Marc Eckō

Marc Eckō was born in Lakewood, New Jersey, in 1972. His talents and interests led him toward graffiti art, skateboarding, and hip-hop culture. While in high school, he blended these themes by creating handmade, airbrushed T-shirts for friends. When it came time for college, he enrolled in Rutgers’ College of Pharmacy, his father’s alma mater. Eckō maintained a strong interest in clothing design and, in 1993, at age 20, he left school to follow his passion for art. He launched a men’s urban apparel line with a $5,000 investment from business partner Seth Gerszberg and a handful of graffiti-inspired T-shirts he had created in the garage of his parents’ house. His twin sister Marci graduated from Rutgers in 1994 and joined her brother in running the business.

Today, Marc Eckō Enterprises is one of the world’s most recognizable clothing brands, and its founder is one of the most successful fashion designers and entrepreneurs. The company has more than 1,000 employees and has included up to 12 separate Eckō Unlimited and EckōRed apparel and accessories lines, the contemporary Marc Eckō “Cut & Sew” collection, G-Unit Clothing Company, Zoo York, Avirex, Complex magazine, Complex.com, and Marc Eckō Entertainment, a video game and multimedia entertainment division. Marc Eckō Enterprises has close to 100 freestanding stores in the United States and 86 stores internationally. More than 5,000 department and specialty stores in more than 50 countries also carry Eckō merchandise. Eckō believes Rutgers played a significant role in his design sensibility, and in 2007, he signed an international co-branding agreement for the production of a line of Rutgers sportswear that was launched last year.

Beyond the business world, Eckō and his wife Allison, whom he met while attending Rutgers, are dedicated to a number of socially conscious initiatives, including the plight of the world’s rhinoceros population, and he uses a rhinoceros as the logo of his Eckō Unlimited line of clothing. He has also generously supported the Tikva Children’s Home for orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children in Odessa, Ukraine. His passion for reform of K–12 education in the United States is evidenced in part by the fact that his company launched Sweat Equity Enterprises, a four-year, after-school design and mentoring program for New York City students, particularly underserved urban youth. Eckō also supports graffiti artists and their First Amendment rights. Marc Eckō is the youngest member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.