A Lesson From Akademiks

One of the most popular brand of hip hop and urban clothing line today comes from an brand founded by some of the US' greatest designers, the akademiks. The akademiks is a clothing brand founded by fashion designer brothers Emmet and Donwan Harrell. As Donwan being a former top 10 designers at Nike, he used what he learned from designing hip hop rubber shoes to designing a clothing line that would soon become one of the top urban clothing line across America. But akademiks didn't only start with the brothers Harrell. This clothing line was first started when the founded of Dr. Jays asked them to create the next big clothing line.

15 years before the akademiks, the brothers worked for the top dogs of the fashion industry, namely Donna Karan, Ecko, Phat Farm, as well as Nike, in which they made a lot of money along the way. After some time, they met up with the owner of Dr. Jays, Elliot Betesh, and made a proposal to them about making the next big thing in the world of fashion. The brothers decided to team up with him and created akademiks.

Part of their marketing campaign included the "Read Books, Get Brains" slogan that got akademiks it's attention, especially by the New York City officials that took it down because of its double-sided meaning. But this didn't stop akademiks to claim its birthright. Apart from the trend setting designs of akademiks, there is also intelligence in every piece of akademiks. The brothers Harrell have designed akademiks for the customer.
They are their own fans and customer. What they think is good and useful to them, may also be good and useful for their customers. This is what akademiks is made of, a thinking brand with detail that has double meaning.

The akdamikes was also popularized in 2001 by Brooklyn rapper Fabolous whose lyrical content advertised the brand. He also wore an akademiks velour on the inside cover of his debut album Ghetto Fabolous.

Another factor for its popularity is its PRPS jeans. The akademiks has gained popularity in the clothing industry due to the number of celebrities who wear the PRPS jeans (a sister company of akademiks), such as rappers Dizzee Rascal and 50 Cent.