present industry retail founded 1962 as lorne s headquarters foothill ranch california number of locations wet seal 173 june 2015 1 arden b 82 june 2011 1 blink by wet seal 3 june 2011 key people ceo melanie bordeaux cox products apparel revenue 530.1 million usd 2013 2 website www.wetseal.com wet seal headquarters in foothill ranch wet seal is a young women s clothing retailer headquartered in foothill ranch california . it carries low budget or economy priced brand name and company designed apparel and accessories . the company was founded in newport beach california by lorne huycke in 1962 as lorne s. the wet seal name comes from a comment lorne huycke made during a fashion show commenting that a model wearing a bathing suit looked like a wet seal . 3 4 the company was incorporated as wet seal in 1990 . 5 in 1995 wet seal acquired 237 contempo casuals stores from the neiman marcus group . contempo casuals would continue to use its own name until 2001 when the remaining stores were converted into wet seal stores . the company then launched the arden b. brand in november 1998 and changed most of the remaining contempo casual names to arden b. in june 2010 the blink by wet seal concept was announced . 6 as of november 22 2006 wet seal has 428 locations in 48 states and puerto rico . 7 in 2014 the company had 478 wet seal stores and 54 arden b stores . also in 2014 wet seal announced that it closed all the arden b stores by 2015 . 8 the wet seal inc. and its subsidiaries operate as a specialty retailer of apparel and accessory items for women in the united states . it operates three mall based chains of retail stores under the wet seal arden b and blink by wet seal brands . the company s wet seal stores offer apparel and accessories for teenage girls . the arden b. stores provided feminine contemporary collections of fashion separates and accessories until 2015 . blink stores focus on denim products for the same teenage girl market as wet seal but with store sizes of 1 600 square feet 150 m2 versus the 4 000 square feet 370 m2 of wet seal . 6 it also operates web based stores which include www.wetseal.com that offers wet seal merchandise ; and www.ardenb.com which offers arden b apparel and accessories . as of january 30 2010 the company operated 504 retail stores in 47 states including 424 wet seal stores and 80 arden b stores . the wet seal inc. was founded in 1962 and is based in foothill ranch california . the chain made a failed attempt to purchase county seat in 1996 . 9 wet seal typically serves the same audience and competes with forever 21 and charlotte russe . 10 in 2013 wet seal laid off 35 employees mostly at the headquarters due to competition from forever 21 in order to save 3.8 million a year . 11 in 2013 wet seal reached a 7.5 million settlement with minority plaintiffs who charged that the company directed managers to fire african american employees who they thought did not fit the company s brand image which is the armani look white blond hair and blue eyes . 12 in january 2015 due to increased competition in the teen clothing sector wet seal shuttered a number of stores despite previously indicating to employees that the outlets would stay open . employees responded to this termination procedure by posting signs in the front windows outlining the way that wet seal management communicated the closures to staff and the relatively paltry compensation received . 13 share price of the company s stock wtsl dropped to 0.06 . 14 on january 16 2015 the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the united states bankruptcy court for the central district of california . 15 16 references edit a b the wet seal inc. the wet seal inc. announces may comparable store sales increased 2.9 % . company profile for wet seal inc wtsla . retrieved 2015 01 07 . rozhon tracie 3 september 2004 . the teenage crush on wet seal stores is so over . the new york times . retrieved 14 august 2011 . the wet seal inc. corporate information . retrieved 2007 05 21 . barinka alex august 11 2012 . wet seal has attraction despite woes . the orange county register . bloomberg news . p. business 4 . a b nguyen hang june 26 2010 . wet seal debuts teen clothing chain blink . the orange county register . p. business 3 . the wet seal inc . wetsealinc.com . retrieved 23 february 2015 . wet seal to shutter arden b stores . the orange county register . april 26 2014 . p. business 1 . wet seal offers to buy 508 county seat stores . the new york times . 13 december 1996 . retrieved 13 august 2011 . young women s clothing brand information . retrieved 2011 12 15 . southern california public radio . wet seal posts disappointing same store sales . southern california public radio . melanie eversley usa today 9 may 2013 . wet seal settles bias suit with minority plaintiffs . usa today . retrieved 23 february 2015 . wet seal workers reveal ominous signs the company was imploding . retrieved 2015 01 06 . nasdaq wtsl . retrieved 2015 01 06 . retailer wet seal files for chapter 11 to stay afloat fox business . fox business . january 16 2015 . retrieved january 16 2015 . wet seal chapter 11 voluntary petition pdf . pacermonitor . pacermonitor . retrieved 16 may 2016 . external links edit wet seal store site wet seal corporate site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wet seal & oldid 740487318 categories clothing companies of the united statesclothing retailers of the united statesamerican companies established in 1962companies based in lake forest californiacompanies that filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 20151962 establishments in california navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa ol edit links this page was last modified on 21 september 2016 at 10 59 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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