Who owns phat pharm

Somewhere down the line, rappers stopped donning FUBU hats and started looking back to Paris and Milan, to a legacy that was not created with them in mind. Like most urban clothing lines, FUBU was a homegrown venture with modest beginnings. Daymond John was just a kid from Queens, New York with his sights set on hitting it big in the urban apparel market. John noticed the cultural relevance of screen-printed T-shirts, and shortly thereafter whipped up a few in response to the Rodney King riots and the arrest of Mike Tyson for rape in In an interview with The Washington Post , John admitted that the shirts set off a lightbulb in his young entrepreneur-driven mind.

FUBU took off after that. The brand went on to rack up a handful of awards, including accolades from the NAACP Awards, the Congressional Awards, and the first Essence award ever awarded to a company.

But things started to go south when John and his team bit off more than they could chew in terms of production. Soon, excess inventory made its way to outlets and discount stores.

C frontman and reality television star, Rev. Before Simmons founded Phat Farm in , his primary focus was music. Simmons enlisted the help of Marc Bagguta, who ran the boutique, and year-old skateboarders Alyasha Jibril Owerka-Moore and Eli Morgan Gesner, who became designers for the brand. At one point, it was being carried in over 3, U.

However, a interview with Bloomberg Business stated that Simmons grew frustrated with being stymied into the ethnic brand category. The Freshed Dressed doc cites discrimination against African-American designers as a major reason why these types of labels fail. So we see this as a big opportunity to fill what was much white space in menswear design. Penney has since dropped the Argyleculture line following the sexual assault allegations leveled against Simmons.

With the allegations against him now in the spotlight, one wonders whether the Twitterverse will respond by doing what Twitter users do best and calling for a boycott. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. November 30, pm. Related Stories. To help grow the burgeoning apparel company, Simmons brought in Martin Kace in to reorganize the business and serve as the first independent president and CEO of a Rush Communications' division.

Kace had considerable experience in the industry, his latest post before joining Phat being the chairmanship of Joe Boxer Corp. Kace oversaw the design of a 4,square-foot showroom and office, but otherwise results did not meet Simmons's expectations and in he elected to again restructure the company, which he felt had been plagued by sourcing and production problems.

Simmons now chose to follow a licensing strategy for Phat Fashions, and after meeting with a number of potential partners, decided to form a joint venture with Turbo Sportswear, a year-old Perth Amboy, New Jersey, active outerwear manufacturer known for producing such brands as First Down, Triple F.

Goose, and Phenom. Through the new venture, the partners hoped to achieve the kind of upscale distribution that Simmons had originally envisioned for Phat, expanding beyond urban ethnic to compete more evenly with the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren.

As part of the deal, a sub-brand called All-City Athletique was formed under ADG to produce more athletic-styled looks at a lower price point to complement the Phat Farm label. ADG signed a number of initial licensing agreements for Phat Fashions, including outerwear to Turbo Sportswear, underwear to Ruby Azark, children's to Parigi, a casual walking shoe to Vida, and leather to Comet International. Also in Simmons married Kimora Lee, who would soon have a major impact on Phat Fashions through her designs for the Baby Phat line.

Lee, half-Japanese and half-African American, grew up in St. By the age of ten she stood 5'8" and reached her adult height of six feet as a teenager. Because Lee was the object of childhood taunts, her mother enrolled her in a modeling workshop at the early age of Her exotic look did not go unnoticed for long: By age 13 she was appearing on Paris runways, ultimately becoming the face of Chanel. She first met Simmons in when he was 35 and she was just They later became better acquainted when Lee served as the host of Simmons's magazine-format television show, Oneworld, devoted to urban youth culture.

In worldwide licensing rights to Baby Phat were awarded to Aris Industries, renewable for up to 25 years. Later in Aris also received a license to design a line of junior sportswear under Baby Phat. Unlike the male Phat Farm line, the new junior clothes were intended to be less street influenced. Phat Fashions continued to broaden its horizons in the year It launched a lingerie line, licensed to International Intimates, and designed and inspired by Lee.

The first collection targeted the to year-old woman and was intended to be sold in department stores and specialty boutiques, as well as Phat Farm stores. Also in plans for a Harlem flagship megastore were announced. In addition to Phat clothing, the 14,square-foot outlet planned to carry other lines such as "Puff Daddy" Combs, Polo, and Versace, plus merchandise that ranged from home furnishings to jewelry and even pagers. According to Simmons, the Harlem operation was a lifestyle store, "the first of what should be many, many stores.

The first offering, named Premium, a Phat Farm product, debuted in