“To Err Is Human…”
GENERAL By MZ on March 27, 2009 at 11:55 am
“… To Forgive Divine Is At Your Discretion.
During these troubled times, it looks like no one’s Recession proof as Marc Ecko’s facing the possibility of bankruptcy.
Ecko has hired investment bank Peter J. Solomon to help refinance at least $170 million in debt owed to two key business partners, sources told The Post. With lenders scarce, sources say his empire may be dismantled as he sells off assets to pay creditors. Sources said Marc Ecko’s executives and bankers alike have been lobbing phone calls to rivals, trying to unload the company’s brands in exchange for cash. The dire scenario is a far cry from a few years ago, when Marc Ecko had entertained potential offers from Jones Apparel Group and Tommy Hilfiger. At one time, both firms were weighing bids for Marc Ecko in the $500 million range, according to one source.
Regardless of whether you have $10 in your bank account or $1,000,000 people can usually find a sliver of sympathy for the individual down on their luck. It’s a little harder to do with Marc though. First of all, his core brand is pretty much living off it’s reputation this point and has had little relevance to Hip-Hop and streetwear within the past five years or so. Secondly, he has no problem throwing his money around and using it to cast focus on him and the Ecko brand. He’s like the Mark Cuban of the fashion industry, except he’s delivered lesser results.
We all know about the baseball incident, when he tried to play morality police and give America a chance to decide the ball’s fate. But take a look at what else he’s been doing with his money:
* In 2007, he paid $750,000 for Barry Bonds’ record-breaking home run ball, then branded it with an asterisk. Which was kinda cool, but still.
* He built himself a huge Italian villa-style mansion in Jersey and pimped it out—including, we hear from a pretty good source, buying hand-painted wallpaper and spending $180,000 on custom doorknobs.
* Company headquarters are just ridiculous: “Having slashed its bloated expenses in half, Marc Ecko is desperately trying to lease out chunks of its 280,000-square-foot headquarters on West 23rd Street — which includes a half-size basketball court.”
This may sound like hate, but I used to rock Ecko pretty tough back at the turn of the century. Yet, I had to jump ship when the designs became watered down and the brand became too accessible. It felt like he stopped embracing the culture he came from and began to pimp it instead. However, he earned the money, so he can use it however he deems necessary. But I bet he wishes he could hit the easy button on few of these now.
It’s also possible that he’ll be able to make the possible financial maneuvers to keep the company solvent. Not that I care, but he and his brand are still needed. Where else will girlfriends, mothers, and grandmothers turn to buy their Hip-Hop loving loved ones an article of clothing?
Designer Hangs By A Thread: Ecko’s Hip-Hop Clothing Empire In Peril On Debt [NY Post]
Marc Ecko Regrets Spending Millions on Doorknobs, Baseballs, Basketball Courts [Gawker]
Posted in GENERAL, Gear, SMOKE BREAK — Tags: 755, Bancruptcy, Barry Bonds, Complex, Ecko, Ecko Red, Marc Ecko, Recession, Zoo York
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18 Comments
I’ll admit, I’ll still rock a ecko hoodie any day. Decent price, warm, fits me well…as long as the design isn’t mad extravagant, I’m with it.
As far as dudes financial situation, I don’t understand how all these rich people fuck up so bad? Like are they just that dumb or could this have easily been prevented…in his case I’m guessing it could. 180k on doorknobs? I bet you could get doors that open automatically for less!
I guess when you become that successful you fool yourself into thinking the money will always be there. I was a fan of his line until he ‘dumbed down’ his work to get into Macy’s. Hey he made 3 boat loads of money by doing it; but he did lose alot of the consumers who were with him in the beginning.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: HOW THE FUCK DO PEOPLE BLOW THROUGH SO MUCH $$$ SO RAPIDLY!!! Dropping $180,000 on door-knobs? Is he a fucking door-knob?! I know that it’s hard to imagine having that much money, so it’s difficult to gauge what one would do if in similar circumstances but I’m from the “save for a rainy day” frame of mind.
ps: He’s fucked!!! The credit markets are dried up and capital is scarce, so if he thinks that he’ll be able to sell off some assets or merge with some other company it might be an uphill battle.
Every article of Ecko I own now was given to me by my girlfriend that she always picks up when she goes to TN. They’re nice, basic pieces but I miss the off the wall tee shirt designs. Plus the Playboy & Marvel collabs were dope. He really did help pave the way for a lot of these streetwear out now, by stepping off to the side.
I still rock ECKO hoodies and t-shirts, some of them are the slickness.
Besides we have a rhino enclosure in the local zoo which is sponsored by ECKO.
Hope it goes well for them, I like their gear.
MZ taking a swipe by saying Ecko gear comes from Burlington Coat Factory’s in TN lol?
I only owned ONE piece of Ecko gear & that was a pair of jeans. Shit was always wack to me, minus one t-shirt they had that was based around shoes. Some weird slogan/saying. I’ll have to find a pic of that joint.
this one right?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Marc-Ecko-Shirt-XL-SNEAKERS-RUINED-MY-LIFE-nike-dunk-sb_W0QQitemZ250393790835QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_CSA_MC_Shirts?hash=item250393790835&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A570|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50
no swipes Gotty, just the truth. Something about going to TN State that makes her buy it. She never sees me wear it, but she still gets it. I wont turn down free stuff.
we just started to stock cut and sew Ecko at our hoodie shop and have been really stoked with their current designs, the main ecko brand did it way big and moved solidly into the main stream, but they still do lots of cool stuff in their nichier lines. that kind of waste is nobodies fault but theirs, evidently Frugality is not a core value over there. however I hope they find a good solution, we freckin love Zoo York an ME owned brand and would hate to see them get pawned off to the highest bidder.
Somewhere Barry Bonds smiled
Gonna take a whole lot of baseballs to get out of this jam.
I treat this brand like 7-up: Never have, never will. That shit was played out before I grew facial hair.
Damn, so not much love for ECKO, I note. Well what can I say if it looks good on me, I sport it, regardless of brand, whether it’s ECKO, Nike, Airwalk, Addidas or whatever. As long as the price is right, and it looks sharp, I’ll cop.
In actual fact the hoodie which I am sporting in my Gravatar is an ECKO.
I liked the OG hoodies they put out. They were thick and stood up to alot of wear.. I almost used a pic from high school of me wearing it, but not today, lol.
ECKO lost when they did the G-Unit/Fetish lines. Too much pandering tro the urban crowd, not enough innovation, which is what caught my eye about ECKO in the 1st place.
01-03 I was ECKO down. The sweaters & sweatsuits were dope.
ecko was dope when it was echo and they used to give away a free underground mixtape with a tee. anyone remember that?
@DZ5000, yeah I remember that, taking it way back to the Lyricist Lounge days with that one! :)
Maybe, Ecko can do a promotional collabo with Gorilla Zoe and do a remix of ECHO but this it would ECKO!. Hmm, ok, bad idea, I’ll hush up now, ehem.
the marvel collabos are timeless
“stopped embracing the culture he came from and began to pimp it instead.”
THAT is a fucking beautiful line.