Who owns Chrome Hearts? The Starks, and a 10 percent partner

Richard Stark and his wife Laurie Lynn own Chrome Hearts, the company he started in a Los Angeles garage in 1988. The only outside stake on record is 10 percent, which sources told WWD in 2019 had gone to a private equity firm for $150 million.

At this year's Oktoberfest, the Bayern Munich forward Michael Olise wore a Chrome Hearts cross patch cashmere beanie. The post that spread the picture priced the hat at up to €3,500 on the secondary market. Nobody quoted a store price.

The price came from resale because the family controls the new supply. A company that answers mostly to one family can keep its stores few, its website nearly empty and its best pieces off the shop floor. Chrome Hearts does all three, so most people meet it secondhand.

Quick facts

• Owners: Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark, named as the owners by British GQ in April 2026
• Founded: 1988 in Los Angeles, by Stark, John Bowman and Leonard Kamhout
• Outside stake: 10 percent, sold to an unnamed private equity firm for $150 million, per WWD's sources in 2019
• Stores: 36 on the brand's own list, 11 of them by appointment only, none in Canada
• Sold online: 4 things on its own site: Baccarat, scents, underwear and socks
• On within: 698 pieces at one Yorkville shop, $100 to $21,000 CAD, 335 graded pre owned, read 27 September 2026

A leather rep, a leather maker and a silversmith

Chrome Hearts started with jackets. Stark was a rep for top grade raw leather, his friend John Bowman made leather goods, and both rode motorcycles.

"We couldn't find jackets we really liked," Stark told the Chicago Tribune in August 1992. "So we made our own."

The third partner gave the jackets their metal. Leonard Kamhout, a master jeweller, used only sterling silver for the buttons, grommets, snaps and buckles, so the silver was hardware before it was jewellery. (The same Tribune piece notes that nothing is made of chrome and none of the symbols are hearts.)

An early job was costumes for Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, a 1989 film. Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols took to the jackets and wore them on stage, Complex reported in 2020. By 1992 the CFDA had named Chrome Hearts its accessory designer of the year, with Cher handing over the award, and a jacket cost about $3,000.

How it became one family's company

The three founders split in 1994, and Stark and Laurie Lynn kept control, according to Complex. WWD said it more bluntly in 2019: Stark started the brand "with two partners he has since bought out."

The children came next. Jesse Jo Stark, the oldest, was the company's vice president by 2019, designing its horror themed Deadly Doll pieces. In 2022 the CFDA gave Richard and Laurie Lynn its Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Cher and Jesse Jo.

The factory is the other half of the answer. WWD counted a Hollywood campus of 13 buildings and eight factories, with a division for each craft (woodworking, leather, metal, jewellery, apparel) and apprentices trained every year. "It's so hard to find craftsmen," Richard Stark said.

The 10 percent, and what the family keeps

The outside investor is the part most answers leave out. WWD's sources said the Starks quietly sold 10 percent for $150 million, a price that values the company at over $1 billion. WWD did not name the firm, and the Starks declined to comment on revenues.

Everything else stays in the family. Chrome Hearts does no licensing, and it bought its eyewear licence back from Marcolin to make the frames itself. "But we run this company totally ourselves," Richard Stark told WWD.

When WWD raised suitors, even the Arnaults or the Pinaults, Laurie Lynn Stark answered: "No one interesting." British GQ put the company at around £1 billion in April, a figure the brand has not disclosed.

How a family company sells

Ownership explains the map. The brand's own list, read on 27 September 2026, shows 36 locations across Asia, the Americas and Europe, 11 of them by appointment only and none in Canada. Seven are its own counters inside department stores, including Isetan in Shinjuku and Selfridges in London.

Wholesale is a short list. The authorized retailers page names 8 accounts, among them Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo, Riccardi on Newbury Street in Boston and Joy Fashion in St Moritz. Maxfield in Los Angeles, which bought the jackets and chaps in 1992, is still on it, while Bergdorf Goodman, a stockist then, is on neither list.

Online, the brand now sells four things: Baccarat, scents, underwear and socks. In 2019 it sold nothing online at all, and Laurie Lynn told WWD why: "We're in it for the long haul and doing the right thing."

The family kept the company, so the secondhand market kept the customers.

What it means when you buy

For most people, British GQ wrote in April, the secondary market has become the primary one. It even carries store exclusives far from their stores.

The Chrome Hearts shelf in Yorkville has a St Barths anchor T-shirt at $2,200. Its Deadly Doll T-shirt, made for Miami and listed under Jesse Jo Stark's name, asks $2,000.

Treat Chrome Hearts at 75 percent off as a fake until it proves otherwise, since even worn pieces ask a median of $1,600 on that shelf. The shop holding all 698 ships abroad in 7 to 10 business days, and every sale is final. Read the grade, the size and how to spot fakes before paying.

Canada still has no store of its own, though the brand bought a Yorkville building for one (the store Canada is still waiting for). Until it opens, the collector Daryl Auguste's advice to British GQ holds: "Buy pieces because you like them."

Common questions

Who owns Chrome Hearts now?

Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark own Chrome Hearts, and British GQ still named them as its owners in April 2026. Sources told WWD in 2019 that a private equity firm had bought 10 percent for $150 million.

Who makes Chrome Hearts?

Chrome Hearts makes almost everything itself, in small runs at its own factory in Hollywood, according to the CFDA. WWD counted 900 employees in 2019, and the brand now makes its own eyewear after buying back the licence.

Where can I find authorized retailers for Chrome Hearts?

The brand's own authorized retailers page names 8 accounts, in Japan, the United States and Switzerland, and none in Canada. Everything else sells in its 36 locations or secondhand, and why Chrome Hearts is so expensive explains what that does to the price.

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