Nautica is owned by Authentic Brands (the United States), which acquired the brand on 30 April 2018 from VF Corporation.[1][2]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Authentic Brands Group — about, Authentic Brands Group LLC. Last checked .
Nautica sells nautical-themed casual clothing and was owned by VF for two decades before Authentic Brands acquired it in 2018. Its J-Class sailing logo is the element most people would recognise. Authentic Brands licenses it out rather than operating it, so the company that designs and sells Nautica clothing is not the company that owns the name.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Authentic Brands ownership tree →
See the full Authentic Brands brand portfolio (6) →
Authentic Brands controls 6 brands on Brandtree, 6 of them in apparel, footwear & accessories.
The 133 brands in casual & denim on Brandtree belong to 59 owners. The largest is Azzas 2154, with 8; Authentic Brands has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Fábula | Azzas 2154 | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| Carter's | Carter's | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Duck Head | Oxford Industries | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Cortefiel | Tendam | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| & Other Stories | H&M Group | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| Bershka | Inditex | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| GU | Fast Retailing | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| BSX | Giordano | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong |
Authentic Brands is a privately held company headquartered in New York, New York, United States, founded in 2010. Brandtree records 6 brands under its control.
Authentic Brands buys trademarks rather than businesses. It owns the names and licenses them to operators who actually make and sell the products, so a shop with its brand above the door is usually run by someone else entirely. It also owns the estates of several dead celebrities.
Authentic Brands: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Nautica is not one of them.
Authentic Brands acquired Nautica from VF Corporation, which was shedding brands to concentrate on outdoor and workwear. Authentic bought the trademark and licenses it to operators who design and sell the clothing, so the company that owns the name does not make the products.
The parent company of Nautica is Authentic Brands, a privately held company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. Nautica originated in the United States in 1983 and its owner, Authentic Brands, is also headquartered in the United States.
Authentic Brands completed its acquisition of Nautica on 30 April 2018, after announcing the deal on 30 April 2018. The price was not disclosed.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, Nautica is still owned by Authentic Brands. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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