Jeff Lubell knew his love for altering clothing was something special when he would alter his jeans with leather and denim patches when they became ripped and torn over time. In 2002, Jeff Lubell and his then wife Kym Gold founded True Religion, with the intention to create jeans that would cause people to stop and stare.
Prior to the creation of True Religion, Lubell spent over 20 years in the textile industry before launching his own brand. He dropped two lines of jeans under the Bella Dahl and Jeffery Jeans label in the late 1990s with his wife, a designer of Bella Dahl. However, Bella Dahl Inc. fell behind on payments to creditors and was forced into bankruptcy that developed in court, later leading to Lubell being cheated out of his own brand. Following this incident, Lubell sought to create his own brand.
The explanation behind the remarkable name is that the only true religion is people, and people wore jeans. Lubell had to work hard to prove that they were a worthy competitor in the cruel retail scene, and he found success after going from store-to-store handing out products to employees to gain interest. Their jeans, professionally embroidered with the popular laughing buddha, were selling from $100 to $200, and selling in retail for around $465 dollars.
True Religion jeans quickly found their way into the hearts of many celebrities, and soon many of them would flaunt the brand. Celebrities like Madonna, Brittney Spears, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the Desperate Housewife cast paraded around in these flashy, expensive jeans. With this, the paparazzi did most of the media exposure for the brand.
Without wasting much time, seeing the potential of the brand, Lubell distributed licensing deals in Japan, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain. These global networks would make up about half of their annual sales, collecting $2.4 million in sales in 2003. In 2005, international sales made up a good chunk of the business, rendering up to $103.2 mil in sales. Their sales only tripled in 2007,$490 million, as they expanded to t-shirts, hoodies, and more outerwear. This is also the year where the founders filed for divorce.
True Religion was flying high among the elites up until society’s shift in clothing choice. As leisure wear became everyday wear, people found themselves transitioning to wearing more leggings and sweatpants, and less jeans. While other brands attempted to alter their advertising, True Religion wasn’t ready to give up on their money-making formula.
During this time, many people began to utilize e-commerce rather than going out to stores, and there was a steady rise of fast fashion and resale culture, which greatly wounded True Religion as well. Stubbornly, True Religion decided to stay focused on their stores while other brands moved to focus on e-commerce.
However, this unfortunately did not work out well because in 2012, Lubell left True Religion, and the brand was evidently lost without him. In 2013, the private equity firm TowerBrook bought True Religion for $835 million with plans to modernize the brand to attempt to revive it. They continued to focus on their stores, even though people moved to mostly online shopping.
Again, this failed and in 2017 they filed for bankruptcy. The closure of stores due to quarantine in 2020 led to the brand taking another hit and they filed for bankruptcy a second time.
As True Religion has attempted to work on their return, they began to focus on e-commerce, but still stubbornly refusing to release joggers and legging which is what most people switched to. In late 2022, 37% of True Religion’s business sales were by e-commerce. During this time the brand leaned hard into street wear and hip hop, and executed celebrity partnerships with Megan Thee Stallion and more.
