Puma

The company started in 1924, and was created by Rudolf and Adolf Dassler, two Germans. The first big success for these brothers was when Jesse Owens won 4 Olympic gold medals while wearing the Dassler shoes. In 1948, the company decided on the name PUMA and officially became a business on October 1st, 1948. In 1950, another great accomplishment happened for the bothers when several members of the West Germany national football team wore the Puma football shoes. In 1954, Germany's premier team wins the championship with the majority of the players wearing the new and improved football boot, called "BRAZIL." In 1954, Heinz Fütterer breaks a world record in track and field wearing Puma shoes. In 1958, the company launches its logo and in 1960 Puma is the first and only shoe company that uses the "Technologically advanced vulcanization production technique" which is when the boot and the sole of the shoe are in fact connected and not two separate pieces. From 1962 to 1968 Puma shoes are sported by many star athletes such as Eusebio and Pelé. In 1977 Puma is used in tennis and Guillermo Vilas wins many championships wearing Puma shoes including the French, US and Australian open. Puma becomes very popular in the tennis world in the 1980s when Broris Becker wins the championship wearing Puma shoes and using a Puma racket. In 1993, Jochen Zeitz becomes the CEO of he company and is responsible of getting them out of the financial difficulties they were currently in. He succeeds and Puma becomes one of the top 3 sporting good companies. In 1998, Puma signs with Serena Williams and she proceeds to win the US Open, the France Open and is ranked number one in the world. Puma now creates many different sporting goods such as clothing and equipment and of course many different designs of shoes. 


I love puma, it is one of my favourite brands. Believe it or not I prefer Puma shoes over Nike and not many people can say that. I find them more comfortable and a lot lighter than other running shoes. I don't have any of their apparel but I do wish to get some soon. A puma store recently opened in Windsor and I would love to check it out soon. I was very interested while reading the history of this brand not only because the story was great but the format that the website had the information was very cool, and helped keep me interested. 

http://about.puma.com/category/company/history/

Tommy Hilfiger Co.

Tommy Hilfiger was created by Tommy Hilfiger himself, which answers the question of the name of the company. Hilfiger actually started in the fashion industry while he was in high school. He managed to open a small line of clothing with only $150, he named it People's Place. He taught himself everything he knew and dreamed to move the company to upstate New York and be a full-time fashion designer and in 1979, his dream came true. Mohan Murjani noticed Hilfiger and loved his work. He was a businessman and new that with Hilfiger's help he could accomplish a lot. So together they created a line of men's dress up clothing. In 1985, Hilfiger hired George Lois, and together they designed a billboard to put in the middle of Times Square. In 2007, the two men created a book called "A Roller-Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture." In the 1990's, Hilfiger used rising music stars such as Brittany Spears in his advertising which brought the company even more business. In 2009 the company launched its website which allows people to purchased their product in the comfort of t heir own home. The company has only improved since then and continues to grow today. 

Tommy Hilfiger has received many awards, some of which include:
Parsons School of Design - Designer of the Year in 1998
GQ Magazine - "Men of the Year" Issue
Council of Fashion Designers of America - Menswear Designer of the Year in 1995
VHI's "From the Catwalk to the Sidewalk" Award
Drug Abuse Resistance Education - Future of America Award which is the highest honor in that organisation

And many more..

Tommy Hilfiger is one name brand that I do not own, mind you I did when I was younger. I actually have a funny story about that. When I was about 10 years old, I had a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans that I had received as a gift. I loved those jeans, they were "the best pair of pants I ever had" and I wore them everywhere and everyday possible. Unfortunately, you can't stay a size 10/12 and I grew out of them. But that didn't stop me from wearing them. I continued squeezed into them until it was a bit ridiculous and my mom gave them away without me knowing. Believe it or not I cried when I found out what she did. Ever since I haven't owned anything from TH, nor have I entered a store. 


http://global.tommy.com/int/en/About/biography 

Coach

For my next blog I will talk about one of the most ridiculously expensive name brands out there. Coach is a company that sells mainly purses but also has many other accessories such as wallets and backpacks, scarfs, hats, and even shoes. The company was founded in 1941, and started out as a family owed business. Throughout the 1940s and the 1950s the company did not make too much profit but they were not too concern about it at the time. In 1960, the idea to use leather to create the purses was discovered. At that time, women's purses were just made of cardboard that were covered in thin leather, this was the first invention of high quality, long lasting purses. In 1961, The Cahn's bought out the factory with borrowed money and took control of Coach. For a while Coach stuck to an elegant style and stayed more reserved with the company. In 1969, the came out with the "bucket bag" and the fringe "shimmy" bag. In the early 1980s, Coach was dong very well. They were producing several different products and they were occupying 4 stories in a building on 34th street. They were even paying their employees a couple dollars more than other factories at the time because they believed in a good relationship between employers and employees. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Coach decided to make a little change and try selling their products out of a department store. This was such a great success that they were selling out of all the products and they could not keep up with the demand. They weren't quite ready to move from where they were to somewhere bigger so they stopped the department store idea and continued to keep the business on a personal level. They even started inviting some long time customers to the factory to see how the product was produced. In 1983, the Cahn family decided to buy 300 acres of land and have a farm named the Coach Farm. But by 1985 they realized that none of of the familys children wanted to take over the company so they sold it.

When they made a deal with Sara Lee who was also a food company, they sold it for an estimated amount of 30 million dollars. So they took 1 million of the profits and split it between 200 of the long lasting employees. When the new owner Lew Frankfort took over the company it only went upward from there. He opened many stores and sales went up drastically. By November of 1986 there were 12 stores. Since then the company has continued to evolve and become better and better. By 2012 there were about 500 stores open in the U.S and Canada and 300 stores in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. 

I do own a few coach purses, but I did not buy one of them at full price for the simple fact that the product is extremely expensive. A medium sized handbag is around $500, and for a small wallet to put inside that handbag, $100. I find this outrageous, therefore I look for sales when I go into a coach store. I do enjoy the product though, the quality is very good and the service in the stores is very good. I found the history of this brand extremely interesting, I always like it when a company starts out as a small family owned business and grows to be a world wide.



http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/genWCM-10551-10051-en-/Coach_US/CompanyInformation/InvestorRelations/CompanyProfile

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/coach-inc-history/

Nike, Inc.

Nike was founded by two men, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, 
who wished to start a revolution in the shoe industry. Bowerman was a track and field coach at the University of Oregon and he was always trying to figure out different ways to improve the skills of his athletes. He tried different kinds of energy drinks, different track surfaces and different kinds of running shoes but all of the footwear manufactures at that time shot down all of his ideas. Knight was an runner from Portland who went to the University of Oregon and really wanted to get into Bowermans track program. When Knight finished in Oregon he went on the Standford University where he earned his MBA in finance. After this he wrote a paper to propose the idea of a high quality running show that would be manufactured in Japan and compete with German brands that were much more established. He then called the manufacturer of Tiger shoes and asked them if he could become one of their distributors. When they sent him his first par of sample shoes he sent them to Bowerman and to his surprise Bowerman not only sold the shoes for Knight but he also asked him to be his partner. 

In January of 1964 they made their first order of 300 shoes and while Knight sold the shoes out of trunk of his car, Bowerman ripped the shoes apart to try to find a way to make them better. Their mini company was named Blue Ribbon Sports. Unfortunately, both Bowerman and Knight had full time jobs so they were not able to dedicate all their time to the company. They proceeded to hire Jeff Johnson who was a runner Knight had met at Stanford. "Johnson became the first full time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965." 

The first store opened in Santa Monica, and the name Nike was discovered in 1971. The "Swosh" which is the logo of the company was designed by a Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at the Portland State University. 

One of the pairs of shoes that Bowerman designed was inspired by his wife's iron. It gave him the idea to do a waffle patterned sole for extra traction. Now the company had a new name, a new logo, and a new design they just needed a start athlete to "elevate the new Nike line" and they found Steve Prefontaine that did exactly this. Unfortunately he passed away at the age of 24, but is known as the "soul of Nike."

Between 1980 and 1989, Nike went through a sort of revolution. The brand was discovered by an NBA rookie, Micheal Jordan. Thanks to his discovery of the brand, the Nike Air line was created. In 1988, the company started a campaign titled "Revolution" and in that period of time is when the famous line "Just Do It" was created. 

Nike has only improved since then and has had many accomplishments such as signing the entire World Cup - Winning Brazillian National soccer team and designing their uniforms. Tiger woods also started using the Nike Golf products with helped the publicity of the company. They have also come out with many new products such as the Nike Shox. The company has been extremely successful since the started in 1950. I personally do not own very much of this brand. My boyfriend owns a lot of their NFL line of clothing and he really likes it. I have one pair of shoes and to be honest they are not very comfortable. I prefer my Puma running shoes which is odd because when purchasing my Puma's I was told that they are not for running but more for doing other kinds of physical activity. I think that it is great that one mans idea was able to become so big. He was very smart in the way he did things and I think he could be an inspiration to many young athletes who wish to invent some kind of sports wear or equipment. 



"President and CEO Mark Parker said: "At NIKE, Inc. we run a complete offense and its based on a core commitment to innovation. Thats how we stay opportunistic, serve the athlete, reward our shareholders, and continue to lead our industry.""

http://nikeinc.com/pages/history-heritage

American Eagle Outfitters

In this blog I will talk about another one of my favourite name brands.
American Eagle was began in 1997, but it was part of another large company called Silvermen's Menswear who sold young men's apparel and was situated in Pennsylvania. The company started out by selling clothing for both men and women but focused mainly on outdoor sports apparel. I find it extremely fascinating that nearly every name brand that I have written a blog about started out by some sort of sports apparel. In 1980, the owners of this company had some financial problems and therefore had to change the name of the company and give half their sales to another company, The Schottensteins. This is when American Eagle Outfitters really became to expand. In 1992, the company hired a new COO, Sam Forman and with this new management, American Eagle changed their business and focused mainly on their outdoor look. The stores went public in 1994 and in 1997 "sales increased by 24.3% to set a record high of $405.7 million." 
The company was sued 4 times by Abercrombie and Fitch for "copying" their product but fortunately won all cases. 

In 2006, American Eagle launched a company within the company called Aerie that carries a variety of lingerie, targeted for girls between the ages of 15-21. They had also launched a company for men and women between the ages of 28 - 40 but the company was not successful and they were forced to close all stores in 2010. Aerie however was very successful and they have many stores. In 2007, American Eagle expanded to New York and in 2010 opened stores in Dubai, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Russia, and Shanghai.

Since 1977, the company has had its ups and downs but has been very successful and now has more than 1000 stores in the U.S and Canada. I personally love this brand, it is in fact my favorite at the moment. There are very few things in that store that I would not wear and everything is very good quality. I am not surprised that the company started out being privately owned by another company because any brands that I've done research on so far all started out small and became big with the help of a larger company. I am very glad that they were able to work through all their obstacles and be as successful as they have been. Not only is the product great but the staff is always extremely friendly in any location that I've been too. Their product is not unreasonably priced therefore it doesn't break mine or my mom's bank to go shopping there. I hope this blog is as interesting to everyone else as it was for me! 

http://digbycapstone.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/aeo1.pdf
http://www.dividendchannel.com/symbol/aeo/

Lululemon Athletica

For my next blog I am going to talk about one of my favourite name brands.

Chip Wilson, the founder of the company, was originally interested in surfing, skate boarding, and snow boarding, similar to a lot of other name brand producers. When Chip tried his first yoga class, he found it very relaxing and similar to the feeling after snow boarding or surfing. Chip found the clothing that was worn for yoga inappropriate for the activity and therefore started to design a more efficient style of clothing. The success of the clothing depended on the feedback of the yoga instructors that taught during the night classes in the small studio Chip opened to help pay the rent of the stores. 

They decided on the name Lululemon with the help of a survey that 100 people took place in. These people had the choice between 20 names and 20 logos. The logo was originally meant to be a fancy "A" to represent "athletically hip" which was one of the names that did not make it. 

The company was founded in 1998 and the first store opened in November of 2000 in Vancouver, BC. The original plan was t only have one store and the store would be a place that people could come to and learn about healthy life styles and about various different physical activities. Unfortunately, the store became so busy that it was not possible to teach people about life styles and sell the product at the same time. They then had to open more stores and they trained the staff intensely so that they were able to not only inspire the people that came into the stores but also the community and their own families. 

The company then stated, "The training program was such a success that the Lululemon people have created a life for themselves that most people could only dream of. Lululemon is a company where dreams come to fruition."

In 2008, Lululemon had a total of 113 stores and by 2012 had expanded to 250 stores. It was able to expand this much without doing a lot of advertising at all. The stores do not only sell their product but they also offer a variety of workshops such as self defense and goal setting and they also offer complimentary yoga classes in the mornings before the store opens. 

I personally love this product because it is very comfortable and of great quality. A lot of people would much rather buy a pair of yoga pants from Wal-Mart for $80 cheaper but the difference in quality is crazy. The company offers a 5 year warranty on all of their clothing and if you are not satisfied with the product they will replace it free of charge. They also do not charge for shipping if you order something online. I love all of my Lululemon clothing, they have yet to disappoint me with their product. 

“You don’t need anything to do yoga. You don’t even need shoes. ”

http://nymag.com/shopping/features/58082/index1.html

http://www.lululemon.com/about/

http://www.lululemon.com/about/history

Abercrombie & Fitch

I decided to do my next blog on one of the name brands I was never able to have until recently because of its extremely outrageous price. Abercrombie and Fitch carries casual clothing and various accessories including several colognes and perfumes, that smell extremely good just for the record. This company includes over 300 stores including children stores named "abercrombie" without the Fitch added at the end.

The brand was first launched in 1892 by David T. Abercrombie, which explains the year printed on all of the clothing. The thing I found the most interesting of all my research was that this extremely fashionable line of clothing was originally an hunting gear, fishing gear and outdoor gear supplier. This first shop was a "small waterfront shop in downtown New York." David Abercrombie was a very successful man, born and raised in Maryland. He was a designer of tents, rucksacks and other camping equipment therefore it was his passion for the great outdoors that inspired him to start this business. It was mostly professional hunters, fishers, explorers, etc that were customers in these stores. Ezra Fitch, a very successful lawyer in Kingston, New York had become to rely on David's company and therefore became one of the most frequent customers. Because of his extremely loyalty to the business he convinced David to let him become a partner with him in 1900. In 1904 the shop moved to 314 Broadway and the name changed to Abercrombie and Fitch. Both men had two completely different views of the future of the company. David wasted to continue selling outdoor gear and keep the business small the way it was, meanwhile, Ezra wanted to expand the store and change the retail to help please more of a general public. After several very heated arguments, David decided to resign from the company in 1907. This however did not affect the companies expansion. Fitch continued to make changes to the company and transformed it into a sporting goods shop and the goods were no longer kept in glass cases but were out in the open for customers to touch and try out. The salesmen were all experienced outdoors men and in 1913 the store moved to Fifth Avenue and started selling men and woman sports clothing. By 1917, Abercrombie and Fitch was a 12 story building located on the corner of Madison Avenue and 45th Street and was known as one of the biggest sporting goods store in the world. There was many different things you could do there including, fishing, shooting, golfing, camping and there was ever dog and cat kennels you could visit. It also organized a lot of successful exploration expeditions such as the Theodore Roosevelt trip to Africa and the Amazon. In 1928 Ezra Fitch decided he wanted to enjoy the remainder of his years enjoying the outdoors for himself therefore he retired from the business. In the late 60's the store when bankrupt but managed to get back on its feet when taken over by The Limited Inc in 1988 and in 1992 was transformed into a casual apparel business. In 1996, The Limited Inc got 84% of everything the company made but finally became independent in 1998.

Abercrombie and Fitch is now a very successful company loved by teens and adults everywhere. I personally love the product, but unfortunately the closest retailer is at Sommerset mall in the states and I don't travel to the states often therefore I don't have much. 



http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_bid_abercrombie---am---fitch-am-cid_perfume-am-lid_a__brand_history.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/abercrombie-fitch-history-2011-4#