Mitch Modell ripped retailer’s new owner during – Business News
While the New York Knicks had been battling to win the NBA Finals earlier this month, Mitch Modell landed within the center of a testy exchange with the new owner of Modell’s Sporting Goods — capping months of failed negotiations to buy back the light retail model, The Post has discovered.
The former “Undercover Boss” and CEO of the sporting-goods chain, which went bankrupt in 2020 and closed 140 shops, on Monday revealed MitchellModells.com, a new online attire web site that’s promoting a T-shirt commemorating the Knicks’ historic title.
That was after months of on-again, off-again talks to buy back the 137-year-old model – well-known for its “Gotta go to Mo’s” jingle – fizzled in acrimony, sources advised The Post.
The New York Knicks gained the NBA championship on June 13 in San Antonio. NBAE by way of Getty Images
On June 12 – the day earlier than the Knicks clinched the championship – Modell was locked in a heated textual content exchange with Raj Gupta, head of Omni Retail Enterprises, which had scooped up Modell’s in 2023.
Omni now operates Modell’s as an e-commerce business, and the positioning was down — simply as a frenzy for Knicks merchandise was going full-tilt.
“Modell’s website is closed down for maintenance??? Everybody is calling where to buy shirts,” the 72-year-old Modell texted Gupta. “You blew it. I hope you choke on it.”
Gupta responded, “Stop texting me,” and later, “site back up. FYI.”
Modell replied with a thumbs-up emoji — and that was the final they communicated, in accordance with each events. That’s after talks that had gone so far as a written, unsigned sale settlement that had been drafted by Gupta’s lawyer.
Modell — whose great-grandfather Morris Modell based the business in 1889 — had first tried to buy back the model from Gupta in 2024. He initially provided $500,000 as he and his sons additionally tried and didn’t buy Party City and Big Lots. In December, Modell upped his bid to $1 million.
Mitchell Modell launched a new online attire business on June 22 referred to as MitchellModell.com James Keivom for NY Post
Gupta tentatively agreed, however the talks hit a roadblock when Gupta demanded that he retain a 5% stake within the company — together with a piece of its future earnings.
“This price won’t be offered again,” Gupta wrote to Modell. “We will continue growing it ourselves.”
Meanwhile Modell had demanded to see gross sales and buyer knowledge.
“I told him I’d give him the $1 million and I told him you have to tell me how many emails you have from my customers,” Modell advised The Post. “He had all my data, everything.”
As the pair continued to haggle, Modell lamented the look of the Modell’s web site, in accordance with textual content messages considered by The Post.
“Selling coolers in Dec. is not a winning formula for success,” Modell sarcastically wrote to Gupta.
Modell’s Sporting Goods filed for chapter safety in 2020 and closed its 140 shops. USA TODAY Network by way of Reuters Connect
“We went back and forth,” Modell stated. “He stalled me for two months.”
By March, Gupta nonetheless had not forwarded the client data, claiming he’d been “super busy.”
Weeks became months, with the pair lastly erupting into the testy exchange during the NBA Finals.
In a transient telephone interview this week, Gupta confirmed the textual content exchanges, however was tight-lipped on particulars of the negotiations.
“The deal fell apart because he didn’t stand by the terms we had agreed to,” Gupta advised The Post, declining to elaborate.
Modell’s was first acquired out of chapter for $3.6 million in August 2020 by Retail Ecommerce Ventures, an ill-fated firm led by the flashy self-help guru,Tai Lopez and his business accomplice, Alex Mehr, a former NASA scientist who helped orchestrate REV’s acquisitions after promoting its Zoosk relationship web site.
Raj Gupta acquired Modell’s from Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr, whose company Retail Ecommerce Ventures imploded. doctoralex/Instagram
Gupta acquired REV’s belongings in late 2023 after that company – which had purchased different bankrupt corporations together with RadioShack and Pier 1 Imports – imploded in a flurry of lawsuits and authorities probes.
Because he doesn’t own the retail model or have licensing agreements with the Knicks and the NBA, Mitch Modell’s $20 T-shirts discuss with the “Knodells” and have a NYC pigeon, “the unofficial mascot of New York,” in accordance with the web site.
Sales of the shirts additionally help analysis for most cancers — $5 from every merchandise bought — which claimed the lives of each his father and brother.
The online store represents Modell’s comeback to retail, he stated on Monday.
“The same way our beloved Knicks came back from San Antonio down 30 points — it’s about believing that failure does not have to be final, it’s about believing that bankruptcy is not the end of the story,” he stated.
