Daymond John (CEO), Carl Brown (co-founder), J. Alexander Martin (vice president and head designer) and also Keith Perrin (co-founder) make up the creators of the clothing line “For Us By Us,” or as we commonly refer to as FUBU. These Creators of FUBU’s got inspiration from stereotypes. “Our inspiration was the fact that we didn’t see anything being made similar to the product. Other designers were saying that the African-American (image) was a drug dealer or they didn’t make their product for us. We knew our market was the number one consumer of the product,” said John.The FUBU partners will also be featured in “The Ultimate Risk Takers,” a book which profiles 400 entrepreneurs under 40. “We’re putting together The Crow 4, which is called “Lazareth.” At this point we don’t know if its going to star DMX or who else. The 54th Platoon is our first original act and that’s the album we will be putting out,” said John.The 54th Platoon is featured on the Goodlife album., and the group consists of Nu Black, J.S., T.L. and Big Nutta. They have been dropping records on Fearless Entertainment for the past four years. “We have the FUBU foundation. The FUBU foundation just got back from Atlanta, where we gave a $10,000 book scholarship to Clark University. We (FUBU and the Knicks) have refurbished basketball courts in New York City. We also give computers to schools. We do a lot of projects for the America’s inner city youth. We try not to glamorize it. There is no need in doing it, if we use it as an advertising tool,” he said.John.Hilary Clinton also honored John for community service contributions to New York in 2001.John had a business advice for new and upcoming entrepreneurs. “We need something besides the five things that half the Americans are doing right now. You know, you can have a ketchup bottling company, you can make paper clips, and tires. There are billionaires who do that,” said John. “So learn from any business, from the bottom up. Do an internship at a company for two or three years. Don’t think of it as if you are not getting paid. The knowledge is worth way more than the money,” he said.The FUBU Collection contains apparel for women, men, boys and girls. Their accessories consist of hats, watches, socks, shoes and formal wear. “Platinum FUBU” showcases the black cartoon characters from Bill Cosby’s ’70s series “Fat Albert.” FUBU brings to you in the new season, “The Ali Collection” which will features characters on clothing apparel in honor of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali. FUBU also makes compilation CD’s which feature artist such as Ludacris, L.L. Cool J and many more.
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An inside look at FUBU
April 3, 2002