Champion - The Rise and Fall...And Rise Again

[Music] does everyone remember champion and they're a clothing brand that used to be really big in the 80s and 90s specifically known for their sweatshirts and sports clothing but they had reached beyond sports everyone knew what this was their biggest presence was probably in the hip-hop and basketball communities they were the makers of a lot of NBA uniforms but they also made them for the NFL and just a bunch of clothing for different sports then after the 90s they seemingly fell off completely they have been around but everyone stopped caring they turned into one of those lesser brands that you see at Walmart or Target pay less now the fashion industry is hard to keep up with it's forever changing and the reason for those changes can sometimes be hard to identify but as of the release of this video champion is back yet again and they're becoming one of the biggest names out there it's been an eventful journey I've been getting all these comments saying that I should talk about it and of course I should talk about it all of these fluctuations are reason enough but they also run much deeper than we may realize it's 100 years old this year marks its 100th year the company was started in 1919 in Rochester New York by two brothers named William and Abe Feinbloom it wasn't even called champion in the beginning it was called Knickerbocker Knitting company doesn't that just sound like something that would be a hundred years old it was only four years later when they changed the name to champion knitwear they started the business because they had this fancy new way of making these heavy-duty cotton sweat shirts and wanted to sell them to athletes early on their success came from selling it to universities initially at Michigan but they were making good stuff the word spread and soon they were supplying universities across the country now I can't say I've been to a 1930s university bookstore but I imagine it would have had champion clothing all over it that's how they got their business up and running then over the years they used their innovations to fuel their growth champion is actually responsible for creating a lot of the clothing that we all the time in sports today most notably I would have to say is the hooded sweatshirt the hooded sweatshirt was invented by champion this was an innovative company that made good clothes so it was no surprise that they continued growing up until the 1980s and that's when their popularity just exploded their association with the NBA was ever-increasing they were now making uniforms for many of the teams along with teams in the NFL a couple of things that helped express their growing popularity at this time their sales nearly doubled from 1985 to 1988 in 1988 they were up to two hundred and nineteen million dollars in sales and nearly 15 million in profits and Plus you know Sports Illustrated the magazine well in 1987 alone their logo was visible on four of their covers that's pretty cool up until this point they had always been their own company but all of this newfound popularity and perceived potential and made them an attractive target for acquisition and it happened in 1989 by a company I don't think you would expect it was Sara Lee you know them better for their pies and other foods but in 1989 they acquired champion for the price of three hundred and twenty million dollars in cash well the acquisition actually wasn't nearly as crazy as it sounds at the time Sara Lee was already big in the clothing industry and we're looking to expand their presence they already owned other brands like Coach ISOTONER and Hanes before the acquisition a Sara Lee already held a four percent share in the sweatshirt fleece market and this increased it up to 22% since a much larger company now own the brand they were able to put their resources toward it and help it grow even more they now had the money to expand production and access to a distribution system that can get them into more stores so it meant potentially higher sales and ways to meet those sales quite possibly the best isolated example of champion success and in my opinion the coolest thing they've been a part of happened in 1992 the US Olympic dream team I don't want to go into too much detail but it was probably the greatest assembly of basketball talent ever to occur for the first time and I'd argued the only time to this extent the USA Olympic basketball team consisted of the best players in existence we're talking about Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Charles Barkley Karl Malone Magic Johnson Larry Bird and many others all on the same team this was a historic occurrence and champion was chosen as the provider for their uniforms that was big for them at the time into this day looking back at all these legendary photos there's the logo right there on all the jerseys I hope I've expressed the heights that this brand has reached but they couldn't maintain it it's quite a fault to go from that to essentially a discount brand and I wish I had a more concrete explanation as to what happened but as I said when it comes to fashion and brands that rely heavily on public perception like this it can be hard to identify exactly why they succeed or fail but I will provide some speculation as to why they fell how about Michael Jordan maybe the greatest player of all time and easily the most popular player during the 90s when champion was big Michael Jordan helped make the league popular and it wasn't really good for anybody when he retired in 1998 the league success was linked to Michael Jordan and champion success was linked to the league's success now I admit this may not be the strongest explanation but it's something to consider the years of Michael Jordan's career do line up nicely with the years of Champions popularity another potential contributor the XFL I've made an entire video about this but it was a Football League competing with the NFL in 2001 that only lasted for one season well champion was selected as their official outfitter they were the ones who made all the uniforms when the league quickly folded that wasn't good for champion not the worst thing for them but it was a bad investment that I'm sure didn't pay off like they had hoped one more potential explanation and I stand by this one more in 2001 Sarah Lee was still the owner of champion but they were now looking to decrease their presence in the clothing industry and focus more on food they made a few moves in eluding the sale of coach and came close to selling champion before ultimately deciding against it however they did sell champion Europe to a group of managers over there so as of that sale all of the champion branded clothing sold in Europe was no longer provided by Sara Lee it became a privately held company in Europe who I'm sure didn't have the same capabilities as Sara Lee also it certainly doesn't sound like Sara Lee was paying much attention to champion anymore they were looking to get rid of it and slowly exiting the industry altogether it can be hard to keep a clothing brand relevant you have to maintain contracts with the league's and be mindful of new competitors i theorize maybe they let it slip you know the analogy it's like they're trying to keep all these plates spinning at once and maybe that was the one that they let fall and in 2006 they did end up getting rid of it when they spun off a bunch of their clothing brands into their own separate company called Hanes brands in 2016 Hanes brands actually bought champion Europe and brought it back with the core champion brand for the first time since Sara Lee sold it 15 years earlier to summarize everything with the champion name on it anywhere is now made by Hanes brands that brings us to their recent comeback which is a little easier to explain than their fall the first time in the 80s and 90s it was definitely more of an athletic brand but now it's succeeding more as a premium brand for that we can point to all of these collaborations with influential clothing brands now I'm not a trendy person so I can't say I'm too familiar with what I'm talking about here but supreme I know them in 2015 they released a hoodie together and have collaborated on many things since then this is another one it's a popular French clothing brand that I don't know how to say but they made this unique reversible sweatshirt that incorporates the champion logo rotated into a V then at the end of 2016 they announced a full collection of sweatshirts and sweatpants there's too many to mention but collaborating what champion has sort of become the cool thing to do and of course being associated with these trendy brands is a good thing for them I liken it to when an or musical artist is featured on a more popular artists album it's a way to get exposure to wider audience but it also helps give them credibility too and once it's off the ground it just takes on a life of its own celebrities like chance the rapper started embracing it which further boosted their credibility another reason behind their comeback are you familiar with the term athleisure it's essentially wearing sweat pants and athletic clothing in everyday life it's a fashion trend that's happening right now and since champion is most known for their sweatpants and sweatshirts but also have this newfound premium type image you can now wear a comfortable champion sweatshirt and it's also trendy champion is the perfect brand to take advantage of this another reason behind their comeback it's retro everything from the 90s is making a comeback if full house can become relevant again I don't see why a solid brand like champions shouldn't be able to that logo has gone full circle into becoming cool again this is probably why I think it looks cool I was born in 91 so I only caught the tail end of their initial popularity but I was a big basketball fan so I do remember seeing that logo all the time and I'll admit it's refreshing to see people wear it again brings back good memories those are three pretty solid reasons behind their comeback and also consider Hanes brands is doing a good job in taking advantage of everything that's happening in 2017 they had zero champion stores in 2018 they opened three of them in the three largest cities in the country New York Los Angeles in Chicago in 2019 they already have plans to open a fourth in Boston and I would guess many more to come in November of 2018 they announced they would be the official supplier of the Harlem Globetrotters excluding mass-market retailers like Walmart last year the brand had 1.2 billion dollars in sales which is 18 percent of Hanes brains total sales and they expect that number to be more like two billion by the year 2022 let me know in the comments what do you think of champion do you agree with the reasons I provided for the rise fall and rise again that fall was a little hard to explain I'm not saying Michael Jordan killed champion but he may have had something to do with it nothing wrong with thinking a little outside the box do you remember they were big the first time and if you do how is your perception of them changed over the years and why do you think it changed and finally it are they here to stay this time or are they going to fall off again I'd like to hear what you have to say thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Company Man

Views: 1,619,146

Keywords: Champion, Supreme, Premium Brands

Id: qkvcfgFI2_Y

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019