Rocawear - Fashion Company Profile
Rocawear is the New York urban lifestyle brand created in 1999 by Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Damon Dash and Jay-Z - sold to Iconix Brand Group in 2007, and bought back by Jay-Z in 2019.
Company Snapshot
- Status
- Operating - the brand's intellectual property was repurchased in 2019 by its co-founder Shawn Carter's Roc Nation in a settlement with Iconix Brand Group, and rocawear.com is live (checked for this update)
- Type
- Private - owned by co-founder Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter's interests (Roc Nation LLC received the IP in the 2019 settlement); previously owned by Iconix Brand Group (2007-2019)
- Headquarters
- New York City, New York, United States
- Founded
- 1999, in New York, by Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Damon Dash and Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter
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Company Profile
Current Rocawear product is at the brand website, linked above; the shop box covers Rocawear sold through Amazon and eBay. The brand's ownership story is the unusual part of this filing: created by musicians, scaled by licensing, sold to a brand-management group at the height of the licensing era, and then - after litigation between the group and its founder - bought back by the founder in the 2019 settlement that returned the intellectual property to Roc Nation. The profile on the history page keeps the brand's own description of its range and retail philosophy from the Iconix years, when its licensing catalogue ran from children's clothing to sunglasses.
Expansion came through licensing, and the filing's category list is the measure of how far a music-born label travelled: clothes for children and juniors; socks and sandals; leather, suede and fur outerwear; handbags and belts; loungewear; big and tall; headwear; jewelry; and sunglasses - as well as co-branded product with Pro-Keds, State Property and Team Roc. Inspired by an urban aesthetic rooted in young men's sportswear, Rocawear maintained, in its own words, 'a focus of providing clever innovation in fabrication, application and design to its customer,' and described itself as a dominant lifestyle apparel brand for a wide range of customers, sold through an authentic mix of department stores and specialty stores at price points built to work for both.
Rocawear History
The earlier record for this company - its history, past brand line-ups, figures and photographs from the periods described - is kept on a separate page for historical reference.
Rocawear History & Historical Profile →Common Questions
Who founded Rocawear, and when?
Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Damon Dash and Jay-Z (Shawn Carter), in 1999, in New York - the apparel company born, in its own telling, from the label's success and the idea that the ROC represented a borderless, global lifestyle.
Who owns Rocawear now?
Its co-founder. Jay-Z sold the brand's rights to Iconix Brand Group in 2007 for a reported $204 million plus contingent stock, and repurchased the intellectual property in 2019 for $15 million as part of a settlement of the parties' lawsuits.
What did Rocawear sell at its licensing peak?
Far more than menswear: children and juniors clothing, socks and sandals, leather, suede and fur outerwear, handbags and belts, loungewear, big and tall, headwear, jewelry and sunglasses, plus co-branded lines with Pro-Keds, State Property and Team Roc.
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