Unlabel by Marc Ecko: Book Summary, Review & Notes
An in-depth summary of Unlabel by Marc Ecko, with the Authenticity Formula, his story from garage to global brand, real quotes and how it compares to similar books.
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This is an in-depth book summary, notes and highlights of Unlabel by Marc Ecko. Published in 2013 by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, it combines the story of how he built Ecko Unltd with a formula for building an authentic brand.
Unlabel in 3 sentences
- Unlabel argues that like it or not, you are a brand, and it is up to you to take control of it and keep it authentic.
- Marc Ecko tells how he went from spray-painting t-shirts in his parents' garage to running a company worth $500 million, including the near-bankruptcy along the way.
- He organizes the lessons around his Authenticity Formula, with a chapter for each part of it.
Key takeaways
- Authenticity has a formula: your unique voice times truthfulness, plus your capacity for change, times your range of emotional impact, raised to the power of imagination.
- Find your unique voice. It comes from acting, facing your fears and knowing yourself.
- Keep what you say and what you do aligned. That is what Ecko means by truthfulness.
- Stay able to change. Humility and knowledge have to grow together.
- Make people feel something. How your work makes people feel matters more than what you make.
- Let imagination multiply the rest, with a vision for the future that still starts from what you can do today.
- Start small. His vision began with a can of spray paint, not a plan for billions.
- Focus on what you are good at and hire others for the rest, to lower risk and the capital you need.
Who should read Unlabel
- Creative people who want to build a business without losing what makes their work theirs.
- Founders of fashion, media or lifestyle brands who want an insider's account of both.
- Anyone who worries that selling means selling out.
- Readers who learn from failure stories as much as success stories.
- People who like visual books. The publisher describes it as a visual blueprint.
- Entrepreneurs working on a personal brand who want a way to test it.
Who might not enjoy it
- Readers who want step-by-step marketing tactics. It is part memoir and part philosophy.
- People who find a mathematical formula for authenticity forced. The formula is a framework, not a measurement.
Popular quotes from Unlabel
My "vision" didn't start with billions, my vision started with a can of spray paint and what I could do with it in the next thirty minutes.
Big businesses start with small actions.
More important than what you make is how that stuff makes people feel.
Emotional impact is part of the product.
This is something you should think about in any business: don't try to do everything. You aren't the best at everything. Find out where you have an advantage and stick to that.
Focus on your edge and hire for the rest.
Buy an expensive watch you can't really afford. This will make you hungry to grow into it, and soon you'll be able to afford five more just like it.
Advice he used to give his employees about ambition.
Visions can start small. Visions should start small.
Why a modest start is not a weakness.
How Unlabel compares to similar books
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Great leaders and brands start from their purpose, not their product. Published in 2009. It is about organizations and leadership, while Unlabel is a founder's personal story.
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Turn a passion into a personal brand with content and community. Published in 2009. It is focused on social media, while Unlabel draws on fashion, retail and media.
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
The memoir of building Nike from a small import business. Published in 2016. It is a pure memoir, while Unlabel pairs the story with a formula for readers to apply.
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
10 short lessons on creativity and finding your own voice by learning from others. Published in 2012. It is for any creative person, with less about running a business.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
How to beat Resistance, the force that stops creative work. Published in 2002. It covers the inner battle, while Unlabel covers building a company around creative work.
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Make products and brands remarkable enough to be worth talking about. Published in 2003. It is short and marketing-focused, while Unlabel is longer and personal.
About Marc Ecko
Marc Ecko was born Marc Milecofsky in 1972 in New Jersey. He entered the pharmacy school at Rutgers University and left in his third year to pursue art, then started Ecko Unltd as a t-shirt company in 1993 with small investments from his sister and a friend.
He went on to found Complex, the magazine that grew into Complex Media, in 2002. Unlabel came out in October 2013.
FAQs about Unlabel
The questions people most often ask about Unlabel by Marc Ecko.
Unlabel is a 2013 book by Marc Ecko that tells how he built Ecko Unltd and shares his rules for building an authentic brand. It is part memoir and part business guide, built around his Authenticity Formula.
Marc Ecko is an American entrepreneur and designer who started Ecko Unltd as a t-shirt company in 1993 and founded Complex magazine in 2002. He left pharmacy school at Rutgers University to pursue art.
Ecko's formula says authenticity equals your unique voice times truthfulness, plus your capacity for change, times your range of emotional impact, raised to the power of imagination. Each chapter of the book covers one part of it.
It means defining your brand yourself instead of living by the labels others give you. Ecko argues that you are a brand whether you like it or not, so you should take control of it and keep it authentic.
Your voice is what makes you and your work distinct. Ecko ties it to taking action, confronting fear and knowing who you are.
Keeping what you say and what you do in line with each other. A brand loses trust when its message and its behavior drift apart.
Your ability to adapt as markets and people change. Ecko links it to balancing humility with knowledge, so you keep learning instead of assuming you already know.
How your work makes people feel. Ecko writes that this matters more than what you make, so an authentic brand aims for a real emotional response.
Both. It follows Ecko's rise from a garage t-shirt business, including near-bankruptcy, and turns each part of the story into a lesson tied to his formula.
He began by spray-painting t-shirts in the garage of his childhood home in New Jersey. He started Ecko Unltd in 1993 with small investments from his sister and a friend.
That visions should start small. His started with a can of spray paint and what he could do with it in the next 30 minutes, not with a plan for billions.
The Touchstone hardcover has 289 pages. The publisher describes it as a visual blueprint for testing your brand against the formula.
Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, published it on October 1, 2013.
Creative entrepreneurs, designers and anyone building a personal brand who wants to grow without giving up what makes their work their own.
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