Respect Your Universe, Inc., an athletic lifestyle apparel brand designed for all disciplines of movement, announced today that its Board of Directors granted options to acquire up to 6,350,000 shares of RYU's common stock at an exercise price of $0.30 per share. The options were granted to RYU's new management team, consultants and employees with a combined 100+ years experience in retail, operations and international sales.
The new management team is being granted 5,100,000 options. The 1,600,000 options granted to RYU's CEO are subject to shareholder approval, because it exceeds to plan limit. RYU believes that its new management team will be focused on making RYU profitable as, in the aggregate, 6.5% of these options vest after one year, 9.8% of these options vest after two years, and 83.7% of these options only vest with RYU reporting positive net income and cash from operations. The Board of Directors of RYU believes this vesting schedule is in the best interest of shareholders of RYU.
Marcello Leone, RYU's CEO, President and Chairman, stated, “These are very exciting times for RYU as we come out of a turnaround situation with a powerful and capable team and infrastructure. We have been fortunate to attract key people with successful hands-on experience and entrepreneurial passion that cover fashion, apparel, retail and operations. The team is driven by the equity upside which is now focused on profitability and aligned with shareholders.”
