Titan Industries, in partnership with the brand’s founders Mark Badgley and James Mischka, has purchased the Badgley Mischka IP from Iconix Brands Group for $16 million in cash.
The sale also includes the apparel license MJCLK LLC, the company responsible for the design, manufacturing, and distribution of Badgley Mischka Couture, Badgley Mischka Collection and Belle Badgley Mischka.
Titan Industries currently holds the licensing for Badgley Mischka. Joe Ouaknine, co-founder and chairman of Titan said, “As the long time footwear licensee, I have always had a special affinity for the brand, as well as Mark and James as the eponymous designers.”
James Mischka said, “We intend to capitalize on the strength of our women’s Couture and RTW collections, and especially the success of the shoe collections, to further this partnership with Titan, a company with tremendous expertise in the luxury market.” He continued, “The core values of Badgley Mischka have always been luxury and timeless glamour; buying the brand back in this partnership will provide the basis to develop these attributes in a modern and exciting manner.”
Iconix purchased Badgley Mischka in 2004, however, the dress line has been an outlier in the company’s portfolio dense with denim and streetwear brands like Candie’s, Rampage, Starter and Rocawear.
In a statement, Iconix Chairman and Interim CEO Peter Cuneo said, “As part of the comprehensive review that we have been conducting over the past several months, we have been evaluating each brand in the portfolio and have been identifying where our time and resources are best spent. Badgley Mischka is a strong brand, and we believe it is in good hands with Mark, James, and Titan. However, we felt that it was in the best interest of our company to divest this non-core asset and allocate our resources to our larger volume, higher margin brands. We expect to continue to evaluate opportunities to further rationalize the portfolio and maximize shareholder value.”