Marc Ecko just turned 51 percent of his clothing business into $63.5 million dollars in cash by selling the majority stake to Op and Mossimo parent Iconix Brands.
Iconix said it will form a joint venture company with an affiliate of the sellers of Ecko, whose brands include Ecko Unlimited, Marc Ecko, Rhino logo and Zoo York. . . “This new venture provides me the bandwidth for my brand and allows me the resources and freedom to extend my professional and creative ambitions beyond my current platform of fashion, video gaming and publishing,” said Mr. Ecko in a statement. He will continue as chief creative officer.
Wonder how Zoo York is going to get along with Walmat, Target , and Kohls?
[Link: Reuters and Crain’s New York Business]
from Wikipedia…
Idea And Skaters
The idea behind “Zoo York” stems solely from the absurdist social humor of ALI.[citation needed] However, numerous entities put the “bite” on ALI’s style following his death, spawning a variety of commercial enterprises vying to cash in on the catchy name which ALI alone devised in 1971. In 1993 the skateboarding company “Zoo York” was founded. It would go on to be one of the more relevant east coast companies (as many of the companies and skate industry in general were at the time based in California). Later it was sold to Ecko Ltd and recently expanded into clothing and footwear. They also have a Berrics United nations coming sometime next month.
ALI was the graffiti name of artist and musician Marc André Edmonds, also known as J. Walter Negro, “The Playin’ Brown Rapper.” As ALI, he is best known as the founder of ‘Soul Artists’ and originator of the cult of Zoo York. As “alter-ego” J. Walter Negro (a cynical take-off on the arch-commercialist J. Walter Thompson advertising agency), he is remembered as the lead singer/songwriter of the proto-hip-hop-rap group ‘J. Walter Negro and the Loose Jointz’, who had some success with their 1981 release “Shoot the Pump”.
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