Investment firm AG Triada acquires Dominican ‘Living Wage’ certified retailer Alta Gracia

AG Triada, an investment group, has acquired athletic fashion retailer Alta Gracia. The fashion company is known for its commitment to social responsibility and a living wage for all.

The U.S. investment group AG Triada has acquired the fashion company, along with lead investor TripleStone Partners. Alta Gracia, founded in the Dominican Republic as a subsidiary of Knights Apparel in 2010, is a certified Living Wage business by the Worker Rights Consortium, an international organization fighting against workplace exploitation.

Under the new owner, Alta Gracia will focus on expanding within and beyond college bookstores to other retail channels, including online, “to become a brand that captures the hearts and souls of socially minded, fashion-forward students and alumni who want to feel and look good in the brands they wear … all while also ensuring that the workers who make the Alta Gracia product are treated with dignity and respect," explained the company in a corporate release.

Founded in 2010, Alta Gracia designs and manufactures athletic lifestyle products licensed for collegiate and professional sports and, as they highlighted in a corporate communication, are currently the only apparel company in the developing world to carry that certification.

"It's difficult to find a company that's pioneering anything in the crowded apparel market, let alone the college affinity segment," explained in a press release Chris Morocco, the company's new CEO. "Alta Gracia opted to change the manufacturing paradigm in the quality of life of its workers, offering dignified, unionized work and a living wage that's over 300 percent higher than the legal minimum."

Rebecca Holderread will join Alta Gracia as the new chief operating officer. The athletic apparel retailer’s advisory board features the original co-founders Donnie Hodge and Joe Bozich, as well as fashion industry veteran Sid Mashburn and Lee Norwood, former SVP of Design at Ralph Lauren.