DeepSummary
Mark Ecko grew up in New Jersey, fascinated by hip hop and graffiti culture. As a teenager, he started a successful business airbrushing and customizing t-shirts, hoodies, and jackets, eventually launching his streetwear brand ECKO UNLTD. The brand rapidly gained popularity in the 1990s, especially among young consumers drawn to its edgy, urban aesthetic and iconic rhino logo. However, Ecko faced numerous challenges scaling the business, accumulating substantial debt due to manufacturing issues, legal battles over the brand name, and overly aggressive expansion.
Despite nearly going bankrupt, Ecko managed to turn things around through savvy marketing tactics like the "Where's Ecko?" campaign. Looking to capitalize on convergence culture, he launched the media company COMPLEX in the early 2000s, focused on covering streetwear, music, sports, and pop culture. COMPLEX initially struggled as a print magazine but found success transitioning to digital video content. After selling his stake in the clothing brand, Ecko focused on COMPLEX, which was eventually acquired by Verizon and Hearst in 2016 for over $100 million.
Throughout his journey, Ecko experienced the highs of building influential brands at the forefront of cultural trends, as well as the lows of financial troubles, personal struggles, and strained business relationships. He attributes his success to a combination of luck, talent, relentless self-belief, and divine grace, recognizing both the opportunities he was given and the hard work required to seize them.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Ecko built influential streetwear brand ECKO UNLTD and media company COMPLEX by tapping into hip hop and urban youth culture.
- He nearly went bankrupt multiple times due to scaling issues, legal battles, overly aggressive expansion, and the 2008 financial crisis.
- Creative ingenuity, bold marketing tactics, and perseverance allowed Ecko to overcome numerous setbacks.
- Despite achieving remarkable financial success, Ecko grappled with personal struggles, strained business relationships, and finding purpose.
- He attributes his journey to a combination of luck, self-belief, hard work, and divine grace.
- The iconic rhino logo and "Where's Ecko?" campaign were pivotal brand-defining moments.
- COMPLEX's shift to digital video content anticipated industry trends and fueled its growth.
- Selling his apparel brand stake allowed Ecko to focus on COMPLEX, which was later acquired for over $100 million.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I went, I wrote a business plan. I wanted to be a lifestyle brand. And I write up this story of educating change to heal and overcome.“ by Mark Ecko
- “There was such hostility with those banks that were. It was like a love affair with those banks. I was in a cit ad, for goodness sakes. You know, back in the heyday when I had a. I still have a plaque around here for whatever $500 million line of credit that I had, whatever, like, absurd line of credit, which was, you know, you don't do business that anymore.“ by Mark Ecko
- “I think that luck is an incredibly real thing. The first bout of luck was being a twin and having a twin sister. So if you took that out of the equation, I probably would not be speaking to you right now.“ by Mark Ecko
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Episode Information
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
6/3/24
Growing up in the ‘80s in New Jersey, Marc Ecko loved hip hop, graffiti art, and painting t-shirts for friends. His passion soon bloomed into a full-on business: ECKO UNLTD, a streetwear brand known for its iconic rhino logo. By the 1990’s, the brand had become a cultural force, but not without its share of bad deals, daunting debt, and a close brush with bankruptcy.
Eager to keep innovating, Marc launched COMPLEX, a media company hyper-focused on “convergence” culture: hip hop, fashion, sports and pop culture. Within a decade, COMPLEX had weathered the financial crisis, and emerged profitable. After being bought–and sold–by Buzzfeed, it was purchased by a video shopping company for over $100 million, and ECKO UNLTD just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
This episode was researched and produced by Katherine Sypher with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our audio engineers were Gilly Moon and Kwesi Lee.
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