Eisbar

The Fashion Business Incubator opened in downtown L.A. in 1999 amid much hype, its backers promising to do for apparel visionaries what tech incubators were doing for dot-coms.

A year later, the comparison seems an apt one. Tech hatcheries haven't spawned many sustainable successes, and the FBI is a long way from realizing its goal of filling downtown's empty industrial spaces with apparel designers and manufacturers.

Still, by all accounts, the FBI's first year has been a productive one.

Program's focus

Since its launch last September, the FBI has picked up 86 members and run 30 people through its program for start-up apparel businesses.

The organization runs a six-week course designed to provide fledgling apparel designers and manufacturers with some commonsense business tools, such as ways to obtain the proper licenses, marketing techniques and e-commerce development, as well as helping entrepreneurs obtain industry contacts. It also helps them find inexpensive work space in the downtown area and puts on seminars with industry panel discussions and other events.

A fourth cycle of FBI's program for startups is set to begin Sept. 12.

None of the startups formed since the incubator was founded has yet made much of a mark on the apparel scene, although the organization's directors say a handful of preexisting companies whose founders passed through the incubator's programs have grown dramatically in the time since. These include Sky David Park, Fleure de Peche, EISBAR and Hartnell. Read more...