Most people aren’t aware of the fact that Diddy makes waaaaay more money from fashion than he does music. At this point running Bad Boy is almost like a hobby to take him away from the stress of his real day job, running Sean John. Now he’s adding another line to his portfolio by buying Enyce from Liz Claiborne (How many of you knew that that was who owned the line?). Here’s a quote from Diddy I found from the announcement.

Enyce is a brand that I have always admired, and they have been a very important player in the young men’s sportswear arena for over a decade. I am really excited to bring it into our portfolio of brands that already includes Sean John and Zac Posen. Given our track record of success in marketing products such as Ciroc Vodka, Unforgivable by Sean John, and all of our television titles, I look forward to adding our expertise to an already hot fashion line. Our long-term plan is to grow the Enyce brand through innovative marketing, expansion of the menswear and boy’s lines, and launching into new licensing categories. The current economic climate may be challenging, but we believe it is also an opportunity, and we are really excited to add Enyce to our lineup.”

Allhiphop even got to interview Diddy about the Enyce purchase and got some more solid details into why Diddy made this move.

“I remember when Enyce was sold back in 2003 for $114 million,” Combs told AllHipHop.com exclusively. “I was always a fan of the brand from when [founders] Evan Davis, Lando Felix, and Tony Shellman owned it. About a year ago I heard that Liz Claiborne was considering selling it because it wasn’t a good fit for their portfolio. I knew it would be a great opportunity so we began negotiations which took about six months.”

“We’re going to retool and make it completely different from our Sean John line, which is still the mothership brand,” Combs stated. “But with respect to the economic conditions many face, this offers us the opportunity to supply a quality fashion brand at a lower price point.”

“I’m extremely excited about this purchase, and since my boy Tony Shellman used to own it gives me more motivation to do right by it,” Combs told AllHipHop.com. “And above all, as a black businessman I want to keep inspiring the African-American community to keep moving forward and pursuing opportunities in business. Black entrepreneurship and wealth building is very important to me and I want the youth and everyone to know these goals are attainable to them as well.”

“When we did our field research, we found a lot of people were aware of Enyce and it had a lot of the name recognition that’s missing from most of the brands out there,” Combs revealed. “But what happened was it stopped being marketed, and it fell out of the limelight. It’s our challenge to be innovative in our marketing to reintroduce the brand to the public.”

“When it comes to diversifying our business portfolio, this acquisition is a perfect fit,” Combs disclosed. “Compare it to music where they call me the King of the Remix, we’re going to apply that same approach to the band: ‘remixing’ the sales approach, the brand marketing, and how the product is distributed globally and domestically.”

So was this a smart move? I’m gonna say without a doubt. Like Diddy says here, Enyce is a brand that we don’t hear too much about these days but it’s never been because of a lack of quality in the line, it’s because a lack of marketing. The brand is still strong and has some life in it. From the sounds of it, they are gonna push it at a more affordable price point. Sounds all around good to me.

UPDATED: Diddy comments on the purchase some more today in one of his famous “Diddy Blogs”

[RealTalkNY and Allhiphop]