HISTORY OF THE BRAND - UNK
UNK was founded in 1996 in the basement of Dave Huie aka "UNK". His hats were a cool trend with the elite industry tastemakers from Latifah to Puffy to LL Cool J, from Grant Hill to Ray Allen to Allan Houston.
Now UNK has become a leader in the fashion conscious sports market: East Coast to West Coast, London to Paris and Tokyo to Montreal.
UNK offers a unique collection of street inspired trendsetting fashions with fresh new looks every season. As a fan, whatever your team or player, we have your name and number.
We are still celebrating our ten year anniversary and here are a few of our history making accomplishments.
1996-1998: We had the # 1 hat on the street and in the industry worn by hundreds of athletes and stars.
1996-2000: We had the ingenius idea of having celebrities and athletes send us there left over fabric after making suits at the world famous Jared M custom suit company so that we could make one of our signature hats to match in their fabric.
1998-2001: We had countless press appearances and every news station covered UNK's success as Allan Houston established himself as an NBA Legend (NBA All-star, USA Olympic Gold Medalist and owner of "the shot" when he broke the hearts of all Miami Heat fans with his last second shot.)
2002-2004: We brought you sports fashion when for the first time in history we offered Player inspired Denim "that rocked the industry".
1996-Present: We will continue to hear the cry of the fashion conscious sports fan and bring you cutting edge fashion, BUT we ask only one thing... "THAT YOU RESPECT THE GRIND" tm.
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In
1999, Allan Houston of the New York Knicks bought into the company. Derrick Alston, also a famous basketball player, later became the third partner of UNK NBA.
The Unk brand was a trend setter for all Knicks fans during they famous playoff runs in 1999 and 2000. Unk was mentioned many times and seen often in the NY papers. Most famous moments were Latrell Sprewell getting of bus in Famous Teamwork makes the Dreamwork shirt. Allan Houston doing his many interviews during the finals in his UNK attire and when the Daily News had Allan Houston on the back page with the clear UNK brand across his Forehead on his hat. The "Protect Homecourt by Any Means Necessary" shirt was also an UNK original.
In
2002, UNK NBA teamed up with ICER Brands LLC in order to create LGH III. LGH III now carries the UNK license. LGH III stand for Leonard George Huie III; David Huie Named the company in memory of his Brother that was killed when he was 12.
In
2002/2003 UNK made great use of their NBA Denim license and created a phenomenon with The All NBA Jean that had every NBA team embroidered on it fashionably. These Jeans sold for $125.00 a pair. The UNK Brand did approximately $25 million at retail due to their Denim success.
In
2004, UNK NBA expanded their license to include loungewear.
In
2010, UNK celebrates it 14 Year anniversary. A staple in the NBA arenas and Still the trend for the street when it comes to NBA apparel.
UNK NBA currently creates NBA fashion inspired pieces, which are sold at sports stores, Basketball Arenas, and through a number of e-commerce sites. The company which began with only hats has since expanded and now includes men’s: jeans, headwear, t-shirts, athletic wear, big & tall, children’s, and outerwear.
HISTORY OF BRANDS