Don’t Call it a Comeback: FUBU Eyes Licensing

Hip Hop brand FUBU is on the comeback trail in the U.S., aiming to leverage licensing agreements to lead the way.

April 18, 2019

Don’t Call it a Comeback: FUBU Eyes Licensing

The 1990s brand never really left the U.S. market, but changes in fashion led the company to refocus priorities outside the region since in 2003. Today, the apparel brand has begun examining licensing deals as a way to reestablish itself in the U.S.

FUBU has already inked licensing deals with

Karako

Eye Candy Creations

and

The Lab Co

. The brand is even looking into licensing outside of apparel, seeking agreements in the home goods category.

Learning from the past, FUBU executives recently

told LIMA

that they want to ensure the brand finds the right licensing deals without oversaturating the market.

“Our goal is not to be distributed as much as before, and while we have to turn a profit, we don’t want to be oversaturated,” says Carlton Brown, co-founder and head of business development and licensing, FUBU. “We want to maintain some kind of exclusivity. We were oversaturated before, and we really had to reevaluate how we wanted to come out this time. That means doing short runs and keeping

low inventory or no inventory at all.”