Brandtree

Authentic Brands: brands it owns and its ownership tree

Authentic Brands is a privately held company headquartered in New York, New York, United States that owns 6 consumer brands, and has 7 recorded transactions.[1]

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.

Company facts

Legal name
Authentic Brands Group LLC
Type
privately held company · see all privately held company owners
Headquarters
🇺🇸 New York, New York, United States
Founded
2010
Wikidata
Q4826289
Website
authentic.com
Last verified
· 4 sources

Authentic Brands in numbers

Everything Authentic Brands owns

2026

Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.

Everything Authentic Brands owns Tree of 6 brands under Authentic Brands. Authentic Brands Brooks Brothers Champion Eddie Bauer Forever 21 Nautica Reebok

Full-screen interactive tree → · Download as infographic

Brand portfolio by category

Apparel, footwear & accessories (6)

Full portfolio, 6 brands, with sources → · Competitors by shared categories →

Acquisitions by Authentic Brands

Acquisition announced

Authentic Brands acquires Lee

Kontoor Brands agreed to sell the Lee jeans brand to an affiliate of Authentic Brands Group for up to $1 billion: $750 million in cash at closing and up to $250 million more in an earnout. It would leave Kontoor with Wrangler and Helly Hansen, and put Lee with the brand-licensing group that already owns Nautica and Brooks Brothers and licenses its names to operators rather than making the clothes itself.

Value
$1bn
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Champion

Authentic Brands acquired Champion from Hanesbrands for about $1.2 billion. Champion had invented the hooded sweatshirt in the 1930s for labourers working in cold warehouses, and its reverse weave construction is still the reason the garments keep their shape.

Value
$1.2bn
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Reebok

Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group for up to about €2.1 billion, having paid €3.1 billion for it in 2006. Adidas had been unable to grow the brand in fifteen years of ownership and wrote down its value repeatedly.

Value
€2.1bn
Seller
Adidas
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Eddie Bauer

Authentic Brands acquired Eddie Bauer, the outdoor company whose founder patented the quilted down jacket in 1940 after nearly dying of hypothermia. The price was not disclosed, and the brand is licensed to operators rather than run by its owner.

Value
Undisclosed
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Brooks Brothers

Authentic Brands and Simon Property Group bought Brooks Brothers out of bankruptcy for about $325 million. The oldest clothing retailer in America, founded in 1818, had been undone by the collapse in demand for office tailoring.

Value
$325m
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Forever 21

Authentic Brands bought Forever 21 out of bankruptcy for about $81 million, jointly with the mall owners Simon Property Group and Brookfield. Two of its largest landlords buying the retailer was a striking arrangement: they were, in effect, buying their own tenant to keep the space occupied.

Value
$81m
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Authentic Brands acquires Nautica

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.

Value
Undisclosed
Regulatory
None recorded

Full ownership and deal history →

Authentic Brands in the global legal-entity registry

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) keeps an open register of legal entities. Each entity reports its own parents. We show it as a cross-check on the ownership recorded on this page, which is built from filings.

Legal entity identifier (LEI)
549300KVW8YK7XYOKV49
Registered name
AUTHENTIC BRANDS GROUP LLC (US)
Registration status
Issued · record updated 13 February 2026
Parent
None named: it reports that it has no parent that consolidates its accounts.
Retrieved
· GLEIF record (JSON)

Frequently asked questions

What brands does Authentic Brands own?

Authentic Brands owns 6 consumer brands tracked here, including Champion, Eddie Bauer, Forever 21, Brooks Brothers, Nautica and Reebok.

Is Authentic Brands an American company?

Yes. Authentic Brands is headquartered in New York, New York, United States and was founded in 2010.

Who owns Authentic Brands?

Authentic Brands is privately held. Authentic Brands buys trademarks rather than businesses.

What was Authentic Brands' most recent acquisition?

The most recent completed acquisition recorded here is Champion on 30 September 2024.

Sources (4) & corrections

Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.

  1. [1] Authentic Brands Group — about — Authentic Brands Group LLC, Official document; retrieved 16 September 2026.
  2. [2] Authentic Brands Group completes acquisition of Brooks Brothers — Authentic Brands Group LLC, Official press release, published 30 September 2020; retrieved 16 September 2026. This link no longer opens the document.
  3. [3] adidas completes divestiture of Reebok — adidas AG, Official press release, published 8 March 2022; retrieved 16 September 2026.
  4. [4] Kontoor Brands, Inc. Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1 - agreement to sell Lee to Authentic Brands Group — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 8-K, published 21 May 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.

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