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American Apparel Acquires Oak

By: Aug. 04, 2013
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American Apparel Inc. has purchased the New York specialty retailer Oak.

"I'm excited by this because I saw an opportunity to build Oak without a lot of extra costs. They can leverage our manufacturing capabilities, our POS [point-of-sale] and RFID [radio frequency identification] systems, our warehousing and our freight and distribution," said Dov Charney, chairman and chief executive officer of American Apparel. "The Oak aesthetic is a very different look and feel than American Apparel, and it's noncompetitive in price."

Oak was founded in 2005 with a store in Williamsburg, which has since moved to Greenpoint. It also branched out into Manhattan with a store on Bond Stree. Both stores house labels like Comme des Garçons, Rick Owens Drkshdw, Grey Ant, Cheap Monday, Kill City, Sir New York, Won Hundred and Zanerobe, and an e-commerce site. They also wholesale it's own branded men's and women's collections.

The Oak men's and women's house label is fashion-forward with an emphasis on drape and jersey fabrics. T-shirts retail between $75 and $120, jeans are $140 to $220 and coats are $400 to $1,000. The range is wholesaled to many high-end retailers including Net-a-porter, Saks Fifth Avenue and Selfridges.

Charney, Terline and Madalena are aiming to add new Oak locations with the first possibly in Seoul. American Apparel has an empty space in a multilevel store there which could be turned into an Oak unit. The trio is also looking at spaces in Los Angeles.




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