Wet Seal

Hilco Streambank’s Role

Wet Seal retained Hilco Streambank as its agent to market and sell its intellectual property assets, including its brands, trademarks, domain names, an e-commerce platform, and customer data.

The Brand

For over 50 years, Wet Seal has been a favorite shopping destination for teen girls and young women looking for trendy fashion at affordable prices. At its peak, Wet Seal operated over 500 stores across malls located in the United States and Puerto Rico and an e-commerce platform, with sales over $500 million. In addition to the Wet Seal brand, the company operated a mall-based chain of stores under the Arden B brand, which featured  club wear.  In 2017, Wet Seal filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than 5 years.

Hilco Streambank Closed the Deal

The Wet Seal offering generated a great deal of interest, culminating in an auction at which there were more than 20 rounds of bidding. The auction concluded with Gordon Brothers Brands, LLC purchasing the Wet Seal intellectual property portfolio for $3 million.