FUBU
company on 4 shows · 34 statements across 5 episodes · said 116 times in 11 episodes since 2018
How I Built This 87 
BigDeal 22 
the a16z Podcast 5 
My First Million 2
Mentions by year, every show
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How I Built This 87BigDeal 22the a16z Podcast 5My First Million 2
2026 9 mentions in 2 episodes 5 per episode
2025 21 mentions in 1 episode
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 43 mentions in 2 episodes 22 per episode
2018 38 mentions in 2 episodes 19 per episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
34 statements about FUBU, every show
Daymond John Was Rejected by 27 Banks for Early FUBU Financing
“So, I went to all the banks I could, and I got turned down by 27 of them.”
Daymond John: FUBU Reused 10 Shirts Across 22 Music Video Sets
“I took 10 shirts for two years, The same 10. I'd go to every video set I could. I went to 40 video sets. I got kicked off of 18 of them, but the 22 that I got on, I would put an artist, and he'd shoot the video, and I'd take it back.”
Daymond John: FUBU Spray-Painted 300 Storefront Gates Across NY and NJ
“I spray painted 300 gates from New York to New Jersey. Authorized FUBU dealer. I didn't care that you were selling Chinese food. You were an authorized FUBU dealer.”
Daymond John: Actively Black is the modern equivalent of FUBU
“I like a company called Actively Black. They're the new version of FUBU to me, where they had the license for like Marvel, they had the license for Tupac, so they had Black Panther and stuff like that.”
Daymond John: We never sold FUBU and still do substantial business
“My partners and I, we never sold a brand because we love what it stands for, but we still do a good amount of business”
Daymond John: I could make FUBU a billion-dollar brand again
“Could I make it a probably
A billion dollar brand again?
Yes, I could. It would be a whole different model.”
FUBU Has Sold Over $6 Billion in Apparel to Date
“It's a brand that, to date, has sold over six billion dollars in apparel.”
Daymond John: Girlfriend Rejected Initial $500 Startup Loan for FUBU
“And then one day I asked her to borrow 800 dollars. No, I asked her to borrow 500 dollars for this idea I had called FUBU. And she said no.”
Daymond John made and sold out 80 handmade FUBU hats in hours
“So I made 80 of them. It took me probably about three hours. I made 80 of them, and I hit that street corner, and I sold all of them.”
Daymond John: FUBU closed three times between 1989 and 1992
“Through 89 and 92, I closed the business three times because I ran out of money.”
John: FUBU founders racked up $50,000 in credit card debt
“So of course, you know, like many businesses, I leveraged my credit cards you know, up until I think my partners and I, all of us leveraged our credit cards up to about 50,000 dollars with a very high interest rate, which is not the smartest thing to do.”
John: FUBU booked $300,000 in orders without a trade show booth
“So it worked it out, and you know, we would write 300,000 dollars in orders, and that's when I would realize how much capital I really needed.”
Daymond John: 27 banks rejected FUBU loan applications
“So I went to all the banks I could, and I got turned down by 27 of them.”
Daymond John's mother took $100,000 home equity loan to fund FUBU
“So she goes out and she gets a 100,000 dollar loan on our house.”
John: FUBU fulfilled $75K in orders before reaching $500 bank balance
“I think we filled about 75,000 dollars worth of those orders until I turned around and I only had 500 dollars left in the bank, and I was about four months late on the mortgage.”
Samsung agreed to finance FUBU if it reached $5M sales in 3 years
“And the deal with us was that they would finance the manufacture and manufacturing and distribution of our product, but we had to sell five million dollars worth of clothes in three years to keep the deal.”
FUBU generated $30 million in sales in three months after partnering with Samsung
“But I had known my customers so well because of all those things that I was doing that as we started to put the brand out there, we did about thirty million dollars in three months.”
Daymond John: FUBU restricted big retailers to preserve brand coolness
“We'd have to stop the retailers. We'd have to not allow them to purchase because some of the kids would look at some of these big retailers and say, well, now FUBU's not cool anymore because it's in these big retailers.”
Retailer Asked Daymond John to Remove Founders' Photos For Looking 'Gang'
“A large retailer did ask me to take the picture of myself and my three other partners off the hang tag, cause it said we look like a gang.”
Daymond John: FUBU drastically reduced distribution and logos in 2003
“What we did was we reduced Most of the distribution of it. I mean, we still obviously kept our categories, but we would really narrow down to just a couple of stores just to test the product and see how it's going. Cause we felt that it just needed to cool dow…”
Daymond John: A hot fashion brand typically lasts five to seven years
“It goes through cycles, you know, and a hot brand lasts five or maybe six years. Maybe seven years.”
Guy Raz: Daymond John's Net Worth Is Estimated at $300 Million
“Since those early days selling FUBU shirts on street corners in Queens, he's grown his net worth to an estimated three hundred million dollars.”
Dapper Dan leveraged FUBU's retail distribution footprint to sell underground apparel
“I had a friend who worked for FUBU, so I knew what their distribution was, so I went to every place they was at. Going west, and I come back and did the same thing going south.”
Daymond John sewed and sold 80 tie-top hats in three hours
“I made 80 of them. It took me probably about three hours. I made 80 of them, and I hit that street corner, and I sold all of them.”
Daymond John closed FUBU three times between 1989 and 1992
“And to say that, I also have to say that through 89 and 92, I closed the business three times because I ran out of money.”
FUBU seeded 20 oversized shirts to New York bouncers for visibility
“Right, so what we did was we just found a place that made four X, five X, six X shirts, and we made 20 of those shirts, because We made twain them because we knew that if we gave these guys these shirts, these guys were normally bodyguards.”
FUBU founders racked up $50,000 in high-interest credit card debt
“Like many businesses, I leveraged my credit cards you know, up until I think my partners and I, all of us leveraged our credit cards up to pay about 50,000 dollars with a very high interest rate, which is not the smartest thing to do.”
FUBU generated $300,000 in orders pitching from a MAGIC hotel room
“It worked it out, and you know, we would write 300,000 dollars in orders, and that's when I would realize how much capital I really needed.”
Daymond John says 27 banks rejected FUBU's early loan applications
“I went to all the banks I could, and I got turned down by 27 of them.”
Daymond John's mother took out a $100,000 home equity loan for FUBU
“So she goes out and she gets a 100,000 dollar loan on our house.”
Samsung required FUBU to sell $5 million in three years
“And the deal with us was that they would finance the manufacture and manufacturing and distribution of our product, but we had to sell five million dollars worth of clothes in three years to keep the deal.”
FUBU generated $30 million in sales within three months of financing
“As we started to put the brand out there, we did about thirty million dollars in three months.”
Jordache's FUBU license generated $100 million in ladies' apparel revenue
“Jordache was our first license and they came aboard and they started doing ladies clothes. So now we're doing a hundred, say, a hundred and fifty million in men's. They're doing a hundred million alone in ladies.”