Boutique Footwear Line Dresses Up With New Clothing
Celebrities from J. Lo to Jaclyn Smith have cashed in on their name recognition by naming their clothing lines after themselves. That’s not for rock star Tom Delonge, the singer and guitarist for platinum-selling pop-punk band Blink-182. He named his Carlsbad, Calif.–based streetwear line, MacBeth, after a Shakespearean villain.
Delonge chose the name as a cautionary note. MacBeth lost his kingdom because he grabbed power through evil acts. Delonge resolved to build a company by acting ethically.
His first stop was to sell sneakers. His collection grew from four sneaker styles in 2001 to 10 sneaker styles in 2005. The footwear is sold by mallbased retailers such as Journeys and specialty stores such as American Rag CIE. Last year, Delonge took a gamble, designing an apparel line to make MacBeth a complete collection. He debuted the clothing in January at the Agenda trade show in San Diego.
The apparel line is composed of 11 pieces for men and 5 pieces for women, including T-shirts, military jackets, track suits, pants and hats. The unifying themes are the company logo, the mythical griffin, and clothes with fitted silhouettes.
The best-selling pieces are a military jacket ($70 wholesale) and a military shirt ($45 wholesale), according to MacBeth Design Director Dylan Raasch. The jacket was inspired by a French military coat found in a San Diego thrift shop by his brother, Brendan Raasch, the co-design director.
The brothers gave the military jacket a more fitted silhouette. They also used a heavier cotton material and sewed army-style MacBeth logos onto the piece. For the militar y shir t, Raasch found a U.S. Army shirt in a San Francisco thrift shop and gave it a similar fit as the jacket.
MacBeth plans to spread its risk by selling different categories to different stores. Hoodies aimed at a younger demographic will be sold at skateboard boutiques. The company expects to sell its higher-end T-shirts at fashion boutiques that appeal to men and women over the age of 20.
For more information about MacBeth clothing, call Alex Almeida at (760) 431-5577, Ext. 125. —Andrew Asch
