June 23, 2006 marks the explosive launch of another major fashion brand name, GreedyGenius™, or otherwise known as GGs or GNSs in the market. This comes after a wave of other high-end and well-established streetwear names like the Japanese A Bathing Ape, Australian Stussy, Hong Kong's RMC (Red Monkey Company), and domestically produced American Crooks N Castles, Creative Rec, PRPS, Supreme, (and the list goes on). But what makes the “hype” or craze, as we call it, for GreedyGenius stand out so much more from the rest of the crowd, well, aside from the founding crew; it also caught Wall Street’s attention.
Unlike the average Armani-like suited-up investment banker on Wall Street, streetwear is just the everyday casual wear with a twist. Mix and match of designer jeans with clothing and sneakers, add a touch of hip-hop music sense, perhaps skateboarding culture, not forgetting some personal taste, and wrap it all up with a major celebrity’s backing, and you get fashionable steetwear. Wall Street sees this simple, yet rapidly expanding market, as a goldmine for investing. A big named venture capitalist (which wish to remain anonymous) approached GreedyGenius with funding and "so-called" industry expertise, but were quickly brushed off by the owners. “We wanted to grow our name from bottom-up, and take the pride in our own creation and culture that we live in”, says Brandon Chang and Nick Loftis, the two founders of the GreedyGenius brand, “we’re taking on street culture with a global perspective.” Brandon, already a well-known artiste in the Asian entertainment and music industry and Nick, a successful executive who already started two other well-known brandnames.
In fact, the streetwear market is a $6.2 billion dollar industry, according to Time Magazine, with major companies like Nike, Inc. already taking its share of the market, namely with their high-end AF1’s (Air Force Ones) sneakers. Late last year, Nike's CEO Knight personally flew to Tokyo, Japan to meet with Nigo (a co-founder of the Japanese A Bathing Ape), to discuss collaborations between the two fashion big names, and even a possible potential merger (needless to say, the offer was very politely turned down). Robert O’Donovan, an associate with consulting firm McKinsey & Co., says that “fashion is a big market, everyone wants to fashion themselves in the best. But to get your brand out there, you need the best, not only in management but also in marketing. GreedyGenius has an upper hand with their products so accepted by celebrities, here in the US and in Asia.” Indeed, GreedyGenius does have a unique connection that other brand names cannot even begin to dream of. Famous rap-stars and singers such as Nelly (Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr.), Jay-Z (Shawn Corey Carter), Kanye West (Kanye Omari West) and Slim Thug (Stayve Jerome Thomas), are all helping to push out GreedyGenius simply by slipping on their sneakers. On the other side of the globe, Asian popstars from Taiwanese Jay Chou (Chou Jie Lun), Singaporean Wayne “JJ” Lin (Lin Jun Jie), to Japanese Ken Hirai, and Hong Kong’s Eric Kot (Kot Man Fai, who ironically, is the unknown partner with Nigo of Bathing Apes), are all doing the same. Big-name magazines from paper-back Stuff Magazine, XXL, Source, to online fashion sources like Hypebeast.com to Freshnessmag.com all have GreedyGenius within.
Already GreedyGenius has been able to establish collaborations with multi-national companies like 3M (maker of brandnames Scotch®, Post-it®, Scotchgard™, Thinsulate™, etc.) for specialized plastic and fabric on their sneakers. Other collaborations include very limited diamond eyelets on exclusive sneakers, costing as much as US$6,000 a pair.
GreedyGenius officially launched 23 June 2006, although pre-launch sales in Los Angeles and New York were sold out on the first day in May 2006. GreedyGenius is now distributed very exclusively in selected retail stores across the USA, with limited offerings in Canada, United Kingdom and Europe.
The Four Greedy Geniuses
The four men behind Greedy Genius have several notches on their belt when it comes to designing and customization in the street wear world. Besides being a former consultant and designer for Nike Bluehouse, Hue, one of the co-creators has served hip-hop A-listers like Nelly, Diddy and 50 Cent with dope custom shoes. His partner in crime, Mikhayel Tesfaye, has earned his stripes as a creative guru behind clothing labels such as Rocawear, Zoo York and Phat Farm. Add two more brilliant minds in Nick Loftis (co-founder of Vokal and Apple Bottom Jeans) and Brandon Chang (Asian artiste and protégé to internationally acclaimed superstar, Michelle Yeoh), and you have a dream team ensemble of the next sick brand in sneaker.
For more information on GreedyGenius, click here.