BC Ethic Founder Jeff Shafer Resigns
In a surprising move, Jeff Shafer, chief executive officer and president of Vernon, Calif.-based BC Ethic, recently announced he is leaving the men’s contemporary vintage sportswear company he founded in 1992.
“My partners have purchased my shares in the corporation and I am moving on,” said Shafer. “I am very happy and very proud of what we created.”
Shafer gave no specific reasons for the decision to leave the company, saying that he felt it was simply time to do something different after accomplishing what he could with BC Ethic.
“What I tried to accomplish was not about money, ego or power,” he said. “It was about passion, love and teamwork. I have no regrets. No enemies.”
Shafer emphasized that he has no immediate plans to go to another company, but that only his immediate future has been planned.
“I’m going to take some time off with my family and start looking around in September,” he said.
Shafer created his first company, Vortec International, a knit line, 10 years ago with his wife, Lauren, merging it into Little Laura of California. For about a year he floundered before going broke. Shortly thereafter, he and Lauren partnered with Ty Bowers, and the three began work on a line called Blue Collar Ethic, an “adventurous, yet masculine alternative to the dressing-down mentality.”
In 1995 BC Ethic Manufacturing was formed, and in 1999 the name was changed to Brandlab Inc.
The inspiration for the company’s styles came from Shafer’s love for vintage clothing and from “observing the way people react in life,” according to Shafer.
“What I try to incorporate into every piece of BC Ethic clothing is something that is a constant in most vintage clothing, which is simply attention to detail,” Shafer explained in press materials. “I make sure the design, materials used and manufacture of our clothing will stand the test of time. Both from the way they are styled and the quality of make. There is simply too much throw-away fashion in the world today and that’s wrong.”
By 1996, BC Ethic’s revenue had grown to $7.5 million, with placement in retailers including Neiman-Marcus, Gadzooks, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s and American Rag. In 1999, the company acquired a young men’s skate-oriented line called Drawls and its junior version, Dawls. The following year, the company co-branded a label called La Rocka! For BC Ethic with Lloyd Johnson, owner of London’s La Rocka! Stores. The company discontinued its relationship with Drawls and Dawls two months ago.
In the early stages of the company’s development, Mark Zacher and James Huber were brought in to handle distribution. Zacher and Huber will remain as partners with Bowers.
“Today, Ty, Mark and James carry on Brandlab/BC Ethic without me,” said Shafer. “My prayers are for them to make the company into an even bigger and better company in order to carry on the legacy and traditions upon which the company was built. My plans are to spend a whole bunch of time with Lauren [and children] Jacob and Eli this summer and plan out my next 10 years.”
Zacher and Huber are currently serving as co-presidents. It has not been decided who will emerge as CEO to replace Shafer, but Huber asserts that finding a simple replacement for Shafer is not the company’s current focus.
“It isn’t as much about titles as it is about setting up the format and logistics for the company,” said Huber. “It’ll be myself or Mark, but right now, we’re just running the co-president thing.”
Huber also explained that there would be no immediate new direction for the company, which will continue to evolve.
“BC Ethic has always been an evolving entity,” he said. “Although we have a core idea of what we are, which is an entity that manufactures clothing, we react to what happens in the marketplace in terms of trends in music as well as fashion.”
