Jim Jannard, chairman and founder of Oakley, the sports sunglasses company that is being bought by Italy’s Luxottica for $2bn, could be regarded as a southern Californian version of Phil Knight, chairman and founder of Oregon-based Nike.

Both West Coast entrepreneurs set up companies in their garages and sold their first products by word-of-mouth grassroots marketing. Both built their companies around sports performance and design. And both stepped down as chief executive of the companies they founded within 12 months of each other.