Croc O' Shirt was a line of apparel marketed by Mad Dog Productions, mocking the Lacoste shirts in the early 1980s. The brand's name was a pun on the phrase "crock of shit" and its logo was a deceased Lacoste crocodile lying on its back.
Croc O' Shirt was introduced in late 1980. [1] As Mad Dog Productions CEO Barry Gottlieb put it, Richmond, Virginia, where he was based, [2] "...was 'the heart of prepdom.' 'First, there were Izod shirts,' he says. 'Then you were seeing the alligator on socks and pants and belts, just everywhere. One day I was sitting in a bar with my girlfriend, and I said, 'You know what I'd like, a shirt with a dead alligator on it.'" [3]
Sold primarily through mail order, the shirts were a hit with "anti-preppies," [1] with reported sales in 1983 of $300,000. [4] In 1982, Lacoste filed suit against Mad Dog Productions, claiming trademark infringement. [1] The lawsuit garnered publicity worldwide. [4] The suit was eventually settled out of court, allowing Mad Dog Productions to sell the shirts for another year, through July 16, 1984. [5] In the end, Gottlieb sold 90,000 Croc O' Shirts at $14.45 each, [3] for a total of $1,300,500 in gross revenue.
Mad Dog Productions went on to release other novelty items:
In the 1980s, Mad Dog Productions also managed a few Richmond-area new wave music bands, including Suzy Saxon and the Anglos. [9] [3] Gottlieb's label Brat Records released the group's debut album, Guilt by Association in 1984, [10] as well as a couple of follow-up albums. [11]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gottlieb organized the annual "Richmond's Tacky Xmas Decoration Contest and Grand Highly Illuminated House Tour," which was covered by, among others, NPR and Bravo. [12]
Beginning in 1995, after moving to San Francisco, [12] Gottlieb became a published humorist, writing a weekly column, Doing It Doggy Style, which was published in such newspapers as the San Francisco Chronicle , the San Francisco Examiner , the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News , and the Boston Phoenix , His audio commentaries were aired on the Pacifica Radio Network. [13]
Gottlieb has published a number of books, including:
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