Shaun Neff

Neff grew up in Southern California and was passionate about skateboarding as a teenager. As a freshman at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, he began selling T-shirts to classmates out of a backpack, and later moved to Park City, the center of the professional snowboarding world, where he befriended riders and asked them to wear Neff clothing during shoots.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 2002, Neff founded Neff Headwear, positioned as a headwear brand for action sports communities. Noticing that many riders’ sponsorship contracts with major brands did not cover headwear, he shifted what had been an apparel brand to focus on headwear; the brand first caught on in the snowboarding world, and later rappers such as Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi also wore Neff beanies.⁠[2][1][1][1]

In 2009, Neff and Snoop Dogg launched the Neff x Snoop collaboration, which Snoop Dogg helped design. Neff said this was key to bringing the brand into the mainstream; the brand also released collaborations with Disney, a Jean-Michel Basquiat–related collection, and musicians including Wiz Khalifa, Damian Marley, 2 Chainz, and Deadmau5.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 2011, Neff partnered with actress Scarlett Johansson to launch a charity beanie raising funds for cancer patients.⁠[1]

In January 2015, Neff announced a partnership with NBA star Kevin Durant to extend the brand into underwear. By that time, the Neff brand’s cumulative sales had far exceeded $100 million.⁠[1][1][1]

In 2017, the Neff brand was acquired by the apparel wholesaler Mad Engine for an undisclosed price.⁠[3]

Neff co-founded the celebrity brand incubator Beach House Group with PJ Brice. Beach House set up a joint venture with actress Shay Mitchell, placed one of its own executives as co-founder, and, drawing on Brice’s manufacturing channels, launched the travel goods brand BÉIS in 2018; Neff said the brand’s revenue exceeded $300 million in 2024.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3]

Neff was an investor in and part owner of the sunscreen brand Sun Bum; in 2019, Sun Bum was acquired by SC Johnson.⁠[3][2]

On February 21, 2024, X Games announced that Neff had joined its ownership group as an investor and adviser to help expand its events and content footprint. Neff said X Games had lost its connection with pop culture and that the goal was to reconnect it with its youth and counterculture roots. He had previously joined the ownership group of Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), a Major League SoccerMLSMajor League Soccer (MLS) is a top-flight professional soccer league comprising clubs in the United States and Canada. Play began in 1996, and the league has 30 clubs divided between Eastern and Western Conferences in 2026.Open the full entry team.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

On October 8, 2025, the music festival company Breakaway announced that Neff and Gross Labs founder Nick Gross had joined its ownership group. Neff said Breakaway had built a national platform that resonates with Gen Z and that the goal was to scale it deliberately.⁠[4][4][4]

Celebrity brands Beach House Group has helped build include the oral care brand Moon with Kendall Jenner, Tracee Ellis Ross’s hair care brand Pattern, Shay Mitchell’s BÉIS, and Florence by Mills with Millie Bobby Brown, which has since been sold. At the company, Neff is responsible for spotting market gaps and setting brand direction, and calls himself a “brand guy.”⁠[2][3]

Neff has also provided advisory services to companies including Sony Electronics, Target, and Walmart.⁠[2]