Sean 'Diddy' Combs agreed to pay $7.5 million in order to buy back the fashion brand he used to own after he won a court-supervised auction. The bankrupt fashion brand is currently owned by the brand manager GBG USA Inc. According to the submitted documents to the court, the company has made about 85% of its money by selling clothes and footwear through the retailers such as TJ Maxx, Costco, and Nordstrom.
GBG USA Inc. has sold most of its other assets even before the auction of Sean John. It was in 2016 when Combs sold about 90% of the stake of Sean John to Global Brands Group Holding Ltd. The relationship between the two was great until their relationship soured when Combs has sued the company for trademark infringement over the use of Combs' Vote or Die slogan. He believes that the phrase rightly belongs to him, and Sean John using it seems to imply that he still owned the company.
The company specializes in celebrity apparel lines that filed for bankruptcy in July of this year. According to the court documents, Combs, who is bidding through the company called SLC Fashion, has offered to pay $51,000 more than the highest bidder, which made him win. Sean Combs buying back the fashion brand, narrowly won against United Ventures LLC, which put on a bid of $7.50 million cash.
Combs has emailed a statement to Bloomberg regarding the matter; he stated that he saw the evolution of streetwear, and it does rewrite the rules of fashion. It has an impact on the culture across different categories. He added that it is now time to reclaim the ownership of the fashion brand that he once owned, where he will build a team of visionary designers as well as global partners to continue the next chapter of his legacy through the clothing line.
In a written statement that Combs sent to Forbes, he said that when he launched Sean John in 1998, his purpose was to build a premium brand that would shatter traditional clothing and to introduce Hip-hop fashion on a global scale. Combs has been among one of the richest hip-hop artists in the world, alongside Kanye West and Jay Z. He is known to be a great investor as he knows where to put his money and how to grow a company. He has an intensive investment portfolio which includes a partnership with the vodka Ciroc as well as ownership of the DeLeon tequila.
READ NEXT: Diddy's Former Beverly Hills Mansion Hits The Market For $14.5 Million