Retrieve the Hounds

Michael Baker, the owner of Houndstooth Clothing Co. of Fayetteville, has pulled his T-shirt and casual clothing line from about 50 J.C. Penney stores across the country. Baker says he didn’t like the placement his clothing was getting in the large department stores. Baker began supplying his clothing line to J.C. Penney in October 1997.

Pel Industries of Rogers — the company that has agreed to manufacture, market and sell Houndstooth Clothing to department stores nationwide — had planned to have the Houndstooth Clothing line in another 50 J.C. Penney stores by the end of the first quarter of 1998, but the deal was called off before then.

“We basically decided to end the deal, or cease execution of the deal,” says Chris O’Neal, general manager of Houndstooth Clothing Co. “To us, it wasn’t about selling product. When you are trying to build a brand, you have to do that in the right way.”

Last year, Baker said the deal with Pel Industries could bring in at least $2 million for his company the first year. Houndstooth was to receive a percentage of wholesale sales from Pel Industries.

Baker also said Houndstooth was expected to bring in about $750,000 in gross sales for 1997. O’Neal wouldn’t confirm those figures but says 1998 should see sales increase by 50 percent and earnings increase by 100 percent.

In addition to the store in downtown Fayetteville, Houndstooth clothing is also sold at kiosks in malls in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and North Little Rock. The company plans to open two additional kiosks: one at Bartons Creek Square in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 12, and one in Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa on Oct. 1.

Baker’s designs often feature sporting figures with designs that hark back to the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.