After months of fending off the creditors he attracted during his wild spending sprees, Marc Ecko has finally succumbed to financial pressures by forfeiting control of his trademark company. On Oct. 27, Ecko inked a deal with Iconix -- the brand which owns clothing lines, Rocawear and Joe Boxer -- giving up a 51 percent share in the Mark Ecko brand. In return for surrendering the majority share of his company, Ecko will receive $63.5 million cash and $90 million in financing for the joint venture with Iconix. Earlier this year, Ecko was forced to layoff employees and sell some of its' trademark brands, including Avirex, in an attempt to cut costs.Despite losing control over his once iconic hip-hop brand and receiving endless criticism about his wild spending habits, Ecko didn't seem particularly perturbed by the situation. In addition to joking with the New York Post about the status of the basketball court in his 280,000 square foot Manhattan office, he also managed to write off his company's decline as a misfortune he could walk away from without looking back."I've had a crazy, wild ride. I've done a lot of things that have been naive," Ecko said. "I'll take my lumps for a lot of things that, in retrospect, were a little indulgent. Life happens. I don't regret any of it."
Some of Ecko's comfort might come from the fact that Iconix, a New York-based company, has decided to keep him on board as chief creative officer for the new joint venture. The clothing line has long been criticized for falling out of touch with the hip-hop crowd it first aimed to target but Iconix CEO Neil Cole has already begin to put in work on that damage-control campaign. "Kids are not wearing big, baggy things with logos on them -- it just looks different now," he said. "I promise you these kids are not naked out there and they're not wearing my father's clothes."
Nothing like a corporation to dictate what's happening in the streets.
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