B.U.M. Equipment

Clothing Company Definitions — United States clothing company definitions from Apparel Search

B.U.M. Equipment, whose corporate name is Chauvin International, Ltd., is a Los Angeles clothing company founded in 1987. Marketed primarily toward teens and young adults, the brand was particularly fashionable during the late 1980s and early 1990s with its selection of athletic-styled T-shirts and sweatshirts, and it made a considerable influence on the street fashion of that era.

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B.U.M. Equipment
, also known by its corporate name Chauvin International, Ltd., is a Los Angeles clothing company founded in 1987. Marketed primarily toward teens and young adults, the brand was particularly fashionable during the late 1980s and early 1990s with its selection of athletic-styled T-shirts and sweatshirts. B.U.M. went on to make a considerable influence on street fashion of that era and, despite problems in the mid-1990s, has continued operating today.

Brand development

Design director Morty Forshpan takes credit for exploiting the company's full potential; however, some industry analysts believe that Seattle native Derek Federman was the creative mind behind B.U.M.'s athletic style and logo presentation, almost a year before Forshpan took over as majority shareholder and chief executive officer of Chauvin. Despite admitting to having never picked up a sketch pad, Forshpan has also accepted nominations for the California Mart's West Coast designer of the year award. Design director Trina Turk has stated that Forshpan likes to see colors and initial sketches but primarily tends to company finances.

According to Khristopher Bond,VP of Marketing (1989-94) and the person credited for exploding the brand onto the world market through their award winning "real people" advertising campaigns (which would later be adopted by other major retailers), "in contrast to other brand names like FUBU, the B.U.M. acronym doesn't actually stand for anything. He added, "Or it means everything to everybody. For me it is a basic understanding of mankind."  However several articles of clothing from the line do come stamped with the slogan Body Utility Maintenance.

The Goods were made of Cotton. The B.U.M. stood for Basic Urban Material.

Company history

In its first year, B.U.M. made $3 million in sales and, within five years, was reaching $200 million annually. Early on, B.U.M. signed a licensing deal with Chip & Pepper, which the co-owning brothers of the company claim B.U.M. mismanaged. This led to a trademark dispute between the two that lasted several years. In September 1994, B.U.M. merged with Cami'z but, in the midst of their legal battle with Chip & Pepper, went bankrupt. B.U.M. was reformed under new management in 1997 and denied any mismanagement of Chip & Pepper, claiming that they signed with B.U.M. because they were becoming unprofitable and "going nowhere."

In recent times, the B.U.M. collection has broadened into sportswear and underwear.  B.U.M. stores also exist in nations other than the United States, including several in Asia and Australia.

The above definition about the clothing company B.U.M. Equipment is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The information source is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and was originally obtained from the following page address https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.U.M._Equipment.  The definition has been modified by the Apparel Search Company in June 2009.  The rest of this page and other pages on Apparel Search are NOT under the free document license.

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Athletic Logo Fashion of the Late 1980s

B.U.M. Equipment rode one of the strongest currents in late 1980s clothing: athletic styling as everyday fashion. Its T-shirts and sweatshirts carried a bold collegiate-style logo and sporty graphics, sold to teenagers and young adults who wore them as street clothing rather than sportswear. Logo-driven basics of that kind spread quickly because they are easy to understand, easy to wear and easy to copy — the brand name itself, presented large, was the design — and B.U.M.'s award-winning real people advertising campaigns put the clothes on relatable wearers instead of models, matching the democratic pitch of the product.

The brand's arc shows the risk inside that formula. A logo fashion can crest within a few seasons, and B.U.M. ran into problems in the mid-1990s as the look faded, yet it continued operating — the typical survival path of a once-hot basics brand is to settle into steadier distribution at lower heat. The disputed credit for the brand's creative breakthrough, between its design director turned chief executive and the designer some analysts name as the style's true author, is also typical of logo businesses: when the design is a name and a graphic treatment, the question of whose idea it was becomes a question about the whole company's value.

Common Questions

When was B.U.M. Equipment founded?

B.U.M. Equipment was founded in 1987 in Los Angeles. Its corporate name is Chauvin International, Ltd.

What is B.U.M. Equipment known for?

B.U.M. Equipment is known for athletic-styled T-shirts and sweatshirts marketed to teens and young adults. The brand was particularly fashionable during the late 1980s and early 1990s and made a considerable influence on street fashion of that era.

Who designed B.U.M. Equipment's athletic style?

Design director Morty Forshpan takes credit for developing the company's potential, while some industry analysts believe Seattle native Derek Federman was the creative mind behind B.U.M.'s athletic style and logo presentation, arriving almost a year before Forshpan took over as majority shareholder and chief executive of Chauvin.

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