Karmaloop, the popular streetwear brand has been investing in online video since they launched Karmaloop TV back in 2008. Karmaloop was founded by entrepreneur Greg Selkoe who launched the company in 2000 almost failing several times before the brand took off and became a fashion staple. Selkoe and his company recently launched a brand new KarmaloopTV (KTV), which “chronicles and celebrates the progressive cut and paste youth movement known as ‘Verge’ culture (the multi-racial, global and tech savvy alpha-consumers made up from the first generation to grow up with the internet).” We spoke to Selkoe about opting out of a traditional cable network, his guest appearance on HBO’s unfortunately short-lived How To Make It In America and his plans for the future.
Selkoe described the brand new site. “It’s way more robust – we switched from Brightcove to Ooyala and built a new player.” He also added that “we cut a bunch of advertising deals.” According to Karmaloop their videos received “70 million video views in 2011 and is projecting 350 million views in 2012.” They’ll be launching tons of original content, a huge multi-million dollar investment that includes a scripted comedy in the fall and “deals on the table with some distributers that I can’t say yet that could be on TV through ITV, connected TVs.”
But why did they decide to go after the web instead of cable TV, their original plan? “We were doing some stuff with cable – after working with those guys for two years they’re not evolving,” he explained to Lost Remote. “We were splitting our attention on what we were doing with cable and Karmaloop TV – We were talking about 2013 and they didn’t really like innovation,” he described. “We decided, we’re going to pivot completely and focus on Karmaloop TV.”
Selkoe also made a cameo appearance on HBO’s cancelled How To Make It In America, a show that has endless similarities to his own life. “I was sad it was cancelled,” he told Lost Remote. We were talking about “creating a Krisp brand,” the faux clothing line from the show.
Avoiding the bureaucratic and financial obstacles that go into launching a cable network (and being part of an unorganized linear TV guide) ended up not being worth it. They’re already working with tons of advertisers. “Red Bull is an advertisers with us, Burton Snowboards – we shot a series of shows with them and a couple of other people are in the works.” He added about their social channels that, “Karmaloop has a little over 100,000 followers, we’re going for quality not quantity.” They will also be premiering a Premium YouTube Channel at the end of July, continuing to pave the way for the future of internet video.