Sunday, May 02, 1999
Wear One ready to be the next hot thing
Orders grow for one-man brand
BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Jay Burton could not believe his good fortune late last year. Barry Larkin, a Cincinnati celebrity, was in the Springdale offices of Mr. Burton's company — Wear One — thanks to mutual friend Darrin Gilbert. Mr. Larkin was picking out clothing he wanted to wear.
Take your time, Barry, Mr. Burton told him. As founder of the line of jerseys, T-shirts, hats and sweat shirts that targets urban clothing buyers — which includes suburban kids — Mr. Burton knew what an endorsement from a man like Mr. Larkin could mean.
A half-hour later, Mr. Burton decided to check in on the Cincinnati Reds shortstop to see what he had picked out. Mr. Burton intended to give away the items because if even one Wear One item showed up on Mr. Larkin's head or back at a public event, it would bring a big boost to sales. When Mr. Burton saw the pile at Mr. Larkin's feet, his heart sank.
“A couple of free shirts was one thing, but I'm thinking, "Oh my God, the guy had my bottom line sitting there on the floor,' ” Mr. Burton said.
Mr. Burton grimaced but thanked Mr. Larkin and wished him well, and his spirits brightened considerably when the ballplayer pulled out a checkbook and told the clothier to add it all up, that he intended to buy each and every item.
The Cincinnati baseball legend wrote a check for more than $1,000 and headed out the door with new duds and Wear One's future in his arms.
“I like the clothing because it looks good, and it doesn't fall apart after you wash it,” Mr. Larkin said recently from the field at Cinergy before a game with the New York Mets. “Jay Burton is a friend of a friend of mine. He's a local guy, a businessman just starting out. If I can help him, I will.”
In the fickle world of youth clothing, where fashion trends change with the waxing and waning of the moon, Wear One, also known as W1, is poised to become a hot new trend.
“I wish I had a buck for every time somebody told me I was going to be the next FUBU,” said Mr. Burton, a 45-year-old West Chester resident who has spent 13 years in the clothing business, referring to the hot clothing line FUBU (For Us, By Us).
Mr. Larkin ended up wearing a WearOne hat and vest to the 1998 winter RedsFest and when a photo of him signing autographs made it into the Sunday edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Mr. Burton's companybegan to lift off.
The company is just now picking up some revenue velocity.
Last year, the firm had $90,000 in revenues. In two months this year, revenues were already at $140,000. The company was created after Mr. Burton spent more than a decade selling college monogrammed sweat shirts, licensed shirts with Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh figures on them, and other leisure clothing.
A friend suggested that he go into business for himself.
“I asked him how could I sell a T-shirt. I didn't even know anybody who would wear one,” Mr. Burton said.
“He looked at me and said: "That's it. That's the name of your company — Wear One.'”
The company has sold bulk orders to Finish Line, Spiegel and Nordstrom, and other retailers are in the works. Clothing is also sold at Deveroes, his first retail account. Besides Wear One, Mr. Burton's firm also sells shirts in a variety of embroidered appliques or silk-screened images. Among the brands are bakndaday, , wearone, BKNDand Wear the Gear.
“Folks look for that brand,” said Isaiah Smith, assistant manager at the Western Hills Deveroes.
J.C. Penney, with its 1,150 stores, is the next challenge, Mr. Burton said. He has a retail customer base of about 60 stores in 18 states, and it is growing daily. For instance, after an Atlanta trade show last week, urban specialty stores in Georgia, Maryland, Alabama and Tennessee agreed to buy merchandise.
“They all said the same thing. They can't believe the quality,” Mr. Burton said.
The shirts clearly have potential, said Michael Robinson, a 30-year-old senior merchandise manager for J.C. Penney in Racine, Wis. “His biggest hurdle is getting them out there,” said Mr. Robinson, who first saw Wear One goods at an industry trade show and immediately moved to get them into the Racine store and maybe into all J.C. Penney stores.
“He really does have potential to be the next FUBU. The shirts are good quality. He has nice-looking stuff.”
Prices are competitive, he said. “You can buy two Wear One items for the price of one FUBU,” Mr. Robinson said, and that will appeal to younger teens on allowances.
Teens today have unprecedented buying power, according to industry experts. The $141 billion teens are expected to spend this year represents a nearly 60 percent increase over what they spent five years ago, according to Teen Research Unlimited, a market research firm outside Chicago. The figure is expected to climb as the population increases — by about 2 percent a year until 2002.
Brand names like Adidas, Hilfiger and FUBU are growing at the swiftest pace, and Mr. Burton thinks his company can take a slice off that ham.
He has a guerrilla marketing strategy to move goods. When Finish Line agreed to sample sell his products, company officials wanted to know where he wanted the shirts sold. “I told them Cincinnati so my friends could buy them, and Peoria, Ill.,” he said.
Then, Mr. Burton jumped into his car and drove to Peoria to give shirts and hats to the Manual High School basketball team. When the team appeared at a pep rally, they were wearing Wear One shirts and hats.
The strategy might have been creative, but Gary Pierson, manager of the Finish Line at Northwoods Mall in Peoria, is not sure it was effective. “We sold some but nothing spectacular,” he said. “It was a good idea.”
Mr. Burton continues to court celebrities — he has a picture of Busta Rhymes grinning behind a Wear One shirt as well as other rappers wearing them — and last week, he filled a $27,000 order from Black Entertainment Television for caps for a made-for-television movie. He will get a credit at the end of the movie and wonders what that will do to his bottom line.
Mr. Burton has sold his clothing line just about anywhere he can — (800) 301-1622. “I started out selling from my trunk up at Brandy's,” he said, describing the parking lot of the Roselawn lounge where a small crowd would gather on weekend nights around his car trunk.
He also loves church fashion shows, and when his daughter asked for sweat shirts to give to her West Chester classmates at Christmas, Mr. Burton willingly came up with about 30. He thinks his strategy is starting to pay off.
“I ask her how many kids wear them to school each day,” Mr. Burton said. “Their parents are starting to buy them now.”
Prices are $17 to $32 for T-shirts, $20 to $22 for caps and $49 to $59 for jerseys. He buys T-shirts from wholesalers, has the tags removed and then contracts to have embroidered appliques put on the garments.
The clothing even has slogans: “Wear One or Nothing at All.”
The days of selling out of his car trunk are probably gone because orders are arriving from major retailers. If his clothing line turns into the next FUBU, Mr. Burton is not sure how he will fill those orders. But until that happens, he isn't going to worry.
As long as the phone is ringing, this one-man brandwill answer it. He will fill the order, ship the order, invoice the order and chase down the no-pays if necessary. He doesn't have time to worry about tomorrow. Still, he has to wonder. “They say you gotta watch out what you wish for because it might come true,” he said.
But that hasn't stopped him from wishing.
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