Entrepreneur
Charney's ventures were conceived in high school, when he began importing Hanes and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts across the border to Canadian friends. At Choate, he claims to have shipped as many as 10,000 shirts at a time, using a rented U-Haul truck to transport the goods.
In 1987, he enrolled at Tufts University. While at Tufts, he continued to operate his business, but dropped out by 1990 to pursue the apparel business full-time. He borrowed $10,000 from his father and moved to South Carolina to transition from importing T-shirts to manufacturing them. In 1996, Charney's company restructured when it was unable to cover its debt and filed for Chapter 11. On July 4, 1997, he went to Los Angeles. By 2003, Charney had opened his first retail store and employed over 1,300 people.
In 2004, he was named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year and Apparel Magazine's Man of the Year. In 2012, ABC News called Charney “one of the most controversial—and hyperactive—entrepreneurs in the country.
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