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Anime Apparel Maker Mythwear Formally Out of Business

The website of Mythwear, a retailer of licensed anime apparel that was best known for its line of shoulder bags, has been updated with a message from its founder confirming that the company has gone out of business. In his letter to fans and customers, Jean-Binh Valente mentions that two major reasons for Mythwear's failure were the bankruptcy of the Musicland group of companies, which owed Mythwear a significant amount of money, and his own health issues.

The company launched in 2001, and quickly amassed a stable of licenses to create merchandise, like bags and wallets, with images from several dozen anime series such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Hellsing, Di Gi Charat, and Gravitation. After Mythwear's website went down in the latter part of 2007 without any other apparent way to contact the company, distributor Right Stuf announced that it would cease carrying any of Mythwear's products. At the same time, Nozomi Entertainment (Right Stuf's anime licensing division) expressed plans to withdraw the merchandising rights to its shows from Mythwear.