Word: wu
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Boutique labels like FUBU, Naughty Gear, Phat Farm, Pure Playaz, UB Tuff and Wu-Wear can legitimately claim--as they do, over and over--closer connection with street fashion than Hilfiger has, even though their clothes look a lot like his. But that street cred, along with their funky logos, is helping them gain ground. FUBU, which means "for us, by us," began in 1992 when Daymond John, at 24, started selling tie-top hats on the streets of New York City. The hats caught on, so he drew up some ideas for coats and shirts and asked...
...rapper--preferably one on heavy rotation on MTV--to wear your stuff. Dr. Dre is dipped in Karl Kani, Mase gets giggy in Mecca, and Busta Rhymes is decked in Ecko. "Videos are hands down the best advertising you can have," says Mike Clark, the chief operating officer of Wu-Wear, the label started by the rap group Wu-Tang Clan, all of whose members wear it constantly. "It's the best way to cross over." And those who can't yet afford an official-endorsement deal send free outfits to as many famous people as they can find addresses...
Last year Wu-Wear made $10 million and opened four stand-alone stores filled with Wasp staples like varsity jackets, pea coats, hooded sweatshirts ("hoodies") and ski caps ("skullies"). Wu- Wear is one of the first inner-city styles that actually look good on white kids. And, of course, it's white guys who make up a big hunk of the hip-hop clothing market. FUBU was surprised to learn that as fly as it may be, one of its top markets is Washington State. Even those who take their fashion tips from PBS are joining on: when LL Cool...
...Washington Heights, had no department-store distribution when it grossed $36 million last year and was commissioned to design a 20-piece collection for The Lost World. But more than half the new street labels aren't really ghetto startups. They're vanity labels from music personalities like Wu-Tang, Simmons, Shaquille O'Neal (who also has his own record company, TWIsM, for The World Is Mine) and Chuck D. It's a Disney-like cross-pollinating strategy that, if it holds, can only lead to Wu Cafes and Wu Cola. Mmmm...
Mostly, though, he continues to fret about Intel's future. The firm faces dozens of challenges--from cheap PCs to antitrust investigations--and Grove is engaged in the meta-movements of the technology world more deeply than ever. Says David Wu, an analyst at ABN AMRO Chicago: "I used to have a lot of problems with Intel, but every time I asked them a question, they had already thought about...