Case Study: The Best and Worst Hip-Hop Fashion Lines
Here are Bentz’s picks for the fashion lines that didn’t quite measure up to the success of their competitors above:
G-Unit
In 2004, 50 Cent formed a joint partnership with designer Marc Ecko, founder of Ecko Unlimited, for his G-Unit Clothing line. What was unique about this collaboration was that Ecko wouldn’t handle the designing of the clothing, but rather the marketing and merchandising. Although the partnership generated $100 million in retail sales, production ceased in 2009. There’s been talk of 50 relaunching the brand but nothing has been verified as of yet. Bentz notes that though G-Unit had “serious street cred” at the onset, the shaky partnership between 50 and Ecko (“the splitting up and then getting together”) wasn’t healthy for the brand.