The Outdoor Brand Golite, Once Bankrupt, Wants To "Recover From Death".

Once lightweight

GoLite formally went bankrupt in November last year, but its founder, Demetri Coupounas, has never given up saving the brand and has been working hard for it. Recently, he really wants to resurrect GoLite.

Although Coupounas failed to raise funds to save GoLite before bankruptcy, he later had a new way to let GoLite fans directly own the company.

To this end, he registered in Colorado a public Incorporated Company named My Trail, and in the Internet direct public offering (DPO), through the sale of preferred shares of the company hope to raise $20-140 of funds to "resurrect GoLite" brand.

At the beginning of the company's establishment, My Trail bought all the design ownership of GoLite.

At present, My Trail has raised $285 thousand.

According to the company's plan, the first 200 thousand US dollars will be invested in the production of the best selling products on GoLite, including tents, backpacks, technology jackets, running hikes, sleeping bags and accessories.

Sales platform, set up a logistics center and employ core staff at headquarters.

The rest of the money will be used to restore the production of GoLite's best seller style stores and to raise the cost and labor cost of opening the first store in Colorado.

According to the offer plan of My Trail, every investor's investment will receive an annual dividend of 10%, while enjoying a discount of 20% of the total product of the brand; if My Trail is sold to other companies with higher value, investors will get all the original investment; after 5 years, My Trail can also buy back shares.

At present, the company has raised $285 thousand, and has achieved an initial target of 200 thousand.

According to the DPO rules, the total investor limit of My Trail should not exceed 2000, the investment amount of each investor is between 1000-5000 dollars, and the price per share is 5 US dollars as reference price, but after DPO, the company should assess the price between 700 thousand and -190 million dollars.

However, the way of raising funds for My Trail is still questioned by some people. After reading the offer book carefully, you will find that no other organization or company wants to buy My Trail, and there is no guarantee that it will last 5 years.

If My Trail is still in operation in 5 years, it will be able to repurchase investor shares.

As for dividends, the company was not required to do so, nor did anyone guarantee that it would pay dividends every year.

Furthermore, what if My Trail did not succeed in the first round of operation? Coupounas responded that the new company would have higher gross margins, lower management costs, deeper exploration of leisure styles, and smaller shops in some specific markets (but there were only 4 profits in 14 GoLite stores), which will become the key to the success of My Trail.

A legal person who contacted the matter said that, according to the terms, investors may not get any dividends at the end, not to mention the return of the principal, but they can enjoy a 20% discount.

This is not worth it, or the investors themselves!

On the two nouns in the article

What is DPO:?

DPO (Direct Public Offering): that is, issuers of securities do not use or do not pass through the underwriters or investment bank companies, publish Internet information on the Internet, pmit the issuing documents through the Internet, and directly issue shares of the company.

Unlike the IPO (Initial Public Offering), DPO has cumbersome registration procedures and strict information disclosure requirements. It can make full use of the advantage of cross space provided by Internet, and directly link the listed companies with investors.

DPO first appeared in the US in 1994, when 28 small businesses raised funds by issuing shares on DPO.

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What is a public welfare legal person:

The public welfare legal person refers to the legal person who serves the purpose of public welfare.

Public interest corporations should not be profit oriented, and consumers associations and charitable foundations in social organizations are also public interest legal persons.

Once the public welfare legal person is established, its right capacity is limited to the scope of public interest stipulated in its articles of association, and it can not engage in for-profit activities, otherwise, its rights and capabilities will be deprived.

The public welfare legal person may adopt the form of corporative corporate or the form of consortium.

Review of GoLite's declining Road

In 1998, Demetri Coup and Kim Coupounas co founded the GoLite brand and launched the first batch of products at the outdoor exhibition in Salt Lake City the following year.

As its brand name implies, GoLite has devoted itself to the R & D and promotion of lightweight products since its establishment, and its products have been well received in the market.

In 2010, the brand began to build itself.

Channel - direct to consumers and e-commerce sales channels; by 2012, due to tasting the sweetness of holiday warehouse sales and electricity providers, GoLite will focus more on facing consumer channels, and quickly open shop and holiday warehouse stores across the country.

At the same time, the management of the company has also changed. Demetri Coupounas is still the chairman of the company, while the other founder, Kim Coupounas, no longer participates in the management, leaving the company at the beginning of the year to find another job.

By 2014, the number of GoLite self operated shops has reached 20, the scale is 5 times higher than that of 4 years ago, but the following business problems are highlighted and plunged into a large number of losses.

Beginning in March this year, GoLite management began to try to sell GoLite's business.

Since GoLite's trademark was sold to Timberland as early as 2006, the rest of the business was hard to sell.

The company gave an overview of investment to 60 investors, but no one expressed interest in investment until the expiry date of April 30th.

GoLite then contacted 40 individuals or institutions, including some clothing retailers. Although a company had investment intentions, it finally stopped contacting them in July.

There was no investment. In October 13th, Coupounas LLC, a GoLite affiliated company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the bankruptcy court of Colorado under the eleventh chapter of the bankruptcy law of the United States.

In October 15th, GoLite submitted documents to the court again, hoping to approve the refusal to rent 13 of 14 of its closed stores, including 4 in Colorado, 3 in Utah, 2 in Oregon, and 1 in Arizona, California, Idaho and New Mexico.

The assets and liabilities listed in GoLite's appeal are less than 10 million US dollars, including nearly 5 million dollars of its former 20 largest creditors.

The biggest creditor of the brand is a clothing company located in Hongkong, with a debt of 1 million 340 thousand dollars, others including its retail shop landlord and 6 companies in Hongkong, Korea and Taiwan.

In October 20th, GoLite submitted an urgent lawsuit to the court, asking its creditors to continue to hold the company's financing before the company was sold, so as to maintain its operation during this period.

And shortly after GoLite filed for bankruptcy protection, its trademark owner Timberland announced that it would terminate the licensing agreement with Coupounas LLC to use GoLite trademark, which is undoubtedly a plus for the company.

Subsequently, the creditor suggested that if there was no higher price buyer before November 10, the remaining assets would be handed over to the Hilco Merchant Resources LLC company, and Hilco assured GoLite that it would get at least 65% of the total cost of all goods, with an estimated value of about $78-87.75 million.

"The liquidation of creditors is not the best solution for them, and in this process, the value of a lot of" going concern "will be lost.

GoLite mentioned in the urgent litigation document.

The founders Coup and Kim hold GoLite70% and 20% respectively.

The other 10% is held by Angelyn Kongures.

In 2012, the company's sales volume was $14 million 400 thousand, $17 million 700 thousand in 2013, and sales in the first 9 months of 2014 were about $8 million 700 thousand.