In the 1990s, the FUBU brand was everywhere, including on the backs of A-List celebrities like Will Smith, Janet Jackson, and LL Cool J. Like most trends, it seemed to come out of nowhere.

But in the case of FUBU, it sort of did. When Daymond John started the company with his longtime friends, they only had about 10 shirts. They’d sneak into a hip hop video set, put a shirt on one rapper, then take the shirt back and go do the same at another video set.

“Before you knew it people started to think of us as a huge clothing company, when we literally still had 10 shirts in a basement,” says John, now a celebrity investor on the hit reality show Shark Tank. 

Daymond John’s talent for building hype didn’t hurt, but that was only the beginning. While today John can regularly be seen on TV in flawless suits, closing six-figure deals, the rise of his game-changing streetwear company was a tumultuous one. The branding icon gained his financial chops the hard way, with lots of stumbles, and a constant learning process that continues today.

In this episode you will learn: