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La Jolla Buys Rights to L.A. Clothing Brand

Irvine-based clothing maker La Jolla Group Inc. has added an edgy streetwear brand to its roster.

La Jolla acquired the rights to Compton’s True Love and False Idols brand earlier this month.

The company is in the process of moving True Love’s operations to Irvine. True Love’s head designer and a partner are joining La Jolla.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The move is a diversification for La Jolla, which makes surf-inspired clothes under the O’Neill, Rusty and Lost brands and motocross-style clothes under the Metal Mulisha label.

“We’re heavily saturated with surf, but we’re looking into other areas,” Chief Executive Toby Bost said.

La Jolla Group has yearly sales of about $200 million with O’Neill making up about half.

Like others, the company has felt a downturn in sales of surfwear, which have been hurt by the recession and a shift in tastes toward edgy, urban styles and trendy, affordable clothes known as fast fashion.

“There is definitely a recession going on in surf,” Bost said.

True Love makes T-shirts and hoodies with graphics inspired by Los Angeles street culture, hip hop music, tattoo art and graffiti. The clothes are sold at Fred Segal, Nordstrom and small boutiques.

Bost declined to say how much yearly revenue the brand generates.

La Jolla licenses brands and then throws its design, marketing and production muscle behind them. The company makes some prototypes locally and contracts with factories in Asia for the bulk of its production.

“It’s a unique model of having the master licenses for five brands so we cover a number of spaces,” Bost said. “Ultimately we’re looking for a very diverse group of brands that cater to the youth apparel market.”

Two years ago, La Jolla took over the Metal Mulisha clothing line from motocross star Brian Deegan.

The line’s tattoo-style design also appeals to the mixed martial arts crowd and has grown with the popularity of Ultimate Fighting Championship, a sport that combines boxing, martial arts and street fighting.

Mixed martial arts clothing companies such as Seal Beach-based Affliction Inc. and Irvine-based Silver Star Casting Co. have emerged as key challengers to surfwear.

With True Love, La Jolla is looking to tap into the market for streetwear, another surfwear challenger.

“We have definitely taken note that this space is hot,” Bost said.

La Jolla Group is looking to grow True Love’s sales to boutiques, other stores and countries, he said.

The company’s other brands are sold through retailers such as J.C. Penney Co., Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Macy’s Inc.

True Love stands to be La Jolla’s most edgy brand. Some of the brand’s clothes feature a koala bear holding an Uzi.

“It’s pretty standalone in our opinion,” Bost said. “You won’t see something like that in surfwear lines.”

La Jolla is looking to recruit graffiti and hip hop artists to help market the brand, like how the company taps surfers, skaters and motocross riders for its other brands.

Bost said he sees Irvine’s Lifted Research Group Inc. and Costa Mesa’s Rvca Clothing—which both make clothes that mix surf and street styles—as rivals for True Love.

Alex Erdmann, True Love’s co-owner and designer, will continue to head the line’s design.

Last year, La Jolla moved into a new 200,000-square-foot Irvine headquarters where it kept 20% of the space open for new brands.

La Jolla runs its brands separately with their own spaces at the headquarters.

“The design teams are sacred,” Bost said. “There isn’t any cannibalism across the brands.”

La Jolla got its start in 1992. Two years ago, it set out to make itself better known as the parent company of its brands.

The company plans to acquire rights to other brands, according to Bost.

“We have been in active talks,” he said. “We’re going after new categories that could include fashion and skate.”

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