League Collegiate Wear
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| League Collegiate Wear, Inc. | |
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters |  Bridgeport Business Park · 401 East Fourth Street Building #8Bridgeport, Pennsylvania |
| Key people | Drew Wolf; Founder Larry Klebanoff; CEO |
| Industry | College apparel |
| Products | Apparel |
| Website | League Collegiate Wear |
League Collegiate Wear, Inc. is a rapidly-growing Philly 100 college apparel company, which began in 1990 in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Today, it is a leading brand of university-licensed sportswear in the college bookstore market, selling to over 2000 colleges and universities nationwide. In addition, they produce apparel for sales teams and sponsored events. League maintains strong relationships with name brand apparel and non-apparel premium product manufacturers.
League celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2005:
"This 15-year anniversary is a real milestone for us,” said Drew Wolf, League’s founder and president. “It seems so surreal – our first expansion was moving out of my mother’s basement into my partner Larry Klebanoff’s father’s bigger basement. Sitting in our brand new 20,000 sq. ft. facility and being named Philadelphia Business Journal’s “Top 100 fastest growing companies,” is simply huge for us – especially since we’ve had to rebuild twice after our facilities were destroyed by first a flood and later a fire.”
In 1990, Wolf’s imagination was sparked by the preppy design on a girlfriend’s belt. It was that idea that the company was founded on, and League began producing embroidered logo belts for the college bookstore market. By 1995, the company had expanded and was the first to bring polar fleece outerwear to the bookstore market. After only six years of business, League was named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s “100 fastest growing companies.”
In September of 1999, League was hit by Hurricane Floyd, which destroyed their entire production facility. Wolf and Klebanoff decided to send the entire staff to Six Flag’s Great Adventure Theme Park for the day, while they stayed behind discussing options with their lawyers and accountants for how to best recover. The decision was made to rebuild, and with the use of federal disaster relief money, League rebuilt from the ground up. Recognizing where the market was headed, League shifted their focus and went after the young women’s collegiate apparel market, introducing their first line of clothing by year end. League was a finalist for the SBA Phoenix Award, an award given to only a handful of companies that receive federal disaster relief money and most effectively use the proceeds.
League was back on track briefly, only to fall victim to disaster once again. In May of 2001, the Continental Business Park fire engulfed League’s offices and production facilities. Already skilled at rebuilding, League made the decision to relocate and start over, once again –this year taking the Runner-up title for the SBA Phoenix award.
Again by 2004, League was named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s “100 fastest growing companies.” Last year, recognized for being a leader within its market niche, League was chosen by Barnes & Noble to develop a private label, RED SHIRT, for the Barnes & Noble bookstores.
League’s success comes from their ability to pick the fashion trends that translate best in the college bookstore market. The company prides itself for supplying “trend-right” sportswear that fashion-savvy co-eds demand. League’s apparel can be found at more than 1,200 colleges and universities nationwide.
League continues its new lines within the women’s market and has plans to develop a line exclusive to men in the near future.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
| Philadelphia-based Corporations (Within the Delaware Valley) |
|---|
| Philadelphia-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size): Sunoco | Comcast | CIGNA | Aramark | Rohm and Haas Company | Crown Holdings Incorporated | Lincoln National Corporation |
| Philadelphia-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus Sovereign Bancorp | Pep Boys | FMC Corporation |
| Delaware Valley-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size): Companies listed above, plus AmerisourceBergen | DuPont Company | Campbell Soup | Toll Brothers | Unisys | Jones Apparel Group | UGI Corporation | Ikon Office Solutions | Universal Health Services | SunGard Data Systems | Teleflex | Airgas | Vishay Intertechnology | Charming Shoppes | Commerce Bancorp | Hercules Inc. | Genesis HealthCare | Ametek |
| Philadelphia-based and Delaware Valley-based non-public or externally owned corporations (by size): GlaxoSmithKline (US Operations) | Burlington Coat Factory | Forman Mills |
