While many artists like to put their name and money behind companies that create clothing and lifestyle accessories for musicians, few of them are involved with companies that are almost entirely operated by musicians. But MACBETH Footwear and Optics is such a company.
"For decades, there've been companies that tie into lifestyle," says MACBETH founder Tom DeLonge, former guitarist with Blink-182 and now with Angels and Airwaves. "There have been many for action sports, but the other side of the coin, especially here in California, is music. It's so much a part of who we are and who people here are. For the first time, we're trying to build a whole company based on rock and roll."
It was actually a crisis in rock and roll that got him started thinking about moving from music to a music-related business in the first place. "Music has lost 60 percent of its net sales," DeLonge observes, "so, as a musician, I had to wonder where the opportunities were.
Music is no longer the product. The circumference of the world around the musician is the new product." That, says DeLonge, is where MACBETH fits in.
Though MACBETH deals primarily with the manufacture and sales of footwear, it's a far larger enterprise than that. "It's about more than just shoes," says DeLonge.
"We wanted to create a company where a band can come in and get everything and where the music almost becomes the marketing device instead of just the product itself."
True to his word, DeLonge and his partners, former concert promoters John Humphrey and Bill Silva, have installed a recording studio in the MACBETH warehouse.
"We [offer] everything from clothing to music and video production in one building," he says, "so we can get it all out there."
His time on the road provides DeLonge ample opportunity to get in touch with his client base.
"It gives me a chance to see what's out there and what people are doing and seeing," he says. "That helps us grow and that has helped us find our direction."
DeLonge admits that running a company is hard. "When we [started], it was a grind," he recalls. "It's still a grind. But we started with $20,000 and are now worth about $3 million.
Within five years, we expect to be far above and beyond what most of these one-shot companies do with musicians who put their names on them."
Speaking of what's next, DeLonge hopes to have MACBETH become one of the world's leading footwear and apparel companies, but with a twist. "We want to make a company that can rival Adidas," he says, "but one that's not based on soccer players but on musicians who have the passion for music.
"As a musician, I get excited about lasers and big shows," he explains, "and that's what I want to bring to this industry. I do not want to stick to a traditional mindset." |
