There’s a short list of fashion companies that have achieved 30 years in business, and an even shorter list that can chronicle the impact on culture they’ve had in that time span, like Fubu does.
One of the creators of streetwear and streetwear, the New York City-based company achieved more than $350 million in sales and operated up to 200 independent global stores at one point in its history. He has managed numerous collections under his umbrella, such as Fubu Platinum and tailoring, explored products like fragrances, featured in museums, and even had an entertainment arm.
This year, Fubu co-founders Daymond John, Carlton Brown, J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin look back 30 years and chart their future through special commemorative merchandise and a host of collaborations, including one with Forever 21 that was released in March. children’s brand Haus of JR will release the upcoming movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in the fourth quarter, among others.
“Thirty years is something that can’t really be put into words,” Martin said. “Four African-American guys who come from where we come from and do this at such a high level that you can’t really put it into words.”
After a quiet period since operations began to slow down in early 2006 as the group focused on other activities, Fubu began its relaunch this year with new clothing and accessories for men and women distributed by new partner Concept One. The company it also opened licenses in Mexico City and Brazil, to expand its global presence, which already includes South Africa and parts of Europe and Asia.
Fubu partnered with Forever 21 in March to launch an extensive men’s, women’s and children’s collection at the retailer in the US and around the world, comprised of classics like graphic tees and tracksuits, and accessories like caps. and bucket hats, as well as denim, bathing suits and chain belts.
Launching in the fourth quarter of this year, the commemorative product will revive past styles like Fubu soccer jerseys but with new fabrics, as well as graphic tees and branded hoodies, polo shirts, sweatpants and sweatshorts. distinctive Fubu, FB and Fubu Sport and typeface The brand will also focus more on children’s products this fall through its collaboration with Haus of JR.
Some of the new demand is the 1990s trend that has resurfaced lately, but while the brand scaled back its US operations in the early to mid-2000s, it continued to operate in international markets such as Japan, Mexico , South Africa, some European countries and the Philippines, the co-founders said.
“Our brand was always next to the music,” explained Brown. “You look at artists and they’ll say they’ve lost traction in the States but are getting more love abroad. When it comes to fashion, it’s the same way. People may be out of it here, but the foreign market embraced us.”
Fubu co-founders at their second MAGIC Show in Las Vegas
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So while this 30th anniversary isn’t exactly a comeback because some operations continued, the new focus on the US is an effort to cement Fubu’s legacy as one of the great success stories of American fashion.
The story of the origin of the quartet has often been told. They first printed T-shirts in their native Hollis, Queens in New York City in the late 1980s before establishing the Fubu brand, which stands for “For Us, By Us,” in 1992.
“Our dream wasn’t necessarily to have a clothing line,” Brown said. “We wanted to do a variety store. We had Fubu but we also wanted to sell cool stuff like t-shirts and water guns. when j. [Alexander Martin] he got out of the army, he gave us the idea to make Fubu our own brand like cut and sew and jeans”.
John mortgaged his house to finance the brand and converted part of the house into a factory to produce the garments before the company moved production overseas. The founders sought financing in 1995 and received investments from Samsung C&T America.
Over the years, Fubu appeared in music videos, television shows, and commercials, most notably by rapper LL Cool J in a 1997 Gap ad, where he sported a Gap hat and referenced the phrase “To us, by us” in his lyrics.
At the brand’s heyday in the late 1990s, it amassed annual sales of $350 million from more than 5,000 specialty stores in the US and operated up to 200 global stand-alone stores in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Japan, Korea South and the Philippines. The company then expanded its offerings to footwear and formal wear such as tuxedos and suits.
“We followed the demand of our consumers and many of our consumers were not children,” said Brown. “They were professionals and they couldn’t wear the same clothes as in high school.”
Perrin noted that the founders’ own personal styles also played a role in expanding Fubu’s offering. “Once we created our brand and wore our clothes, that’s all we wanted to wear. Wall street guys used to come up to us and say I can only wear Fubu on the weekends, but if you make a suit I’ll support it. We had the number one tuxedo for colleges and weddings.”
The company also introduced a line for women under license from Jordache, which Brown said Fubu “launched in a big way with Macy’s.”
Designer and founder Daymond John and Elliott Lavigne of Jordache pose with a model in a look from Fubu’s fall 1998 women’s sportswear collection.
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“We get a lot of support from the women,” she continued. “What I see online, it seems like women have really embraced our brand in some way.”
At the turn of the century, Fubu introduced a “Platinum” line that offered a “novel” product, according to Martin, that featured things like cartoon characters from real-life figures like the Harlem Globetrotters and the late Muhammad Ali, and fictional characters like Fat Albert. and the Junkyard gang. The company also produced a collection for the NBA before throwback jerseys became a trend, and launched fragrances with Inter Parfums Inc.
As for the brand always being associated with music, Fubu established a multimedia arm in 2001 called FB Entertainment and operated a record label called FB Records which produced a compilation album called “The Good Life” on Universal Records and a 54th album. Platoon called “All or nothing”. Both albums charted on the Billboard 200.
But the overexposure ultimately hurt Fubu, and the markdowns affected the perception of the brand among consumers. As streetwear moved towards skateboarding and international brands, Fubu withdrew from the US market in 2006, moving on to a new line called Crown Holder that ran for three years and surpassed $20 million in sales. Fubu then resurfaced in 2010 to cater to “a younger, more diverse crowd than the original line,” as WWD reported in 2009.
Efforts to maintain momentum were still subdued, but Fubu made a splash again for its 25th anniversary in 2017, launching a capsule collection with Urban Outfitters and collaborations with Puma, Ebbets Field, Chalk Line and Pyer Moss. In 2019, the brand was relaunched at Century 21.
Between Fubu’s first departure from the US in 2006 and this important milestone, the co-founders explored other activities. John has been a regular on ABC’s award-winning business reality show “Shark Tank” since its debut in 2009; Perrin operates Fubu Radio, an Atlanta-based station that started in 2015 and is available 24/7 via the app; In April, Martin launched on Amazon Prime, Apple, SamsungTV and Roku For Us By Us Network, a US video-on-demand streaming platform made with Verizon and Comcast, featuring shows like “Making of Saucy Santana” starring Upcoming rapper Saucy Santana was recently featured in Teen Vogue.
“All we’ve done is natural maturation,” Martin said. “We started out as kids just trying to figure it out. We were entrepreneurs back then and we started when it was very difficult.”
Fubu co-founders Carlton Brown, Keith Perrin, Daymond John and J. Alexander Martin.
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Fubu isn’t often mentioned alongside companies like Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein, but its impact on American fashion and culture is more than relevant and needs to be taken into account. When you look at the heights that streetwear has reached, taking over the world’s biggest luxury fashion houses through collaborations and art direction, and using them as marketing or rebranding tools for other industries, like car companies that they turn to the late Virgil Abloh for a design touch. Mercedes-Benz, and the same for Ronnie Fieg for BMW and Teddy Santis for Porsche, you can trace this all the way back to Fubu and the pioneers of streetwear.
“We think we have as much credibility as any brand on the market,” Brown said. “We feel we have done enough to earn our right in American history. We know we are comparable and have the history and longevity, but it has taken time for some people to put that value on us like other brands. It’s nothing new to us, but it’s always been that way. I think people need the documentary and the film. [though there was no word of this being in the works]. Seeing it and getting some footage would be shocking.”
Source: wwd.com