Retail

Will Strategic Marks bring Macy's brands back to life?

Ellia Kassoff
Luis Sinco | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Robinson's and Bamberger's might be coming back to a mall near you.

As part of a settlement, Macy's is transferring the rights to the names Robinson-May, Bamberger's, I. Magnin, Bullock's, Foley's and Jordan Marsh to Strategic Marks, according to Jim Sluzewski, senior vice president of corporate communications at Macy's.

"Macy's has retained all rights to its other heritage store brand marks," Sluzewski said in an email to CNBC on Monday, adding that all other terms of the settlement are confidential.

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Ellia Kassoff, founder of Strategic Marks, told CNBC on Monday that the company will start by launching an online retail platform called Retro Fashion Mall that will include anchor pages for all the brands the company has acquired.

"We're going to be hiring buyers that remember what made those stores successful. We want to make sure we have that experience for the customer," he said. Kassoff added that the company has a lot to accomplish, but hopes to see something in the next six to eight months.

Kassoff also told CNBC that Strategic Marks discussed restoring these names to brick-and-mortar stores with investors and mall owners in their regions, but that this plan will take some time. He hopes to reinvigorate these brands, restore their regional flavor and move away from what he called the "homogenized shopping experience."

These and other Macy's-owned brands were originally contested in court. On Feb. 1, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled in Macy's favor regarding eight of its trademarks in a dispute over Strategic Marks' sale of T-shirts that carried the branding of the disputed names. The website Consumerist reported last week that Strategic Marks acquired the names in post-judgment discussions.