VF Corp. buys Seven For All Mankind

Seven For All Mankind, the seven-year-old Los Angeles denim company that helped usher in the era of $200 designer jeans, was sold yesterday to the VF Corporation for $775 million. VF Corp. the apparel company that owns jeans brands like Wrangler, Lee, Riders and Rustler.

VF Corporation said yesterday that it had acquired Lucy, a women's activewear company.

The two brands are the latest in VF's spree of acquisitions - it also owns Vans, Reef, Kipling and Napapijri and will serve as the foundation for a new unit of contemporary brands for the company. The moves may signal that VF plans to make more deals for fast-growing, high-profile apparel makers.
The acquisition of Seven For All Mankind will put VF squarely in the ultraluxury denim market, which did not exist a decade ago. VF's other denim brands, Lee and Wrangler, are positioned farther down the market.

The founders of Seven, started near Los Angeles in 2000, predicted that jeans could become a luxury product, much like handbags and shoes, if properly marketed. For the previous two decades, denim - as typified by Levis - had been viewed as functional rather than fashionable. Seven began churning out high-quality, tight-fighting jeans in dozens of washes, finishes and fits and with prices that, at the time, caused sticker shock $200 or more.

The company helped ignite a premium denim bonanza. Since 2000, scores of small denim companies like True Religion, Rock & Republic and Von Dutch Originals have sprung up in Los Angeles, creating a small but fast-growing niche in domestic apparel manufacturing, which for decades had been losing jobs to overseas producers.

VF Corporation is a leader in branded lifestyle apparel including jeanswear, outdoor products, image apparel and sportswear. For over 100 years, we've grown by offering consumers high quality, high value branded apparel. Our leading brands span virtually every channel of distribution.