MANUFACTURING
Volcom Inks Deal With Authentic Brands Group
Action-sports brand Volcom is back to making deals and producing new styles. The Costa Mesa, Calif.–headquartered brand made headlines in November when it announced that it would outfit the U.S. snowboarding team for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, but in mid-2019 Volcom started a new chapter in its more than 25-year history. It was sold by French luxe conglomerate Kering S.A., the home of brands such as Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Brioni, for an undisclosed amount.
Authentic Brands Group, a New York–headquartered brand manager, licensing and entertainment company, announced that it had acquired the intellectual property of Volcom. In the April 2 statement announcing the deal, ABG also said that it had taken a minority stake in Liberated Brands, Volcom’s operating company, created in 2019. Todd Hymel, Volcom’s chief executive officer, and Volcom’s management team hold the majority stake in Liberated.
According to the statement on the deal, Liberated will maintain Volcom operations in the U.S., France, Australia and Japan. It will have oversight of the brand’s product development, athlete marketing, as well as its retail and wholesale business worldwide.
ABG’s job will be to build brand awareness and create business-development opportunities for Volcom. It also will develop Liberated Brands’ retail and wholesale operations as a platform for the international expansion of complementary ABG-owned brands.
ABG’s family of brands includes action-sports brands such as ski label Spyder, skate brand Vision Street Wear and mixed-martial-arts brand Tapout. It also handles brands such as Aéropostale, Frederick’s of Hollywood and licensing for Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley. In addition, ABG has made deals to acquire Sports Illustrated and Barneys New York.
A statement from ABG and Liberated said that the companies will invest and develop Volcom’s men’s and snow business as well as continuing to build the brand’s women’s and kids’ categories in the U.S. and certain international markets. ABG also will develop targeted digital campaigns and influencer partnerships to reach Millennial and Gen Z audiences.
