After last week’s revelation that former music mogul Dame Dash was on the verge of loosing his two Manhattan condos to foreclosure, news reports say he has lost his licensing deal Pro-Keds, the athletic sneaker made popular in the 1970s.
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Mr. Dash purchased licensing rights for Pro-Keds’ in 2004 from Stride Rite. The company re-acquired the sneaker line in hopes of re-launching the brand.
Stride Rite CEO Greg Ribatt released a statement thanking Mr. Dash for his “partnership and efforts on the Pro-Keds brand.” He continued, “We plan to tap our archives and re-issue the classic styles with fresh new design details, and to build on the brand’s vintage position with a new brand image.”
Mr. Dash has had a run of bad luck since leaving Roc-A-Fella Records and parting ways with former business associate and friend Jay-Z. The record label he founded after leaving Roc-A-Fella, Damon Dash Music Group, collapsed. His venture into online social networking, Blocksavy.com, failed. He unsuccessfully tried his hand at producing movies (he teamed up with Monster’s Ball director Lee Daniels for 2005’s Shadowboxer, not to mention a short list of straight-to-video productions including State Property 2, and his BET reality show, Ultimate Hustler, didn’t live to see a second season.
