Wearing Slacks With Flip Flops

From Ad Age:

The Haggar Clothing Co., a department-store pants supplier bent on becoming a lifestyle brand, has hired Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, in what it describes as an “unconventional partnership” that includes Crispin taking a minority equity position in the newly private Haggar.

Haggar was delisted from Nasdaq after an investor group, led by a pair of private-equity firms, bought the company from shareholders for $212 million. The sale was finalized on Nov. 1.
Crispin CEO Jeff Hicks described the relationship as an “agency-client convergence model” that “eliminates the noise which can exist between clients and agencies.”
“As an agency, our model is not really one that works well with one-off projects,” he said. “Our best results have come when we have empowered products to market themselves beyond paid media.”