How I Did It: Paul Frank
Some people say he monkeys around.
Published August 2005
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COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLEAs told to Lora Kolodny
Paul Frank's $100 million design business started in 1995 with a sock puppet monkey. Within three years, Frank's brand and his character Julius (the monkey as a cartoon) had permeated the fashion world from mainstream to couture. In 1999, Sanrio, the creator of another pop icon, Hello Kitty, allowed Paul Frank Industries to design shirts featuring Julius and Hello Kitty side by side -- and it had the unlikely effect of making the licensing industry cool. Paul Frank has since had co-branding deals with Oscar Mayer, the Elvis Presley estate, Barbie, and John Deere, among many others. Today, however, Paul Frank faces hundreds of imitators, and it's just not fun for Paul Frank (the 37-year-old designer, that is) anymore. So the company is leaving behind co-branding, and at least $2 million in annual revenue. "Too many copy cats diluted the meaning of collaborative designs," says co-founder and company president Ryan Heuser, who oversees operations in Costa Mesa, Calif., while Frank stays mostly to his workshop in nearby Huntington Beach. The company's co-branding finale, an Andy Warhol line, hits stores this fall and holiday season. In 2006, expect more original work, including an animated series, children's active wear (branded Small Paul), bedding, and more Paul Frank boutiques -- the company is expanding its 15-store empire to Scotland, Bahrain, Qatar, and Dubai. As for Julius, he turns 10 in November, meaning he shares a star sign, Scorpio, with both Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse.
At age 13, I got an electric guitar and wanted to be a rock star. I never pictured myself in business. What happened was, I found that being in a band wasn't enough for me. But I loved making fliers, tape covers (we had tapes back then), and stage props like planets that were just papier-mache beach balls, or a custom-painted drum kit -- things like that. We had a big beatnik Julius Caesar bust in gold that I love.
By the early '90s a friend and I had started making amplifiers with custom cabinets, and using things like old tapestries and plaid vinyl to upholster them. We were thinking about going into business selling them, but he went off to medical school, which ended that idea. That was okay.
My ideas about color and composition formed at art school. I went to Orange Coast College in Huntington Beach, Calif., and took drawing and sculpting and became good at freehand drawing, drafting, and sewing. I never really set out to be a fashion designer. But I did like to make my own versions of things.
At school, I was still in the band, the Birdhouse 4. I started altering our clothes, making guitar straps, T-shirts, all that kind of stuff. It was around that time I got to be friends with Ryan Heuser, who does all the marketing and is president of Paul Frank Industries. He was "on the scene" in Huntington Beach. I always sort of admired his vintage style. From the beginning we would sit around at this coffee shop and talk about how we thought things should be made.
One time, I wanted orange vinyl stripes on my sneakers. You couldn't find that in stores yet. I could only find it at this boating supply store. So I had a huge quantity on my hands. Instead of using it for little stripes on my shoes I started making wallets, sewing them up in my room at home. I gave a few to friends, and then everyone wanted one.
I realized I could start selling this stuff. Ryan said, Why don't you? His dad discouraged us -- that was okay. Ryan went and borrowed money from his stepmom, $5,000. That's all we started with.
We have 200 characters now. I've trained 15 designers to draw them all.
Early on it was hard when stores perceived us as something for kids. I envisioned designs for teens on up to people in their thirties. By now, we're one of the very few brands that can be in Disneyland, in Pac Sun, in Nordstrom, and in these high-end boutiques at the same time. Isn't that neat? I get fan letters from lawyers who wear our stuff to trial because it is lucky for them. I love that.
Our success as a company has a lot to do with two things: being flexible, and being okay with where we are at the time. I lived at home until I was 31. And I have always felt successful. If I was selling a few wallets to people I knew, or selling just 300 T-shirts to a Japanese store, or selling to just one catalog, Delia's -- I always said: Whoa, all right! We did it!
I remember designing things that never got sold because people only wanted to take on Julius. That was okay. I could see that. But there were also times when a store would say, "This isn't selling well." You have to look at it like, That's good feedback. We can do something differently.
