American Apparel Buys Oak

American Apparel Inc. (Los Angeles) has reported acquired the New York specialty retailer Oak, an eight-year-old brand with two stores in the New York metropolitan area.

According to a report by Women’s Wear Daily, American Apparel chairman and ceo Dov Charney said Oak’s total sales were in the neighborhood of $5 million but “we think we can grow it to a multiple of that.”

Oak was founded in 2005 with a store in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn that has since moved to the Greenpoint neighborhood. It also has a store in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood. Two other stores, in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood and on the summer enclave of Fire Island, have closed.

WWD says Oak will operate as a separate division and its founders, Louis Terline and Jeff Madalena, will remain at the creative and operational helm. “This is their division,” Charney said. “They are being empowered to grow their business.”

That might include new retail, starting in Seoul, where American Apparel has an empty space in a multi-level store. WWD said the company is also looking at spaces in Los Angeles.

Oak will move a portion of its production to the American Apparel facilities in Los Angeles to service is retail accounts, which include Saks Fifth Avenue and Selfridges.