Harvard University Reportedly Licenses Brand for Preppy Clothing Line
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Is that Harvard you're wearing?
Students at the Massachusetts school might soon be asking their co-ed counterparts that question — now that the Ivy League institution approved a new line of expensive preppy clothes to reap funds for its undergraduate financial program, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Clothing manufacturer Wearwolf Group announced last week that it recently licensed Harvard University's trademarked phrase "Harvard Yard" for the clothing line for 10 years in a partnership with Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents the school and brokered the arrangement, Collegiate Licensing Senior Vice President Kit Walsh told the paper.
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Financial terms were not disclosed, although Walsh said the university will be paid in royalties.
Inspired by photographs of Harvard students during the 1950s and '60s, the preppy clothing line will feature menswear, ranging from $160 for shirts and up to $495 for sport coats.
Products for women and children are also planned, the Crimson reports.
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"Harvard is the ideal — the pinnacle," Wearwolf Executive Vice President Jeffrey Wolf told Bloomberg. "When you think of modern prep, you think of New England and the Northeast. You think campus, quad, and you think Harvard."
The clothes will not bear a university logo or shield, but will include crimson trim as well as the "Harvard Yard" brand name.
News of the deal caused some critics to question the move, including a member of Harvard's men's polo team.
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"I think it's going to be bad for Harvard's image," J.P. Stilz told the Crimson. "We already have an image that all of our students are aristocratic, preppy bastards, frankly. So as an undergraduate student I'm kind of taken aback a little bit that that's going to be happening, and I almost want to laugh at it."