Robert Wright and Jonas Bevacqua look remarkably colorful for a pair of edgy urban clothing designers.
Wright, an affable, burly guy with lots of curly, unkempt hair, has on a mustard-yellow velour hoodie and matching long shorts.
Bevacqua is soft spoken and glitters in bling,earrings, bracelet, ring,and is wearing a red belt with a sparkly “LRG” buckle that holds up his jeans just below the hips. He has on a nautical looking, broad-striped, red-and-blue long sleeve polo.
The duo’s eclectic look has made their urban clothing company, Lake Forest-based Lifted Research Group Inc., better known as LRG, one of the more popular streetwear brands.
Rival brands include Live Mechanics, Rocawear and Coogi.
As the company grows, it faces the challenge of appealing to the mainstream without losing its edge. Even Wal-Mart has its own version of a hip-hop clothing line called Exsto.
LRG, about the same size as Costa Mesa-based surfwear designer Volcom Inc. when it went public in 2005, has an estimated $50 million to $75 million in yearly sales. The company doesn’t disclose revenue. It has about 140 employees, including 12 in its New York office.
LRG does about 15% of its business globally in 40 countries. The East Coast and West Coast each count about a third of U.S. business, with the last third coming from the rest of the country.
The company has two undisclosed private backers. Neither are bigwigs in the industry, just fans, according to Wright and Bevacqua.
“They liked our designs,” Bevacqua said.
Since LRG launched in 1999, it has attracted an eclectic customer mix, from skateboarders to hip-hoppers to the kid in the suburbs.
“Hip-hop and skateboarding are finally meshing together,” Bevacqua said.
LRG advertises members of its skateboarding team in hip-hop magazines. LRG also is in basketball magazines.
“You can be into sports and skate,” he said.
Urban fashion and mainstream styles are becoming the same, said Mary Loving, owner of Loving and Co., a fashion public relations firm in New York.
“The urban market and the more mainstream youth market are getting closer and closer each season as interpretations of the urban seem to be what the more suburban kids buy,” she said.
Hip-hop clothing makes up a sliver,about $2 billion,of the $179 billion clothing industry, according to retail tracker NPD Group Inc. of Port Washington, N.Y. But it’s one of the fastest growing.
Celebrity Fan
Rapper Kanye West is the most high profile LRG fan. He even models in LRG’s catalog and appears in its promotional DVDs. Wright and Bevacqua contend LRG isn’t just hip-hop, which has faded commercially and dragged other brands, such as Phat Farm, down with it.
LRG’s design is influenced by other styles of music such as ska, reggae, punk, emo and heavy metal and things other than music. Kids’ taste in fashion has become more eclectic, Bevacqua said. They’re more willing to mix it up with varied colors and patterns.
Fans of LRG are loyal, according to stores that sell the line.
“It sells fantastic. It’s one of our best,” said Steven Walter, manager of Atomic Trading Co. in San Diego.
LRG sells in Zumiez, Active Ride, Karmaloop, Eastbay Catalog, Macy’s and independent skateboard and clothing shops. One place you won’t find LRG is in Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.’s demo stores, which sell rival hip-hop brands such as Rocawear, Ecko and Coogi. The mix of the brands at demo doesn’t fit LRG, Wright said.
Growing Pains
LRG is in a familiar spot for hip clothing companies that are expanding,it’s losing some of its original customers, who, looking to be more edgy, are dropping LRG in favor of upstart brands, such as Crooks & Castles and 10.Deep.
Wright and Bevacqua maintain that they can keep their edge as they grow.
“It’s more about outfitting us,” he said. “We’ve never chased trends.”
And if it eventually ends in a sale to a big company such as Nike Inc., they’re open to that,some day.
“We’re nowhere where we want to be,” Bevacqua said.
For now, they like being their own bosses. They’re finally at a point where they’re not working 14-hour days.
“We’ve got a really good team around us,” Bevacqua said.
Most of the company’s workers are under the age of 30, and it’s one of the most ethnically diverse workplaces in Orange County.
Last year, LRG launched a women’s line called Luxirie (lux-eye-ree).
“We wanted it to have its own identity and not depend on the men’s success,” Bevacqua said.
They’d like to build it up to be as popular as Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.’s Roxy brand. But the women’s line has been decidedly harder than the men’s.
For men, the fit can be loose and measurements don’t need to be exact, Wright said. But for women, clothing needs to fit.
“We’re still finding our perfect spot with the line,” Wright said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Other Products
Bevacqua’s design sense comes partly from his family life. He grew up in a family of eight, seven of whom were adopted, all of different ethnicities.
Wright and Bevacqua designed every item up until a couple of years ago, when LRG got too busy. Now they have a design team. Most of LRG’s employees are friends and friends of friends.
“Everyone wears LRG,” Bevacqua said.
These days LRG cranks out 50 to 60 new products a month. Some companies hang on to their best selling products, Wright said.
“We would rather just move on,” Wright said.
“That’s the best part of the job,” Bevacqua said.
Bevacqua and Wright set the direction of the line and come up with slogans, such as “It’s all fun and games until someone gets fly” and “row your own boat.”
Then they’ll bring the designers to the table and put together a “line plan.”
“The focus has to be on product,” Wright said. “The best product in the market wins.”
