Regarded to as the “Godfather of Urban Fashion”, Daymond John happens is one of the most highly sought after branding experts and keynote speakers in the business and fashion world and he’s also a smart businessman and investor who knows when and how to strike and nothing best illustrates this than how he and his business partners created and grew FUBU into a household name in less than a decade.

Daymond John is what you’d call a self-made entrepreneur who’s left a distinguishable mark in the fashion world and we’re going to look at how far the “Godfather of Urban Fashion” has come to build FUBU; a clothing line empire that has grossed more than $6 Billion globally over the past two decades.

Daymond John’s Bio

Name: Daymond John

Born:February 23, 1969 (Brooklyn, New York, U.S)

Current Residence: New York City, U.S

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: African-American

Occupation: Founder, President and CEO of FUBU (Fashion), Investor, Author, Motivational Speaker, TV Personality (E.g. Shark Tank)

Credited For: Founding FUBU

Net Worth: $100 million (Estimated)

Daymond John’s Early Life

Daymond John was born in Brooklyn, New York but raised up in the Queens neighborhood of Hollis in the 1970’s. As an only child, he was raised by his mother who worked as a flight attendant for American Airlines though she often had more than one job.

While attending Bayside High School, Daymond John participated in a co-op program which allowed him to work a full time job while attending school on an alternating weekly basis and this experience is what Daymond credits as having installed an entrepreneurial spirit within him while at a young age. He started a commuter van service after he graduated from high school.

Daymond John’s first encounter with the fashion world occurred when he wanted to buy a tie-top hat but became discouraged by the price. When he arrived home, he asked his mother to teach him how to use a sewing machine and from then, he began making his own distinctive tie-top hats in the morning and selling them in the evening on the streets of Queens.

Daymond John And The Birth Of FUBU

Daymond John founded FUBU in his Hollis house together with his friends who also doubled up as his business partners. FUBU is a clothing company which deals with sportswear, casual wear, suit collections, belts, eyewear and shoes. The FUBU collection also includes clothing apparels like T-Shirts, rugby shirts, hockey and football jerseys, baseball caps, shoes and denim jeans. FUBU as a trademark and company has grown over the past two decades to become a globally respectable and acceptable fashion brand.

FUBU’s birth like that of any other company was progressive in nature and it all begun in 1992 when Daymond John felt that the wool hats with cut-off tops which were quite popular at the time were overpriced at $20 each. Daymond in retaliation went home, sewed about 80 hats together with Carl Brown (his next-door neighbor) and the duo later on sold their homemade hats at $10 each in front of the Ney York Coliseum where they were successful enough to generate $800 in sales that day.

After grossing $800 in sales one day, Daymond realized that his “hat” business had the potential to grow into a profitable business and after convincing his mother; they mortgaged their house for $100,000 as start-up capital.

In addition to Carl Brown, Daymond John also recruited his longtime friends J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin into the clothing business where they sewed the FUBU logo onto sweatshirts, T-shirts and hockey jerseys. Daymond’s mother moved out of the house to give the quartet entrepreneurs space to carry out their operations. The four young entrepreneurs used half of Daymond’s house as a makeshift FUBU factory while the other half served as their living quarters.

In order to make ends meet, Daymond John took a full time job at Red Lobster and worked on his FUBU clothing business in between his shifts.

One year later (in 1993), Daymond convinced LL Cool J, an old neighborhood friend to wear a FUBU t-shirt as a promotion campaign for the FUBU line. LL Cool J also wore a FUBU hat while filming a 30-second advertising spot for The Gap and he incorporated the line For Us By Us in his rapping. FUBU however achieved nationwide exposure in 1994 when Daymond John and his business partners travelled to Magic, a trade show in Las Vegas.

Daymond John’s FUBU At Magic

The young FUBU Company by then could not afford to pay for a booth to properly showcase their “clothing treasure” at the trade show but they still managed to receive well over $300,000 worth of orders. After the Magic trade show, Daymond John continued growing his FUBU clothing company and they eventually ended up signing contracts with the National Basketball Association and Macy’s, J.C. Penney as well as a distribution deal with Samsung Electronics; a South Korean company which also invested in FUBU in 1995.

In 1998, FUBU netted over $350 million in revenues and they have to date grossed over $6 Billion in global sales.

FUBU Awards

FUBU has received various honorary awards over the past two decades and a few of them include:

• Two Congressional Awards
• Two NAACP Awards
• The Pratt Institute Award
• The Christopher Wallace Award
• The Online Hip-Hop Award
• Citation of Honor from the Queens Borough President

The alleged meaning of FUBU was Five Urban Brothers United but For Us By Us later on became a preferable acronym as FUBU expanded its market.

Daymond John The Shark Tank Investor

In 2009, Daymond John joined the Shark Tank cast as one of the five investors.

Shark Tank is an American Reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett and aired on ABC television. The show basically involves entrepreneurs presenting their business ideas to a group of five investors better known as the sharks who are willing to invest in start-ups that they see as promising and if the idea is good enough, they’ll even fight each other for a piece of the cake (in monetary terms of course). The show first premiered on August 9th 2009

Daymond John has invested over $700,000 into several Shark Tank start-ups as of October 15^th 2009 assuming every on-camera deal he made actually happened.

Daymond John The Author

Daymond John has to date written two books:

Display of Power-This is an autobiography which details Daymond’s rise from Queens to the top of a fashion empire. It was named one of the best business books of 2007 by the Library Journal

The Brand Within-It examines the loyalty relationships between customers and companies.

Daymond John The Motivational Speaker And Consultant

Thanks to his reputation as FUBU CEO, Daymond John has become a force to reckon with in the public speaking department. He’s a powerful public and motivational speaker who talks about all the angles of being an entrepreneur e.g. negotiations and marketing. Some of the platforms he’s had to share his knowledge include:

• California First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference
• AT&T’s History Makers Tour
• Babson College School of Entrepreneurship

He also works hand in hand with celebrities and brands to create additional income streams and some of his clients include the Miss Universe Organization and Pitbull.

Daymond John is also Shopify’s brand ambassador.

Daymond John’s Awards

Daymond John has over the past two decades received numerous awards and a few of these include:

• Brandweek Marketer of the Year                                                                                                
  

  

• The NAACP Entrepreneurs of the Year Award (he won twice),
• The Advertising Age Marketing 1000 Award for Outstanding Ad Campaign
• The Essence Award
• Crain’s Business of New York Forty Under Forty Award
• Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• The Brandeis University International Business School’s Asper Award for Excellence in Global Entrepreneurship
• Details 50 Most Influential Men
• The Congressional Achievement Award for Entrepreneurship (he won twice)

Daymond John is currently based in New York City and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki are his two favorite books.

“Good grooming is integral and impeccable style is a must. If you don’t look the part, no one will want to give you time or money”-Daymond John