The Ecko brand has been apart of the urban lifestyle for a hot minute. I wake up today at my usual 5:00 a.m. time, go make the hazelnut coffee with hazelnut creamer, and sit down at my iMac, ready for business and reading The Harvard Business Review. This is a daily ritual. I stumble upon an article by The New York Post detailing how Marc Ecko might lose majority ownership of his company and brand.
Hip Hop Clothing and Lifestyle Kingpin Marc Ecko
I’ve always liked Marc Ecko and everything his company stood for. It was inspired by graffiti and some of my greatest friends are the dopest graf artists there are such as LiquidScape who took art crimes and turned them into a positive force in the Bay Area graffiti and political scene in San Jose, California.
I’ve purchased several Marc Ecko pieces of hip hop clothing including 3 watches, jeans, baseball caps, hoodies, and T-shirts. Ecko is a prominent lifestyle brand for me along with my other hip hop lifestyle clothing options in my closet. Ecko is one of my top selections when I dip into my closet and head out into the urban scene in Atlanta.
I was shocked at seeing such a talented brand rainmaker in a situation to have to sell off a majority stake in his company to Iconix. Apparently, Marc Ecko and his CEO are not speaking to one another and I know the behind the scenes reason why. Marc and his CEO know they are having financial issues trying to pay a multi-million line of credit to a manufacturer who makes their clothes in Southeast Asia. Sales have dipped making it tough to make the LOC payment. Pressed to do his job and find a viable solution, the CEO MUST go find money and find it now before Ecko falls victim of bankrupty.
As all good CEO’s do, he starts to sell off licenses of certain parts of the hip hop clothing and lifestyle brand rainmaker to investors to raise capital. But, this time, he finds the investor Iconix and they pitch a deal to take over majority ownership of the Manhattan Midtown firm. What do you do? You have a looming $70 Million line of credit and you must make a payment. If Iconix takes 51% ownership, they control the direction of Marc Ecko and he becomes an employee of his own brand name.
This is a tough situation to be in and I’ve been there before. It’s a personal decision that only Mr. Ecko can answer. God speed to the Marc Ecko brand but it begs the question: Should hip hop save Marc Ecko?
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