Higher Learning…
written by Yvette N. Coleman

“Fashion was an accident,” says Aysha Donaldson Pr and marketing Executive of Akademiks. She buzzes around the office setting up calls and making moves for potential clients on this damp and wet Thursday afternoon. Our intentions after all are not always realized and can cause us to cry or become extremely proud.

Aysha intended on focusing on media after graduation, but quickly became involved in the “industry” working with the Nancy Hirsch group she quickly became familiar with the ins and outs of the fashion world with former clients such as Enyce, Stall and Dean, and Mecca.

This twenty-something began making power moves of her own and joined forces with one the most significant brands on the market. Enter Akademiks: Influenced by Greek culture

the name of this brand took more into consideration than most could know. Two hundred possibilities later the concept verged into the best intentions on Donwan and Akademiks is not only a brand.

It is also a place. A place where thoughts are provoked and have the ability to be the home base and the think tank for future fashion heads to interpret their version of denim, leisure, conservative or the extreme

Art.
Akademiks is an umbrella of sorts and shelters, JeaniusLevelProducts, a young mens' denim based collection; Stadium, an athletic and leisure themed line; PRPS, an offshoot of the Jeanius brand for a slightly older, more conservative customer; and the new ladies collection, aptly called akdmks.

Akdmks combines elements of the Jeanius and Stadium brands but with a definite feminine twist. Kareers and lifestyles are ultimately the motivation of it’s existence, and one of the few that amplifies true ingenuity. Determination has paid off for the founder. He went to the extremes to craft his art and find inspiration. Not many would consider leaving the cushion of Nike (Hong Kong) to pursue their own brand. His Mindset has always had the inclusion of knowledge and symmetry: “In pursuit of truth, however bitter it may be"

FashionLedge: First off, is it safe to call Akademiks an urban company or do you prefer streetwear? Or is it more mainstream?

Akademiks: To be honest, we kind of fall into three different tiers. I would say there is a division in which we can say it is Streetwear. It is more for younger consumers from 16 to 24. And then there is another division which we implemented called Komponents. Which is real basics which can be worn by anybody from 25 to 34. And then we have another line called Generals. Its a more contemporary mens wear line. The silhouettes are a lot slimmer and the fit it a little bit different such as a boot cut fit. So I don't know if I would necessarily say that we are 100 percent streetwear and I think we target different tiers of people [than other lines]. So no, I don't think we mind being called streetwear but we do cover different gamuts.

FL: So you don't mind being called streetwear, but do you mind being called urban?

Akd: We do a lot of different things in-house; a lot of different brands in-house. So we know that Akademiks is particularly urban. Sometimes people find urban to be a negative connotation. The way we brand out of that is we offer another brand that is totally a separate company called PRPS (purpose). Which is a higher end premium denim. So that's not urban at all.

FL: Akademiks is usually named in the top 6 after Phat Farm/Baby Phat, Sean John, Rocawear, Ecko and Enyce. Are you satisfied with this position or does Akademiks see itself elsewhere?

Akd: We are always in the mix with the other lines. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing. They are all good companies.

FL: What separates Akademiks from those top 5? How does Akademiks stand out?

Akd: I think for our brand, unlike other brands, we don't use a celebrity to push our sales. We’re not about using a face to market the clothing. All of our designers are actually trained skilled designers who sketch and oversee color stories. They are actually in the field and know what they're doing. They don't just come from music and now want to start their own clothing brand. So I think that's probably the biggest difference in that we don't use only marketing to sell our brand. Because when you buy Akademiks it is quality clothing. When a lot of the other competitors sell you the hype, but once you get the product, it falls apart.

FL: If Akademiks is not celebrity driven, explain the help of DJ Clue and Fabolous?

Akd: When I say celebrity driven or celebrity backed, I mean in the sense of Jay Z behind Rocawear or P Diddy behind Sean John. We do however outfit artists because we do realize that is an influence on our consumer.

FL: Kimora Lee has made comments that she wants Baby Phat to step away from urban. Its being said that by Puffy putting Sean John on 5th Ave, Sean John is trying to step away from its urban market. Will Akademiks be attempting to cut those connections?

Akd: We think its all a phase. Everything moves in a cycle. One minute it is all about jerseys. But jerseys were hot a long time ago. They just happened to come back for a brief period and now everyone wants to wear a woven shirt [button ups]. There will be another point in which people will want to wear baggy jeans. But with our higher end denim line, we are in several boutique stores: such as The Atrium or Fred Siegal. I think its about being able to cater to every consumer.

FL: Akademiks is sold in boutique stores or the other brands?

Akd: No, not Akademiks, our higher end line PRPS. This line is not under Akademiks. Its owned separate. We don't brand it as an Akademiks owned company. Its more or less a smaller line that we market totally different. Because its made for the clean, smaller nitch market. We've outfited Pharell and Maxwell with it. So I don't see Akademiks suddenly switching to be something totally different.

FL: Where in the U.S. can Akademiks be found?

Akd: We are in Bloomindales Soho. As well as Dr. Jays. So if Puffy [Sean John] is trying to reach that particular consumer, we will reach that consumer as well thru PRPS.

FL: Is PRPS only in the New York area?

Akd: No, its sold nationally and internationally. We get good press and sales in countries like Japan.

FL: Is PRPS a mens' or a womens' line?

Akd: Its just mens for right now

FL: Akademiks has its mens line and Akdmks Ladies. It also has a more adult mens line right? What about a kids line? What other brands are "under" Akademiks?

Akd: Besides the JeanusProductLevel division, we have the Komponents division and we have Generals. Generals will be launching summer 2005. As I was saying before, with that more contemporary mens line, we are able to grow so we don't have to take the Akademiks name and switch into to being a contemporary mens line. Akademiks can continue being what it is to the 16 to 24 year old. They can always depend on Akademiks staying the same. And as they grow with the brand, they can move into Komponents which is more simpler polos with less logos. And as they get older, they can get a more slimmer silhouette with Generals. And a nice boot cut jean with a more interesting wash. If they progressively grow with the brand.

We also have boys lounge wear. We are going into girls. Coming up is new outer wear, accessories and footwear. All under Akademiks for 2005.

FL: A lot of women love the Akdmks Ladies brand because it's not logo driven. Was that the direction you were going with the womens line?

Akd: Akdmks Ladies is something for everybody. If you are the person that doesn’t like heavy logos. Women are a little bit harder and we look for pieces to wear with everything like nice fitted jeans. We look for cleaner washes, something really simple. Having something we can go out in the night as well as during the day.

FL: Right, something you can keep and still rock two seasons later.

Akd: Exactly. Its funny how different we are. With ladies we don't like being branded but with men, it seems the bigger the logo the better.

FL: Just as Avirex is known for their leathers, what is Akademiks signature look?

Akd: We are known for our denim. Denim is our strongest suit. Avirex does great leathers, we do great denim. Orange is the company color. We are moving away from it. Now we just look at what's going on in the market. Unlike the men, ladies use a gamut of color. Men stick to the basics: blacks, greys, whites, and blues.

FL: So what about the mens' pinks and the flourescent button ups ?

Akd: They may continue to be a big thing. Most of the fashion industry is influenced by music.

FL: For example when Jay Z says throw away the throwbacks.

Akd: Exactly, everybody throws them away. And when Camron started rocking the pinks its not gay anymore. Now he's all on purples, so who knows what’ll happens with that.

FL: Most of the major brands are releasing women. You have Ecko/Ecko Red, Enyce/Lady Enyce, and Apple Bottoms with their new fabulous ads. Are women lines that successful? Or are they being pulled by mens?

Akd: Our brand is doing good. But its harder for women because we do have so many options. For men, they won't go to Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger for baggy jeans. Nor a contemporary or couture mens line because they won't fit right. So they go to a Akademiks or a Sean John because they have the right fit for you. Whereas we as women, we have Joes Jeans, Diesel, Paper Denim, Akadmks Ladies, Baby Phat, and even GAP. We can even go to old navy. We have different selections to choose from.

FL: Then Forever 21 and H&M came in.

Akd: Exactly. For women its more about looking good. Whereas men are all about logos and status symbols.

FL: So why does a brand feel they must immediately drop a ladies line after shortly debuting mens? Especially when it seems most of them aren’t selling. And are very hard to find throughout the nation. Even Sean John walked women in their fall 2003 runway show, but doesn’t offer a ladies line yet.

Akd: I look at it as something to offer. For us, everyone was saying 'OK, the mens line is hot. So when are you coming out with the ladies line?' So its expecting that just because you have a mens line that you're now going to do something for ladies. And then next is kids.

FL: Exactly. During a tour of Ecko Red's spring line a few years ago, we got to see about 40 swimsuits and beachwear debuting under Ecko Red. But none of that merchandise was marketed or really pushed. Almost every line has men and women. But few market them as separate lines like Akademiks or Ecko. Where as you will open a Honey magazine or a Suede magazine and just see akdmks ladies or Ecko Red as a separate brand along with Baby Phat.

Akd: See everyone recognizes Akademiks for its male brand. So then we try to catch the women but its so hard because women just have so many options. Men just don't have all of those options.

FL: You're right. Its very rare that I see a woman walking into a Jimmy Jazz or a Dr. Jays to shop. Because they do have more options such as The Atrium and what not.
A lot of controversy was stirred because of Holiday 2004 ads. Was that intended? Did anyone see that coming?

Akd: The funny thing about it was when we did the ad, a few of us thought it was a little racy. But no one really thought anything too big of it. The first few things that happened was I got a call from the people who buy our mall space for us across the nation. The malls didn't want to run it. Then I started getting anonymous calls from people who were just offended by the ad and who had seen it on the side of a bus. We didn't realize it would escalate to the point where we were on the 3rd page of The Daily News. More or less we always produce thought provoking ads. It wasn't a big deal to us. And as we spoke to the consumers, they understand that we weren't being literal. We had acquired a supplemental required reading list which was being used as required reading in most schools. Each book that's in the campaign is selected by professionals.

So if you took the campaign and really look at it, you would see we weren't being intentionally literal saying, "If you go out and read books, you will have oral sex". That was not what it was really about

FL: Did that campaign affect Akademiks sales at all?

Akd: In a way, a lot of consumers who were not aware of Akademiks heard about the controversy and then became familiar with the brand. But no, thank God it did not escalate into a downward spiral.

FL: When we first saw the ad I think last September 2004, we knew there was going to be trouble. But I stand strongly behind the phrase "any publicity is good publicity'. Did this controversy force u to pull ads from other locations besides the malls, such as buses??

Akd: Not at all. Our run on the buses had already ended around the height of everything. We only had a little overflow in Chicago. So no.

FL: Was the "uproar" just in the New York area? Or nationwide?

Akd: For the malls, it was pretty much all over. They were the first ones we rolled it out to. So the malls were thinking 'Hmmm, we don't think this ad with the girl and her butt sticking out is ladylike. Its a family environment...blah, blah...'. Then after New York spoke out, then everybody wanted to make a big deal. Then Free Press wants to call in. You then have people calling in from L.A.. And its funny because the holiday campaign had been out in magazines for awhile before things started stirring.

FL: Guess it took a minute for people to catch on. Now why doesn't Akademiks participate in New York’s Fashion Week?

Akd: I think there is just so much other things that we do such as Function in Miami. For us, we would rather hit our target market [meaning] more of our consumers. Now we do industry events such as the BET awards, Vibe awards, super bowls and the all stars. [Fashion Week is] just too expensive.

FL: The reason we ask that is because many urban designers do feel that money is wasted and can in turn become too expensive. But a few just hate everything associated and affiliated with fashion week. And we wanted to know what Akademiks' stand i?

Akd: For the most part [Fashion Week] doesn't really reach out target audience. Most of our fashion shows are more consumer based. Because those are the people that are going to buy our merchandise.

FL: So do you feel that explains the absence of urban designers at fashion week. Because besides Marc Ecko and Baby Phat...that's it.

Akd: Ego. I personally feel if you do fashion week as an urban brand, its more that you're doing it as ego. There IS a lot of press that goes into it. A lot of urban brands don't have that kind of money to put into one event anyway. But if you're going to spend $100 thousand, you can do something else for less and get the same amount of press. As apposed to doing one show where you’re only going to target certain eyes who may or may not write on it.

FL: Stepping back for a minute, explain the relationship between Fab and DJ Clue? I know you stated before that you dress a lot of celebs. But it seems that those two artist not only rock Akademiks 24/7, but Fab is constantly spitting out " Akademiks".

Akd: We had a deal with both Clue and Fab in the beginning when Akademiks first started. Now its more like he's just doing it for the love. That deals been over for a minute but they still rep Akademiks on their own accord now. We have the same relationship with T.I.. They decide that this is what they want to wear. Ludacris is pretty much the same way. There have been several events we've attended and seen Fab wearing Akademiks.

FL: What trend are you currently sick of?

Akd: I'm sick of striped wovens [button ups].

FL: Now are you sick of the "grown and sexy movement" because everybody seems to have dropped everything and jumped to that so quickly?

Akd: I'm sick of them because we've been doing them all the time in our line. Its not like they are anything new but now all of sudden because Jay Z says its ok for everyone to wear them, take off your jerseys, so now everybodys rushing for striped wovens. Its just too much of it. And then you have your buyers coming, 'I need a woven! I need a woven!' When they've been here forever. Plus we have other stuff like sweaters and knits. Its annoying after awhile that you just have that one trend that everyone rides out.

FL: Any more trends you're sick of and glad they are gone, like the trucker hats perhaps?

Akd: JERSEYS! That's it. I'm glad that's gone. And oversized white t-shirts down to your ankles.

FL: Its unfortunate that the woven movement has hurt companys that specialized in jerseys such as Stall & Dean, Pass The Roc, and G-III. There was a minute when G-III was everywhere. Jersey dresses, jersey swimsuits, tracksuits, etc. Can they bounce back from this cycle?

Akd: I think as long as you do existing teams or replicas, there's always a place for you. G-III specialized in current NBA and NFL teams. Stall & Dean does vintage replicas. Its not like they're doing jerseys of teams that are inexistent. Then you have colleges. They won't be as affected. But everything moves in cycles. So it will be back.

FL: Where do u see Akademiks in next 5 years? Do u see stuffed animals, or stores on 5th Ave or other merchandising?

Akd: I don't know, we shall see.

FL: Imagine going into a dorm room at Howard University or N.C. A&T and seeing Akademiks sheets or curtains. That would be so interesting.

Akd: I don't know I am firm believer in do what you do best. If you produce good quality clothing, then stick with that.

FL: In three words or less, describe Akademiks.

Akd: QUALITY DENIM!!.