“When I first got them, Genesis was the only store that had them in New York City. That’s why it was so exclusive,” remembers Jones. “That’s why I was really able to get it off the way I did, because no one really knew where they were at for some time. I remember Weezy [Lil Wayne] started dressing in the vein of how we were dressing. He began asking where we got certain things and eventually asked us about what kind of belts we were wearing. He took it to the next level and actually went to the B.B. Simon factory in L.A.”
Tavassoli acknowledges how foundational rappers like Jones, Wayne, and Juelz Santana were for the brand’s growth. He remembers when they all visited his factory in 2008, with each spending $54,000 on 180 belts for themselves, friends, and family. At its peak in the late 2000s, Tavassoli says B.B. Simon manufactured as many as 15,000 belts a month and the label brought in nearly $15 million in gross sales by decade’s end. But after his belts blew up, counterfeits flooded the market; gross sales were down to $2.5 million in 2011.
“By 2009, Chinese bootleggers were already making replicas and copying everything. That damaged my business for a while,” says Tavassoli. “They made belts with junk that was worth a fifth of the price. But within the last couple of years, the hip-hop community has picked up on the belts again.”
B.B Simon’s Everlasting Appeal
Hip-hop’s love for B.B. Simon has kept Tavassoli’s label relevant. It’s why Bah’s O Fresh remains a loyal stockist for the brand, in case the next hot New York rapper steps into his store looking for an attention-getting accessory. He saw it happen in 2017, when Tekashi 6ix9ine stopped by to pick up 18 different B.B. belts to shoot the music video for “Tati.” That song hyped up B.B. Simon that year, thanks to a viral hook about styling them with Robin’s jeans—a bar sampled from a 2012 New York City YouTube freestyle by the Bronx rapper Yoppy. Bah’s faith in the belts paid off. He was the only stockist selling B.B. Simon belts in New York City at the time. In recent years, he’s sold them to New York drill rappers like Kay Flock.
“To me, it’s a piece that everybody loves but not everyone can get because of the money,” says Bah. “You either have money or are on the level of becoming a famous artist. Right now, the people who come in and buy it are those who really fuck with it.”
Tavassoli’s brand was struggling throughout the 2010s up until 6ix9ine re-introduced the brand to a new generation of hip-hop fans. In recent years, plenty of mainstream rappers outside of New York have also kept B.B. Simon’s momentum going. Post Malone commissioned Tavassoli to craft a custom belt to match his Grammys red carpet look in 2019. Jack Harlow’s 2020 hit single “What’s Poppin” surged B.B. Simon’s popularity again that year due to a catchy bar about girls unfastening his B.B. belt. The Harlow co-sign did wonders for Tavassoli, who serendipitously opened a flagship in Melrose in August 2020.
“Within two months of opening, we sold over 4,000 belts in-store and made $1.5 million through in-store revenue,” shares Tavassoli. “We got six times more orders online that year.”
When Ice Spice donned two B.B. Simon belts in her music video for “In Ha Mood” last year, Tavassoli saw interest in B.B. Simon belts spike up again.
“It’s interesting because I always see who visits our website on the backend. When one of these rappers wears it in a music video, a concert, an Instagram post, or something, I just see the visitors jump,” says Tavassoli. “We usually have 17,000 to 18,000 visitors to our site daily. If l look at the numbers, it’s mostly traffic from the East Coast, with New York almost always being number one.”
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