Steve & Barrys consider bankruptcy

While I was on tour this year, I visited for the first time, a Steve and Barry's. I was floored at how many celebrity endorsement deals they had. Every section was branded by a celebrity, with that celebrity's fashion beliefs playing non-stop on small video monitors.

My take was, "Is this what it takes to sel merch now? Celebrity?" It seemed odd to me.

I bought one product: a pair of $8 Starbury shoes. They feel just like any other paidof cheap shoes I've bought in the past from Target or Payless. A friend and longtime NYC-er told me, when he first saw them, that they looked like, to him, something from Prada because of the pattern of the fabric. !!!

Now, it seems Steve and Barry's is considering bankruptcy. The reason has nothing to do with their model of attaching a celeb to random clothing lines. The only profit they were making was on one-time real estate payouts.