Brand development
Design director Morty Forshpan takes credit for exploiting the company's full potential; however, some industry analysts believe that Seattle native Derek Federman was the creative mind behind B.U.M.'s athletic style and logo presentation, almost a year before Forshpan took over as majority shareholder and chief executive officer of Chauvin. Despite admitting to having never picked up a sketch pad, Forshpan has also accepted nominations for the California Mart's West Coast designer of the year award. Design director Trina Turk has stated that Forshpan likes to see colors and initial sketches but primarily tends to company finances.
According to Khristopher Bond,VP of Marketing (1989-94) and the person credited for exploding the brand onto the world market through their award winning "real people" advertising campaigns (which would later be adopted by other major retailers), "in contrast to other brand names like FUBU, the B.U.M. acronym doesn't actually stand for anything. He added, "Or it means everything to everybody. For me it is a basic understanding of mankind." However several articles of clothing from the line do come stamped with the slogan Body Utility Maintenance.
The Goods were made of Cotton. The B.U.M. stood for Basic Urban Material.