PRPS Hits the Reset Button with Archival and Sustainable Designs

After several false starts, new designers and creative directions , PRPS is getting back into its groove.

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The brand’s new outlook is the result of a “rebuilding stage” of fine-tuning fits and upgrading and expanding fabrications while finding ways to honor its past, according to Matt Atkinson, PRPS president.

“The brand lost a little integrity,” he said. “You wouldn’t even recognize us now. I basically cleaned house, pushed reset and brought on new sales and design teams.”

Owned by O5 Apparel, formerly known as Oved Five Star Apparel, the men’s denim brand benefits from a deep stock of industry knowledge and expertise. However, it lost its identity following founder Donwan Harrell ’s exit from the brand in 2018. Though Harrell established PRPS as a Japanese selvedge denim brand and during the 2010s garnered an A-list clientele that included David Beckham, Keanu Reeves, Jay Z and more, Atkinson said new designers floundered or went too heavy into streetwear.

“It’s been a roller coaster ride,” he said.

A trio of Los Angeles-based designers is driving PRPS’s new success. Atkinson is also supported by teams in Hong Kong and New York. He brought some denim manufacturing back to L.A. in addition to Dubai and Hong Kong. Compared to Harrell’s days, the brand is sourcing fabric from a wider map of countries. Fabrics come from Japan, India, Italy, Taiwan and Turkey.

“We have a lot of newness,” Atkinson said, adding that shearling jackets, knits, leather and jacquard fabrics are on deck for fall and holiday. Straight jeans are dominating the brand’s fit line-up but there’s traction with relaxed and baggy, including Barracuda, a fit pulled from PRPS’s archives.

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Specs for its T-shirts have also changed. “We used to run like the 30s single jersey fabric—those are nice fabrics, but now we’ve gone to a much heavier fabric weight and blown out the silhouette so it’s a bigger, boxier, oversized body,” he said.

Focused on clean washes, PRPS’s basics collection is also its most sustainable product line. With an opening price point of $180, the jeans are made with recycled denim and washed and finished with Jeanologia’s eco-friendly technologies such as laser. Apple skin labels and biodegradable packaging complete the package. “We wanted to make sure that the washes were a [foundation] for our specialty store retail partners,” Atkinson said.

Though newness is driving new consumers to the brand, PRPS is also reconnecting with long-time fans through an archive collection. Each season PRPS releases a small run on a dozen styles from the height of its popularity in the 2010s. “Those products are one and done so it’s fun to see guys chase it,” Atkinson said.

PRPS’s new path is resonating with the market. “Our sales at department stores this summer have been up 30-40 percent, in some cases on 20 percent less inventory. The AURs are up, so it’s good” Atkinson said. “It’s a completely different brand that used to be and consumers and retailers are embracing it.”

The brand is stocked at Hush in Englewood, N.J., Halls in Kansas City as well as Saks Fifth Avenue. Neiman Marcus in Las Vegas is the brand’s No. 1 store, Atkinson said. Last fall, the department store had a successful run with special products geared toward Formula 1 fans in town for the first Grand Prix. Atkinson added that the brand has distributors lined up to expand in Canada and Europe next year.

“The crystal ball for 2025 looks really great for us,” he said.

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