FUBU is officially back.
The sportswear company, which was founded in 1993 by “Shark Tank” regular Daymond John as well as friends Keith Perrin, J. Alexander Martin and Carl Martin, just released its first new in-house designs in seven years in partnership with Century 21.
The collection, which features 10 styles priced between $29 for a T-shirt and $50 for a sweatshirt, shouts out different New York City boroughs and sports teams, drawing on both brands’ deep city roots. Created in a limited run that will only be available online and in the downtown Century 21 store while supplies last, the new styles bear the tagline, “can’t resist a classic.”
Fashion may be having a love affair with high-end streetwear lately, but it was FUBU that dominated the scene more than 25 years ago — and at an affordable price. Now, brands like Champion, Fila and Stüssy, whose popularity reached a fever pitch in the ’90s, are again open for business, and even collaborating with luxury labels like Fendi and Vetements.
“The ’90s were so impactful as far as hip-hop goes, and as far as commercializing hip-hop,” Carl told Page Six Style at the collection’s recent launch event at Century 21. “Kids now look back at what their parents would wear, so it started as a throwback thing and that novelty has caught on where they want it to be a staple again.”
Added Perrin, the brand’s vice president and director of marketing: “I think the difference between us and the other brands today is that we developed a relationship with these artists when they were first coming up … our relationship is real, not based on their success.”
“It was almost like a symbiotic relationship,” John chimed in. “A lot of times, the artist would come to us and ask what should their look be the next year and vice versa. We would see some artists and athletes that we really loved and respected, and we would design a line thinking about them.”
FUBU’s ties to the founders’ hometown of Queens ran deep, which ultimately benefitted the brand. “We grew up really in the hood and the streets before [musicians] went on tour. So someone we were hanging out with when they were carrying crates would turn around and be called Funk Master Flex in a couple more years, or Lil Jon.”
According to the founders, that genuine connection is what drove new, younger customers to demand a reboot. “The younger kids from 18 to 24 are really diving into the brand and it’s inspiring because these kids weren’t even born when it first came out, so for them to demand that we come back, it’s a big thing for us,” Jay said.
The company is so deeply embedded in black culture, in fact, that Solange Knowles even dedicated a track from her 2016 album “A Seat at the Table” to the label. “Don’t feel bad if you can’t sing along / Just be glad you got the whole wide world,” the lyrics read. “This us / This s—t is from us / Some s—t you can’t touch.”
Decoding the lyrics for Genius, Solange wrote, “I remember reading stories on the product placement, and seeing LL Cool J wearing a FUBU hat in a national GAP advertisement. FUBU exhibited Blackness in any space, on a huge global level, and that is what I wanted to do with the song.”
Now that the streetwear trend is a huge hit with consumers of all ages and races, luxury brands like Gucci and Prada are releasing their own takes — and occasionally landing in hot water, with accusations of blackface and racist imagery becoming regular news in the industry.
According to John, it’s possible such brands are purposely adding “shocking” piece to their collections. But the “Shark Tank” star also noted that ignorance and a lack of diversity on staff could be to blame for such public flubs. “It’s hard to know if these people have bad intent,” he said.
John also recalled early pushback from shoppers misinterpreting FUBU’s “For Us By Us” credo as exclusionary.
“Remember how much flak we got when people thought we were only for black people?” he asked the group. “But we weren’t. We came out and said, ‘Who’s ever going to respect and value the hip-hop culture?’ Because we heard all these brands didn’t respect rappers or African-Americans. We weren’t going to be prejudiced like we thought other people were.”
He also noted that both NSYNC and Bario Boyzz wore FUBU before any other designers took them seriously.
“You only see the four of us here, but in our peak we had 400 [employees] and I think we were evenly broken up with Asian, African-American, Middle Eastern, Jewish,” John explained of the company’s approach to preventing culturally insensitive gaffes.
“Throughout the whole system, if everyone liked [a design], then we were like, cool. We never had those issues.”