People’s Champ: The Impact of Ken Block honors the late action sports icon’s multiple talents on full display at the Petersen Automotive
Museum in Los Angeles.

WORDS: DAVEY COOMBS
PHOTOS: LARRY CHEN, KAHN MEDIA,
JAXON DANSIE & RON ZARAS, 43 INSTITUTE

Everything that Ken Block did, he did well. Exceptionally well. Whether it was business, marketing, competing, creating, raising a family—conducted all with the same high level of passion and care. In the early nineties he emerged from Palomar Community College with his friend Damon Way and together they built what would become DC Shoes, a massive action sports success story. He then turned his attention to rally car racing, bringing his creativity and marketing talents to what was a very niche form of motorsports in America. He created Hoonigan, an automotive lifestyle brand and production company, and became a YouTube legend with his Gymkhana, Climbkhana, and Terrakhana line of driving videos, which have been viewed over a billion times. He was truly an agent of change, which was the title of the definitive book on the rags-to-riches story of DC Shoes.