Nautica Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAUT) today
announced that the Company's licensing division, Nautica Apparel, Inc.,
has entered into a global license agreement with GBMI of Santa Barbara,
CA to produce a complete collection of Nautica men's footwear.
This debut collection will be shown at the WSA Show in Las Vegas, NV in
August 2002 and will bow at retail in Spring 2003. Nautica Women's and
children's shoe collections will eventually complete the line.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“We are extremely confident that GBMI is the right partner for
Nautica,” stated Christopher Heyn, President of Nautica Apparel, Inc.
“Killick Datta, Chief Executive Officer of GBMI, and his team have
consistently shown a keen understanding of the designer footwear brands
they produce. We are very excited about this new footwear collection.”
“Footwear is an essential component to the Nautica lifestyle concept,”
stated David Chu, founder, designer and Vice-Chairman of Nautica. “This
new collection of footwear will perfectly complement our diverse
apparel collections. From sporty and technical to more refined and
dressy, Nautica footwear will faithfully translate the Nautica
lifestyle concept. We feel that this new collection will have extremely
wide appeal.”
“Nautica is the ideal partner for GBMI. We could not be more thrilled,”
said Killick Datta, the company's founder and Chief Executive Officer.
“With fantastic brand recognition both domestically and abroad, we feel
that this new collection will capture the essence of the brand and will
do exceptionally well globally.”
Through more than 45 international distributors and direct wholesale
distribution here in the U.S., GBMI's licensed brands, Diesel Footwear,
XOXO Footwear, Nautica Footwear and Mecca Footwear are sold in more
than 130 countries worldwide.
Nautica Enterprises, Inc., through its subsidiaries, designs, sources,
markets and distributes apparel under the following brands: Nautica;
Nautica Competition; Nautica Jeans Company; John Varvatos; Earl Jean;
E. Magrath; and Byron Nelson.
Contact:
Nautica, New York
Public Relations
Jonathan Shows
212/841-7283