Simple: 4 letters, or rather, an acronym known to all, FUBU .
Assuming that you know what this historical acronym is and what it represents, or at least that should be the case for anyone who professes to be an expert or simple streetwear fashion enthusiast, instead keep Hollis-spot-six billion in mind because that's where the key lies of the success that you beardless teenagers are frantically looking for on the saddle of your Jordan 4s in the most improbable corners of the city.
(And that's where lies the key to understanding the enormous success of a historic brand that since the nineties has been one of the most requested and appreciated in the entire vintage/hip hop scene.)
Obviously we're not talking about stuff for sale that can be bought with vile money, nothing like that; and you sons of fathers would do well to steer clear, because here we are dealing with something that starts from the head and the heart: talent and cazzimma, as they say in Bolzano.
You need the first to see things that no one can see, the second to make them.
And Daymond John had enough of talent and heart, the one who gives meaning to that strange sequence with which the piece opens: it was he, together with four other runaways, who set up a clothing factory in that mortgaged house that produced , in a really vintage way, pieces in line with the hip hop style that raged in the streets, in the windows, on people, practically EVERYWHERE in that neighborhood.
Nothing strange so far, you might say, but the surprising element of the story that really made the difference was the will to bite into success with the same hunger with which they sewed personalized T-shirts with writings and slogans that made their way into the hearts of the people of Brooklyn , that made them feel like something exclusively theirs.
Beautiful yes, you will say, but what does all this have to do with that mysterious spot we were talking about at the beginning?
Instead, it has something to do with it, because it was thanks to that gimmick that For U s B y U s became known throughout the international scene and that allowed him to seriously produce the favorite clothing lines of your favorite rappers.
It was the spring of 1993 and the boys were getting better and better but, while they were selling their pieces door to door on the streets of New York, they realized that something was missing that would launch them into the market that counts and that it didn't depend on what they were selling, but how they sold it.
The opportunity was not long in coming and it was revealed to him with the news that LL Cool J , a popular artist at the time and Daymond's childhood friend, was shooting a video promoted by GAP included in their partnership, in which the rapper improvised a freestyle that incorporated a phrase: For Us By Us, unbeknownst to everyone of course.
But that's not all: in the commercial, which served to promote the rival brand's clothing line, Cool j wore a FUBU cap, one of Daymond's most requested items.
In doing so, the nascent FUBU made use of one of the strongest emerging artists on the New York scene and an advertisement that entered all American homes to promote and make itself known to the US public, entirely free of charge, for the 30 million which GAP dropped to secure Cool J's image.