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When Design Becomes Big Business
By admins | November 27, 2009
For many aspiring fashion designers their dream often includes, starting a small label and watching it flourish. But, how large do you really want your “small” business to become? Many prefer to keep their brands small, tight, and controllable, while others take the, “go big or go home” perspective. And of course, what constitutes a designer being labeled a success? Well, there really is no right answer for what success is in the fashion industry.
Perhaps this is the reason why the recent Marc Ecko news struck a cord with us. Ecko is a large presence in the Garment Center, owning clothing lines like Rocawear, Mossimo, and Joe Boxer. To some Ecko could be deemed more successful than an indie label sold only at local boutiques. At the same time, Ecko is a drop in the bucket compared to giant conglomerates like LVMH and Federated. Ecko sales are estimated to be at around 1.5 billion and has 750 employees in NYC alone. However, Marc began his business small, by selling just t-shirts in the 80’s, which then became the Ecko brand about a decade later. Certainly he followed the, “go big or go home” mentality.
While there is much discussion in the blogesphere regarding starting a fashion line and the struggles of small indie designers; there is little on what happens after. If a designer/entrepreneur like Marc Ecko makes it big, what’s next? Well, many successful growing companies end up going public, licensing out the majority of their product, or simply getting bought out. There are pros and cons to all these situations. For Ecko, lavish spending styles, management issues, and a poor economy have forced Marc to sell off a majority stake of his company. The Iconix Group has bought a 51% share in the Ecko brand taking control of the company while keeping Marc on as Chief Creative Officer.
So we had to wonder, would this be considered a failure on Marc’s part? We think not. Had he stayed small, just selling his Ecko logo t-shirts, that would have been a failure. Clearly he had more vision then that and brands like Rocawear would never have been developed. Bottom line, Marc Ecko has accomplished more then most designers and fashion entrepreneurs could dream. At 37 with 63 million in cash and 90 million in financing from Iconix, he could retire or start a whole new brand if he wanted. We think he agrees since he told the NY Post, “I’ve had a crazy, wild ride. I’ve done a lot of things that have been naive. I’ll take my lumps for a lot of things that, in retrospect, were a little indulgent. Life happens. I don’t regret any of it.”
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Topics: designer, fashion industry | 4 Comments » 
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November 28th, 2009 at 12:16 am
hi there! wanted to greet you a happy thanksgiving!! also if you are free on dec14, head on to my blog to join my giveaway for the opening night of hansel and gretel at the metopera! would love to see you soon! http://allthingsnyc.typepad.com/home/2009/11/allthingsnyc-thangsgiving-giveaway.html
November 28th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
wow, that is an incredible story. i didn’t realize that they were indie.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I think that he could have gotten a lot more if he’d struck while the iron was hot (in this case around 02-05ish). I mean not to say that $63 million is not a lot of money, because it is, however I think that Iconix would have shelled out more had he sold 5 years ago. The Ecko Brand has lost a lot of its luster (as did most urban brands) due to increasing emphasis hipster fashion and streetwear style. I think that his demographic is now shying away from that style of dress. I don’t think Ecko will ever be the same Ecko it was when I was younger.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I think that most designers worth their salt are torn about this subject… me included. My dream is to own my own conglomerate of brands one day… but I often find myself going back and forth on the possibility of staying a smaller brand. Smaller brands are always more well respected while the larger brands seem to fizz out when the next big designer or brand becomes the trend. It would be lovely to be able to keep my integrity and a huge fashion house (ones with actual departments), but thanks to shareholders, licensing, and a general need to keep revenue high (to support said actual departments, and costly designers) it really takes the fun out of actually being able to grow your brand organically. I was thinking about starting a smaller brand and keeping it to myself, while simultaneously starting a larger brand and selling it down the road for major capital gain.