A piece (subscription required) in The Wall Street Journal looks at luxury denim maker 7 For All Mankind's efforts to branch out into other product categories, including shoes and purses.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) acquired 7 for $775 million in August, and knows that in order to make that bet pay off, 7 will have to sell more than just jeans. To that end, the company plans to open 100 retail stores over the next five years that will sell the full line of 7 products.

Just like when country singers try to do pop, these crossover attempts don't always work. Diesel has had tremendous success with shoes and other products, but Von Dutch has scuffled. The jury is still out on whether True Religion (NASDAQ: TRLG), 7's major rival in the luxury denim market, can have success in other categories.

True Religion and 7 are both very, very "cool" brands, and they seem likely to have at least some success in their expansion efforts. But there's another clothier looking to sell new products that I think is very likely to fail: Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX). As popular as the "shoes" are, the brand just isn't particularly well thought of, and has a very high probability of being a one-hit wonder. Hip consumers will likely be willing to given 7 shoes a try, but does anyone really want a Crocs jacket?

Can luxury clothier 7 For All Mankind cross over? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) has made 2 big acquisitions. It spend $775 million to acquire 7 For All Mankind, a privately-held leader in the booming premium denim market, and another $110 million to acquire Lucy, a make of women's activewear.

The moves are consistent with the company's strategy of acquiring strong brands with high margins while divesting some of its lower margin labels. The company holds numerous household names in apparel, including Wrangler, Lee, North Face, and Nautica.

For investors, the 7 acquisition is a sign of industry faith in continued strength in the premium denim category, where $300 jeans are nothing out of the ordinary.

VF is paying about 2.5 times sales for 7, while fellow denim-leader True Religion (NASDAQ: TRLG) trades at about 3.35 times sales with a market cap of around $450 million. That company recently announced that it was concluding a review of strategic alternatives and would continue as a stand-alone company. I suspect that there was little interest on the part of prospective buyers.

The other premium denim play, which owns much, much less valuable brands, is Blue Holdings (NASDAQ: BLUE), the parent company of Antik Denim, Taverniti So Jeans, Yanuk and Faith Connexion. The stock trades at less than 1 times sales, but has a substantial debt load and it isn't profitable.

Investors should probably watch the premium denim industry from the sidelines for now.

VF buys Seven for all Mankind and Lucy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So Time Warner opened this morning at 16.93, and this afternoon it closed at 17.36, a 2.78 % gain.

2.78%. That was the change today. Not bad. Not good.

What does 2.78% gain mean, really?

Well, let's think about what a 2.78 % gain would have meant at certain moments in history.

• 1066 was the year of the Norman Conquest of England. A 2.78% gain would have meant the Normans invaded in June of 1095.
• In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittberg Cathedral. A 2.78% gain would have resulted in 97.6 Theses nailed to the door of the Wittberg Cathedral.
• Abraham Lincoln began the Gettysburg Address with the famous words, "Four score and seven years ago." (This is apparently how you say the number 87 if you are a president in the nineteenth century.) A 2.78% gain would have forced him to begin the Gettysburg Address, "Four score and 7.19 years ago."
• In 1988, the Scottish band The Proclaimers had an enormous hit with the single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". A 2.78% gain would have forced The Proclaimers to re-name that song "I'm Gonna Be (513.9 Miles)".
• Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, and Morgan Freeman all starred in the 1995 thriller Seven. A 2.78% gain would have forced the movie to be called Seven-Point-One-Nine.

  That, dear readers, is what a gain of 2.78% means.

What does 2.78 % mean? TWX closing bell report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.