Deckers Outdoor Corporation, the new owner of the Teva brand, has signed a licensing agreement with Capital Mercury to produce men’s apparel under the Teva brand name. BHPC Global Licensing finalized the deal for Teva. Distribution for the apparel will be in line with Teva’s at specialty outdoor retailers, sporting goods stores, as well as department stores.

According to the company, the apparel will reflect the same versatile design as their footwear line. Capital Mercury is responsible for the design, production, merchandising, and distribution of the apparel.
Alex Tomlinson, Director of Licensing at BHPC told SEW, “The merchandizing team at Mercury Capital will be working very closely with the design team at Teva.”

As hinted here in the OR Show report, retailers could see the line on their shelves as early as next year.

“We are looking at a soft launch, a limited amount of product to some choice distributors in ’04, and ideally we will be seeing a full launch in spring of 2005”, said Tomlinson.

As SEW reported in November, Deckers completed the purchase of the Teva license from Mark Thatcher, the inventor of the original Teva Sandal, for approximately $62 million. As a result of the acquisition, Deckers owns all Teva assets including patents, tradenames, trademarks and all other intellectual property. The company expected the transaction to be accretive to net income by approximately $1.0 million, or $0.03 per share, for 2003.

It already had a major impact on the company’s bottom line in Q2 2003, when DECK tripled earnings versus the year-ago period.

The move has impressed analysts thus far, with J.M. Dutton recently maintaining a “buy” rating on DECK.
Their report stated, “The Company's operating results in the first and second quarters were well above expectations… With Teva's future clarified, the Company is in a position to establish high-margin license arrangements in non-shoe markets to capitalize on the well-known and highly regarded Teva brand name.”


>>> The last go ‘round with a licensee through Thatcher’s former ownership did not fare so well. This time, Deckers has a stronger link to the brand and the licensee doesn’t have its own high-priority outdoor brand to sell…