American Apparel Founder Dov Charney Is Back With A New Company

It seems like just yesterday that Dov Charney was forced out of the company he founded, American Apparel. It was in 2004 however, and he’s had plenty of time since then to come up with a new career idea.

He has started a T-shirt company with some old colleagues from American Apparel and has told Business Insider that he believes his new company can hit revenue of $30 million within a year.

The name of the new brand hasn’t been revealed yet but said he’s trying to find a new T-shirt fit “for the next decade.”

He will be looking for investors from Main Street and perhaps crowdsourcing. “Certain institutional investors are scared based on — I’m not the most institutional option, you know what I mean?” said Charney. “The unpredictable nature of my business and the manner in which I carry out my affairs and my whole contrarian vision it’s not conducive to the institutional model … They’re looking for predictability, and my whole business thrives on unpredictability.”

“I’m sticking to my first principles,” he said. “I don’t believe my behavior was bad. I don’t think I was a bad person. I’m passionate. I’ll tell you how I roll — it’s a lot of work. There’s not a lot of time for play. It’s a seven-day, 365 effort. There’s a myth and there’s a reality. There’s also the reality of a man’s age, you know? I’m 47. I don’t think I could keep up with the myth even if wanted to.”