Daymond John Brings FUBU Back
This year marks the 25th anniversary of FUBU pioneering the integration of fashion with hip-hop culture, multimedia and entertainment. The urban apparel line founded by CEO Daymond John was synonymous with T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, hats, footwear and denim with the conjoined "FB" in bold, all caps font stitched on the fabric.
Entertainers like LL Cool J, Mary J. Blige, TLC, P. Diddy and Beyonce all wore FUBU to award shows, in music videos and in numerous print and television ads. At its pinnacle, FUBU had netted $350 million in sales through 5,000 retail stores: eventually grossing more than $6 billion globally.
An acronym that stands for "For Us By Us," FUBU was created to specifically target young African-American consumers. John, who started the operation with his childhood friends Keith Perrin, J. Alexander Martin and Carl Brown, created the clothing as a response to high-profile fashion brands expressing they didn't want to market their collections to ethnic audiences.
