Duck Head is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

name for

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

and

shoes A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. First registered as a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

in the late 19th century, the name has been used by several different manufacturers and retailers of apparel, primarily in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Duck Head apparel had a period of great popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s.

History

O'Bryan Manufacturing

The Duck Head brand was founded in 1865 in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

by George and Joe O'Bryan, two brothers who were buying surplus

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

tent material. The material was a heavy

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

known as "duck", and the brothers began making work pants and shirts out of the strong material. Their company became known as the O’Bryan Brothers Manufacturing Company. The brothers sought to register the name "Duck" as a

in 1892, but the U.S. Trademark Registration Office rejected their application because the term was in general use. They registered the trademark "Duck Head" instead. The company operated into the late 20th century, producing work clothing such as

overalls Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

and

denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been pr ...

jackets under the Duck Head brand. In 1978, David Baseheart, the O'Bryan Company's young, energetic sales director, developed an idea that quickly converted Duck Head into a fashionable brand.Steve Goldberg (Cox News Service)
Duck Head bottom line covers U.S.
'' Wilmington Star'', May 29, 1990. Baseheart fashioned a shipment of cotton

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...

fabric into dress pants, applied the

mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

logo to a bright yellow tag on the back of the pants, and went on the road to sell them, visiting first the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

campus bookstore where he sold his first batch of the new Duck Head khakis. The pants sold out quickly, and a new

southern U.S. The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

trend was born. Soon, and throughout the 1980s, Duck Head khakis were standard in Southern fashion, leading a writer for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine to observe some years later: "For a preppy southern college guy in the 1980s, Duck Head Apparel khakis were as indispensable as a pair of worn Topsiders and a pink Polo shirt."Eileen Glanton
Duck Soup
''

'', November 13, 2000.

Delta Woodside Industries and Tropical Sportswear International

In 1989, the brand was purchased by Delta Woodside Industries in an attempt to create a national brand. The Duck Head brand was very successful for Delta Woodside in the early 1990s.Delta Woodside Industries, Inc.
''International Directory of Company Histories'', Vol. 30. St. James Press, 2000. Retrieved from FundingUniverse.com website, October 23, 2010. The Duck Head product line had been limited to casual

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

pants Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dr ...

for men, but Delta Woodside expanded it by adding woven and knit

shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. I ...

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the human pelvis, pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" b ...

, and women's clothing to the Duck Head brand product line. During the company's 1992

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

, gross sales revenue from Duck Head clothing totaled more than $130 million. In the following years, however, the brand's popularity declined and Delta Woodside experienced financial losses, and in 1999, the company spun off Duck Head Apparel in an attempt to save the company. Tropical Sportswear International bought the Duck Head Apparel company in 2001, but went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...

in 2005.

Shoes

Duck Head Shoes began being produced in the 1990s by Old Dominion Footwear of

Madison Heights, Virginia Madison Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. The population was 10,893 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Fort Riverview (44AH91 and 44AH195), ...

.Gregory J. Gilligan
Relaunching Duck Head
''

Richmond Times-Dispatch The ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'' (''RTD'' or ''TD'' for short) is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and the primary newspaper of record for the state of Virginia. Circulation The ''Times-Dispatc ...

'', April 19, 2010

Goody's Family Clothing

In 2003,

Goody's Family Clothing Goody's Family Clothing Inc. was an American chain of department stores, owned and operated by Stage Stores and headquartered in Houston, TX. It specialized in retailing on-trend apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares. It wa ...

purchased rights to the Duck Head clothing brand for $4.1 million and made it into a

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

brand, sold exclusively at Goody's stores. Sales of Duck Head branded clothing totaled more than $97 million in 2004, the last year when Goody's was a publicly traded company required to disclose financial information.

Prospect Brands Ownership

After Goody's underwent

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

in 2008 and then liquidated and closed all of its stores under a

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code) governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States, in contrast to Chapters 11 and 13, which govern the process of ''reorganization'' of a debtor. ...

filing in 2009, the Duck Head brand was put up for sale by Streambank LLC. Streambank sold the brand at

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

in 2009, for a reported price of $2.65 million. It was purchased by a business group headed by

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

retailer Ross Sternheimer, who outbid

Perry Ellis International Perry Ellis International is an American clothing, fashion, cosmetics and beauty company that includes a portfolio of brands distributed through multiple channels worldwide. The company focuses primarily on sportswear and casual clothing for nic ...

. The acquiring business established Duck Head USA, based in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, and announced plans to expand the Duck Head brand into a full line of men's, women's and children's apparel and accessories to be sold through various retailers. Prospect Brands LLC has announced it purchased the Duck Head brand from the Richmond group and the brand will be relaunched and based in downtown

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

. Greensboro is also home to apparel giant Kontour (spun out from VF Corporation) which owns brands such as Lee and

Wrangler Jeans Wrangler is an American manufacturer of jeans and other clothing items, particularly workwear. The brand is owned by Kontoor Brands Inc., which also owns Lee. Its headquarters is in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, in the United States, wi ...

.History of the Brand
, Duck Head International LLC website, accessed October 23, 2010

Current Ownership

The Lanier Apparel Division of Oxford Industries (NYSE: OXM) based in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

acquired the Duck Head brand in 2016. The initial re-launch was primarily online, with chinos, sport shirts and t-shirts available for purchase directly from the company. In March 2018, Bill Thomas, founder of menswear brand Bill’s Khakis, was announced by Oxford Industries as the Brand Director of Duck Head.

Current Media

Duck Head started getting online attention by American comedian, actor and influencer, Wayne Colley, better known as Kountry Wayne in May 2023. The comedian has been seen wearing Duck Head apparel and bragging about how he'd rather wear the brand over foreign designers in his viral social media videos.

References

{{reflist

External links

Duck Head Footwear

Duck Head International LLC
American companies established in 1865 Clothing brands of the United States Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee 1865 establishments in Tennessee 1980s fashion 1990s fashion