Van Nuys apparel brand licensing company Cherokee Inc. announced Monday it has purchased the brands associated with legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk. The $19 million purchase from Quiksilver Inc. of Huntington Beach was made with available cash, according to the company. Chief Executive Henry Stupp said the purchase was made with an eye at larger distribution, which makes sense since Cherokee has entered several foreign markets in the last year, including India, the Middle East and Indonesia. “We identified the Tony Hawk brand for a variety of reasons including the opportunity to further expand into the department store and specialty channels of distribution globally,” Stupp said in a prepared statement. Tony Hawk, who is known as the most dominant athlete in skateboarding history, is the founder of the clothing line, which was originally sold to Quiksilver in 2000. Domestically, the brand is exclusively licensed to Kohl’s Corp. of Menomonee, Wis. with clothing and accessories sold in 1,158 Kohl’s department stores and online. “The Tony Hawk brand fits perfectly into our strategy for the globalization of brands much like we have done for our namesake Cherokee brand and most recently with Liz Lange Maternity,” said Stupp. Cherokee and JPMorgan Chase Bank entered into a credit agreement to finance the purchase. Cherokee’s portfolio includes Cherokee, Liz Lange, Sideout and Carole Little. The company has licensing agreements in 40 countries. Shares of Cherokee closed Monday up 9 cents or less than 1 percent to $14.22 in trading on the Nasdaq.
