What Are The AND1 Founders Doing Today?
Following the release of Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1, we wanted to give our readers an overview of what the founders of the company are doing in 2022.
AND1 began as a project partnership of Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, and Tom Austin while they were graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The streetball brand started by selling t-shirts out of the boot of a car. Early marketing strategies included other basketball slogans and trash talk, such as “What’s Wrong? Momma Forget To Pack Your Game?”. Foot Locker began to sell the t-shirts, and within the second year of launching AND1, the business reached 1500 stores across the United States.
The documentary chronicles the meteoric rise of the streetball brand, which “caught lightening in a bottle” in the early 2000s, with their popular shoes and mixtape series. Streetball is a variation of basketball, typically played on outdoor courts and featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the game’s rules.
What Are The AND1 Founders Doing Today?
Over the years, AND1 has changed hands many times, first being bought out by American Sporting Goods and then Brown Shoe Company.
Below is an overview of what the company founders are doing in 2022:
Seth Berger
Seth is the Managing Director at Sixers Innovation Lab, which is a Venture Capital and Private Equity company.
Seth is also a basketball coach at The Westtown School, in Westtown, Pennsylvania. His teams have won the league title on nine occasions.
Seth is married and has three sons.
Tom Austin
Tom is the Chief Executive Officer at Masterchats, which is a wellness and fitness service. He has been with the company since 2019.
Jay Coen Gilbert
Jay is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of multiple business ventures. He is also a former Forbes Magazine contributor.
Jay is married and has two children.
Is AND1 Still In Business Today?
The clothing and footwear brand is a subsidiary of Sequential Brands Group, which also owns Gaiam, Jessica Simpson, Ellen Tracy, REVO, The Franklin Mint, Caribbean Joe and Joe’s Jeans.
American former professional basketball player Kevin Garnett has served as AND1’s creative director and global ambassador since 2018. He played for 21 seasons in the NBA.