The Return of FreshJive
Maverick streetwear founder returns to revive the company’s fortunes
When Rick Klotz told his employees he was leaving his pioneering streetwear company, FreshJive, in October 2003, he vowed to spend the rest of his life traveling and making art. A little more than one year later, he is back at FreshJive’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters, devoting 12- to-14 hour days to designing new clothes for the company he founded.
His announcement, however, was no bluff. He spent much of 2004 traveling throughout Latin America and working on his annual art magazine The FreshJive Propagandist. But his efforts to become a full-time artist were cut short by family tragedy. His father and business partner, Jorge, died at age 67 from heart failure in October 2004. It was up to Klotz, as surviving partner, to take the reins of the company and attempt to return it to its former glory as one of the pioneers of California’s streetwear category.
FreshJive was one of the first companies to manufacture T-shirts, fleece, wovens and shorts mixing influences from skateboarding and the gritty side of pop culture. The company started in late 1989 and, by 1996, had earned more than $13 million in sales. But by 2004, sales had slumped to $2.5 million.FreshJive Graphic Designer Chris Hanson blamed the recent decline on Klotz’s absence.“Rick’s the mad scientist coming up with new ideas,” Hanson said. “It was a little chaotic without him. There was trouble because there was no direction.”
But Klotz said sales began to decline in the late 1990s because he followed his own muse instead of heeding retailers’ demands for the direction of the label. These days, the company is trying to find a compromise between the creative concept and the market demands.
“I’m trying to create a balance,” Klotz said. “It’s having a medium with something I’m happy making and something that sells in the market.”
Music, skate roots
With Klotz designing 100 percent of the clothing and more than 40 percent of the graphics, the success of the company depends on him. He expects his current designs will be in stores for Spring 2006.
The Spring 2006 T-shirts will feature hip-hop graphics from Klotz’s days designing record covers, art inspired by heavy-metal music and graphics based on photos taken by photographer Wynn Miller of legendary Dogtown skateboarder Tony Alva. FreshJive sponsored the first gallery shows of Miller’s Dogtown photography in 1992. The collection will most likely benefit from the June 3 release of Sony Pictures’ skateboard film “Lords of Dogtown.”
Other FreshJive Spring 2006 plans include manufacturing military-style jackets with tropical prints and expanding the denim offerings from three to six styles. The company also is expected to debut a surf line named Gonz! during that time.
Retail refocus
At its height, FreshJive sold in major chains such as Anaheim, Calif.–based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. Today, the company earns more than 80 percent of its revenue overseas, where the company runs free-standing stores in Hong Kong and Japan.
Still, the brand has retained its reputation as a strong seller. Jack’s Surfboards, a top specialty surf-and-skate chain based in Huntington Beach, Calif., has been selling the label since the early 1990s, according to buyer and partner Bob Abdel.
While FreshJive does not command the sales volume of top manufacturers such as Billabong and Volcom, Abdel said the store sells more than 80 percent of the FreshJive material it orders.
Some of those top sellers are FreshJive shirts bearing parodies of competitors’ logos, according to Abdel. One recently sparked a dispute with fellow streetwear brand Stussy. The Irvine, Calif.–based company filed suit against FreshJive for trademark infringement concerning a 2004 parody of Stussy’s logo design. The suit will go to the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., in December.
Rapid rise
Klotz started his career designing graphics for record covers and nightclub flyers in the 1980s, while he was an illustration student at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles.
His father helped him start the business by giving him 200 square feet in his downtown Los Angeles clothing factory, then called Tey Sportswear, in 1989. Most of the 10,000-square-foot facility was turned into FreshJive after the young designer returned from the 1990 Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo show with more than $250,000 in orders for the line.
Klotz made a splash at that show because he was riding the crest of a new category: streetwear. Don Juncal, partner and co-founder of Santa Ana, Calif.–based streetwear company Obey Clothing, said Klotz and other emerging streetwear companies such as Stussy Inc. and Kikwear provided an alternative to surf and skate.
“People were wearing such bright colors then; there was a lot of neon,” Juncal said. “Streetwear there was the polar opposite, with its blacks, grays and olive greens. It was refreshing. It looked like the logical departure [from what] everyone was offering.”
As the business expanded, Klotz and his father were increasingly confronted by retailers’ demands to change the line to clothes they believed would be a sure sell. The demands occasionally resulted in friction between the partners and caused the burnout that led to the younger Klotz’s departure from the company in late 2003.
Klotz said the sabbatical and unexpected return to FreshJive made him appreciate his company beyond the daily frustrations of building a brand. “I’ve got 15 years experience,” he said. “Now [that] I’m back, I’m grateful to still be around. I’m thankful I have this operation to explore creativity.”
