a space that kind of spoke to the ethos of the entirety of VF, the idea that their brands aren’t just making clothes and shoes, they’re actually fueling the lifestyle of their customers,” Galullo said.
Materials with textures and appearances reminiscent of wood and rock are prominent throughout the building, which also has a rock climbing wall.
Galullo said in early December that VF had not reached out to him about designing the space for Dickies in the Vans building. He thinks Dickies will fit right into Vans’ space.
“I think they’re both incredibly cool brands, and I think I think this is an exciting move for Dickies, although probably sad for Fort Worth,” Galullo said.
VF Corporation said the Dickies move will impact about 120 employees in Fort Worth. The company will continue to operate a Fort Worth distribution facility, warehouse and stores in the Metroplex.
This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 10:47 AM.
