The History of the Parasuco Brand

Rebecca Brayton: There aren’t many denim houses that can say they’ve been around for 30 plus years. Hi I'm Rebecca Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re learning more about denim legend Parasuco. So if you could just kind of outline the history of Parasuco brand. Salvatore Parasuco: In 1972, I was 19, I opened my first store and I had no money to do adverstising. And in 1975, we started a jean company called Santana Jeans out frustration because some of our suppliers were not making anything interesting. I always like making stuff, developing stuff and it’s grown from there. I think the first two, we did something like $2000.00 in business. We’re working out of our house, shipping from our house and we became one of the first brands of Canada that became international. Parasuco started in 1988 because in 1988, we wanted to start selling to the US but since we were not very educated have copied our name Santana Jeans, so my staff pushed me to use my family name Parasuco. I was a little bit reluctant because when I was being immigrant in school, the kids were laughing at my name, but now I sit on a lot of people’s butts, so I got my revenge. We developed the stretched denims since 1976. We developed black over dyed denim since 1987. We were the first to do denim dresses. We have a very proud history and next year, we’ll be 35 years in business. Not many people can say that. Rebecca Brayton: Now, is there one model that the Parasuco brand is kind of appropriate and make their own? Salvatore Parasuco: Not necessarily one model but we’re very very well known for our stretch and you’ll see people every time they touch our jean, they automatically do this. You know, like it’s an accordion or something because we were the first in the world to advertise stretch. That’s also what’s great about our company is that our stuff from the 70’s and 80’s still looks good. Rebecca Brayton: Is it difficult to stay current because it seems like it would be difficult to keep reinventing the jean? Salvatore Parasuco: I still like what I do. I'm still on the lookout for new things. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with something new but sometimes it’s not necessarily coming up with something new but a different way to do it. There’s many factors to think about. There’s comfort, there’s cost value. You will go to the big guys and pay a thousand dollars for a pair of jeans but I got to give you something great for $120.00 or $110.00. Rebecca Brayton: If you could outline the fall winter 2009 line for us. Salvatore Parasuco: It’s a lifestyle. We got stuff for everyday living, to make you look very interesting, to make you look sexy, to make you feel good. If you don’t want to feel sexy, you can still feel comfortable because sometimes, it’s painful to look sexy. We don’t really follow trends, you know, we sort of create our trends. We look at ourselves, our people, our customers, what they like, what they don’t like, what they need, why they need it. And you know, I’m also considering the economy situation. We sell to a lot of stores and those stores have to make money, so we have to listen to what they need. So in the sense, it’s a big balancing act because it’s not just we’re going to do a fashion show and oh, I got inspired by some guy living an igloo. No, that’s not what it is. We got inspired by real people, everyday situations, everyday financial restraints but that doesn’t mean you cannot offer quality. I tell a lot of people maybe I don’t have $300.00 to go to a fancy restaurant but I know where you great sandwich for five bucks. Rebecca Brayton: Thank you very much. Salvatore Parasuco: My pleasure. Thank you.