Defsounds

In 2005 Jay-Z took over the Roc-A-Wear empire after buying out Dame Dash for $30 million. Jay recently spoke on the Roc-A-Wear takeover.

“Rocawear has always been part of the whole overall culture. It’s connected to everything that I do. So coming in full time was important to me. It’s something I really believe in and something I want to protect.”

Jay doesn't take credit for all the success of the brand as he commends Dame Dash for the work he put in for the company.

Dame did a great job when he was here. “I just feel that I have a different way of running things, which I think is working out well. I let people make mistakes, and push them to be creative. I let a design team design. When they feel good about something they have created, it makes them want to do more. It makes them want to do their best. People are happy here. I’m not a controlling manager and I have a great team that makes me confident that things can run well when I’m on the road, and I’m proud of that.”

The idea of starting Roc-A-Wear came around 1997 when Jay was on stage. He and Dame Dash noticed a  new business opportunity.

“I would be onstage performing, and I noticed that all the kids were wearing Iceberg jeans. “The same jeans that I would wear. So we thought, ‘Why should we let Iceberg get all this business when we can do it ourselves?”

Since Jay and Dame knew nothing about running a fashion business, they set up a meeting with Iceberg. When it didnt work out with them (Iceberg). They decided to start the company on their own.They went to a store and purchased sewing machines and set them up inside the Roc-A-Fella offices. They had a plan to make T-shirts with the Roc-A-Wear logo on the front. They thought fans of Jay's music would buy their shirts without a second thought.

“We didn’t know how to sew, and we didn’t really know people who knew how to sew, so we quickly realized that this just wasn’t going to work.”

After they realized doing the work themselves wasnt going to work the headed over to Russell Simmons for advice, and he did help. Simmons set them up with Alex Bize and Norton Cher, who had experience in apparel manufacturing.

Jay said “We met with Alex and Norton, and that was it — we started Rocawear.”

Bize and Cher are silent partners with Roc-A-Wear as of today and still handle the majority of the manufacturing.

As an attempt to make the company bigger, in April 2007 Jay teamed up with Iconix Brand Group, which acquired the Roc-A-Wear brand for $204 million. The deal left Neil Cole, Iconix’s ceo Jay's new partner.

“I got to know Neil, and we now have the same mission: Our goal is to make Rocawear a $1 billion company. It may take us more time than we would like since the economy is in the shape that it’s in, but I’m confident that we will get there.”

Jay also speaks on his biggest mistake.

“We really should have done some Rihanna Rocawear umbrellas when that song became a hit. We could have made a load of money on those. I’m still kicking myself.”