One Jeanswear Group’s Jack Gross on Navigating the Apparel Industry

Jack Gross knows how to build a business.

For close to five decades Gross has worked at brands ranging from Bobbi Brooks and Leslie Fay to Cherokee and Gitano Group.

Ever since he had his dream of becoming a professional baseball pitcher shattered in college, Gross set out to be the best apparel industry executive he could be. As he puts it: he may not have been the smartest person in the room, but he was the hardest working — and it has paid off to the tune of 75 million pairs of jeans sold since 1993 and $800 million, the estimated sales volume for New York-based One Jeanswear Group.

He has survived ownership changes, bankruptcies, pandemics and a myriad of everyday challenges since he started in the Kaufmann’s executive training program after college. And for the past 32 years, he’s been at the helm of One Jeanswear Group, the former Gloria Vanderbilt Apparel Corp. that now owns not only Gloria Vanderbilt but also L.e.i., Vintage America and Frayed, and licenses Jessica Simpson, Nine West, DO by Dee Ocleppo, Ella Moss and G.H. Bass. The company also produces private label for Sofia Vergara, Code Blue and other brands.

Gross could give a masterclass in how to successfully navigate the complexities of the apparel industry. With his ready smile and creative old-school problem-solving abilities, he has managed to bring the One Jeanswear brands to retailers as varied as Macy’s, Kohl’s, Walmart and Costco, all without missing a beat.

Now he has finally made the decision to retire. He’ll remain through the end of the year and then be available as an adviser while he spends time with his two young grandchildren and finally takes the opportunity to step back from the everyday grind of the apparel industry.

Here, Gross looks back at his career trajectory, discusses how the industry has changed over the past few decades and his plans for the future.

WWD: Where are you from originally?
Jack Gross: Pittsburgh. I went to college to play professional baseball — I was a pitcher — and my roommate was Mike Schmidt, who’s in the Hall of Fame. We lived together so one night he said, “You’re going to make it big in baseball.” I said, “No, you’re 10 times better.” I was cut from the team a year later. I stayed in my dorm room for maybe two weeks. I go to class, nothing. I said, “What am I going to do for the rest of my life because I went to college to play baseball?” Then I woke up and I said, “I’m going to focus on whatever I have to and find another path.”

WWD: Did that lead you to the fashion industry?
J.G.: I was working at Kauffmann’s in Pittsburgh on weekends and when I was home from school and they hired me in the executive training program. So that’s where I started my retail career.

WWD: That was owned by May Company, right? And David Farrell was CEO?
J.G.: Yes. One day he came to me and asked how much money was in the register. I was on the floor working because it was Christmas. I said, “Mr. Farrell. I think it’s about…whatever.” He said, “When I come by and ask you what’s in the register, I expect you to know.” From that day on, when he came by, I would say, “$989.23.” Then he said to me: “Why are you here every night during Christmas?” I said, “I really enjoy it.” He took a liking to me and when I left, he begged me to stay.

WWD: Where did you go after Kaufmann’s?
J.G.: The ex-boyfriend of a girl I was dating worked for Bobbi Brooks as a salesman and he said he was making a lot of money. I asked if they had any openings and he said no, but his brother-in-law was going to be there that day to speak to the boss, who was never in town. So I went down a half hour before the other guy, spoke to the boss, told him what happened and he hired me on the spot.

WWD: And after that?
J.G.: I went to the Garland sweater company out of Brockton, Mass., worked my way up there, was promoted a number of times. Then I was hired by Norton McNaughton and was a president for one of the juniors divisions. Then Cherokee called me, and I went there. But after about two months, they brought in a boss over me, so I called my boss and said, “Listen, either you get rid of him or you get rid of me. It’s not that I don’t like him, but he’s not qualified for this job.” He said, “OK, but you have to live in L.A.” I said, “I can be there Monday.” This was Friday. So I told my wife: “we’re going to L.A.,” and I was there on Monday.

WWD: So that’s where you got into the jeans business.
J.G.: Yes, but I didn’t know anything about it. Someone would come into the showroom and talk about 10-ounce denim and I had no idea what they were talking about. But I figured it out. Actually, on my first day, a number of people resigned, not because of me, but because they wanted the job. And my boss called me and said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “Well, six people resigned and you hired me and got three. All we need to do is find three more.”

WWD: How long did you stay at Cherokee?
J.G.: I got a call around six or seven years later from Herbert Mines [the executive search firm] who wanted me to meet Isaac Dabah. I said, “I’m happy, I’m in L.A., the sun’s out every day, my wife loves it.” But I agreed to meet Isaac in New York. And it took about a year and a half, but he said, “I want you to come here.” So I told my wife: “we’re moving to New York.” I called 20 people and 19 told me I was out of my mind. One person told me it was probably the best move I ever made in my life. I listened to that one person and went to work for Gitano Group.

WWD: When was this?
J.G.: It was 1992. Six months after I started, I picked up Women’s Wear Daily and read: Gitano Files Chapter 11. I called Isaac and said, “What the hell is going on?” He said, “We’re not involved anymore.” Then the banks came in and they took a liking to me, and they kept giving me more responsibility. Gitano was gone, but eventually, with Isaac and his family, we were able to acquire the business from bankruptcy and we renamed it the Gloria Vanderbilt Apparel Corp. That was Aug. 2, 1993, so 32 years ago.

WWD: I read that Gloria Vanderbilt launched her jeans line in 1976 with Mohan Murjani and sold the rights to Gitano Group in 1988 for $15 million. She’s credited with starting the designer jean craze, but after selling it to Gitano, wasn’t really involved in the business anymore. Why did you want it?
J.G.: It was an amazing time. We had no business to speak of but we basically put it into every retailer, and Gloria Vanderbilt took off. Then in 1996 we had some difficulty, and I sat with Isaac, and he said, “What should we do?” And I said: “We’re going to make the best jean in America.” That was the Amanda jean and from that point on, business started to accelerate. Then in 2001 Isaac came to me and said he wanted to sell the company. I didn’t have a choice, so we sold it in 2002 to Jones Apparel Group for $138 million.

WWD: So now you’re working for Jones.
J.G.: Yes. It was just Gloria Vanderbilt back then but I was looking through their portfolio and saw Nine West, Bandolino and said, “Let us do the jeans.” Eventually they acquiesced and let us do all the brands. So we expanded from just being a one brand company into a multibrand company. They had also bought L.e.i. and it started to go downhill so they came to me and asked me to take it over. After nine months, I went to them, and I said, “You have a problem. The business is shrinking. I would like to take it to Walmart.” They looked at me like I was out of my mind but I said it was the right thing to do. So they said, “OK, go to Walmart and see if they’re interested.” So I went with two brands and started with the one I knew they wouldn’t take. I said, “I’ll give you Glow by Gloria Vanderbilt.” They said, “No, we want L.e.i.” I said, “Let me think about it, and I’ll get back to you.” I got to the elevator and called Wes Card, who was the chairman of Jones at the time, and I said, “Wes, they’re going to put it in.” He said, “How big is it going to be?” I said, “I think it’s going to be substantial.” So they put it in the first orders and I got a call from customer service. They said, “Jack, there’s something wrong with the computer systems. We got these massive orders for millions of units. Do you know anything about it?” I said, “It’s not wrong. That’s what the order is.”  

WWD: Rumor is you tried to get Carrie Underwood to be the face of L.e.i. back in the day.
J.G.: I wanted to get her but she wanted $5 million. But somebody said there was this other young lady we should look at, she’s very, very good and we think she’s going to be somebody. That was Taylor Swift. She came here with her mother and father and she was the face of L.e.i. at Walmart in 2008.

WWD: You also have a partnership with Jessica Simpson.
J.G.: In 2010, I went to Wes Card and said, “I want to go after Jessica Simpson. I see the shoes everywhere.” He said: “No way am I going to go and give money to Vince Camuto, he’s our competitor.” But I said, “Wes, one thing has nothing to do with the other.” So I went to his office, took him by the hand and we went to Vince’s office and told him what I wanted to do. We got to the elevator and Vince said, “Go ahead and do it.” Jessica Simpson was really game-changing for us because it took us from being a moderate-type company to one that was younger in attitude, and that has really helped us over the years. I owe a lot to her, her mother — the whole family. They really are partners in every sense of the word. And Vince would call me every Sunday and ask about business. I’ll never forget — I called him when he was in the hospital, and he didn’t tell me he was dying, but he basically said, I’ll have dinner with you in January, knowing that he wasn’t going to make it to January. The day he died, I got a book that was signed by him probably two days earlier.

WWD: You also have a brand with Sofía Vergara.
J.G.: Somebody came to me and said, “You did a good job with Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift, we’d like you to do Sofía Vergara.” So we did that at Walmart — that was eight years ago. I’ve been very fortunate: all the celebrities that I’ve dealt with have been extremely good, no prima donnas. They trusted us. They knew that we would always do the right thing for the brand. We’ve always operated with the highest level of integrity.

WWD: In addition to your celebrity brands, do you also do private label?
J.G.: Yes, we also went after the private label business because I was concerned about competitors to our brands. Everybody said private label is a low-margin business. But I said, “If you have a competitor across from you that basically can interpret from your brands, why not be the one that controls it?” That’s how the private label entity started and we did it for many retailers.

WWD: When did you finally leave Jones?
J.G.: Jones was sold to Sycamore in 2014 and Jones Jeanswear, which counted Gloria Vanderbilt Apparel Co. as one of its divisions, was separated into its own entity and renamed One Jeanswear Group under the Nine West Holdings umbrella. I worked for Stefan Kaluzny, who was one of the toughest people I ever worked for in my life, but I respected him immensely — he’s as smart as they come. The first meeting I had with him I had a thick deck and he said, “I don’t need this book. All I want to know is how much business are you going to do and how are you going to grow the company? And don’t show me any more of these decks.” That was my first meeting but from that day, I loved him. He was tough, and he would cross-examine me like I’d never experienced, but he was amazing.

WWD: Then you were hit with another bankruptcy, is that right?
J.G.: In 2017, Nine West Holdings filed Chapter 11. It wasn’t our division that was responsible for the bankruptcy but when we came out of bankruptcy a year later, Nine West and Bandolino were sold to Authentic Brands Group and the remaining business was renamed Premier Brands Group Holdings.

WWD: And that’s who owns you now. How has that relationship been working?
J.G.: Well, we kept moving along and then COVID hit. It was a challenging period that required pivoting and navigating through uncertainty. I woke up and said: “We’ve got to go to the lower distribution because that’s where the customer is going to go. The other stores aren’t open. The other stores are not paying. They’re shutting their doors.” So we concentrated on the Costcos, the Walmarts and Sam’s and all those stores that had groceries. That’s how we survived. And we were actually profitable when most companies were not during COVID. We also started to do a big business with QVC with multiple brands there.

WWD: Costco has always been controversial in fashion — it represents big volume, but is also polarizing because of its price points.
J.G.: In the beginning, I said to Isaac: “We’re going to sell Costco.” He said, “You’re going to kill the brand.” I said, “It’s going to be the future.” He said, “Don’t do it.” I went anyhow and told them, “Give me 50,000 units and if it doesn’t sell in eight weeks, I’ll take it back.” I came back to the office said to Isaac, “They’re giving us 50,000 units.” He said, “I told you not to sell them.” And I said, “Give me eight weeks. But if it doesn’t sell, we’re going to have to take it back.” Well, I thought he was going to fire me on the spot, but eight weeks later, they called me and said they needed 400,000 units. And that’s how we started with Costco.

WWD: Today you own several brands, and also license brands. How does that break down?
J.G.: We have Gloria Vanderbilt, which I call the mother of our company, Vintage America, L.e.i., and the rest are licensed: Nine West, Bandolino, Jessica Simpson.

WWD: Why is now the right time for you to retire?
J.G.: OJG is still a sizable company and I’m looking for what’s the next chapter of my life. I’ve worked my tail off here for 32 years but these past couple years with the tariffs and everything else.…I’m not waving a white flag, but sometimes fresh eyes are better. I’m responsible for 500 people and their families, and I want to make sure the company is able to move in the right direction. When I go to sleep at night, I don’t think about my family, I think about those 500 people. We have a warehouse with 275 people and they rely on this company. It’s one of the biggest employers in the South Hill, Va., area so I want to make sure that we perpetuate and grow. And I felt it was good to bring in somebody that would be beneficial to the company.

WWD: What are you going to do when you don’t have to come to Seventh Avenue every day?
J.G.: I’m overwhelmed with the calls that I’ve gotten since people found out I’m retiring, and I’m touched by it. You don’t realize in life the people you impact, whether it’s a retailer, an employee, a maker, until you get these cards and emails and texts. Sometimes I was aggressive but they knew I was always passionate and wanted to do the right thing for the company, and it was nothing other than that.

WWD: Are you going to go back to the L.A. sunshine?
J.G.: No, I have two grandkids: one is five months old and the other is 14 months. One is named Jack after me, so I want to spend a lot of time with them. And they’re here. My wife, Barbara, deserves a medal. We have twin boys and when they came home from the hospital, I had a major meeting with Mervyn’s that I had to be at. My wife was standing there holding the two boys, and I said, “I’m sorry. I’ve got to leave tomorrow.” I got one of our employees to stay overnight with them, but she’s a saint and is really the glue that holds my entire family together.

WWD: Are your sons in the apparel industry?
J.G.: One son, Jordan, is head of sales and merchandising at Herman Kay, licensee of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger outerwear, and my other son, Zach, is director of sales for Seven For All Mankind. And by the way, they did it all themselves. They saw the way I worked. I wasn’t the smartest, but I worked harder than everybody else, and they followed that. They have that work ethic, and they’re smart, they’re product-centric, they’re financially astute. We’re very proud of them.

WWD: Talk to me a little bit about how the business has changed in all these years.
J.G.: The biggest change is systems and e-comm. One of the regrets I have is that we haven’t been able to get in front of the e-comm business — we were definitely more focused on B2B. So in hindsight, I would been more aggressive with brands like Gloria Vanderbilt. Her 50th birthday anniversary is coming up next year and that’s going to be a very big thing. That was one of the first designer/premium brands of its era, along with Jordache and people of that ilk. Then it basically lost its way. Fortunately, we were able to acquire it, but the amount of money that we spent on marketing compared to our competitors was negligible, and yet, the brand maintained its presence. If you speak to Circana, we are in the top three as far as market share, along with Levi’s and Lee and Gloria Vanderbilt has the top share in the petites and plus-size business. The Amanda jean has sold god knows how many millions since its inception. And it really has a lot of staying power. We sell just about every retailer, from Macy’s to Belk to the off-price and club channel. That’s very unusual. It’s considered a real national brand, even though we didn’t invest as much as I would have liked, because we were under siege a lot.

WWD: Yes, you went through several bankruptcies and ownership changes.
J.G.: It was considered a premium brand at that time and now it’s a moderate brand. Before tariffs it sold for anywhere between $48 and $58 and we’re going up a bit, but it’s still very digestible for the consumer.

WWD: The retail channel is challenged as well but you’re still doing well, even though you sell more midtier and mass market stores.

J.G.: I believe what happened in 2008 is going to happen now: the downstreaming of America as far as price points are concerned, because the costs of things are going up. During the recession of 2008 we saw a lot of downstreaming, and we benefited from that. Today, I believe the customer will gravitate to some of the mainstream department stores, the clubs, and the off-price channel. So for us, I call it dancing at all the weddings. In my mind, there are maybe a dozen retailers to sell in the United States and six to eight represent 70 percent of that business. So that’s where we’re focused.

WWD: Looking back at your career, is there anyone you would consider a mentor?
J.G.: I would say Isaac Dabah was probably my biggest mentor, and Morris [Tbeile, CEO of Premier Brands Group Holdings]. I’ve been working with Morris the last five years, and he is a good partner, good boss, communicative, fair, honest and I have nothing but the highest regard for that. But Isaac would be number one. And also John Pomerantz. I worked for him from 1976 to 1983. I went in to resign to go take another job, and John was sitting there with his father, and said, “Why are you leaving?” I said it was for more money. So he took a personal checkbook out of his desk and wrote a check to me. I got choked up and just sat there. Then I took the check and ripped it up. That was probably one of the dumbest things I ever did.

WWD: I guess that depends on how big the check was.
J.G.: It was substantial, but I swear on my life, that’s a true story. He and his father just looked at me and I’m sure they were saying, “Is this kid stupid?” I’ve been fortunate to have been able to work for many powerhouses in the industry, whether it was Maury Saltzman [of Bobbie Brooks], John Pomerantz and his father Fred [from Leslie Fay], Bobby Margolis [of Cherokee], but Isaac was really responsible for my career. He helped me immensely. It was really a match made in heaven. He knew the back end of the business. I knew the front end, and then he taught me the back end — I owe a lot to him.

WWD: Are you going to be involved at One Jeanswear at all going forward?
J.G.: They want me to stay for the balance of this year, and then consult. I owe my life to this company — to the people of this company. I will do whatever it takes to ensure its success.

WWD: Is it hard to think about not going to work every day?
J.G.: I just want to take a deep breath — but like Snoop Dogg said, you don’t stop till the casket drops.

One Jeanswear Group’s Favorite ‘Jack-isms’

Jack Gross is so quotable that the team at One Jeanswear Group has been known to have some of his most famous sayings printed on sweatshirts that they wear around the office.

Here’s a list of a few of their favorite “Jack-isms.”