Bugle Boy Industries, Inc. was a clothing company founded by Vincent Nesi and William Mow in 1977. It is best known for its namesake brand of denim jeans that were popular in the 1980s. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001. Mr. Nesi was in charge of all operations, production, and design.

History

William C. W. Mow (

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

: 毛昭寰) was born in

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

, China, and later moved with his family to the United States. He graduated from

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in 1959 and then earned an MSEE from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

in 1967. He worked for Litton Industries for two years before venturing out on his own. Mow founded Macrodata based on his invention of a method of testing large-scale integrated chips and the company went public in 1973. Around 1976, Mow sold his shares and left the company due to an investigation by the SEC. Although he was later cleared, he had to stay out of the electronics design industry for a few years due to a non-competition clause he had signed with Macrodata. In 1977, Mow founded Bugle Boy Industries. During the 1980s, the company enjoyed continued growth. Sales approached $1 billion, making Bugle Boy one of the largest privately owned apparel companies in the United States, but the company fell into troubled times in 2001, declared bankruptcy, and was sold that year for $68.6 million. The Bugle Boy brand was purchased in 2001 by Schottenstein Stores Corp., owner of

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and several retail chains. Bugle Boy featured men's and boys' clothing, often with a denim theme. Elastic cuffs at the bottom of the jeans and cross-stitching patterns were also a major part of the Bugle Boy style, with brands such as Pilot and Cotler being its contemporaries. They also popularized parachute pants during the breakdancing fad of the early 80s, in a line called Countdown. Bugle Boy also produced men's and boys' tops, but was best known for its varieties of jeans and jean shorts. In 2001, Bugle Boy closed all 215 of its U.S. outlet stores in an agreement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. All the operation centers in China, Taiwan, Singapore were also closed. Their store at Gurnee Mills remained open to sell off remaining inventory. As of 2018, the Bugle Boy brand is no longer in use.

References

External links

2001 Asian Week article on the rise and fall of Bugle Boy
Jeans by brand Clothing companies established in 1977 1980s fashion 1990s fashion 1977 establishments in California Companies disestablished in 2001 2001 disestablishments in California {{clothing-stub